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My parents arrived in Vietnam and came to my grandmother's house. My mother hugged me tight, and there was so much emotion in her embrace, that it brought me to tears. She was excited, to say the least, excited to finally meet her father. And she was also excited at the possibility of meeting her two other siblings. I was just as excited to be meeting them, as well as my cousins who were from very different worlds than mine.

Grandmother was surprised to see my parents so soon.

She expected them in at least another couple of weeks. She had no idea that I had been searching for my grandfather behind her back and that my search had actually turned up results.

"What are you doing here, Camille?" She asked my mom.

Not able to contain her excitement, my mother gushed, "Margaux and I have been doing some research on dad." Grandmother's face went pale at the mention of her lost love. But my mom didn't seem to notice. Instead, she continued, "We found relatives in France, and they are very excited to meet us. We want to go to France as soon as possible!"

"No." My grandmother shook her head. "Absolutely not. We will not travel to meet those people." The way she spoke of them gave me the impression that she had already met them, or talked to them at least once. 

My mom's smile dropped to a frown. "Why not?"

"They don't like us." My grandmother said firmly.

"You don't know them." Mom argued.

"But I do." Grandmother nodded her head. Then she began to explain, "When your father was declared as missing in action, I sent a letter to France, to get his army benefits because I didn't have a job and needed money to take care of you. The French Army denied my request because his other wife had taken the money. She even went as far as to sending me a letter, saying that Antoine was her husband and that I we wouldn't see one cent of his army benefits. I knew that she was in her right to receive those benefits, but I thought she had enough money with the business Antoine's family was running in France. She didn't need it. She only took it to make us suffer."

Now I was the one trying to convince her. "That was a long time ago. She probably got over it by now."

"I doubt she has forgotten." My grandmother shook her head.

"But I want to meet my siblings." Mom said in a small voice. By what she had heard grandmother say, she seemed like she was starting to have second thoughts. 

"Do they want to meet you, Camille?" Grandmother challenged.

"Antoine, Theo, and Marie want to meet us." I informed her. "We've been talking on facebook."

Taking grandmother's hands in her own, my mother pleaded, "Come with us to France. I don't know if I would be able to face all of this without you."

"Camille, this is very painful for me." Grandmother said, looking down at the ground. "I haven't been able to live with the guilt all these years. If Antoine hadn't disappeared, he'd have left his wife and two children for us. That's why his wife hates me, and she's absolutely right. We both loved him, but I didn't love him enough to let him go. I didn't care about the fact that he was already married, and its been killing me all these years."

"You can talk to his wife." I suggested, trying anything to convince her. "Then she'll see you were just young and in love. You didn't want to hurt her."

With a sigh, my grandmother finally agreed. "Fine. If they agree to meet us, I'll go with you to France."

I grinned. I would finally get to meet the side of the family that had been unknown to me for several years.

-

a short little update. but this is a very short story. i think there will be about 1-3 more chapters to post before this story ends. maybe a bit more if im feeling super inspired. thank you so much for reading and supporting. 

i love you.

-clary xx