"I'm not your biological mother."
Flummoxed, Willow stared at Harmony. The words echoed in her head.
"I'm not your biological mother."
"I'm not your biological mother."
"I'm not your biological mother."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Willow breathed, stepping closer to her mother. "What do you mean you're not my biological mother?"
Harmony winced, pain and guilt flooding her eyes, her expression pinched with regret that her daughter overheard something she deserved to know from the beginning. "It's true, Willow," her shameful whisper was a scream in the otherwise empty cemetery. "I raised you and I've loved you for years, but I was never pregnant with you and I never gave birth to you."
"How?" Willow snapped. "How am I with you, then, if you're not my real mother?"
"You were born on June 15, 1993," Harmony began. "I actually gave birth that day, but it wasn't to you. It was to a baby girl named Destiny. Throughout my marriage to your father, I had fertility issues. I lost two babies: one within the first trimester and the second was a late miscarriage; it happened at the beginning of my sixth month."
Harmony took in a deep, shuddering breath and despite her anger and confusion, Willow felt a pang of sympathy. Child loss was a horrible thing to experience for anyone, and knowing that her mother—the woman who'd raised her, rather—experienced it three times made her empathetic.
"When I gave birth to Destiny, I was so happy. I carried her to term and my labor was long, but it was successful and I had my beautiful little girl in my arms. She was so sweet and healthy, or…we thought she was healthy…
"The next morning, when Douglas came back to the hospital and we asked to see Destiny, the nurse came back with terrible news. She told us that our baby girl had died overnight. From what they weren't sure, but it didn't matter. What mattered was that our child was dead. My doctor told me that because of my previous miscarriages and the difficult labor, my body had been put through too much trauma and she advised me not to become pregnant again or there could be a lot of ill health effects for myself or my baby or both of us.
"My heart was absolutely shattered. I felt as if I was cursed. I wanted a baby more than anything and I would be so close to living out my dream of being a mother, but it was just one bitter failure after the next."
"How did that end with me?" Willow asked. Her voice was soft but hard at the same time. Watching the way Harmony brushed tears from her cheeks made her heart pang. It was hell for Willow to know that her baby died shortly after his birth, but her mother—or, rather, the woman who raised her—losing three babies in nearly rapid succession…she wasn't sure if she could survive that.
The smile that crossed Harmony's face in response to her daughter's question was melancholic yet tinged with joy. "The day we were about to check out of the hospital was the second worst of our lives because we were going home empty-handed and the nursery we'd painted for Destiny was going to remain uninhabitable…I remember dragging it out. At least when I was at the hospital, I wouldn't have to face an unoccupied crib. Eventually, though, we had to leave.
"As we were making our way to the exit, a woman came up to us. A blonde woman. She looked like a socialite with her designer clothes and jewelry, but what captured my attention was the baby she was holding."
"Me," Willow murmured, her arms crossing at her chest as her face twisted with a thoughtful expression.
Harmony nodded, utter joy in her smile now. "Yes," she confirmed. "You."
"Who was the blonde woman?" The brunette asked.
"Your grandmother."
"Wait," Willow shook her head. "I don't understand. If this woman is my grandmother, then why was she at that hospital with me? Why wasn't I with my mother? Did she not want me?" Her chest tightened at the thought. Her adoptive mother tossed her aside for a cult…if her birth mother didn't want her, then what hope did she have for any kind of functional family relationship?
"No," Harmony said quickly. "No, Willow, your mother did want you, but shortly after giving birth, she fell into a coma. Your grandmother told Douglas and I that complications happened during your mother's labor and they didn't know when or if she was going to wake up. Because of that, your grandmother wanted you to be given to another couple who could take care of you."
Willow's eyebrows furrowed. "That doesn't make any sense," she claimed, shaking her head. "If my mother was in a coma, then why couldn't my grandmother take care of me instead? Where was my father?" There were so many things about Harmony's explanation that bothered her, but nothing was more puzzling than being given up to two strangers if she still had relatives nearby who could take her instead.
'There's something wrong with this,' she thought.
'Maybe Harmony is lying to us again,' Rational Willow suggested.
'It wouldn't be the first time,' Sad Willow added despondently.
'That may be true,' Maternal Willow interjected. 'But look at her face. One thing that parents find difficult, impossible even, lying about is their children, especially mothers who've lost them. This is the most open we've seen her and it's because she's talking about us and her dead daughter.'
All of her personalities brought up good points, Willow mused. Harmony was being truthful with her, for the most part, but it was possible that she could still be lying about some things if her mother had been in a coma and her grandmother chose to give Willow away instead of taking responsibility for her.
"I don't know why your grandmother chose to give you away," Harmony was saying, unknowingly recapturing the young woman's divided attention. "She didn't tell me the reason and I'm assuming that your father wasn't in the picture one way or the other, I'm guessing he died before your birth. All I know is that your grandmother couldn't care for her children and that she needed to give them to good families who would raise them in loving homes."
Children?
"Children?" Willow echoed, her arms dropping from her chest in surprise. "I have a sibling?"
Harmony nodded. "Yes. You have a twin sister who was also given up for adoption. She was given to another couple further away, though."
"Who's my mother?" Willow asked.
Harmony bit her lip. That was the question she hated the most. She did her research at one point and discovered that Nina Reeves was her daughter's birth mother and that the woman who had given Willow to her was Madeline, Nina's mother. She wasn't very happy about her findings, however; she didn't have the best opinion about Nina and she knew that the feeling was mutual with how close Nina and Willow have gotten recently.
"Nina Reeves," she finally answered.
Willow's eyes widened, her mouth dropping open in shock. Nina Reeves, the woman she fought with for such a long time when she was Charlotte's teacher, the one who had scorned her and questioned her abilities as a teacher, was her biological mother!
'That's why she tapered off so quickly when she was introducing us to her aunt!' Rational Willow exclaimed. 'She was going to call us her daughter but didn't because we didn't know then!'
"Now we do," Willow whispered.
"What?" Harmony asked, staring at her in confusion.
"I need to see Nina," Willow said. "Thank you. I'm glad that you told me the truth."
And with that, she left Harmony behind, standing motionless before her baby's headstone, intent on confronting Nina about their newfound connection.