So, so sorry, for the long time I took to update!

CookieMonsterWillRuleTheWorld thanks for the idea I was going to add it to this chapter at the start, but I was taking so long to update I just put what I already had up. But thanks anyhow!

Chapter Twenty-Five

A little note for those of you who thought Nudge and Iggy might break up. They didn't. Of course not. Iggy once told me Nudge was the reason he saw the light. Iggy never got his eye sight back but he lived like he had never lost it. So he read brail and looked at your forehead instead of your eyes, most of the time we forgot he couldn't see.

When we were out, Nudge always had her hand on his elbow or he held onto the belt loop of her jeans. And they had code words for when he was feeling uncomfortable or needed help. Words like popcorn, though I don't know what that's code for because when ever he says it he grins and Nudge blushes as she giggles.

Iggy once told me that Nudge didn't treat him like he was blind, she was so casual, she helped him without making him feel like a child or handy capped. He said that's one of the reasons why he loved her so. Everyone loved Nudge. She was just that kind of person. But I don't need to tell you that again.

The first six months of university was extremely hard on me. I was emotionally and physically tied. I was sick to death of how my life was going. I was tied of relationships. I was angry. Angry that bad stuff had to have happened to Ella and me, our mum being sick, dying. I was sick of people lying to me, sick of people withholding truths to protect me (as they said and I realised later on) It all started with Lana Ride.

I had always thought Lana Ride and my mum met when Fang and I were little and in Kindergarten together. I had never once heard of either of them talking about knowing each other in high school. So it came as a massive shock, one day, when I had found an old photo of a very young looking Lana and my mum at their school dance.

I leap up off Dad's bed holding the photo in my hand away from my body, as if, if I hold it away it can't hurt me.

I had been sitting; going through old so I photo's from a box under the bed. I woke up this morning in search of a way to feel closer to mum. I had driven into the hills to go home.

Dad's away on another business trip and Ella was staying at the twins, so I went into his and mums room (former room) and started looking around. Her jewelry box sat on the dresser, and I went through it, putting on the necklaces mum wore the most.

The box contained photo's I had never seen before, and that was strange because when Ella and I were little we would sit on the couch with mum covered in blankets and she would show us old photo's and we'd laugh as she told us the stories that went with them. Maybe I have just forgotten about these photos? I take another look at them scattered across the bed. I pick the one up that made me freak out and look at it closer. Maybe I was mistaken. Maybe mum had a friend in high school that just so happened to look like Lana. I move it closer to my face again and frown deeper. It's Lana. I'd know her any where. And I'd seen photo's of her when she was in high school before. She still smiles the same way and in this photo she kind of looks like Fang.

Why hadn't they ever mentioned this to Fang and me before? They were great friends while we were growing up.

I sit back down on the bed and pick up another bunch of photos from the now almost empty box. Photos of mum and dad together. They look so happy. I smile to myself, but it quickly disappears. In my hands is a picture of Lana and dad... kissing? There in the background so it's hard to see. In the foreground of the picture mums standing in between two girls the same age, I'll guess seventeen, grinning at the camera. Had she known Lana and Jeb were in the back ground?

I pocket the picture as well as the one of mum and Lana, and race out of the room, not bothering to clean up. I need answers and I need them now.

I grab my keys and get into my car. I'm still wearing my pajamas and dressing gown. I didn't even both putting on shoes before I left the house.

On the way I try to get my emotions in tack. I'm not sure what I'm feeling. Anger, definitely anger, and confusion, and even intrigue.

Lana and dad kissing. I hope I'm seeing things and that didn't happen.

I find Lana and Fang sitting in the lounge room watching the TV. They don't look surprised to see me.

Fang grins at me. "So eager to see me you couldn't even wait to get dressed?" He asked, but after looking at my face closer his smile drops. "What's wrong?"

I don't answer. I just reach into my dressing gown pocket and pull out the two photos' and drop them into Lana's lap.

