Chapter 31: Reception
Keith removed his glasses and put them on the table slowly. He gently rapped his knuckles against his chin as he pondered how to put his thoughts into a proper string of sentences and not overreact.
Charlene was mutedly in a daze and held her arms as she shuddered, thinking about how close her darling son had come to death, and by the looks of it, would continue to enter the crosshairs of dangerous people.
Katherine was actually the first to speak, looking so excited, like someone who had been finally vindicated of a heinous crime after years of being maligned for it.
"I knew it! I knew Drake didn't abandon me!" She almost squealed with joy and rekindled hope.
Keith, Charlene, and Rina were stunned by this, for this name was a taboo in their house. Katherine always talked fondly of Rina's father, but as Rina grew up, she began to detest the very idea of his existence, believing that he had duped her starstruck mother.
Usually, just mentioning his name would make Rina furious and enter into an argument with her mother, causing Katherine endless sadness that her daughter hated her father so much. Now though, with Kaizer coming out with this, there was the unintended consequence of highlighting Rina's own origins.
Rina felt her throat go dry, as like Charlene, she had been shocked to hear that her beloved brother had almost left the world twice in just this past week alone. Still, when her father's name was mentioned, she almost chided her mother out of frustration when the words got stuck in her throat.
She resented her father because the story of "someone appeared in the hospital room and carried him off in the flash of an eye" sounded like the biggest lie her mother could make up to cover for her father, but with the new information she had now, it was more than likely since someone literally just did that to Kaizer not even half a day ago.
Seeing her mother feeling so joyous and vindicated, Rina once again felt a dull ache in her chest. She thought of all the times she had shut down her mother's attempts to talk about her father to her after she became a teenager and how much pain it must have caused Katherine.