Her parents looked between each other before her mother spoke. “No, she said that I could ask you.”
“Oh.” Her stomach dropped. Ally wondered if it would have been better to have Kat tell them or to tell them herself?
“Well, honey, out with it. What was so bad that you ended up passing out?” her mother prompted.
Ally told her parents what the Fortune Teller had said. With each passing word, she was convinced that her parents knew something that she hadn’t been told. The level of surprise she expected to see in their eyes, wasn't there.
“What aren’t you telling me? Is she right?” Ally asked her parents, feeling a raw fear clawing its way inside her chest with each passing second.
Her mother and father looked at each other with sadness and defeat in their eyes. “There is something we must tell you, but you need to rest first.”
“But Mum, if there is something I want to know, now!”
“Ally,” her father said. “We have a business dinner to attend tonight, but first thing in the morning, we will sit down over pancakes and tell you everything. I will ask Adele to have them cooking for us.”
She smiled sadly. Her parents had been keeping a secret from her, and if the Fortune Teller was right, it was going to destroy her world.
“Kat was really worried, but I said you would call her when you felt up to it.”
“Thanks Mum.” Her parents rose to leave when she stopped them. “I love you both. Please be careful.”
“We will, sweetie. We love you too.” Her mother smiled at her. “Now get some rest.”
“Good-bye, sweetie,” her father said, as gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. It felt so final, good-bye instead of goodnight. Ally almost said something but when she looked up, they had already left the room.
“Oh well, might as well call Kat.” She sighed as she picked up her Iphone and dialed her friend.
Kathryn answered almost immediately, sounding panicked. “Ally…Oh my god, I have been worried sick! Are you ok?”
“I’m feeling much better now.” Ally was hoping that she sounded convincing. The truth of the matter was that she was terrified, and filled with an inner turmoil, that she just couldn’t seem to shake.
“I was so worried about you! And I’m sorry for taking you to that Fortune Teller. What a horrible woman!” Kathryn was indignant on her behalf. Ally couldn’t help the quiet laugh that escaped her. She was very lucky to have a friend like Kathryn.
“It’s ok you didn’t know what was going to happen. I’m sure everything will be fine.” Ally felt the dread run through her again, and knew that nothing was going to be fine. She already knew a secret was being kept from her. Did that mean the rest of the prediction would come to fruition? She prayed with all her heart and soul that it didn’t.
Finally convincing Kathryn that she was ok, Ally finished the conversation and decided that she needed to try to forget about what had happened. Settling on reading a book as a way of losing herself, she began to read. Ten minutes later, the book fell from her hands as a deep sleep claimed her until the morning.
Alessandra awoke to sounds of conversation, the waft of pancakes cooking and fresh coffee coming from the kitchen. She immediately brightened convinced that she had been wrong. Her parents had come home after all! They weren’t the two people who would be lost to her if the prediction came to pass. She jumped out of bed feeling a sense of relief so great that she almost felt euphoric. Running to the door, she tripped over her slippers lying in the middle of the room. She stopped and quickly put them on, then continued in her rush downstairs to find her parents.
When she got there, she stopped short. Ally’s grandmother, Adele, was standing in the kitchen with a man she’d never seen before. She was struck by his eyes - an exquisite green, like the sea surrounding a Mediterranean island kissing the white sand. He was tanned and had a muscular physique. The smoldering stranger’s hair was so dark that it appeared to be raven at first, but upon closer inspection, his hair was actually a dark bitter sweet chocolate. He felt strangely familiar to her, but Ally was sure she had never seen him. A sixteen-year-old girl would remember a guy like that.