“I think it’s about time we talked about your parents.”

The moment she heard his words, Luna went stiff as a board and stared at him in shock. Then a wide smile broke over her face, and she looked mightily excited at the topic of her parents.

“My parents? You want to talk about my parents?” She asked excitedly, her eyes shining brightly with great happiness. “You mean, I can see them soon? Are they come here? When are they going to arrive?”

“Woah! Woah!” Samuel said, waving his hands at her in a gesture to calm her down. “You can meet your parents later, but first, we need to tell with you something regarding them.”

She blinked at him in surprise and asked feverishly, “Tell me something about them? You mean like how they talk, how they walk, how they behave, and how they might treat me? Oh! I should probably buy them a gift since they’re probably coming home to see me after so long! Yeah! I should do that soon!”

Luna was so excited at the topic of her parents, she began to drift away into her imagination. She imagined seeing two figures, whose faces were hidden due to unknown reason, coming to her and hugging her and saying how they missed her and so on. That was what she was thinking of when Samuel coughed loudly and made her return back to reality again.

“Anyway, Luna, please head on inside and freshen up. We’ll soon talk about this,” he told her smoothly.

“Huh?!” She exclaimed, looking very disappointed that he was not going to tell her immediately. “Come on, father! I’m not tired. See? I’m not that tired or anything! You can tell me right now, right?”

But Samuel shook his head and said, “Nope. You need to first get changed.”

“Um…? Why, father? Is it something… serious…?” Luna asked, and the moment that she did, a hint of fear appeared on her face. “Wait. Is it serious? Like something bad happened to my parents?! Are they hurt? Are they injured? Are they in pain? You can tell me, father!”

“Alright! Alright!” Lucia said, clapping her hands together and walking forward to place her arm around the young girl’s shoulders. “You heard your father. Let’s get going, Luna.”

Luna looked confused as the older girl forcefully turned her around and began marching her away into the house. Once they were gone, Samuel sighed and turned to look at his son with a depressed face.

“Al… I can’t do it…!” His father said, giving up wearily.

Alex narrowed his eyebrows and said, “Dad, don’t chicken out now. It’s enough that we lied to her all this time to keep her happy, but we can’t keep doing this forever. She will suspect something, maybe find out in another way and what then? She’ll hate us!”

His father looked tiredly at him and said, “You’re right, but… did you see how happy she became when I said we need to talk about her parents? If… If I were to tell her the truth now… her happiness will get destroyed, and she will be devastated knowing that she would never be with them again.”

“To do that, you’re going to simply ignore the problem that it’ll cause her and us in the future?!” Alex demanded furiously. “I don’t like doing this too, dad. Not one bit, but… it has to be done. At least, it’ll lessen the burden and make her aware of the situation instead of feeling that we betrayed her! Look at the situation that Miss Lucia is currently in!”

“I know that, Al,” said his father, and he walked over and kneeled with an imploring look on his face. “You’re right, but the thing is; sometimes, it’s better to lie than tell the truth. You’re not necessarily lying, you’re just avoiding the truth because it hurts, and we don’t like that.”

Alex could not believe what his father was saying and shook his head in denial.

“No. I cannot accept this!” He said vehemently. “I’ll go ask mum and see what she thinks.”

“She’ll agree with me,” said Samuel weakly.

Alex ignored his father and marched past him, entered the house and headed straight for the kitchen. In there, he found his mother getting the breakfast ready and turned to look surprised by his sudden appearance in the kitchen.

“Oh? Al? Hungry already? Don’t worry. It’ll be done shortly,” she said cheerfully, ruffling her son’s hair while moving around the kitchen.

“Mum,” he began in a serious voice, “I want to tell Luna about her parents. I think it’s about time.”

For a moment, there was silent in the kitchen while Sarah kept moving around busily. Then she asked him, “Have you considered her feelings? Do you know how she would feel?”

“Ah?” He asked, looking momentarily bewildered by his mother responding to him without looking at him, but he replied nonetheless. “Yes. She’ll be upset, cry a lot, and might shut herself in her room like when she accidentally hurt me?”

“In that case, why should we tell her?” His mother asked, turning to look at him with a pleasant smile on her face. “Do you want to see her feel sad, do you want to see her cry, do you not want to see her being happy?”

“What?!” He responded, looking alarmed. “No! I don’t want her to feel sad or cry. In fact, I very much like the thought of her being happy, but—!”

