Chapter Nine:

I wasn't sure what to feel, as I stared at Mama and Papi after this revelation.

"Are you okay Mira?" Mama asked, concern in her voice.

I nodded, "I think so, it's just..." I shook my head, rubbing it a little to ease some of the fuzziness that was coming on, "I don't know, nothing really is making sense but at the same time, it does as well. That doesn't make any sense, does it?"

"Maybe you just need time to process," Mama offered, "Just relax, read a book, take a nap, and come find your Papi or me if you have any more questions. I have some errands that I need to run in town, but Bruno..."

"I'll be up in my room should you need me," Papi offered before he and Mama left the room, leaving me to my own devices.

I really wasn't sure what I should do now. Even if Mama suggested that I take a nap, I wasn't a little kid anymore, I didn't need a nap. Mama also suggested that I read a book, and Isabela mentioned reading my diary once, that actually might be a good idea. I was missing five years of memory or thereabout, so what better way of learning about what I've forgotten than to read about it? Of course, that meant that I'd have to find out where I hid it. All I know is that it wasn't in my old hiding spot in the nursery. Now, where could it be?

I was still searching for my diary when I heard someone else knocking on my door. I sighed, who could that be? Well, I learned the hard way with Mama and Papi that they were not going to just go away if I ignored them.

I grumbled to myself as I stomped my way to my door, Casita clicking her tiles at me in question to what was wrong. I didn't answer though, I really didn't know what to say to the house. I just was done with life-altering discoveries for the day, and all I wanted was to find my diary and hopefully learn everything that I'd forgotten so that the rug isn't pulled out from underneath me again.

It was really weird finding Isabela on the other side of the door when I finally flung it open, "What do you want?" I demanded.

"Well," Isabela said with a bright grin, "The three of us took the day off to have a sisters' day, and the day is still young, and I was wondering how you were feeling. Are you up to doing something? I know, we can go to Luisa's room and play Never have I ever."

"I have amnesia, how in the world am I going to be able to play Never Have I Ever?"

Isabela frowned and nodded her head slightly before admitting, "Yeah, you do have I point. I didn't think about that. So what do you want to do?"

"Nothing, really, I was just trying to see if I can't find my diary so that I can read it and hopefully maybe jog some more memories."

"Jog more memories, are you saying…?"

"I don't know, all I know is that when Mama and Papi talked to me about my Mami, it triggered a memory of Papi talking to me about her when I was sick, probably from when I had that bad case of pneumonia that you told me about."

"Probably, you tried to hide it from us, you know," Isabela said softly, "We were clearing out the rubble of Casita, and you were helping, and I had found Mama's journal and the picture of Baby Pedro, and," Isabela shook her head, "I confronted Mama about it, you were standing right there, and then the next you collapsed right in front of Tio and well, that's when the secret fully came out."

"It was?" I asked, startled, Isabela made it sound like they found out right after the earthquake, yet my memory was of me being sick, presumably with the pneumonia that Isabela and Mama told me that I got.

"Yeah," Isabela said, "Tio Bruno totally went ballistic, demanding that Mama make you better and..." Isabela trailed off, "He said some really nasty things to Mama right there, about how he should have never given you to her. How Mama had broken the promise she had made when he gave you up."

I stared at Isabela in confusion, blinking several times… Papi regretted giving me away. "What promise?" I asked, unsure of what the answer would be, and if I even wanted to know.

"To be there for you, to support you no matter what. To protect you from anything that could possibly harm you," Isabela admitted with a shrug, "Just so you know, that is the only time he ever accused her of not taking good care of you, and it wasn't really Mama's fault. You're the one who got into that fight with Abuela and refused to get out of Casita when that argument brought Casita down around us."

"Wait," I demanded, this was not what Mama told me, "Mama told me that Casita fell because of an earthquake."

"Well, I guess the ground did shake a bit when Casita fell, but it was obviously caused by your argument with Abuela."

"The one that I ran off after and you guys couldn't find me?"

"That's the one."

"So I caused it?"

"What! No!" Isabela exclaimed, "Why would you ask that?" she demanded, "Casita was already cracking and would have fallen even if you hadn't had had that argument with Abuela. You just sped it up a little."

"Just sped it up a little?" I asked, "What does that mean?"