Lana picks them up and looks down at the photos now in her hands. "What are these darlings-" She began saying before trailing off, turning white in the face. She looks up at me with wide eyes.

"Where did you get these?" She asks.

"Under my parents' bed. Is that you and my mum? Is that you and my dad?" We stare at each other sad eyes looking into angry ones.

"Max. Calm down. Sit down lets talk."

"I'm good standing."

"What's going on?" Fang asks. Lana and I don't take our eyes off each other.

"Okay." Lana finally says. She reaches for the remote on the coffee table and turns the TV off. She stands up so were at eye level.

"I had known your mum since I was eight years old. We grew up together. This photo is of us in high school at our year eleven social."

"Why did you never mention you had known each other so long?" I ask, now really confused.

"We... we were all friends, your mum and dad and Mark and I, we went to the same school." She held up the photo of her and my dad kissing. "And this photo, your dad and I dated before he got together with your mum. We broke up when I realised your parents were perfect for each other."

"I don't understand why you guys didn't just tell us."

"There are things that you don't understand Max." She says looking helpless. And this only makes me madder.

"Well help me understand!" I exclaim.

"Things that we promised we wouldn't mention again." She says.

"We?"

"Your mum and dad and I"

"What?" I ask irritated.

"She got sick."

"That was when I was little though."

"No. She first got diagnosed with cancer when she was eighteen. We were in our final year of high school."

"What?" I stutter over the word. "Your right, I don't understand."

"Something happened. She... we had gone out to a party and we had been drinking. She had too much and fell off the veranda, your dad and Mark were being idiots and had been fighting, and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, they knocked her, she was unsteady on her feet. She fell one story, and hit her head. She was lucky she didn't die."

"Lucky she didn't die?" I say bitterly. Fang puts his hand around mine and squeezes. I hadn't even realised he'd gotten up off the couch.

Lana continues. "It was then at the hospital they found the cancerous cells. Bone Cancer. She started chemotherapy straight away. It was intense. Six months. But she fort it. She knew it would someday kill her. The doctors told her that. But she was determined to live her life. We agreed to never tell you when she was pregnant with you. She didn't want you worrying. She never wanted you to find out, until you had to, until it was time for her to leave us. We didn't tell you we all knew each other because we didn't want you to ask questions. Your dad and Mark felt so guilty. We just wanted to forget it all. So you were born, then four months later Fang, and we decided to say we met threw you two."

"She had cancer my whole life?" I cry out. "My whole life!" I try to fight the tears that are threatening to fall. I loose the fight.

"Darling. She didn't want you to worry."

"I could have helped her." "No. No one could help her." Lana pleaded.

"She lied to me. You lied to me. My father lied to me!" I'm yelling now.

"To protect you." She's crying now to.

"I can't believe this." I'm really crying now, but I don't care. "How could I not know? She was my mother." I blink, trying to clear my blurry vision.

"You and Ella would sleep over at our house or Melanie's, when she had hospital visits. We planned your camping trips to fall on appointments. Darling she had cancer since she was eighteen on and off, she lived a good life, much, much longer then the doctors said."

"You think that matters to me? She lived longer then she was meant to? That's no comfort to me. Lana I would do anything for her to still be here. Do you understand that?" I sob harder.

Fang pulls me into his arms. And just holds me for a few minutes. Then he pulls back to look down at my face.

"Come on." He says softly. Taking my hand and pulling me towards the stairs down the hallway and into his bedroom. It's dark, his blinds are drawn and they don't let any light in.

I go straight to his bed and lie down. He lies down next to me.

I weep softly at his side, face buried in the pillow. I feel Fang reaching for me in the darkness, his hand against my hip, on my back, in my hair. I find Fangs presence comforting. Fang wipes away my tears with his thumb. He holds me close and whispers comforting nothings into my hair.

"Shh."

"Shh it's okay."

"She just loved you so much." I'm not sure if he's talking about my mum or Lana.

Thanks for reading!