One Day, I Woke Up A Werewolf novel Chapter 12

Hailey's POV

"I gave birth to twins many years back but your dad and Theodore's biological father and I went our separate ways, taking one kid with us. I took your father because he was more like me in the physical sense and Theo was just like his father." Grandma Ferguson said.

"How could you tell? Physically, this man looks like my father in every way." I say, confusion eating at my brain, trying to piece everything together.

"A mother knows darling." She responds to me. Not answering my question, but grandma is too scary to call out.

"And you, you never wanted to be with your mother?" I ask my dad's twin brother.

"I did but I quickly came to understand that some things should just be left alone. I got the upbringing I needed to thrive, to be who I needed to be to get here and I owe that to my father, my parents for making that sacrifice." Theo says to me.

Also failing to get in to detail about all of this and the more they gave vague answers, the more confused I got.

Grandma Ferguson spent the remainder of the day arranging my father's funeral, taking the load off my shoulders and I couldn't be more grateful.

At night, I couldn't sleep.

How does one sleep after you meet your father's twin brother, whom I've never heard about. I quickly remember the mini mission aunt Tara gave me and I jump out of bed and run to the garage, hoping to find my mother's things that she never got the chance to take with her.

Fifteen spiderwebs later and hair completely covered in dust, I find the box marked ex-wife in my father's handwriting.

"Wow. So pretty!" I say to myself.

I immediately find the letters, hidden inside my old photo album filled with my baby photos. My heart breaking as it dawns on me that my father never cared to keep any of my memorabilia, he put my pictures, of me as a baby with my mother's things. This man did not care about me at all and the stupid child in me found every excuse to excuse his behavior towards me.

Now he was dead and I could not tell him how I don't want him in my life. I never got the chance to tell him to go die and to actually just die, like right now. I could never really hate him, even though I constantly reminded myself of the hatred I felt for him, deep down I loved him. Deep down, I still love him and I always will but he has hurt me for so long.

Over what? I don't know. Maybe for being born or coming from the woman that left him with nothing. He hated my mother, that much I knew and it was passed down to me even when she was alive and I never understood what broke our happy home.

My mother was probably just sick and tired of his toxicity that she finally found the courage to leave him.

I take the letters and the photo album but right before closing the box, I find a sealed red envelope. It had no name on it but I took it anyway. Both my parents were dead now so reading their secrets was not going to get me in to any trouble.

I leave the garage and walk back to my bedroom. Memories of my mother fighting with my father as I pretended to be asleep as they fought found their way in my head. I don't even remember what they were fighting about but I know my father was drunk and my mother was probably upset over it.

I find Jaxon sitting on my bed, holding a mug of something hot inside and my heart warms. God knows this man came in to my life at the right time, I might not have thought this in the beginning but look at us now...

"You are too sweet." I say, making myself comfortable on the bed. Jaxon places my mug on my nightstand before sitting back on my bed.

"What do you have there?" Jaxon asks, pointing at the photo album of my baby photos.

I excitedly open it to show him the happy times in my childhood. I don't remember most of them but I remember my mother telling me why each photo was taken and that's exactly how I told it to him, the way my mother would have had she had the chance to meet Jaxon or any crush that I had over at the house.

She had a soft spot for Vincent. The fact that I was crushing on him, excited her so much and I knew she had our wedding day planned in her head. Vincent and I have had our moments, like those quiet stare in to your eyes moment where the world stops but we quickly acted as if nothing happened and that is why today I'm still a virgin in every sense.

Pictures of me and my father were still in tact, him being the loving father that I grew to love, the hate he suddenly had was a shock to the system and I don't think I ever digested it. I figured things were tough and parents separate, a bunch of kids at school had divorced parents, I wasn't the first and definitely not the last but my father made a spectacle of the whole thing.

"This is when I had my first ice cream apparently. It gave me such a shock that I stayed frozen for a few minutes and my mother was panicking trying to take me to the ER but my dad was calm saying it was expected." I say to Jaxon, who listened attentively, not interrupting me one bit.

It wasn't until I felt his hand on my cheek, his thumb wiping away a tear that I knew I was crying. Crying over the memories that I had long forgotten.

"I don't know how it feels to lose a parent and here you are, having lost two but you are holding up okay. You are truly amazing Hailey." Jaxon says to me, pulling me in for a hug that has me breaking down completely and letting it all out.

Letting all the hurt, the pain, the neglected feeling, the insecurity of feeling unloved by the one man that's supposed to be my first love.

The tears just kept coming out and coming out, every feeling that I have been bottling up just erupting in me and causing me to just cry a whole dam of water.

My body felt heavy, overwhelmed with so much feeling, so much sadness.

After a fully soaked shirt, no more tears to let out and finally just one feeling left in me- anger, I pull away.

The anger refused to be let out. It stayed inside me, to fester and grow. To make a home inside my very soul, where love should be but what do I know about that? Do I even know what love looks like?

Could I see it if it was sitting right in front of me? Is Jaxon love or is he just here because it would be cruel of him not to be there for me after claiming me in the school that he runs when nobody wanted to be my friend?

Jaxon looks at me, at a loss for words and just kisses my forehead. I pull away again to pull out the letters my mother had hidden in my photo album.

Most were a bunch of teenage letters about how they miss each other and were hoping to see each other again at the next camp. Each letter either had my mother's names or a Theo.

It couldn't be the same Theo right? I mean my mom would not date the one twin and then run off to marry the other right? No ways!

Eventually the letters stopped.

Just returned letters written by my mother, which means Theo never got them, maybe because he moved or whatever.

Finally I got to the red letter. I slowly opened it, to find a letter addressed to me from my mother.

'Hailey....

If you are reading this then that means I'm dead. I wish I had the courage to tell you everything but I've always been chicken shit about coming clean with this but to better protect you, I need to tell you the truth.

Your father and I separated because of me. I was untrue to him and he found out, taking it all out on you. He became physically abusive and that's when I realized, I had to leave. I don't know if you remember this but when you were very young, he hit you and I knew I that I had to get you out of there.

The truth is, I have been untrue to you too and I'm so sorry. I hate that I put you through all of this but here we are and this needs to be said. Hailey, your father found out that he isn't your biological father and that is why we moved out.

He kicked us out.

The man you thought was your father, is really not and I know what you're thinking, why do you look like him? Well that can be explained.

In my teenage years, I met a Theo. He was and still is the love of my life but he disappeared and I lost contact until a year before you were born. Theo is your father, that is the man that left me all that money that I put away for you because it belonged to you.

Theodore has no idea about you, I never got to tell him. I don't know if you will ever cross paths with him but maybe you will and I need you to know that he had no idea at all about you.

Hailey- Theo is your father's twin brother. Estranged brother and they hate each other. If you see him, tell him what you know and because you are reading this, the person that has been sending me death threats has finally succeeded in killing me, tell Theo. Tell him I was killed and he will find out who did this, for his own closure and for yours as I never got the chance to find out who it is.

I'm so sorry my baby. I'm so sorry for doing this to you.

Love you forever, Mom.'

Jaxon takes the letter away from me to read it before he looks at me in confusion. I was confused too because all this time, my father was under this roof and finally I understood.

I understood the hate my father had towards me.