"Nothing," Isabela said quickly, "Anyway come on Mirabel, let's do something together. If you don't want to play a game in Luisa's room, then we can go to my room and have a pollen fight, those are always fun..."

Pollen fights, fun? I didn't know what a pollen fight was but I couldn't picture Isabela, the picture-perfect princess, getting involved with any type of activity with the word fight in it. Luisa would, just because she's supposed to be the strong one, but she would hate every minute of it.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Isabela demanded, shooting me a confused look.

"I have no idea what a pollen fight is, but it sounds messy and like something neither you nor Luisa would enjoy."

"Wait," Isabela said suddenly, snapping her fingers, "You don't remember anything that happened after Antonio's gift ceremony, so you don't remember us doing back flips off of Casita's roof into a pile of flowers."

"We did what?"

"Backflips off Casita's roof," Isabela repeated, flipping her hand as if it was no big deal, before shooting me a mischievous grin. Honestly, all of a sudden Isabela looked just like Camilo, and that wasn't a good sign, "Want to do that again?" she offered.

"I thought you wanted to do something with Luisa as well," I pointed out, "I don't know if we can convince her to do that."

"No but Camilo can always take her place and we can claim that we didn't know that it wasn't her."

I couldn't help it, I snorted, "You honestly think that will work."

"Obviously not with that attitude," Isabela muttered.

"I don't think you realize how strange this conversation is for me," I insisted, "Senorita Perfecta doing back flips off the roof?"

"I haven't been Senorita Perfecta in five years," Isabela insisted with a huff, "And I'll prove it to you, name it and I'll do it," she insisted.

"You really want to play Truth or Dare?" I asked.

Isabela's face let up, "That sounds wonderful, we should totally play Truth and Dare."

Across the balcony Dolores stopped and stared at them, head tilted slightly before she said, just loud enough for them to hear, "Didn't your Mama band you from ever playing Truth and Dare after the incident?" she asked.

Isabela groaned, "Ug, you're right, Dolores, she did," she turned back to me, "Apparently daring each other to climb up a palm tree and do a back flip was too dangerous and we could have been killed, and we obviously don't have any common sense and can't play truth and dare any more."

"Dolores will tell, won't she?"

"I really don't know, she couldn't keep the secret that you found a prophecy about you destroying the magic, but..."

"There's a prophecy about me destroying the magic?" I demanded, seriously not only was I Bruno, the black sheep of La Familia Madrigal's illegitimate daughter, but I was going to destroy the miracle as well.

"No, no, we simply misunderstood what the prophecy was about. You didn't destroy the magic, you saved it. We all totally missed the ball on that one."

I glanced across the balcony to Dolores, "Really?"

Dolores nodded to me before heading back into the nursery.

"You know there is a chance that she won't tell Mama, I mean she kept the secret that Tio Bruno was living in the walls for ten whole years."

"Okay, stop just stop," I insisted, "Papi lived in the walls for ten years?"

"That's where he disappeared to after your gift ceremony," Isabela insisted, "But it's good to hear you call him Papi again, it was weird hearing you call him Tio. You take great pride in being his kid. Much to Rev. Perez's horror."

"Why would… because I'm illegitimate?"

"No," Isabela actually started to giggle, "Because you insisted on calling him Tio, every single time you saw him. It drove him up the wall. He was trying to ignore the fact that Ana and Tio Bruno had a thing going on between them before her death and you really wouldn't let him forget."

"So the whole Encanto knows that I'm illegitimate?"

"Half the Encanto was there when Mama and Tio Bruno came clean about your adoption," Isabela pointed out, "They love to gossip so, of course, the whole Encanto knows about it. You'd be surprised at how many people weren't totally surprised about the revelation. Heck, Tia Pepa was the one who told us who your Mami was after Tio confessed that he was your padre and Mama adopted you. Apparently, she was actually wondering if you were Ana Perez reincarnated."

"Isa, Mira," Luisa's voice called out as she appeared behind Isabela, "Have you decided what we wanted to do yet?"

"Well," Isabela said with a huff, "Mirabel shot down Never Have I Ever, and Dolores shot down Truth or Dare."

"You know we aren't allowed to play Truth or Dare after the last time," Luisa pointed out, "And Never Have I Ever might not work all that well with an amnesiac. Maybe we can play something like Two Truths and a Lie?"

I looked at Isabela and nodded, "Yeah, that works."