ANDY'S POV
I opened the gate, and closed it gently,I looked around,I didn't wanna wake my mom up at all after seeing her car parked next to my new car,so redish and hot, I never knew my mom would get me a car, I was already thinking of what I would do with my new car,where I would go and girls I would carry around,I had 20times the money I had as a student, my mom gift was the best,I thought of how to open a business and rock like other business men,while thinking about my future plans I heard a sound from the sitting room,fear made me squat down for a while,I gently took a step towards the door and soon enough I was able to hear their conversation
"I'm sorry Jason!" I listened to their conversation which was improper but I knew it wasn't also right to enter while they were having this kind of harsh conversation and secondly this is the first time I heard my mom saying sorry to someone else other than me
"I should have listened to you,I let the devil use me,I regret it but I can't change it now, I can't tell Andy that she is a girl, she's already twenty years,twenty years of living like a boy,things won't work out and she will hate her mother.. Andy's mustn't find out now please I beg you " she cried
"Anna!,her name is Anna!,and she has to know!, How could you even think of this, how did you come up with this, like are you even a human being, we are talking about your only living child, your only daughter, did you even think about her future, her love life, you just ran away from me with our child, our only child, and expect me not to find you right?"
I listened to them, "no I think I am drunk, are they taking about me?" My hands went straight to my private part, am I a girl?, wait what?" I pushed the door wide open to confirm if I was listening very clearly, I entered inside the house only to find my mom kneeling down to the middle aged man at her,the eruption made them descry towards my direction,my mother eyes wey filled with tears, my heart pounds "what is all this" I said to my self, tears came down from my eyes
"Mom?"
"Anna?" I looked at the young man in front of her "Anna my child" he ambled towards me
"Look at what she turned you into,you don't even look like a girl anymore"
"Who are you?" I said as he stood in front of me
"My name is Jason Brown, and I am your father"
"My father is dead!,Mom tell him my father is dead "I looked at my mom crying hopelessly like the world has finally come to an end
"She lied, she's a devil!!,"
"If you dare call my mother a devil again you won't leave here alive" I raised my hands at him
"Only devils change their only daughter to a man, just to satisfy her needs....look at you,do you really think you are a man,a boy?, what's down there,a dick or a virgina huh, can't you see? Can't you see the resemblance?" I looked at his face with my heavy eyes about to pour out tears with disbeliefs, I had his eyes, his nose and his colour of hair, I looked at my mom
"Mom? Is he saying the truth?" Her face was facing down but the rage in me wasn't Paying attention to hers
"Is he saying the truth!!?" I walked towards her and carried her up, she cried but I couldn't let myself fall for her..the pain was much on me
"I'll ask one more time,is he my father?!"
"Yes Andy!,he is your father,I lied about his death"
"Why!?" I cried, "I have a father and you never told me,why?!"
"I'm sorry, please , please forgive me my child" she looked at me and held my face
"Am I really a woman?" I removed her hands from my face with hope she might say no
"Andy!, please I beg.."
"What is my actual name! Tell me now"
"You are Anna but I wanted...."
"Shut up!!,you turned me to a man,I felt like a man,I laid with women,I hated gays with my life,I never knew I was even a girl,what am I saying, am I mad, I'm not a lady, it's all a dream right?" I angrily pushed her away,the pain in me grew larger looking at her, "I don't even feel like a woman,what were you thinking, all this while I have been living in lies thinking I am a transgender,are you even my mother?" I let out a loud scream
"I hate you!!!,I hate you so much!!"
" Andy, please I beg you" she was no longer my mother from that instant,I walked out on her
"Anna! Wait!"
"Leave me alone!!!" I shouted
"You ,if you were my father why didn't you come sooner before she completely ruined my life,why did you let her have her way with me,huh? Now you are here revealing truths, go away I don't wanna see you both anymore"I cried running up to my room praying it was all a dream
"Is this the end of me? No jokes right?"
I bang My door behind me
I opened the gate and closed it gently, the metallic click slicing through the quiet night. My heart was light—lighter than it had been in a long time. There was my mom's car, parked neatly beside the brand-new ride she'd surprised me with. It gleamed under the moonlight, candy-apple red and hot like fire. I couldn't stop staring at it. Damn, I never saw it coming. A car. A real car. My car.
I had plans—big ones. I'd already started daydreaming about where I'd go, the kind of business I'd start, and of course, the girls I'd drive around town. No more being broke, no more student stress. My mom's gift felt like a passport to the life I always wanted. I had twenty times the money I had as a student, and finally, the freedom I craved.
But just as I was lost in my daydream, a sound from the sitting room made me stop cold.
My whole body tensed. I crouched, instinctively, like some animal stalking danger. I tiptoed to the front door, ears sharpening. Voices. Familiar ones.
"I'm sorry, Jason!" my mom's voice broke through the air like shattered glass.
Jason?
I knew I shouldn't listen. It wasn't right. But something in me froze—curious, scared, confused. It was the first time I ever heard my mom apologize to someone. She sounded broken.
"I should have listened to you," she sobbed. "I let the devil use me. I regret it but I can't change it now. I can't tell Andy that she is a girl. She's already twenty years… twenty years of living like a boy. Things won't work out. She'll hate me if she ever finds out... Andy mustn't know, please. I beg you."
What?
What did she just say?
I blinked hard, thinking maybe I was drunker than I realized. My hand went to my chest, then lower, just… to check. I could barely breathe.
"Anna!" Jason's voice thundered. "Her name is Anna! And she has to know! How could you even think of this? How did you come up with this? Are you even human, Amber? This is your only child! Your only daughter! Did you ever think about her future? Her love life? You took her—you stole her from me—and turned her into this, and you expected me not to find you?!"
