Chapter 81 ONE BIG FIGHT
WILLA’S POV
“I… I…” Calisto stammered, but I remained frozen as stone.
My heart seemed to have shrunk like a deflated balloon, while my lungs were ready to burst out.
My vision blurred with tears in an instant, and I couldn’t make another sound other than a choked out gasp.
“I hate you!” Gillian shouted, pushing Calisto and sending him falling on his butt. “You’re not my brother anymore!”
My family was crumbling all around me in a snap, and I couldn’t let that happen just because Gallahan couldn’t be man enough to keep his promises. So I blinked away my tears and shoved my own feelings aside.
I helped Calisto get back on his feet, but he recoiled from my touch as if I had burned him.
It sent another wave of excruciating pain in my chest, which I dutifully tried to ignore by turning my focus on Gillian.
“Gillian, that’s not nice,” I said softly, caressing her back up and down to soothe her anger away.
“What he said wasn’t nice either!”
Her tears had ceased falling, but her face was still flushed. This time in fury.
“Still, Gil… You don’t hurt just because you’re hurt. So-”
“No!” Gillian argued, turning to glare at me. “I won’t say sorry to him. I won’t! He’s not my brother anymore! He can go to Daddy for all he wants. I hate him, and you should too!”
Calisto whimpered, but then he snapped. “I don’t care! I don’t need your sorry. I hate you both! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!”
He then stormed out of the room, angrily huffing.
“Cal, love… Where are you going?” I worriedly asked as I quickly scooped Gillian into my arms and followed after him.
But then Calisto had already locked himself in his shared bedroom with Gillian, his sobs reverberating loud enough to be heard even through the closed door.
“Calisto. Darling, please,” I begged, tapping my hand on the door.
“Go away!”
“Calisto, this isn’t very nice,” I said as patiently as I could. “And you know it. My sweet boy-”
“Leave me alone!”
Gillian clung to me tighter, and I began to sway to and fro in an attempt to soothe her while I continued to coax her twin brother. “Please, Cal…”
“No! I said go away!”
“Okay, okay. I will just wait for you by this door. How about that? We will wait until you’re ready to talk to us again, okay? Mommy will be here. Come out if you’re finally ready to talk, yes?”
No reponse came from him this time. Still, I could hear his little sobs and sniffles, and each one was a knife to the heart.
But I would endure. Because that was what a mother’s love did. It endured.
“Leave him, Mommy,” Gillian said as I put her down, so I could sit down on the floor with my legs stretched out in front of me. “He hurt you, so you shouldn’t care.”
I was left speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say or do.
I hadn’t handled a mess and a fight between the twins that had reached this degree.
They were always so kind and so sweet and just so loving. I hadn’t seen them carry such anger and frustration in them before.
But unsure as I was of this unfamiliar territory, I soldiered on. I put a small smile on my face as I made Gillian sit on my lap. Then I said, “That’s not how love works, Gil.”
“But it should work like that,” she replied as she began to toy with my fingers. Then, without looking at me, she added, “Uncle William said we shouldn’t tolerate those who hurt and disrespect us.”
I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, soft, short and airy.
“While that is true, that doesn't instantly mean we will stop caring,” I explained patiently, using my other hand to brush through the strands of her copper-red hair. “I love Cal just as much as I love you. And even if you make mistakes or hurt me, I will simply teach you the right thing and to be better as long as you are sorry and you are willing to learn and grow.”
Gillian didn’t say anything back and simply wrapped her little arms around me.
We stayed like that for quite some time, and I was sure she had already fallen asleep with how quiet she was and how even her breath was.
But then she suddenly murmured, proving me wrong. “I love you, Mommy.”
The words caught me off-guard, but they washed over me like a cooling balm over my heart that had been throbbing in pain. So I melted in the next heartbeat as I felt myself get overwhelmed with so much love for her
“I know, love. I know,” I murmured back. “And I love you too. So, so, so much. You and Cal. And nothing, and I mean nothing, can change that.”
From inside the room, Calisto’s cries had faded into complete silence. Not even faint sounds of sobs and sniffles could be heard.
This piqued my concern. So I let go of Gillian, asking her to stand up, before getting back to my feet as well.
“It’s too quiet, Gil. I think I need to check on Cal. Can you wait here for a bit while I get the key?”
Gillian nodded.
“Good girl,” I praised fondly, giving her an appreciative pat on the head. “Thank you, my love. I’ll be quick.”
When she gave me a nod again, wearing the brave big girl expression she always used when she wanted to be taken seriously, I couldn’t help but bend down to give her a kiss on the forehead.
“I love you, sweetie.”
Then I was off to get the set of house keys I hid in my room, taking no longer than a couple of minutes to retrieve it from the secret compartment in the bottom-most drawer of my dresser.
So when I got back, Gillian was still dutifully standing by the door.
“Thank you, love,” I said once I reached the door.
She gave me a small smile, stepping aside so I could unlock the knob.
But as I was about to push the door open, Gillian announced, “I think I’ll play downstairs, Mommy. I promise I’ll be good.”
Then, without bothering to wait for an answer, she dashed away in an obvious attempt to avoid her brother.
It left me sighing, the throbbing ache in my chest doubling.
But stubbornly, I clung to the hope that the strain in the relationship between my children was one that could still be completely mended or erased.
And with that hope cradled close, I slipped inside the shared bedroom of my twins and saw Calisto peacefully asleep on Gillian’s bed.
The mere sight of it stoked the hope and made it burn even brighter.