The Truth Part 3

          Instantly, my phone and body dropped to the ground. Paige screamed and my mom came rushing downstairs as I continued to sob on the cold kitchen floor. My mom hurried to my side and held me tightly to her chest. She let me cry and cry and cry. She didn't ask what was wrong or anything, she let me have the moment. Paige stood over us with tears in her eyes, not knowing what to do.

https://divorcedmoms.com/blogs/divorce
-whirlwind/stopping-the-guilt-now/

          "It's okay," my mom whispered. "It's all going to be okay." She was stroking my hair and rubbing my back. I couldn't stop. What I had seen was an image I could never forget no matter how hard I tried. It hurt so bad. Why? Just why? Why did he have to do this? Especially with her? Of all people, why her?
          I sat up and looked her in the eyes. Without saying anything, I grabbed my now cracked phone and showed her what I had just seen. Within seconds, she reacted the same way I did. She pulled me back into my arms and we stayed there. Paige calmed down now and looked at my phone.
          "That's dad...I mean fader! But why is Sophia next to him holding a baby?" This only made my mom and I cry harder. Hearing it aloud, seeing the actual evidence. I had ideas on what he had done when he left including leaving us for another family, but never in a million years did I ever expect it to be this family.
          It was twelve o'clock in the afternoon, and we were still in shock. All three of us had moved to the couch. Paige stopped trying to to talk to us, so to distract her we put on Disney Channel. My mom and I stayed wrapped up in each other's arms on the couch still crying.
          Someone started knocking at our front door and we both groaned. Paige stayed completely silent still frightened from our meltdowns earlier. I slowly got up to answer the door. It was our oldest cousin, Aidan. His eyebrows almost touched his hairline and his eyes bulged out of his head.
          "What happened? Oh my god," he poked his head inside the living room and went pale. "Seriously, what happened?"
          "Show him," my mom mumbled.
          I got my phone, pulled up the Facebook account and showed him. Immediately he pulled me towards him and hugged me.
          "I am so, so sorry." Another round of silent tears started up again.

https://www.spiritbutton.com/cousins-
quotes/cousin-to-cousin-well
-always-be-special-friends-from-
the-same-family-tree/

          He came inside and I pulled him into the side room so I could tell him everything with no distractions. Even though I have my mom to talk to, it's nice to have someone only a few years older to talk to about things like this. A few days after the worst Christmas ever, I hadn't left my house and I barely talked to anyone. I called him and we were talking on the phone for hours and I just told him everything and even though my father was his uncle and he was feeling similar emotions, he comforted me. I could always turn to him as not just a cousin, but as a friend. So I knew if anyone was going to be strong and help me figure out the next plan, it would be him.
          "Does anyone in that picture look familiar?" I asked showing him the picture again.
          "Kind of."
          "That girl," I said pointing to the girl Paige identified as Sophia. "She was my best friend. For years. We met each other in preschool and stayed best friends all through elementary school and I thought it would be the same in middle school. Nothing was different up until October in sixth grade. Suddenly out of the blue she tells me that we can't be friends. I remember that day so clearly. We met in our usual spot in the courtyard, but she was abnormally quiet and it scared me. She told me first thing in the morning. Her exact words were, "We can't be friends anymore. I'm sorry I know this makes no sense, but we just can't. Thank you for being my best friend. I love you." I haven't talked to her since that day. I tried texting and calling, but she must have blocked me or something because nothing goes through so eventually I just gave up. And I guess this stupid picture explains everything, she wanted to protect her mom and my father, so she 'broke up' with me so I wouldn't find out. Not only did he leave his own kids to care for some else's, but he had two more daughters of his own with Sophia's mom. My father left us to be with my ex best friend's mom. "
          Silence. His eyes were wide, eyebrows up, and mouth hanging open. I had only seen Aidan cry two times in my entire life. When he heard that his uncle had left six years ago and today when he found out why his uncle had left.
          "You want to find him, don't you?' he asked and I nodded. "I'm helping you."
         
          The rest of winter break went by way too fast. Aidan and I spent most days together trying to find more information on him. We discovered that they had gotten married four years ago. The venue looked familiar, but I couldn't remember why. We also figured out that his two new daughters were named Emma, who was 2 and Isabella, who was six months. However, the most important thing we found was his location. On one of his new wife's posts, she posted a picture of him and his daughter's at a Italian restaurant not too far away from my house. I thought about him moving into where Sophia lived when I knew her, but figured they would have had to move because of how big the family was now.
          Aidan and I had many late nights after school stalking their Facebook's and crying. One day towards the end of February, Aidan and Noah came over to have dinner with my family. After we ate, Aidan and I went to the side room, while Noah played with Paige.
          "Do you still have Sophia's number in your phone?" Aidan asked.
          "I told you she blocked me nothing goes through."
          "What if I call her or text her? Mine would go through because she never had my number, obviously."
          Quickly, I pulled up her contact and read him the number. He opened up a new iMessage text with her, but I took his phone away from him.
          "Can I type it?"
          I started to type before he said yes, but I didn't know if this was the right way to confront her. Should I text her and not tell her who it is or get right to the point and call her.  I looked up at Aidan and he gave me a reassuring smile. I wanted to call her, to face her in person. I pressed the call button and it rung a few times before someone finally picked up.

https://www.videoblocks.com/video/beautiful-girl-
crying-while-talking-with-someone-on-cellphone-
steadycam-shot-hruebibzzj31hwu3u

          "Hello?" Sophia answered.
          Her voice was exactly how I remember, soft and sweet. It broke my heart hearing it. As much as I wanted to yell at her for not telling me about all of this the entire time, I knew I had to stay calm or else this call would be an absolute waste and her blocked list would have one more number.