Chapter 4: The Argument at the Dinner Table
Ever since receiving the old photograph and mysterious message in the school courtyard earlier that day, Alea had been completely unable to concentrate on the journey home. The image of a young woman smiling gently as she held a baby girl seemed etched into her memory. Even more troubling, the name Rendra Pratama, engraved on the back of the photograph, kept circling through her mind, as though that unfamiliar name were the key to the entire puzzle that had tormented her life for seventeen years.
The moment she stepped into the Adinata residence, Alea hurried straight to her room upstairs.
She locked the door tightly, then reached into her bag and pulled out the faded photograph. Her fingers brushed over its surface again and again as she stared at it intently, trying to find even the tiniest clue she might have missed.
The woman in the photograph looked very young. Her face radiated a gentle warmth, yet the dullness in her eyes concealed a deep sorrow. Meanwhile, the baby girl nestled in her warm embrace was neatly wrapped in a white cloth blanket.
Alea pointed her phone camera at the photograph and zoomed in on its bottom corner. Narrowing her eyes, she examined the row of numbers that had nearly faded away: > July 12. That was her date of birth.
"Who are you, really?" Alea whispered softly to the woman in the picture before her, her voice trembling as she struggled to contain her emotions.
Knock... knock...
The sudden knock on her bedroom door shattered her reverie. Alea flinched and quickly hid the photograph in her desk drawer. "Alea, come downstairs. Dinner's ready," Marissa called from outside the door.
Alea drew a deep breath to steady the trembling in her chest. "Yes, Mom."
After making sure the photograph was safely tucked away in the drawer, Alea left her room and headed to the dining room.
Adrian and Celine were already seated neatly in their places. Dinner was initially peaceful, filled with warm conversation as Celine began talking about her plans to leave the country to continue her studies.
"Dad said we have to start taking care of our passports and all the other supporting documents next week," Celine said brightly as she cut the meat on her plate.
Adrian nodded in agreement, gazing at Celine affectionately. "That's right. You need to start preparing everything carefully, sweetheart."
"I can't wait," Celine replied, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
Alea remained silent at the end of the table, lowering her gaze as she spooned food into her mouth without appetite.
Marissa, noticing how alone Alea seemed, turned to look at her. "You also need to start seriously deciding what you want to study in college, Alea."
Alea slowly raised her head and looked at her mother blankly. "I don't know yet, Mom."
"Why don't you know by now?" Marissa pressed curiously.
"I'm still thinking about it," Alea replied shortly.
Adrian set his spoon and fork down on his plate with a soft but firm clink. "You need to start seriously thinking about your future now, Alea."
Alea stopped moving. She lifted her gaze and stared straight into the eyes of the imposing man before her. "Do you even care about my future, Dad?"
The atmosphere at the dinner table instantly turned tense and rigid.
Celine immediately stopped eating. Marissa stared at Alea with wide, shocked eyes.
"Alea!" Marissa scolded, her voice strained with embarrassment and concern.
But the wall of patience Alea had built over seventeen years had finally collapsed completely. She could no longer keep everything bottled up inside.
"Why, Mom? Was I wrong?" Alea challenged, her voice trembling as she fought the tightness in her chest.
Adrian's gaze hardened as he stared sharply at Alea. "What do you mean by speaking to your father like that?"
Alea let out a small laugh, bitter and utterly devoid of humor. "In all this time, have you ever once intended to ask me... what I actually want to be?"
"I've always provided for you and met all your needs without ever letting you go without!" Adrian shot back firmly.
"What I need in this house isn't just money, Dad!" Alea shouted, raising her voice and cutting him off.
Celine shifted in her seat, growing increasingly uncomfortable beneath the heated atmosphere surrounding them.
"Alea, please don't do this..." Marissa whispered, pleading anxiously.
"I just want to be treated like one of your own children in this house..." Alea said softly, her gaze sweeping across every member of the family.
That simple sentence cast a suffocating silence over the dining table. Adrian sat motionless, staring at Alea in silence for a long moment.
"You... are my child," Adrian finally said, his tone low but stiff.
Alea gripped the edge of the table, struggling to hold back the tears gathering in her eyes. "Really?" she asked bitterly.
Adrian fell silent, unable to answer immediately.
"Then," Alea pressed with a crooked smile, "why does the DNA test in your study say otherwise?"
Crash.
Celine instinctively shot to her feet, staring at Alea and her parents in turn with wide eyes. "The DNA test? What does that mean?!"
Marissa's face instantly went deathly pale, overwhelmed by confusion and panic.
"Celine, sit down!" Adrian ordered harshly, trying to control the situation.
"No!" Celine refused firmly, her voice rising as she demanded an explanation. "I want to know what you're really talking about!"
Alea shifted her gaze to Celine.
"You had the right to know from the beginning too, Celine."
"Alea! Enough!" Adrian roared, his voice reverberating through the dining room.
Yet for the first time in her life, the man's shouting and intimidation no longer inspired fear in Alea. She stared at Adrian with blazing eyes. "I'm not Dad and Mom's biological daughter, am I?"
