Part Six: Secret No Longer

Chapter Twelve: Home

The sun was out today and a sheet of cloudless blue sheet stretched across the. And to Kari, it felt like the air temperature had increased a degree or two over the course of her eight-day stay in hospital. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of her doctors, she had caught a mild case of pneumonia and so been forced to remain until they were satisfied that it had cleared her system. Her mother had visited her every morning by herself and then with her father in the evenings. She'd also had visits from both Yolei and Davis. But at no point had the person she'd wanted to see most shown up; Tai. It had been her parents doing, of that she was in no doubt. In fact, neither of them would even talk to her about Tai. Which had resulted in virtually all of their visits passing with them talking and her ignoring them.

The taxi cab in which she and her mother rode stopped outside the apartment building and she quickly climbed out. She had been discharged just before lunchtime, brought down to the main entrance in a wheelchair (hospital policy apparently as she had been perfectly capable of walking) and then spent the whole car trip with her mother trying to make light-hearted conversation. However, she only had one thing on her mind; Tai. Given that it was Tuesday and her father had not been there to pick her up, it made sense that he was at work. That left only her mom and one locked door between herself and her boyfriend. And she was prepared to fight the woman if needs be.

Kari had to resist the urge to bolt for the stairs right there and then. She'd thought through scenarios of how this might play out during the entirety of the car trip home, eventually remembering that she did not have her door keys. There would be no point in making her intentions known, only to hit an unsurpassable roadblock at the first hurdle. No, she'd be patient and go up the stairs with her mother and wait for the right moment. So, she waited. When the taxi drove away, her mother walked over to stand in front of her.

"Let's get you upstairs and then we can sit down and have a nice hot cup of tea," her mom said, giving her a warm smile. "After all, the doctor did say it was important that you kept warm."

Yeah and that I'll have a scar on the side of my head and some tenderness in my nether region for a few more days, Kari thought bitterly. She'd had her fill of doctors during her childhood and so the fact she'd just spent more than a week surrounded by them, had been more than she could stand. Indeed, she'd actually tried to leave the hospital by herself two days ago, but had been spotted waiting for the elevator by one of the nurses; her lit-match hair having been the dead giveaway. The nurses had kept a closer eye on her from that point on.

"Ok," Kari replied with a slight nod of her head.

Her mom's smile widened slightly. "Then let's get you out of the cold."

That's it, she told herself as she followed the woman towards the stairs. Keep your cool and let her think you're agreeable. In hindsight, it would probably have been better if she had talked to her mom a little in the car, but she couldn't change that now. They climbed up to their floor and walked the short distance to the apartment door. Her mom fished around inside her bag for the key, inserted it into the lock and opened the door.

"After you," the woman said softly, indicating for her to go inside.

Perfect, she thought and smiled internally. Had her mind not been so focused on getting to Tai, she might have paused to ponder why her mom was acting so relaxed, as it was… Kari darted into the apartment, catching the door with her trailing hand and throwing it closed. She heard it click shut behind her, but it did not matter. It would have bought her enough time regardless. Sprinting through the main living area, she sidestepped around the dining table and tore off down the hallway. Skidding to a halt in front of Tai's bedroom, she grabbed the key, turned it and threw open the door onto…

Kari's eyes widened in horror as she took in the threadbare room. All the furnishings were still there, but the contents gone. The bed was made, but looked far too neat, like it had been changed but not used. The desk surface, usually strewn with textbooks or random junk, was spotless. So too the bedside cabinet. And no manga or video games lined the tall bookcase.

"He's gone," a voice said from behind, snapping Kari out of her moment of shock.

She turned to look at her mother. "What do you mean gone? Gone where?" she said in disbelief.

"Your brother is gone and won't be coming back," her mom replied, her tone both gentle but firm.

Kari spun around and took in the sight of her brother's empty bedroom once more. This could not be happening. Tai, the person who had always been there for her, whom she loved more than life itself, was now gone. And she had not even had the chance to say goodbye. Tears were mere seconds away from running down her cheeks, but for the intervention from her mother.

"It's for the best," the woman said from behind her, "your brother was a bad influence on you."

The sadness and heartache that Kari had felt moments prior were obliterated by anger and hatred for her mom and what she had just said. "HOW DARE YOU!" she yelled at the top of her voice as she turned around. Her fists clenched as her gaze bored into that of her mother's. "HOW DARE YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR ME! NOT ONLY WAS TAI THE BEST BROTHER I COULD HAVE HAD, HE WAS ALSO THE PERFECT BOYFRIEND!"

