A voicemail.
"Hi, is this Michael Gray?" A woman's voice, higher pitched with nervousness.
"Um... This is Miranda Carlisle... I'm you and Ashley's half sister," Suddenly her anxiety steeled and she continued to speak without waiting for a response, her voice measured as if she had rehearsed this a few times before. "Mom told me about you both last Christmas... She regrets a lot and I decided to look you both up."
Pure anger and shock boiled in Michael's chest.
"I know this is a lot to take in, really... But Mom really wants to see you two. I couldn't find Ashley's number. Could you tell him? ...Please call me back."
Click.
And what right did she have to barge into their lives just when they were starting to heal? He mulled over the voice mail, repeating it a couple times. He considered breaking his phone or punching the wall, before he decided instead to go to Ash's garage, and talk about it.
I don't know, Ash had said. And he really didn't know.
I'll call her, Michael replied, and I'll give her and her "mom" a fucking piece of my mind.
Not for any heartwarming reunion. Not for tear-filled apologies. Not for anything.
"Hello?" Miranda answered. "Michael?"
"Yeah," Michael replied. "It's me."
"Oh my gosh, I'm so happy to hear from you," she sounded relieved. Like a weight off her shoulders and onto his. "Did you tell Ashley? Do you want to come visit? I'm so happy!" She rambled on and on, and Michael figured he was getting a true glimpse into her aggravating personality instead of listening to a rehearsed voicemail. "Mom didn't want me to, but I know she'd change her mind once I tell her, I was so worried that you wouldn't call me back, then I was worried I had the wrong number, and then--"
"We're not coming," Michael snapped.
"I... Um..." Miranda sounded immediately like she had deflated. "Why?"
"Why? What the fuck do you think?"
"I thought you would've been happy--"
"Happy?" Michael just about shouted into the phone. "Did your "mom" also tell you that she abandoned us with that piece of shit psychopathic asshole who beat the shit out of us everyday? Oh, or how about when she screamed at us to shut the fuck up, and that she wished we weren't born?"
"I... No--"
"Don't ever fucking talk to me again. Don't ever reach out to Ash. We want nothing to do with you. I don't believe that bitch has had a change of heart, but if she somehow did, I could get less of a fuck why."
Before she could reply, he hung up.