Chapter Twenty

Gabrielle I was still very dumbfounded by everything that I just overheard because it all sounded very outrageous to me but I just couldn't believe it. The last thing I was expecting to hear from my mother and Anita with anything related to Anita having a child for my father and I honestly didn't believe it at first because of how completely crazy it sounded but after hearing them repeat it and argue back and forth about their infidelity and betrayal issue, that was when it occurred to me that I wasn't hearing things and that, truly, Anita did have a child for my father. "G... Gabrielle sweetie, I can explain," mom stuttered and I could tell that she was in complete shock that I had overheard her and she didn't seem to know what to say. "I hope that whatever explanation you plan on giving me, covers absolutely everything that is going on here. I would if you didn't try to lie to me because I overheard most of the things that you both said to each other and I need you to give me a clear explanation of what exactly is going on here," I demanded, not bothering to hide the fact that I was upset and disgusted. I just couldn't fathom the idea that my father had another child besides Gabriella and me and it turns out that my half-sister could turn out to be Anita's daughter. It just made absolutely no sense to me at all and I needed an honest explanation because I was on the verge of freaking out and if mum made any attempt to lie to me right now, I had every intention of going off on her and if care is not taken, I might end up making this issue a lot more public than they would want it to be. "I honestly don't know what to say to you Gabrielle because I just wasn't expecting you to overhear anything that we said and I've just never imagined myself having to explain the situation to either you or your sister. I don't know how you're going to react to this or how you're going to take it but the truth is, most of the things that you heard are the truth and that's all I can say to you at the moment," mom responded and I couldn't hide the fact that I wasn't satisfied with her response. "I already know what I heard mum but I need you to explain to me clearly what exactly everything I just heard means. Don't you dare think that I'm going to let you get out of this with your vague responses because this is a serious issue that you need to address clearly and if you don't explain things to me the way I want you to, I'm going to force an explanation out of you and you know just how crazy I get when I want to know something," I threatened her, not caring that a stranger was witnessing the scene between us. I also wanted to question Anita and ask her for an explanation for all of this but I couldn't bring myself to ask her anything because she was not only a stranger to me, but she was also someone that I was raised to believe was an enemy of mine and I didn't think that I should be caught talking to her especially since she shouldn't even be here in the first place. "How about I answer the questions instead since your mother doesn't know how to respond to you?" Anita said, suddenly chiming into the conversation and I was satisfied with the fact that I didn't have to bring up the conversation first and that she was wise enough to talk about it with me first. "Okay Anita, I'm all ears. What exactly is all of this about?" I asked, facing her directly. "I don't know how much of our conversation you were able to overhear so how about you do me a favour and ask whatever questions that you have because I honestly don't know where to start," Anita responded and Gabrielle sighed. "I overheard you both talking about how you both slept with each other's husbands and how you both happened to get pregnant during your affair but apparently, my mother was bold enough or should I just say, she decided to abort the pregnancy but in your case, you didn't abort the child and instead, you pinned ownership of the child on your husband," I replied to her and even if she was affected by what I said, I couldn't tell because she made sure to keep a very blank expression on her face which I found very impressive. Mom already told me that Anita had a very strong personality and I could tell that mom wasn't wrong just judging by the aura that she had and also judging by the look that she had on her face even though a stranger just found out one of her biggest secrets, if not her biggest secret. "What you just said to me is what you overheard us talk about so if that's the case, what exactly is your question? What is it you want to know?" she asked. "Isn't it obvious? The only thing I'm interested in knowing is if everything that I heard is true and I also want to know the entire truth about what happened between both of you and why you had a fall out in the first place. I just want to know everything that there is to know about what went down between you two and I don't think there's any need for you to keep anything away from me since I already know most of the things that I need to know," I replied to her and something about what I said must have sounded funny cause she immediately started to chuckle. "I don't remember saying anything funny though," I voiced out, feeling slightly disrespected and I didn't like that feeling one bit. "It's very interesting to see how very alike you and your mother are. Anyways dear, I don't care how much you overheard but you're not going to try and get me to answer any of your silly questions just because you were childish enough to eavesdrop on our conversation. You heard about what went down between your mother and me so I don't see any reason why I have to explain things to you but since you care to know so much, how about you ask your mother?" Anita responded and I frowned. "Just put in mind that she's shamelessly going to throw the blame on me and act like what she did was the right thing and you're probably going to agree with her because I'm aware that you both think alike in many ways and I won't be surprised if you're also capable of doing such things. I can only hope for your own sake that you don't end up following in your mother's footsteps because believe me when I tell you, it's not going to end well for you," she added and my blood immediately started to boil. I've never been a fan of getting disrespected and I couldn't stand such situations so the fact that a stranger like Anita, who had the effrontery come into my home even when she knows that she's very much unwelcome, dared to insult me and compare me to my mother, made me feel furious and I clenched my fists to stop myself from flaring up. "I don't think I said anything disrespectful to you to deserve such comments and I understand that you and my mother don't get along and that you hate her but don't you think it's very immature of you to take out your anger on me? Imagine how I'm feeling right now, suddenly finding out that you had a child for my father which means that I suddenly have a half-sister somewhere. Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?" I confronted her. "I'm aware that you certainly find it very unbelievable and that is why I would prefer it if you just kept this to yourself and pretend like you know absolutely nothing about it. It's not going to do any one of us any good should people come to know of this so let's just protect our peace and keep this secret to ourselves," Anita replied suggestively and now it was my turn to chuckle. "You do realise that, if this goes public, I have absolutely nothing to lose because I wasn't the one who slept with someone else's husband and got pregnant with his child. I can even end up playing the part of a victim who feels betrayed and the public isn't going to take your side no matter what you try to do so, don't try to drag me into your messed-up situation because it has absolutely nothing to do with me and if you want me to keep my mouth shut, I will but, as you know, nothing's ever for free in this world," I replied her, wearing a proud smile on my face. I kind of realised that I could take advantage of this situation and turn things around for my benefit. All I needed to do was have Anita wrapped around my fingers and indebted to me in exchange for my silence and I'll be able to get her to do something for me in return. "What do you want?" she asked and I'm honestly happy that she didn't even try to argue with me. "I don't know what it is that I want yet but, I'm going to keep my mouth shut and you're going to keep in mind that you owe me a favour in exchange for my silence," I replied. "Fine then, but make sure whatever you asked for isn't ridiculous because I have no intentions of fulfilling any outrageous requests. Have a good day and I hope that the next time we see each other, it'd be to discuss properly, how to get your daughter away from my son," she stated and without wasting time, she turned her back and walked out. As soon as she left, I immediately turned to look at mom and thankfully, she was able to understand the meaning behind my look, and she didn't waste any more time before explaining everything that had happened to me.