My Little Sunshine

Trying to have a better look at the polaroid, she took to from his hand and brought it a bit closer to her face. Just from the scratches and fading colors, she could tell that it was really an old one. A girl in her late teens stood in the center with two guys, one on either side of hers. It didn't take her long to realize who the girl was, it was her mother. She had an arm wrapped around the arm or the boy on her right. She could recognize him as her father. Her parents didn't change much after aging. 

Her fingers lingered over their faces for a while, a sad smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Her eyes then moved to the other boy who was standing with a grumpy expression on the other side of her mother. Based on his facial expressions and the way her mother was clutching onto his sleeve, it was obvious that he was forced to take this picture. The longer her eyes stayed on his face, the easier it became for her to see the resemblance between the boy and the man sitting next to her. 

"What happened next?" She questioned him before passing the polaroid back to him. 

"As time went on, they grew closer to each other. The girl started to spend more time with her boyfriend than with her best friend. He started to feel left out and all. His love for her started to make him jealous, and the jealousy grew with his age." Carston took a pause and shifted his eyes to her figure. 

"I am the one who made your parents leave the city, Stella. I threatened your mother to leave your father, but she didn't listen to me. After you were born, she was scared that I might end up hurting you. That's what made them leave their lives behind without telling anyone else." 

"And you were behind their accident, weren't you?" Stella spoke up, gritting her teeth.

"I was. But I just wanted to have your mother to myself. I loved her so much. Hell, I still love her. Do you think someone like me would visit her grave every week if it wasn't for my love for her?" He questioned her. "I just wanted to have your mother to myself, Stella. So I decided it would be better to remove the two thorns in my path." 

"Me and my father." The words escaped her lips. She was now beginning to doubt her decision to meet him all alone. 'What if he still wants to kill me?' 

"Yes, you and your father. But I didn't know that your mother would be accompanying him that night. I am so sorry, child." A lone tear escaped his eyes as he apologized to her. "Your father is damn lucky. He even gets to keep her even after they are dead."

"Why did you want to meet me alone, that too here?" She asked him. 

Heaving out a long sigh, he answered her question. "I just wanted to apologise to you before them. Call me selfish if you want to, but I wanted to feel a bit light here." He motioned his index finger towards his heart. "And stop worrying about your safety. I won't even lay a finger on you." He added with an amused expression. It wasn't hard for him to guess what was going through her mind. All it required was a look at her face and he could easily tell it. 

Before Stella could say something in return, he ended up laughing like a maniac. "Do you know how bad karma works? A week later after they died, or as I prefer to say after I killed them, I was diagnosed with Astrocytoma. It's a slow growing brain tumor, but it hurts like hell at times. And true to its description, it's a slow growing one. So I don't have much time left." 

She looked at him with shock expression as her mind processed his words. "You… are dying?"

"Yeah! Slowly, but yes. I just wanted to make some amends, so I started keeping an eye on you. I just wanted to keep the last memorial she left in this world safe, and that's you, Stella, her precious daughter. I owe her your protection and happiness. That's the least I could do to repent." He let out a sarcastic laugh, pitying his own self.

"But your son….." She couldn't understand how to bring the topic up. She clearly remembered him mentioning Taylor in their last meeting. But it seemed like he stopped himself from proceeding any further after mentioning that he was his father. 

"He's messed up in his head. What I did to your parents, was because of the jealousy which was somehow linked with the love I had for your mother then. But what he has done so far or he will, it is linked with his obsession, not love. And day by day, the boy's going crazy." He added with a sad smile. "Looks like I have failed him as well." He fell quiet as his eyes gazed into the distance.

Stella continued to stare at him with a complexed look on her face. She didn't speak up for a while as she let her mind process his words. Did the man before her just blamed himself for the wrongdoings of his grown up son. "How could you marry someone else after my mother died?" She spoke up realizing that something wasn't right with the story. 

When he didn't reply to her, she tapped him on his shoulder to get his attention and repeated her words again, but this time she decided to be more elaborative with them. "How could you marry another woman after my mom died? If you really loved her to the extent of watching over her daughter whom she had with another man. Then how could you marry someone else?" 

For her, the pieces of the puzzle didn't fit together. And it was eating her mind alive. It's either he was hiding something from her, or she had missed something. 

"Are you crazy?" Carston gave her an annoyed look. "I just told you how crazily in love I still am with your mother, and you just said it yourself. I love her to the extent that I was okay with being your devil caretaker. And you are questioning my love for her, idiot." 

"But Taylor? Is he the fruit of one of your past affairs?" She couldn't help but ask him.

"Stella, I never even looked at any other woman beside your mother. As for Taylor, he is my adopted son. It's on public records. I found him when he was just a baby." He answered her as he smacked her lightly on the back of her head. 

His answer made her speechless and she could only gape in response. 'Taylor isn't his biological son. How did I miss this? And if it's on public records, why didn't Adam mention it before me?' She thought to herself. 'But why would he mention it, it's not like he could have just brought the topic up causally.'

******

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