Page 199 of Filthy Savage

But nothing is okay. None of this is right.

Dragging in a shallow breath, I get ready to meet my parents. The two people who never forgot me.

He leads me up the three steps before we’re in front of a plain white door. Nervously, I knock on it, my stomach gnawing.

Footsteps rush over before the door is quickly pulled open.

And then I see them. Mom with her hazel eyes just like mine. Dad with brown ones, both of their hair a similar brown shade.

“Thalia?” Mom cries.

I almost forgot that’s the name they gave me. The name of the hotel I worked for, not knowing it was named after me.

I rush into their arms, all of us sobbing. And being held by the people who gave me life, it completely shatters me. I felt so alone in this world, abandoned and unloved, but none of that was true.

They really loved me.

“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry,” Dad cries. “I should’ve been watching you. I should’ve been there.”

“It’s okay, Dad. It’s okay.” I wrap my arm around him tighter. “I’m home now.”

We stay together, desperate for every moment, feeling the weight of our reunion and separation all at once.

And though this story has a bitter end, there’s still some love left to go around.

Days later, and we’ve returned to my parents, Fia playing with their Cavalier King Charles named Rami.

When my parents invited us over for lunch, we immediately agreed. I wanted them to meet their granddaughter. I want her to meet them too.

Fionn clutches the results of Fia’s paternity test in his hand, finally wanting to find out. I think he was just afraid to know the truth because the reality that she isn’t his would crush him. I figured we can do this with my parents to give them something after all they have missed.

“May I have another cookie?” Fia asks, and her toothy grin has Mom in a pile of goo.

“Oh, honey, you can have ten. Cute little thing like yourself.” Her eyes glisten with unshed tears. “You remind me of your mother. Same smile and all. Right, John?”

He nods, choking on his own emotions. “Right, sweetheart.”

It’s been hard on my parents, reliving what happened to me when I was two. Apparently Lloyd was hooking up with Desdemona, who wanted to have a kid with him, probably to trap him. But he didn’t want that. When she wouldn’t stop pestering him about it, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

The day Lilith was born, he found me lost in the hospital, so he took me, ruining my entire life in the process. He told Fionn from jail that he regrets what he did because he never loved my mother; he just liked sleeping with her. He stayed with her for another six months after he took me, and then he left, growing sick of bouncing between two homes.

The very idea makes my stomach turn. I’ll never forgive either one of them.

“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Mom whispers, swiping under her lower lashes. “No matter what she thought, we loved her with all our hearts. We told her time and time again, but she wouldn’t see past her own jealousy for still keeping your memory alive.”

I lean over and clasp her hand from across the sofas. “I believe you, Mom. She was just sick. None of us saw it. I was her friend for years, and I never saw it either.”

She sighs, glancing at Fia, her mouth thinning as she tries not to cry.

“So…” She clears her throat and looks over at Fionn. “Are you gonna tell us the results, honey, or are you gonna keep us in suspense the whole day?”

He laughs. “Alright. Fine. Fine.”

His fingers clench and unclench before he’s ripping the flap open and staring at the paper inside. Seconds drift, and my heart turns into a mess of erratic beats.

“What does it say, babe?”

He gazes up at me, his face unreadable at first.

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