Hidden Truth

Leaving their family troubles behind them, at least for one night only, Adrianna and Elsa stepped out of Redstone Manor that evening and into Elsa’s sleek black Mercedes. The car roared to life as they pulled onto the winding roads of Redwater City, until finally they reached Angel Nightclub.

"You sure this was the best idea?" Adrianna muttered as they climbed out of the car. "There's more than half a dozen bars and clubs in this city, Elsa."

"You need this and this is the only club where we're guaranteed to get free drinks, not just from horny guys but because we're family." Elsa responded as they walked over to the entrance. "Now come on, before I drag you in by that designer clutch of yours."

Heading inside Angel, Elsa and Adrianna breezed past the long line with practiced ease, nodding at the bouncer who unhooked the velvet rope without hesitation. The music hit them immediately as they wove through the bodies toward the staircase leading upstairs, intending on heading to one of the V.I.P. rooms they had reserved only for Elsa to stop dead in her tracks as they walked past the office.

"Tell me I'm not seeing what I think I'm seeing," Elsa said to Adrianna, as they looked through the glass window on the office door to see Phoebe stood in front of Caleb’s, her fingers holding a cotton pad to his lip while he leaned into her touch with a smirk.

"What Phoebe and…” Adrianna said however before Adrianna could continue, Elsa stepped forward, slamming the door open that made Tommy and Lexi look over at the two newcomers whilst Phoebe stepped away from Caleb who was still leaning against the desk.

"Mom?" Lexi said in surprise.

"I don't know what's going on here," Elsa said as she stepped into the room. "But all of you are going home. Now."

"Aunt Elsa," Phoebe said, in confusion. "We were just… Tommy and Caleb, they got jumped…"

"It looks like it," Elsa commented. "But we'll talk about this tomorrow. All of you. Home now."

Still confused by the sudden interruption and the demand from Elsa for them to leave rather than to accept an explanation right now, the four teenagers looked at each other rather reluctantly got up and shuffled out of the door with Phoebe and Lexi looking at Adrianna for some sort of explanation but Adrianna simply shrugged and indicated to just do what Elsa had said, leading the two girls to follow Tommy and Caleb out of the door, slamming it shut behind them.

"Well," Elsa exhaled. "That was…"

"Completely fucking insane?" Adrianna interrupted. "What was that? I mean, coming in here like that? It's not as crazy as what we were doing at their age. Peter got into plenty of fights and they're eighteen now…”

"Clearly you didn’t see them," Elsa cut in.

"Who? Demi's kid and Phoebe? So what? He's kind of cute and she could do much worse," Adrianna commented.

"That's not the point," Elsa muttered.

"Then what is the point, exactly? Because from where I’m standing, you just traumatized four kids over a little harmless flirting, probably after suffering more of the consequences of Tommy and Caleb’s actions,"

"Harmless flirting?" Elsa laughed. "You didn't see how close they were. How they were looking at each other. We were lucky we got here when we did."

"Why? Like I said Phoebe could do worse…" Adrianna started. "Wait, what aren't you telling me?"

"I shouldn't say, I promised Demi," Elsa sighed, almost as if realising who she was talking to. "Even what I've done… It was close. This could have been a whole other mess no one saw coming."

"Elsa Renee Grayson, if you don't start talking sense in the next three seconds…" Adrianna frustratingly responded by the lack of clarification from Elsa.

"I promised…" Elsa was about to repeat but one look from Adrianna told her that the redhead wouldn't drop the subject. "Fine," Elsa sighed. "To keep it short, not long after college, Demi worked this case undercover and around the same time, Peter did this Fixer job for the company. One of the models went missing after partying the night before a show." Elsa paused. "Turns out both cases were connected and they ended up working together for a few days and..."

"You're saying Peter and Demi…" Adrianna said in realisation.

"According to her, they didn't plan it. But somewhere between interrogating and chasing down leads..." Elsa nodded. "It happened. Demi told me not long after Caleb was born. Guess, she was feeling guilty. Made me promise not to tell anyone especially Peter,"

"Fuck," Adrianna exclaimed. "Phoebe and Caleb, they're..."

"Half-siblings," Elsa said out loud. "And neither of them knows.”