"Kari, I know it is difficult to accept, but your brother manipulated the close relationship he had with you for his own benefit."

"WHAT! HOW DARE YOU EVEN SUGGEST SUCH A THING. TAI WAS THE MOST CARING AND CONSIDERATE PERSON I COULD HAVE ASKED FOR." A brief coughing fit caused her to stop mid-rant.

Her mom ignored her words and quickly moved to her side. "Let's get you a seat and a hot drink," she said with a note of concern and took hold of Kari's arm.

"Don't touch me!" she barked and withdrew her arm; the coughing fit having forced her to lower her voice. "If you had bothered to even talk to us, you would have found out that I was the one who fell in Love with Tai first."

A slightly stunned expression formed on her mom's face and Kari used the woman's momentary inability to say anything to say, "yes, Mom, I was the one who instigated the whole thing."

"Don't you see, Kari," her mom then said, rediscovering her voice and her line of argument, "that would only have made it easier for him to manipulate you."

"Actually," she fired back, "when Tai discovered he had feelings for me too, he tried to hide them in order to protect me, to the point that he accidentally almost killed himself! But again, you wouldn't know any of this because you and dad never bothered to talk to us."

"Kari, you almost died last week because of him!"

"No, I almost died because you and dad refused to even hear us out and tried to keep us locked inside our bedrooms!"

"KARI, HE GOT YOU PREGNANT!" her mom then yelled, before instantly clapping her hands over her mouth.

It was Kari's turn to be stunned and her mouth fell open. Had it not been for the fact that her mother had just yelled at her with perfect clarity, she would have sworn that she had misheard. In sheer disbelief, the words tumbled out of her mouth, "I'm pregnant...?"

Her mother immediately turned her head away and quickly replied, "no, I misspoke. Just forget I even said that."

Subconsciously Kari clutched at her abdomen. "You misspoke?" she said, her tone laced with contempt. "Seriously, Mom, you expect me to believe that you made a mistake about something that specific?"

Her mother hastily made to walk away but Kari caught her by the wrist "Mom!" she said firmly as she forced the woman to look at her, "what aren't you telling me?"

Silence.

"MOM!" Kari bellowed, her very tone commanding an answer, "what aren't you telling me! Am I pregnant!"

"No..." her mother whispered, her face chalk white and frightened, "...thank God."

This answer was not satisfactory enough for Kari, who refused to release both her mom's wrist and gaze. "Then why did you say that Tai got me pregnant? What happened?" She asked the question, but deep down already knew the answer. However, she needed her mother to say it.

"You had a miscarriage," her mom eventually whispered.

Kari's grip immediately loosened on her mom's wrist and what little colour resided in her pale features quickly drained. She couldn't believe it. She had been pregnant with Tai's child… She clutched at her belly again. …Only she'd lost the baby because of her attempted balcony jump. She couldn't even begin to fathom how she felt about it. That, plus the discovery that Tai had been sent away somewhere was just too much for her to process right now. However, there was one thing she did know, at this moment in time, she hated her mother more than she had ever hated anyone in her life. "You weren't going to tell me, were you?"

"…"

"WERE YOU!" she yelled, her reddish-brown eyes ablaze with fury. When her mother failed to respond, she continued, "how could you have kept this from me! What if I hadn't miscarried? What then, Mom? Would you have forced me to have an abortion?"

"…"

"Answer me!" Kari bellowed, her gaze never wavering from the frightened figure of her mother. She could not recall ever having seen the woman look so scared in her life.

Her final yell seemed to shock her mother back to life. "You're only a sixteen-year-old girl, Kari. You're not even old enough to legally have sex, let alone ready to be a mother. If you had carried that baby to full term, it would have ruined your life! And that's before we add in the fact that it would have been your brother's child. It could have been an abomination…"

Before even Kari knew what she was doing, her hand shot out and slapped her mother across the left cheek. "MY CHILD WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN AN ABOMINATION!" she screamed, somehow feeling a protective maternal instinct for a baby that would never be.

Her mother simply looked at her in shock, unable to utter even the shortest of words.

Voice now hoarse, Kari found she could no longer look at the woman she called mother. Without another word, she strode past her and into her bedroom; taking the key from the lock so she could lock it behind her. It was then and only then that the dam finally burst and she descended into floods of tears.