I could see it so clearly as he wheeled a bike with rainbow-colored streamers into the apartment I shared with my mom. I had jumped up and down with glee. Max, had wrapped his arm around my mother and they had watched me fawn over the object.
“Let me walk you to your car.”
Max reached for my hand and I accepted.
“Thanks.”
Dusting off the back of my pants, we gave the ducks one last glance. I took the photocopied birth certificates and pushed them deep into my pockets. I wondered how Nova would feel about me showing up on her doorstep. We’d only trained together briefly and sparred a few times but I hadn’t been the nicest person. Simone Delaflur hadn’t done “nice.” Or at least that version of me hadn’t. I’d been a brat trying to win over my father. It never worked. I was just an instrument for his criminal organization.
“Do you have Nova’s number?”
Turning suddenly to Max, I realized I’d never taken time to get her contact info all those years ago.
“I’ll text it to you.”
Max pulled me into another one of his fatherly hugs and as always he smelled like a cinnamon roll. I’d forgotten how much I missed his scent.
“I won’t be a stranger,” I told him.
He opened the door to my car and I got behind the wheel.
“Mona Lisa, you look like your mother more and more. I know she’s as proud of you as I am.”
Max waved me off then and I drove away. True to his word, he sent me a text with Nova’s phone number. Maneuvering through traffic, I cautiously dialed her and waited for it to connect.
“Hello?”
Nova sounded shy and probably thought I was some "rando" telemarketer. Clearing my throat I spoke.
“Nova…hi. This is Simone Delaflur.”
There was a tense pause.
“Hi, Simone…can I help you?”
“I was hoping I could meet with you in person.”
“About?”
Biting my lip, I froze. How could I tell her that we shared siblings? This needed to be a face to face conversation.
“It's about Yara and Desmond…I’m contacting you concerning their father.”
My car came to a stop at a red light. A few cars honked around me and caused me to look around but they weren’t hitting their horn at me. Instead, some asshole was trying to cut across another lane up ahead.
The car was filled with silence until Nova spoke again.
“Can you meet me at the Safaryan mansion?”
We made plans to meet up within forty-five minutes. A feeling of dread still had itself wedged in my stomach but I wasn’t going to let it take me over. The prospect of having an extension of myself…other siblings. Siblings that weren’t Albie. Maybe I could help guide them on a better path than I’d been shown.
