THE FAMILY SECRET
682 Words
The words hung in the air.
Someone inside this family.
Amara looked around at everyone.
Her father.
Grace.
Chike.
Chike's mother.
Adaeze.
Even Peter, who was lying injured on the ground.
“Who?” Amara asked.
Her father didn't answer.
“Daddy, who is it?”
He looked at her with fear in his eyes.
“Your grandmother.”
Amara froze.
“My grandmother?”
“Yes.”
“But Grandma died before I was born.”
Her father shook his head.
“That is what everyone was told.”
Amara stepped backward.
“How many people in this family are actually dead?”
Nobody answered.
Then Chike's mother suddenly grabbed Amara's arm.
“We have to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because if your grandmother knows we've found the account, she'll come for you.”
A slow clap came from behind them.
Everyone turned.
An elderly woman stepped out of the shadows.
She was dressed in an elegant black gown, holding a silver walking stick.
Amara's father went pale.
“Mum…”
The woman smiled.
“Hello, son.”
Amara stared at her.
“Grandma?”
The woman looked at her.
“My beautiful granddaughter.”
Amara couldn't move.
“You're alive.”
“Very much alive.”
She walked closer.
“I'm sorry you had to discover the truth this way.”
Her father stepped between them.
“Stay away from her.”
The old woman laughed.
“After everything I've done for this family, that's how you speak to me?”
“Everything you've done has destroyed us!”
Her smile disappeared.
“I protected this family.”
“You murdered people!”
“I made sacrifices.”
Amara's voice trembled.
“Why?”
Her grandmother looked at her.
“Because your birth threatened everything I had built.”
“What did I threaten?”
She smiled.
“Your father was supposed to marry someone else.”
Grace stepped forward.
“You mean me.”
The old woman nodded.
“Your family had nothing. My son needed a respectable wife.”
Amara looked at Grace.
“Then why did you separate us?”
“Because Grace became pregnant.”
Amara's grandmother's eyes hardened.
“I couldn't allow her child to inherit my family's wealth.”
Her father shouted:
“Enough!”
But the old woman continued.
“I arranged for the child to disappear.”
Amara's eyes filled with tears.
“That child was me?”
“No.”
The old woman looked at Adaeze.
“That child was her.”
Adaeze gasped.
Everyone stared at her.
“Your father wasn't the only one who had a secret,” the grandmother said.
She looked at Adaeze.
“Your real name is not Adaeze.”
Adaeze shook her head.
“Then who am I?”
The old woman smiled.
“Your name is Amara.”
Silence.
Amara's heart stopped.
She looked at her sister.
“No…”
Her grandmother continued.
“You were switched at birth.”
The two young women stared at each other.
One of them had been living under the wrong name.
One of them had been raised by the wrong family.
And one of them had been carrying a secret that could destroy everything.
Then the grandmother looked at Chike.
“And you…”
Chike frowned.
“What about me?”
She smiled.
“You were never supposed to fall in love with her.”
Chike's face went pale.
“Why?”
The old woman leaned closer.
“Because your father and I made a promise twenty-four years ago.”
“What promise?”
She whispered:
“You were supposed to marry her.”
Amara's eyes widened.
“Who?”
The grandmother pointed at Adaeze.
“The girl you were about to marry.”
Chike stared at Adaeze.
Then at Amara.
Nothing made sense anymore.
But there was one thing Amara knew for certain.
The kiss she and Chike had hidden for five years had just become the most dangerous secret in the family.
And her grandmother was willing to kill to keep it hidden.
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