Page 150 of Cruel Legacy

Thea

Ispent all day on the couch yesterday, nursing a massive hangover. I was already at my drink limit, but then Finn wanted to play.

I couldn’t say no to the chance to do something other than stand around and watch other people standing around, so of course I said yes. Who doesn’t like hide and seek? I just wish we could have had more people involved.

Maybe I can convince LJ, Austin and some of his buddies to agree to a campus wide hide and seek game.

Fun time plotting has to wait. I’m still trying to piece together everything that happened Saturday night, and make sure I didn’t black out at some point. I can think straight now that I’m less dehydrated than I was yesterday.

My brain speeds through the boring parts of the night, recapping all the highlights. It’s a short reel. Me and LJ laughing whenever she got a break from her parents. Talking football with Austin. Playing a sexy version of Clue. The killer of my pussy was Finn, in the library, with the knife on the pool table. And then our game of hide and seek game, which included drinking and several more orgasms, when he decided to reward me for being such a good hider.

Looks like all the memories are there. Now I just need to find some energy to go do what I have planned for today. My afternoon classes are canceled, so rather than hang out on campus, I’m finally going to grab some of my stuff from Scott and Moira’s.

I stop for a coffee on my way. The caffeine gives me a boost and I’m feeling less zombified when I get to the house. Cora answers the door with a smile that I’m happy to return. “Good Morning, Miss Thea.”

“How’s it going?”

“Great. Just going over the grocery list for this week. Mrs. Hughes didn’t mention you were coming today.”

“I had some free time and wanted to go through my stuff from storage. Get an idea of what I have left.”

“Oh. Of course. Is there anything in particular you want for dinner this week? Or snacks for school? I’d be happy to add them to my list.”

“You’re amazing. Can I get those biscuit things we had with the lamb? They would be great for breakfast on the go.”

“Of course.”

I reach into my back pocket. “How much?”

“Oh, stop. You know I can’t take your money.” That doesn’t stop me from trying to give it to her whenever she adds stuff for me to her list.

“The room with your things is in the alcove just under the stairs. It should already be unlocked.”

“Thanks, Cora.”

There are two rooms in the alcove which lead to the previously mentioned off limits wing. I turn the knob for the first door. It swings right open, just like Cora said it would. I step inside and roll up my sleeves, ready to get to work.

I’ve gone through three boxes and I’m starting to think I might be in the wrong room. These boxes are full of high school pictures and trophies for Scott.

I heft the box I just opened into my arms to put it back where I got it from. They’re stacked at odd angles, as if someone was in here going through them and couldn’t be bothered to straighten them up.

I grab one more box to be sure. The bottom falls out; the contents spilling onto the floor. I re-tuck the flaps at the bottom and drop down onto the floor to pick the stuff up. This one is full of photo albums. I flip through them to get a look at Scott as a kid. A small part of me is hoping I find a picture of my mom, since the only one I had of her is gone.

Unlike the first two boxes, this one has pictures of a girl in it. It’s clearly Moira. I stare at the photo, trying to figure out why she looks different, until I see her eyes. Moira has brown eyes, but in this photo they’re blue. I guess she went through a colored contact lens phase.

The second album has more pictures of Moira and a few of Scott. The third album is wrapped in tissue paper. I carefully unwrap it, my fingers gliding over the embossed cover. I only make it as far as the second page. My hand is stalls on a picture of Moria. Pregnant. The photo right below it is of her and Scott. He’s affectionately cradling her bump.

There are more pictures on the next few pages. Then I come to the last two sleeves that have something in them. There are three documents. A hospital issued birth certificate for baby girl Anotèa Hughes, with inked footprints. It lists Moira and Scott as the parents.

The two documents on the last page are a birth and death certificate for a baby boy Theo born to Hailee Laurent.

The birth certificates are dated within a week of each other. The year after I was born. None of this makes any sense.

My mother’s last name is LaReaux, and we lived in Louisiana after I was born, not in Greece, and she definitely wasn’t pregnant while I was still a baby. I stand, knocking an envelope over. Pictures tumble onto the floor. The bottom of my stomach drops out as I stare at them. There are dozens of photos of me as a baby.

“Thea, Cora told me…”

I look up to see the shock on Moira’s face. I’m furious. They said they didn’t know about me. But these are pictures of me and my mom up until I was three. “What is this?” My voice shakes, my mind swirling with the lies I was told. “What the hell is any of this?”

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