Stolen Identity: Mute Heiress

Chapter 266: Scandal?

For someone who could hardly sleep without taking sleeping pills, Callan found himself sleeping for hours after the revelation.

It wasn’t one of his usual dreams plagued with nightmares. This sleep was dreamless.

He didn’t want to think or feel anything. He just wanted his eyes closed and his mind shut down.

Deep down he hoped that he would never wake up from this sleep. He didn’t want to have to face anyone or be expected to make a choice whether to meet with Ryan Harris or not.

He just wanted everything to go back to the way it was when he didn’t know anything.

Damn closure. He didn’t need it. He didn’t want to see Karen Combs. He now knew more than he wanted to, and he wished he could un-know it all. He wished somehow his memories could all be erased and he’d start afresh.

But no matter how much he wished it, slowly he stirred in his sleep, and his eyes fluttered open.

The first thing he saw were his mother’s concerned green eyes staring back at him as she lay on her side beside him like she’d been watching him sleep.

”Mom,” he called softly, and she smiled.

”Your fever finally broke,” she said with a soft smile, patting away the beads of sweat that dotted his forehead with, ”I thought you outgrew this. You still become feverish whenever you’re very upset.”

Callan looked into the tired face of the one woman he loved more than life itself, and he felt guilty for having stressed her. ”I’m sorry...”

”Hush now, darling. There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. How are you feeling? Do you think you can eat something now? You’ve been slowing for almost twenty-four hours now,” she said, and his eyes widened slightly and he sat up and glanced at the wall clock in his room.

He knew he’d slept for a long time but he didn’t expect it to be that long. ”Have you been here all through?”

”Am I supposed to be somewhere else when my son is this way?” She asked with a soft smile. ”Your Dad has been worried sick. Go freshen up and I’ll let him know you’re up and we can all eat together.”

Before she could rise, Callan stopped her, ”Don’t leave yet,” he said, placing a hand on her arm.

She stayed put, returning to her position beside him.

Neither of them said a word for a while, they just stared at each other and then his mother smiled at him. ”What are you thinking?”

He shook his head. ”Nothing. I’m not thinking of anything. I don’t want to think.”

”Do you want to know what I’m thinking?” She asked, and he hesitated then nodded slowly.

”The very first time I lay in bed with you this way. Do you remember? It was at the orphanage. After you went off to find your Mom and found out she moved out of the apartment. You said you wanted to die.”

Tears gathered in Callan’s eyes as he nodded but he blinked it away. ”And then you took me away to accompany you to a wedding. There, I met Jamal,” he said, remembering that day like it was just yesterday.

It had been Tom and Lucy’s wedding. That was the second time he met Emily and Mari. Both girls l had been Lucy’s little brides and Jamal, the ring bearer.

His mother nodded. ”Yeah. I’m so lucky to be your mom, Callan.”

Callan’s brows pulled together. ”How?”

”As bad as your experiences were, I don’t think it was a coincidence that you ended up being my son. You know the only thing I feel bad about?” She asked, and he shook his head.

”Not having found you earlier. If only Karen Combs had left you at my doorsteps and not her sisters. Then you’d have skipped all the bad experiences...”

”I don’t mean to be rude, Mom, but that’s not realistic. You were only sixteen when I was born. There’s no way she could have left me at your doorsteps. You didn’t even have a doorstep. Your parents did. So, maybe I’d have been your little brother,” Callan pointed out dryly and Delilah giggled as she smacked his head playfully and he smiled.

”Girls can give birth at the age of sixteen,” she pointed out, though she was pleased that her plan to distract him and make him talk had worked.

”True. But I don’t think you were in a position to raise a baby then. If I’m not mistaken you lost your Mom around that age, right?” Callan asked and Delilah nodded.

”Yeah. True. But none of that matters. I love having a grown up son like you. You like it, don’t you? Having such a beautiful, young mother? I remember how your peers in school used to gather around the window to look at me whenever I picked you up,” she said brightly.

Callan shook his head. ”I hated that,” he confessed.

”Hated that I was young and beautiful? Or that your school mates were staring?” She asked, and he sighed deeply.

”I hated that everyone knew I was adopted. And whenever you came it was always more glaring to everyone that I wasn’t your biological child,” he said quietly.

His therapist had suggested he opened up more to those he loved, and he figured he could as well start from the one person he loved most.

”Oh! But you never mentioned that. Why?” She asked, looking at him with a frown.

”Because you liked to pick me up. I could tell you wanted to be like the other Moms, and I appreciated the effort you put into being my mother and I didn’t want to give you any reasons to worry. And maybe a part of me was scared that you’d take me back to the orphanage home if I didn’t behave myself,” he said, making tears spring to her eyes.

”Oh, Callan! Did you really think our love for you was dependent on your good behavior?” She asked, but he said nothing. ”We adopted you because we loved you...”

”The other kids at the orphanage home said you chose me only because of the scandal. And the kids at school mentioned it too,” he finally opened up.

”Scandal?” Delilah asked with a slight frown as she sat up. ”You knew about the scandal?”

Callan nodded slowly. ”Some of the kids at the orphanage heard some of the caretakers talking about the scandal. I heard from them. And at school, the kids say stuff they hear from their parents.” He shrugged, sitting up too.

After accompanying them to Tom and Lucy’s wedding years ago, a thoughtless reporter eager to make a break in his career had captured pictures of him with his now parents and started the rumor that he was Hunter Quinn’s illegitimate son since it was public knowledge that Delilah Quinn couldn’t have babies.

”Oh, dear! We had no idea you knew about that. Why didn’t you ever talk to us about it even when we all went to therapy? Didn’t it occur to you that it took us two years to adopt you despite the scandal? Though I loved you and wanted to adopt you from the start, your father insisted he gets to know you first. He wanted to slowly develop a bond with you and be sure he loved you enough to be your Dad before adopting you. Your father never responded to the scandal because he didn’t care about the opinion of others. He was never the type to be pressured into doing anything he didn’t want to. Darling, you should have talked to us if you had doubts about our love for you.”

Callan shook his head but before he could respond, the door opened, and his father stuck his head in, ”Oh! You’re up,” he said, his eyes lighting up with relief as he walked in.

”He woke up a short while ago. Remember the scandal that came up after Tom and Lucy’s wedding? About Callan being your illegitimate son? He knew about it and thought that was the reason we adopted him,” Delilah said, wanting his father to explain to him so he’d understand better.

Hunter frowned as he went to join them on the bed, ”Why would you think that? I thought you were smarter than that. Tell me, why would we wait for two years to adopt you after the scandal had been long forgotten?”

”You hear that, right? Exactly what I said,” his mother said.

Callan sighed deeply, seeing the sense in their point which he had missed and realizing now that he had misunderstood the true reason for his adoption all these years. Though he had always loved them, and knew they loved him, but he had thought they adopted him by chance and he needed to always be on their good side.

”I’m sorry. I should have said something,” he said quietly.