The Miracle of You

Paul immediately got up from his chair and walked over to Hailey, hastily wrapping his arms around her in a tight embrace.

“Sis…” he said quietly. “I’m going to be honest with you. I knew about this two years ago when Ben and I opened Dad’s private study for a prank. We… The two of us were snooping around. You know us.”

He pulled away to look Hailey in the eyes, as though trying to convey his sincerity.

“We found… adoption papers along with your records. There were so many, we couldn’t read them all. Dad was about to return home. That’s when we realized that… you’re not related to us by blood.”

Paul swallowed.

“Ben and I… we wanted to ask Mom and Dad about it, but we didn’t have the courage. We even thought at one point that we might have imagined the whole thing. But we knew it was true. Still, it didn’t change anything. We still think of you as our older sister, even now. After all, even if we’re not related by blood, we’re still family, right?” he said softly.

Hailey felt tears well up in her eyes at that moment. She didn’t know what to feel. Everything seemed to be spinning and her mind was filled with confusing thoughts.

“I… why didn’t any of you tell me?” she asked in a choked whisper. “You should have told me. I would have asked Mom and Dad myself…”

“We were scared,” Paul admitted. “We were young at the time, and we were snooping around a place we shouldn’t have been. You know Dad’s temper. He would have punished us, especially if it was for a prank. We also… thought that we had stumbled upon information that should be kept secret. So we decided not to tell you, Hailey. I’m sorry.”

Hailey shook her head. “No, no. Don’t say that.” She let out a breath and wiped the tears from her face. “I didn’t mean to accuse or blame you, Paul. Ben, either. I’m just shocked. I always thought…” She swallowed. “I always thought I was a real part of your family…”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Sis!” Paul exclaimed, startled. “Don’t say that. It’s ‘our’ family. I told you, you’re still our older sister. Blood doesn’t matter. You’ve been with us so long. You were adopted when you were a baby. You loved us and took care of us for over a decade. I don’t care if you were adopted or not. I still think of you as my sister.

Hailey looked at the stubborn look on Paul’s face and felt her heart warm at his words. Even though Paul was the youngest of the family and the more serious one compared to the mischievous Ben, he still had a sweet side to him.

“Thank you, little brother,” Hailey said affectionately as she reached out and lovingly ruffled Paul’s neatly combed hair. “I’m really glad to know that you feel that way.”

Paul didn’t comment on his messy hair and just sat down next to Hailey, trying to fix the strands that fell over his eyes. “So… this must be really shocking for you,” he began hesitantly. “Ben and I were stunned at first.”

Hailey had a million questions in her mind, but her head was in chaos right now, so she didn’t know where to start.

She took a deep breath to calm herself.

Of all the things she would discover before her eighteenth birthday… this was certainly not it.

She had never imagined that she was not truly part of the van Gowen family. She had lived in this house for as long as she could remember. She knew all the servants, even those who came and went, and she knew every place in the house by heart, including the hidden places she and her brothers discovered while playing hide-and-seek.

She had always thought of Luther and Emilia as her real parents. She had become so attached to this family that she never thought…

“You said I was adopted by… our dad when I was just a baby, right?” Hailey finally asked, unconsciously clenching her hands into fists on her lap.

Paul nodded. “Ben and I found that out when we read the adoption papers. You were only a few months old.”

“So I… didn’t have a name?”

“No. You were always Hailey.”

“What about my last name? And what about my…” Hailey swallowed hard, her knuckles turning white from the pressure of clenching her hands so tightly.

Paul, ever the gentle one, reached out and covered her hands with his own. “Ben and I weren’t able to look into it,” he said apologetically. “We only managed to read most of your file… But at least you have something to ask about now, right, sis?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean, you can ask Mom and Dad about it? Or you can hint at it or something. If you’re curious to know about your previous identity.” Paul hesitated for a moment. “I just want you to know, sis… that no matter what happens, Ben and I will always be your brothers. That Mom and Dad will still be your parents. We’re your family, okay?”

Hailey stared at him, her eyes shimmering with tears.

Everything was happening too fast. In the span of thirty minutes, she found out that her parents were keeping a secret from her, that her brothers had apparently found adoption papers hidden in her father’s private study, and that her brothers knew she was adopted but still considered her like their real, blood-related sister.

To be honest, she didn’t know what to think. She didn’t know whether to feel betrayed or accept or understand the situation. At the moment, she was struggling with this new information, and she thought she needed time and space to process it all as calmly and rationally as she could.

So she responded to Paul in the best way she could at the moment.

“Vielen Dank, mein Brüderchen,” Hailey said warmly.

‘Thank you very much, my little brother’ in German.