Priscilla: My Parentage

I love those fireworks. I hugged korh.
"You made me the luckiest man on earth..." He said, smiling. I looked at him.
"Because I have you..." He said. I smiled and we exchanged a tender kiss. The fireworks lasted for awhile before everything fade off.
"Why do the best things in life so short?" I said.
"Like bubbles, like fireworks.." I continued.
"So beautiful, yet so short-lived." I added.
"Yes... It's because they sacrifices to bring people like us something that will last forever.. That's why they only lasted for a while.. Because they think that all these sacrifices worth their while.." He said.
"Then what's that something?" I asked.
"Memories, Pris; memories.." He said. I smiled. We walked together hand in hand back to the house.
~~~~~~~********~~~~~~~~
"It was marvellous! Marvellous!" Mum exclaimed. Then everyone proceed to blowing out the candles.
The cake was specially designed and of course tasted good. soon it was late and the guests started to leave. Mum was still marvelling about the fireworks because it was not on the planned list, and it did left a good impression on the guests. Everyone retire for the night, including Qiu; I guess she already tire herself for the day. Princess Charlotte was staying with us and she stay at the hotel below. But that night I didn't turn in early, I went online to find more information about the case. I also made an international call to my friend Leonard who is a journalist based in London.
"May I speak with Leonard please?" I asked.
"Please hold on." The lady at the other end said.
"Hello, This is Leonard Brown." He said.
"Leonard? I'm Priscilla. Remember me?" I said.
"Priscilla! Yes, of course." He said.
"Erm Lenny, can you do me a favour?" I asked.
"Sure. What's it?" He said.
"Ya, it's about the 1986 Priscilla Ridges kidnapping incident." I said.
"Can you give me all the info you can get?" I asked.

"Sure." He said.
"It's so easy, you hold on, I need to search the computer. 1986, 1986..., Ridges..." He said.

"Uh-Huh! Got it! Hey Pris, Why do you need this?" He asked.
"Oh.." I said, trying to think of a white lie,
"I need some field studies for my new suspense thriller." I said, managing to pull it off.
"Oh," He said.
"That's new." He said.
"Okay, I sent it to your email." He said.
"Thanks." I said.
"Anytime." He said.
"Bye Lenny." I said.
"Bye, Priscilla." He said. I put down the receiver and turn on the computer and retrieve the email.
I read and read. I finally began to understand.

Suddenly my messenger pop up. 'You have mail.'
I opened it. Inside it read,
'Hey, Pris.. I have some new updates for the case you wanted. Read the attachment.' I opened the attachment. It was a scanned page from the newspaper. 'Confession from one of the culprit on the 1986 Priscilla Ridges kidnapping incident.' I read on and on. Now everything clicks. Everything made sense. Then I turned off the computer and went to bed. I had an unusually peaceful sleep that night.
The next morning...

"Morning!" I said as I walked towards the kitchen to find mum and dad having breakfast.
"That's early." I said. Mum and dad didn't looked themselves.

"Erm... Priscilla, have you received anything on the behalf of us?" Mum asked.
"Yes." I answered truthfully.
"Where is it?" Mum asked. I kept quiet. I started to stuff some scrambled eggs into my mouth.

Just then, Qiu came in the kitchen.
"Morning..." She said.
"Oh, Hi mum;" She said suddenly.

Then she turned to ask me;
"Have you found your stuff?" She asked.
"Yes, I think so." She replied. I acted oblivious.
Finishing the bread, I exclaimed; “I’m done." I said, and I turned around to leave.

At midday, I went up to my room and I heard hush voices.
"It's wrong, Kenneth.. This isn't the correct code." I heard mum said. I walked towards my walk-in wardrobe. I saw the both of them bending over at my safe, trying to break the code.

"Try Autumn's birth date, she might use it." Dad said. Mum punched in the numbers.
"It's wrong." She said. I was rather furious. Why do they have to resort to this method?

"Try Takeshi's birth date. 11 Oct." I said loudly.
Mum heard it and punch in the numbers, the safe door opened. Dad already realise my presence and was glued to his spot. When mum took out the lab test and lifted her head, she saw me too. Immediately, she dropped the envelope.

"Pris.." Mum said.
"Please leave if you have taken what you need.." I said, angered and walked out to the balcony.
"Pris," Dad followed me to the balcony. Then I heard mum said.
"Kenneth...Look." She said. I just said nothing. I looked out to the seas. Dad and Mum were shocked. To think the daughter they adopted is their real daughter. Then sat down beside me. Mum hugged me and cried. I just comforted her.

We sat down at the table on the balcony and my now-real mum and dad were looking through the contents of the report.
The whole situation was so dramatic, it seems so unreal. It was dad that broke the silence.
"How did you get away?" Dad asked. He was more interested in how I escaped.

"I cannot remember actually. I only knew that I was dumped blindfolded into the water and it was Korh who was swimming in the lake; rescued me. As I do not have anything with me, except my necklace, all they knew was my name.” I replied.
“And he was a volunteer at an orphanage, so he took me there..” I added.

Then there were silence again. It was dad that broke the silence again.
"Do you still have the necklace with you?" He said.
I stood up and went back to the safe and took out a small jewellery box. I brought it back to the table.
"This?" I asked, holding up a chain where the pendant was my name.
"Yes.." Dad said, "You are truly my daughter." He said, and he hugged me.

"Why do you only do test on me and not Qiu?" I asked suddenly.
“Actually, we are only trying our luck.” Mum replied.
“It was Princess Charlotte’s idea , though.” Dad said.
“Because she said that your name, and your background… matched too perfectly.” dad added.
“And your eyes..” Mum cut in.

“And, Qiuru does have her own real parents right?” Dad chuckled. I nodded, thinking. Mum stood up suddenly.
“I got to break this exciting news to Princess Charlotte! She’ll be over the moon!” She exclaimed, and strode off in excitement, skipping along the way. I smiled.

“You don’t know how much we missed you.” Dad said, bringing me back to him.
“I never knew I really had parents.” I replied. He held my hand.
“We got to celebrate this happy news!” He said happily.
“No, not yet…” I replied.
“I got enough of having so many people around the house the other time.” I added. Dad nodded, understood.
“Maybe a good dinner?” He asked. I nodded.
“I’ll make the arrangements.” Dad said happily, stood up and walked away.