“Then, you have your answer,” she said sweetly, cutting him off before he could complete his sentence.

“But, mum!” He said, resolutely going on to state his opinion. “I think it’s better for her to learn the truth now than by other means in the future because I fear she will come to hate us!”

“You know something, Al?” His mother asked, and she kneeled while placing both of her hands on his shoulders with a smile on her face. “It’s okay if that happens. We’re prepared for it.”

“What?!” Alex exclaimed, looking shocked.

“You see, Al, I and your father lost our families at a early age, and then lost the best friends we had so much hopes of being together with. So, we don’t want to see sadness again by losing the happiness and that beautiful smile that Luna makes just because the future might hold a tragic fate for us. Call it our selfishness, but we want this happiness to continue as long as it can last. That’s my wish, and the same goes for your father.”

“Mum…” said Alex weakly, losing his fighting spirit at his mother’s words. “She will hate us for it.”

“And, I won’t blame her for it,” she said with a smile and rose back up to continue her cooking. “We are indeed making a mistake by lying to her, by deceiving her about her parents, but… compared to the sadness we’d have to see in her, I don’t feel the motivation to tell her the truth. So, she is fully right in holding a grudge against us for not telling her the truth not just so that we can watch her smiling and being happy.”

Alex fell silent at his mother’s words, feeling lost and hopeless about his situation. He was fearing that if Luna learnt about this in the future, she would come to hate them, but most of all, she would hate him. That part of the outcome scared him the most.

“Are you, perhaps, feeling worried that she might hate you for it?” Sarah asked, correctly guessing the worries of his son.

“Huh?” He asked, looking up at her in surprise. “How did you... know, mum?”

She chuckled and replied, “I’m your mother, Al, and I can easily guess how you’re feeling. Just what kind of mother do you think I am for not being able to tell when my son’s feeling down about something? Mmm?”

While saying that, she turned and smiled sweetly at him while he blinked at her in amazement. Then she lowered herself before him again and looked him straight in his eyes.

“Listen to me now, Al. In the future, if indeed that she learns about the truth some other way and hates us for it, I don’t believe she will come to hate you as much as she might come to hate us. Even if she does state that she hates you because of her feelings, I don’t believe she would kill her feelings for you. Even when you try to get close to her, and she shoves you away only for you to get struck by lightning, I’m sure she won’t abandon you.”

That last sentence made her son stare at her in disbelief and exclaim “Huh?! Being shoved away and then getting struck by lightning? Aren’t you fantasising that a little bit, mum?”

She chuckled and placed a hand on her cheek as she said, “Well, at a younger age, I used to read romantic novels, and I always read how the most unexpected things happen in the most unexpected ways. So, I think it’s not far fetched to think that this might be a possibility?”

Alex chuckled at seeing his mother looking so mesmerised and commented, “Mum, being struck by lightning just because I got shoved away sounds like an impossible thing to happen.”

“Who knows, Al? Maybe I’m foreshadowing the future!” She said with a grin causing him to chuckle and shake his head at his mother’s illusion. “Things like this could happen! We never know. The future is unpredictable, but by some crazy coincidence that does happen, I do not think she will abandon you.”

Her son looked at her in amazement for a moment before asking, “So, you’re basically saying she hates ue for lying, but doesn’t truly hate us because she still loves us, but because of her conflicting feelings, she will hate us? Is that what you’re saying, mum?”

“That’s right!” His mother said cheerfully, and proudly ruffled his hair.

Alex went silent and looked uncertain as to what he should do in that situation. His mother watched for a moment in silence before she opened her mouth and imparted in him her wisdom about love.

“The thing about love, Al, is that it has a way of connecting people,” she said, and he looked at her in surprise. “Be it family, friends, and even enemies; it has a way of connecting. Okay? Even if she looked like she hates you, she doesn’t really hate you and it’s only momentary. Keep that in mind, alright?”

He nodded at her wordlessly in understanding, and she smiled before gently turning him around and pushing him away from the kitchen. Her son looked at her one last time uncertainty, but when she waved with a big smile, he awkwardly smiled back and hurried away from there.

Sarah turned around and focused on her cooking, but she still had the fresh memory of the her son arguing about her regarding whether to continue lying to Luna or not. It made her smile at the level of maturity that her son showed for his age, and made her feel very proud of him. As such, she began to energetically make breakfast with a big smile on her face.