Secret
Prologue
-Even Angels cry-
Peyton Addison Shepherd had always been an optimistic person. She was fifteen, but from the moment she was born life had given her a hard time. Not always to her directly, but to her family. When she and her twin brother Daniel were merely three months old, his parents noticed there was something wrong with him. The baby was brought to so many doctors, but the diagnosis was the same each time: Daniel Derek Shepherd was deaf-mute, and his disease couldn't be cured.
Peyton and Daniel's father left them almost immediately after that. He just claimed he couldn't do it, kissed Peyton on the top of her dark-haired head and took off to god-knows-where. Addison, their mother, had spent the next decade of her life struggling to be a single mom and a surgeon at the same time, and she had had to learn how to communicate with her son without words and spoken answers. But Addison was the strongest woman Peyton knew, and she never made her children feel like something was missing from their lives. Every day, when they woke up, she told them how much she loved them, and before they went to sleep she didn't fail to assure them that their father loved them, too, from wherever he was. She taught them to see the good side of each bad thing that happened, and made them believe in a God they didn't always feel close. A God that had disappeared from Peyton's life when the twins were eleven, and Daniel got cancer.
Asifitwasn'talreadybadenough, Peyton couldn't help but sadly think. She loved her brother, he was the person she loved the most in the world. She loved how he always looked so innocent and pure, so happy and relax and immune to sadness. Daniel was an amazing person, and Peyton couldn't not look up to him. He was always on her mind, through everything she did. And at the end of the day, Daniel was always the smiley one, the one to cheer her and Addison up. Even when, after three and a half years, his cancer still wasn't gone.
x
Peyton applied some more lipgloss and stared down at her dress. It was black, short and one of her favorites. She looked good in it, but although every other day she would be happy to look pretty, today was not it. Today was her brother's funeral, and that meant her person, her half, her best friend, was truly gone forever, no coming back.
The fifteen-year-old girl looked into the mirror again, and stared into her own eyes. They were still a little red from all the crying, but they were Daniel's eyes nonetheless and Peyton felt a sharp pain on her heart as she thought of him. She could almost see him in front of her, because apart from the length of their hair and their gender, Peyton and Daniel looked so much alike. Same dark brown curls, same long eyelashes, same little mole on their left cheek. Same height. But now Daniel was gone, and Peyton was left alone with her emptiness. Sure, there was their mother, but she was a broken wreck herself.
With a sigh, Peyton finally opened the bathroom door and walked out, ready to face everyone else. Her mother was on the edge of a breakdown, and her Uncle Mark protectively rubbed her back hoping it would help her stay calm. Mark was not really her uncle; he was her father's best friend until the moment he left and Mark had chose not to have nothing to do with him anymore. He was a great help, and Peyton was sure he would make her feel better if she went to talk to him.
"Hey Uncle Mark." with a shy smile, she leaned in to kiss his cheek, but couldn't bring herself to touch her mother. She just look so broken, and Peyton knew she would be crying soon, they both would. It was all so sad, so unfair. Neither one of them had ever thought it would happen.
x
Peyton looked back again, biting her lip. She felt as her heart was exploding, but she didn't really saw it as a bad thing. She didn't feel anything else, really. Her mother was making small talk with some of her friends or colleagues who had come and were uselessly trying to comfort her, and her Uncle Mark had left to buy more something, Peyton didn't pay attention when he told her.
She quickly pushed a change of clothes and some money in her bag, checking to have her mother's credit card with her. She hurried down the wooden stairs of their house, leaving a note on the coffee table. Everyone was outside in the garden for the reception, and they wouldn't notice immediately. Addison was going to be scared out of her mind once she realized she was gone, but she didn't want to think about that. All Peyton knew was that she needed to get out. Out of that house, out of that life, maybe even out of that state.
x
"Hello. Can I help you? Are you looking for someone?"
Peyton turned around and pushed back a lock of her hair. A young woman, probably a nurse, was smiling at her, and she tried to smile back.
"Yeah, sure... I'm looking for a doctor actually. Dr... Dr Derek Shepherd. I am, I am his daughter."
"You are his what?" another voice screeched, and Peyton turned around again.
Should I continue?
I know I have other stories in progress, but I assure you that I have a lot of almost-finished chapters. "Love, Love, Love", "The story of a girl", "Your eyes are as blue as the deep ocean" and even "Once a year" should all be updated by the end of the week, or at least a couple of them.
Today I was sick and spent all day in bed, and found an old fic I started long ago, called Secret. Some of you may remember it, it had the same plot, although Daniel didn't get cancer and the twins were seven. If you're interested, I'll continue, otherwise I'll stop and focus in my other stories.