Celine looked back and forth between Adrian and Marissa, her face filled with utter confusion and terror. "Dad... Mom... what does Alea mean?"
Neither Adrian nor Marissa was capable of saying a word in response.
Alea chose to rise from her chair. "If what I said is wrong, then say so right now, in front of both of us."
Adrian clenched both hands tightly on the table, his jaw hardening. "Alea, go to your room now!"
"Answer my question first, Dad!"
"I said go to your room!" Adrian shouted, his face flushed crimson.
Alea flinched. At last, her tears broke free and streamed down her cheeks. She looked at the man before her with profound despair and disappointment before finally turning and walking away.
But before Alea could get far, Celine's trembling voice stopped her. "So... so you're not my biological sister?"
Alea's steps came to a halt.
Adrian immediately turned a sharp look on Celine. "Celine, don't get involved in this."
Celine let out a bright laugh that sounded deeply bitter.
"How can I not get involved, Dad?! This is about our family!"
Across the table, Marissa's tears finally spilled over.
"Please... I beg you, don't fight anymore..."
Celine stared at her mother in disbelief.
"Mom... you knew about this too?"
Marissa merely lowered her head and cried, unable to utter even a single word.
Her mother's silence was more than enough of an answer for Celine. The girl turned to Alea, her gaze completely changed. It was no longer the scornful look of a spoiled, irritated sister, but the look of a child who had just lost her entire foundation.
"Alea..." Celine called softly.
Alea didn't dare turn around. Without saying another word, she hurried up the stairs toward her room, taking the steps two at a time.
Several minutes passed in the solitude of the silent room before another soft knock sounded on Alea's bedroom door.
Alea thought Marissa had come to tend to her wounds. But when the door latch was pulled and the door swung open, it was Celine standing in the doorway.
The beautiful girl's eyes were puffy and red from crying.
"Why didn't you ever tell me anything?" Celine asked hoarsely.
Alea stared blankly at her sister. "I only found out about this fact last night too."
Celine slowly widened her eyes. "You... you're serious?"
Alea nodded slowly in answer.
Celine stepped into the room and locked the door from the inside. "Then... all those suspicions were true?"
"I don't know for sure," Alea answered honestly.
"If you're really not Dad and Mom's child..." Celine swallowed past the lump in her throat, "...then who are you?"
The sincere question instantly robbed Alea of her words. She fell silent for a moment before whispering, "I... I'm trying to find out."
Celine walked slowly over and lowered herself onto the edge of Alea's bed. "Then... what about me?"
Alea furrowed her brow and looked at Celine in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"If you're not their daughter," Celine murmured, lowering her head deeply, "then... does that mean I'm their only biological child in this house?"
Alea chose not to answer.
Celine clasped her own trembling fingers. "Alea... I'm scared."
For the first time in all the years they had lived together, Alea no longer saw Celine as the spoiled, arrogant girl who always got everything she wanted. Instead, she saw a young girl overwhelmed by extraordinary fear.
"I'm scared too, Celine," Alea replied softly, from the deepest part of her heart.
Silence enveloped the room for a while.
Suddenly, Celine raised her face and looked at Alea seriously. "Who is Rendra Pratama?"
Alea's body instantly went rigid. "You... where did you hear that name?"
Celine shook her head. "I don't know. I just heard it in passing once. Have you heard that name before?"
Alea breathed a sigh of relief when she realized Celine knew nothing. "Why are you asking?"
"Someone sent me an old photograph this afternoon," Alea finally said honestly. "That name was engraved on the back."
Celine's expression grew even more anxious. She stared sharply at Alea. "You need to be extra careful, Alea."
"I know."
"Don't you dare go looking for that person or try to meet them alone," Celine urged emphatically.
Alea looked straight into Celine's eyes. "But I have to find out who I really am, Celine."
Celine could no longer argue with the determination in Alea's eyes. When the girl rose and began to leave the room, her steps stopped in the doorway.
"Alea," Celine called softly without turning around.
"Yeah?"
Celine swallowed against the bitter taste in her mouth. "If it turns out in the end that you're really not Dad and Mom's biological daughter..." She paused for a moment, her voice trembling faintly. "...I'll still consider you my sister."
Alea stood frozen in place. For the first time on that dark night, a warm touch reached the emptiness in her chest.
But the warmth lasted only a few seconds.
Bzzzt... Bzzzt...
The phone on Alea's vanity vibrated violently. Another text message had just arrived from the nameless mysterious number.
> They've started to suspect you. Don't wait too long.
Alea stared at her phone screen, her heart pounding hard. Before she could process the message, another one suddenly appeared on the screen: > Tomorrow, find the name of the hospital where you were born.
Alea lifted her face and stared at her reflection in the bedroom mirror, her breath catching.
She knew for certain that starting tomorrow morning, her search would become far more dangerous and risky. Because the great secret surrounding her birth was not being kept hidden only by the Adinata family—there was someone unknown out there who had been watching every move in her life all this time, someone who knew more facts about Alea than she knew about herself.