No. No, no, no.
Were they talking about… me?
I didn't think. I pushed the door wide open.
My mom was kneeling on the floor. Tears flooded her eyes, her face pale and tired. In front of her stood a man I'd never seen in my life, but something about him made my blood run cold. His hair. His eyes. His posture.
Both of them turned to me slowly, their eyes widening in horror.
"What... what is all this?" I whispered. My voice shook. My knees barely held me up.
"Mom?"
"Anna?" the man said, walking towards me like I was some lost treasure.
"Anna, my child…"
"Stop calling me that!" I backed away. "Who the hell are you?!"
He stepped closer. "My name is Jason Brown… and I am your father."
I stared at him. "My father is dead," I hissed. "Mom, tell him my father is dead."
But she didn't. She just cried—hopeless, helpless, like someone whose lies were finally catching up.
"She lied," Jason said. "She's a devil."
I snapped.
"If you ever call my mom a devil again, I swear you won't walk out of this house."
Jason's face twisted. "Only a devil would change her daughter into a man just to protect herself. Look at you. Do you really believe you're a man? What's between your legs, huh? A dick or a vagina? Can't you see the truth staring back at you?"
My heart pounded so loudly I couldn't hear my own thoughts. I looked at him—those eyes, that nose, the hair. He looked like me. Or I looked like him.
I turned to my mom. My voice cracked.
"Mom… is he saying the truth?"
She didn't speak.
"Is he telling the truth!?"
I grabbed her, lifted her from the ground. I needed her to say it.
"Is he my father?!"
"Yes, Andy!" she wept. "He's your father… I lied. I lied about everything."
"Why?! Why?!" I screamed. "I had a father. A dead one. You made me bury him in my head, every damn day!"
"I'm sorry. Please forgive me—please—"
"Am I… really a woman?" I took a step back, trembling. "Tell me. Right now."
She cried harder. "Andy… please, I was scared—"
"What is my real name?!"
"Anna… your name is Anna…"
I stood frozen. A thousand things crashed through me. I didn't even know where to place the pain.
"You turned me into a man," I said quietly. "You let me believe I was one. I slept with girls. I hated gays. I thought I knew who I was. But you... you created someone else."
I backed away from her.
"I'm not a woman. I don't feel like one. I don't even know what I feel like anymore. Am I mad? Is this madness? Is this a joke?!"
My voice cracked into a broken scream.
"You lied to me every day for twenty years! I've been living like a fraud. Like some walking mistake. And you think 'sorry' is enough?!"
I stared at both of them like they were ghosts. Dead people standing in front of me.
"You deserve to rot in jail," I spat at her.
And I ran.
I bolted up the stairs, tears flooding down my face. My chest felt like it was on fire. I wanted to escape my own skin. I wanted to be anyone else.
"Anna! Wait!" my mom cried after me.
But that name—it burned.
"Leave me alone!!!" I screamed and slammed my door shut, falling to the floor as my world fell apart with me.
I banged my door shut, not caring if it broke off the hinges. Let it fall. Let everything fall. I didn't care anymore.
I leaned my back against the door and slid down, my knees shaking so bad I couldn't stand. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream until my throat tore apart. I wanted to wake up and realize this was some sick dream, some twisted hallucination from the alcohol I had earlier.
But it wasn't.
I could still hear them downstairs. Their voices—Jason's angry, deep voice and my mom's broken sobs—faded into a muffled blur. I didn't even know who they were to me anymore. Two strangers. Two liars. One broke me before I could even become myself. The other watched from the shadows and showed up only after I was too far gone.
Anna.
That name stabbed through my chest every time it echoed in my head.
I looked at my reflection in the mirror across the room, eyes wide, chest heaving. I didn't see a girl. I didn't see a boy. I saw someone broken. Confused. Shattered into pieces too sharp to pick up.
"Anna," I whispered. "Who the fuck is Anna?"
I crawled to the mirror on shaky limbs like a wounded animal. My fingers trembled as they touched the glass, tracing the shape of my face like I was trying to memorize it before it disappeared. I stared hard into my own eyes, hoping—begging—they'd lie to me and say it wasn't true.
But they didn't.
Tears welled up and spilled without permission. Hot, burning, angry tears that didn't ask if they could ruin my face. I screamed—loud, raw, deep from the pit of my gut. The kind of scream that shakes your bones. That pulls out every ounce of pain you've ever buried.
I slammed my fist into the mirror. Again. And again.
It cracked this time. A jagged web of broken glass cutting across my reflection like my whole image was splitting apart with me. I didn't care if it cut me. I didn't care if I bled out on the damn floor.
I backed away and collapsed onto my bed. My chest rose and fell like I'd run a marathon. I couldn't catch my breath. My skin crawled like I didn't belong in it.
I grabbed at my shirt and tore it off like it was the thing lying to me. My fingers dug into my skin, into the scars, into the shape of me. I screamed again. Louder. This time into my pillow so the world didn't hear me break.
How could she do this to me?
How could he come back now?
Twenty years. Twenty whole years of walking, breathing, living a lie. Of thinking I was just... broken. Of thinking something was wrong with me. But it was them. It was always them.
I curled into a ball. My body shook so hard I thought I'd crumble into dust. I hated them. I hated myself. I hated everything.
I wanted to go back. Back to yesterday. Back to when I was just Andy, the cool guy with a new car and a big future and a best friend who had his back. I wanted that version of me. Not this one.
Not Anna.
I whispered again through cracked lips. "Who am I now?"
No one answered.
Not even me.