Chapter 5 The truth revealed

"I don't want you to act all surprised when you see the inside, okay?" He raised a brow, and when I didn't answer him immediately, he smacked my shoulder, but it wasn't enough to bring my attention back towards him; I was still watching in fascination at how big the mansion was.

"Jeremy?" he called, finally bringing my attention to him. "Yes?" I frowned

"Please stop doing that, at least not now that mom and dad are close by. I know that you have never in your whole life seen a mansion, so I understand your excitement, but please, for my sake, behave accordingly," I gasped, looking up at him with a playful glare.

"Who said I had never seen a mansion? Maybe I lived in one," I defended. "And how would you know that?" You don't seem to remember anything about your past life," he chuckled, making me scowl.

After several attempts at defending myself, we finally got out of the car and headed inside the "amusement park." I really tried my best to act cool and be composed, but I knew that I was doing a very poor job at that based on the way Jade kept glaring at me.

When we finally entered the living room, Diana paused, turning around to face us.

"I know that this is sudden, but I want to have our first family meeting, if that's cool with everyone," Diana said with a nervous smile.

Everyone was fazed except for me. "Um, when, honey?" Mr. Paul asked in a deep baritone voice, surprising me; it was the first time that I'd seen him speak, and now that I remember, I didn't know the reason why he was sitting on the floor groaning in pain when I woke up. I will ask Jade about that later.

"When everyone is free." She replied, "For now, the boys need to have their dinner, and Jeremy needs to rest." She smiled at me, and I smiled back.

"Okay, if that's all, I'll be taking Jeremy to his new room." Jade announced, ready to walk away. "Wait a minute. So tell us, what happened to his old room?" Diana raised a brow while her husband folded his arms.

Jade paused, "Um, before the accident, me and Jeremy had a pretty bad fight there, so it's in a big mess," Diana gasped. "What did you just say?".

I looked up at Jade; he had a grim look on his face. "So you're telling me that you two fought when we weren't around?" She asked solemnly.

"I don't know how to answer that without upsetting you, mom." He stared at her.

"Jade, please answer me honestly: was that the first time you guys fought, or were there many fights before that?" She asked quietly, but Jade didn't reply; his silence was enough to confirm it all for her.

"How come I didn't know about any of this?" She asked, holding her husband's hand for support. "Yes, Jade, why didn't you report this to us?" Paul asked, "We could have..."

"What could you have done?" Jade interjected, making Diana frown.

"Jade, speak to your father with some respect," Diana said tautly. " Respect? You guys don't deserve my respect." Paul was silent.

"You always knew what he did to me, so why didn't you help me then, Paul?" Jade said,directing his gaze at Mr. Peterson. Diana was shocked at the newfound information.

"Excuse me,you lost me there, so wait, you're telling me that Paul knew about this?" Mrs. Diana inquired, "Honey,I promise you that I handled it. Or I thought that I did." Mr.paul hesitated.

Everyone was already waiting for his explanations. So he began, "I came back home from work to pick up something, and that's when I saw both of the kids arguing. When I intervened,Jeremy ignored me and left,leaving me alone in the room with Jade. And when I decided to comfort Jade about it, he got upset and started to pull off his school uniform,and that was when I caught sight of marks around his neck and wrist,so I came to the conclusion that they both got into a fight. I called Jeremy aside and questioned him about it,and he explained it all to me. He told me that Jade always got bullied in school and that the reason that they were both arguing was because he helped Jade when the bullies assaulted him again,so Jade felt annoyed that Jeremy helped because it made him look like a weakling. And don't worry about the bullies, Diana; Jeremy already handled them." Mr.paul ended.

Diana just stared at him with a shocked expression, while Jade's eyes flashed with anger and resentment.

"And you believed him; you never asked me for my side of the story. Did you know why my ice abilities manifested? That was because I was at the point of death. Just for the fun of it,your favourite son, Jeremy, locked me up in a room and cast a barrier around it so I couldn't get out,and then, did you know what he did next? " Everyone kept quiet. Diana closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"He set the room on fire with me in it, and no one knew; no one cared about me enough to check up on me; I'm tired of keeping this all to myself; I really admired and respected Jeremy, but he hurt me; he hurt so much that I wanted to give up on living."

"Honey, I'm so sorry," Diana sobbed. Mr. Peterson looked down at his feet in shame.

"I'm done with all of this; you always believed whatever Jeremy told you, maybe because to you he was the perfect son!" Jade yelled, causing me to flinch. "Son, I promise you that I didn't know." Paul tried.

"I'm leaving," Jade cut in, "and don't even try to look for me."