THE ORPHAN

“Adriana is my mother?”, Arya asked just to be certain her ears weren’t playing tricks on her.

“Yes”, Carls answered.

“Wait, you had a baby with your brother’s wife and that baby is me?”, she asked.

“No and yes”, he answered and continued. “I loved your mother very very much but she did not feel the same way. She died shortly after she had you. She was murdered”, he said.

“So I am not your child?.”

He hesitated. “No. You are not my child nor Camilla’s.”

It all finally made sense. How he treated her like his worse enemy and made her entire life miserable. How he made her suffer the indignity of being checked out in front of older ugly looking men as if she was some whore on sale.

“And my father?”, she asked.

“He was my elder brother. Unfortunately, he too was murdered”, Carls answered.

“And you took me in only to make my life a living nightmare”, she replied as the tears fell freely.

Her shoulders trembled as the life she once thought was hers came crumbling in