Page 79 of Teach Me How To Fly

All the stress, memories, and lack of food left its mark on me and I didn’t like it, so today I was going to take care of myself, eat good meals, and maybe take a run in the forest. I needed time for myself.

I took some comfortable clothes from the dresser, then I gave myself a smile and stepped out of the room. I made my way to the kitchen where I was going to have the breakfast Olivia had probably prepared for me. The smell of something sweet invaded my senses and I knew she might’ve prepared the fluffy pancakes I loved.

Today, besides taking care of myself and saying sorry to my body for how I behaved, I needed to have a serious talk with Olivia. I wasn’t going to hide my thoughts and feelings anymore. She just had to face the truth, even if the truth meant she had to finally claim Maksen as her son.

Once I took the first step inside the kitchen, she turned on her heels and her eyes were filled with salty tears. They were dazzling under the light of the bulb above us, and once I got closer to her, she couldn’t refrain from taking me into her arms.

She sobbed on my shoulder as I put my hands around her, and even though I was mad at her for keeping the truth hidden from me, her hug felt liberating.

“My dearest Annalise,” she whispered, then she moved away from me and put her hands on each side of my face, looking at me.

I smiled hearing her words, and then I smiled even wider when she kissed my forehead in the way only she could. I had to hear her part of the story to come to peace with everything I found out. I was hoping for her to open her soul to me and tellme everything she went through. Maybe I could’ve understood her better if I knew her side of the story.

“I was so worried for you. I wanted to come and wake you up just to see that it’s real, that you really came back home.”

“I was going to come back home, but I just needed time to process everything.”

She looked at me intently and I felt how upset she was even though it wasn’t her fault for anything that happened.

I realized that it wasn’t her duty to tell me the truth. My alleged father didn’t have the courage to tell me the truth, so why did I have demands from the woman who only took care of me and wasn’t related to me with anything?

“Finally! You woke up!”

Katya’s voice hit me once she entered the kitchen and I knew I had to postpone the conversation I wanted to have with Olivia. Without another word, she came behind me and put her hands around me, hugging me once again and shocking me as much as she did yesterday.

“Let’s have breakfast outside. I’ll bring some blankets for us,” she said and as soon as I turned on my heels to look at her, she instantly vanished, leaving the sound of her quick steps behind.

Olivia and I looked at each other, and I let out a giggle seeing how shocked she was too.

“What happened to her?”

“I would also like to know,” I answered, taking two plates out of the cabinet.

Olivia gave both of us some pancakes with maple syrup and blueberries, then made sure to also pour two big glasses of water.

She took the plates and went out to the terrace, putting them on the table. She smiled when she turned around and saw Katya holding two fluffy white blankets. Katya gave me one of them, then smiled at me and went right to the terrace. Before followingher, I grabbed both of our glasses of water and made my way outside.

Once I made myself comfortable on the wooden chair, I hugged my knees to my chest as Katya closed the door. She seemed like she didn’t want anyone to hear our talk. But what did she have in mind if she wanted so much privacy?

“You know that I usually talk a lot and that I’m rude to you, but I want to start by telling you that I’m sincerely sorry for all these years when I showed you how immature I am,” she started talking, almost forgetting to breathe. “I was just so angry with you, jealous, and I just couldn’t control myself.”

“Jealous?”

I was shocked by everything I heard her saying and I could only look at her carefully, trying to discover what was hidden behind her words.

“Yes,” she replied, letting her gaze fall somewhere on the ground. “You’ve always had dad’s love and protection while I haven’t had any of that.”

“Love?” I burst, feeling how my lips stretched into a broken smile. “What he had done to me couldn’t ever be called love, Katya. He kept me in a cage, and now that I’ve faced the cruel reality of life, I don’t know if I could ever live beyond the cage’s bars.”

“He kept you like this because he loved you more than he ever loved anyone. He wanted to protect you, to not let you be touched by any evil in this world, although it seems he failed to do so.”

“He failed miserably, but why are you telling me all of this, Katya? I sincerely can’t trust that what you’re telling me is true.”

She sighed, then eyed me and a flicker of sadness showed into her irises.

Her red hair was shining in the cold light of the outside, and her green irises were downright gorgeous. I didn’t evenknow why I never asked myself before why I didn’t find any resemblance between me and her.

I had long, blonde hair, pale skin, green eyes, and pouty lips. She was a redhead, with freckles and thin lips and a body sculpted as if she was a Greek goddess while I had skinny thighs, a tiny waist, and a flat tummy.

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