Chapter 54

My father.

I’d been so caught up with the longing for a mother all my life, the obsession with my biological father had evaded me. With my grandmother telling me my whole life that she’d simply found me abandoned in the cave, I simply assumed my mother had left me there and I hadn’t really given the man much thought. For all I knew, he was just a one night stand my mother had indulged in.

I’d been too preoccupied being angry with my mother that I’d forgotten to include him.

Grandmother sat across the table from me, her eyes, though focused on me, were tired and fighting to stay open. Most likely exhausted from old age and the time of night, but I suspected she was also weary of the secrets she’d been holding onto for over twenty years.

“Was he…there?” Holding the pouch in my hand, the letter ‘T’ piquing my interest. Did my father’s first or last name begin with a T? Was this some family heirloom that he wanted me to have one day?

“Yes. He was there.” Her voice was quiet yet I could tell that she was relieved to be divulging this information.

Confusion overwhelmed me. Tears flowed freely down my face as mixed emotions rose to the surface.

“Why?” I spoke louder than I meant to but the anger was rising within me. “Why did they both leave me behind?”

“Cassia, please don’t be angry with them…or me…we did what we had to do to protect you.” Fatigue strained her voice as she continued. “Your father didn’t want to leave you behind; he did it out of love.”

“Love?! He left me out of love?! What does that mean?” All the years of abandonment, neglect…how did that equal love in any way? I wanted to slam my fist on the table or throw the teacup across the room.

Protect me?! After all I’d been through over the last few months, seems to me that their little ‘plan’ of protecting me hadn’t worked very fucking well!

“Child, please, listen to me.” Her eyes pleaded with me and I took deep breaths to calm myself.

I hated this. I hated learning that the one person I trusted in life had lied to me. After a moment of composing myself, I looked my grandmother straight in the eyes and waited…for the truth.

“Cassia, your mother died right after she had you.” I inhaled sharply as the shock set in. “Your father begged me to take you, to keep you and…hide you. He never told me why, only, that you were the most precious being on the planet.”

I swallowed hard as a painful lump formed in my throat.

He knew. He somehow knew about my blood.

“Did he say…anything else?” I managed to force the words out between sobs.

“Yes.” She exhaled sharply as she continued. “He said that someday…you would help change the world.”

Melting into a pool of my own tears on the kitchen table, I didn’t know if her answers left me feeling relieved or more confused. I knew that she was telling me the truth but there was still so much I didn’t understand. A thought flashed through my mind, making me sit straight up.

“Did my mother have a star? A birthmark…like me?” I knew before my grandmother even spoke that she did. The sparkle behind her eyes lit up with the question.

“Yes Cassia, she did.”

Joy. I felt immense joy that my mother was like me. Even though I still didn’t know what ‘we’ were, I was just happy that there had been another.

Frowning with yet another epiphany, I asked. “My father…did he?” I pointed to my chest with hope.

Shaking her head, she responded with less enthusiasm. “No, just her…and you.” Then she added with a very serious expression. “There is a prophecy that the elders used to speak of. The Kachina.”

I sat up with interest, normally the old legends of the elders didn’t spark much curiosity within me but I was beginning to believe in fairy tales.

“The elders spoke of a coming time when the ‘new people’ would arrive. They said that they were of a royal bloodline and would be called…the star people.”

I’m sure my eyes widened to the point where they would soon fall out. This was all too unbelievable.

Aliens, were they talking about aliens?!

Closing my eyes and resting my head in my hands, I tried to wrap my head around her words. In the disbelief of the moment, I began to giggle. I laughed so hard that I nearly bowled myself out of my chair. My pregnant belly jiggled like a bowl of jello. Looking up at grandmother, she looked offended, but that only seemed to make my maniacal musing even worse. Snorting as I fought for air, the laughter bubbled out of me.

God it felt good.

I wasn’t laughing at my grandmother or her story, I was laughing because for the first time in my life, something completely irrational made perfect sense.

If she had told me before this whole nightmare had started that I was some space creature, I would’ve turned tail and run away as fast as I could, but because of the fear, torture and inhumanity I’d endured over the last few months, I completely believed her.

For the first time in months, I cried tears of laughter. Poor grandmother stared at me as though I was completely cracked.

After several moments of basking in the glow of lunacy, I decided to ask her the question that had plagued me since the beginning of this nightmare. Though I was certain I knew the answer, I needed to hear it with my own ears.

Composing myself, I asked. “Grandmother, what am I?”

Wisdom danced through her eyes as she opened her mouth to answer. “You are…”

Before she could answer, however, her front door flew open with a large bang! Keanu stood in the doorway, panic marring his handsome face.

“They’re here!”