“If you give me some direction, maybe I can...”
Blonde hair catches my eye and everything else fades away.
Sliding the picture across the floor, I stare at the woman I love kissing someone else. Laughing and smiling against another man’s mouth as the shot is taken, a look of pure adoration taking over her face.
I feel fucking sick as I pick up the next photo and then the next. It’s the same guy in every shot, his arms and body wrapped around Calista in a way that makes me want to shoot somebody.
The last photo lies face down on the ground, but whatever reassurance I thought I’d find gets flushed away with the happy smile stretched wide across the woman’s face.
It’s too bright. And her eyes...
They’re not right.
“Oh God.”
Nausea surges as I turn the photograph over. Stare at the ink scrawled along the back until it starts to blur.
Aurora & Philip welcome you to attend the christening of their beloved daughter.
There’s a birth certificate clipped to the back, a flimsy piece of paper that wouldn’t deserve a second glance were it not for the name written along the bottom.
Calista Charming.
Chapter 55
CALISTA
Mother is such a funny word, isn’t it?
The woman who birthed you, the woman who raised you, the woman who loves you. It’s amusing, if not heartbreaking, how often these ideologies fall out of alignment. I suppose a few individuals are lucky enough to experience all three, but I’ve only ever known one.
“The story you told me. About the lost princess.”
Christopher’s voice sounds hollow as he looks at me, the only living evidence of my true identity held between his hands.
“It wasn’t really a dream, was it?”
I can see the mistrust bleeding through his eyes, the heartbreak waiting to happen.
“More of a nightmare, to be honest.”
He doesn’t laugh, but I didn’t really expect him to.
“When’s your birthday, Calista.”
My silence speaks volumes, but for once, he chooses not to listen.
“It’s a simple question.” Dark eyes bore into mine, pushing for an answer he knows already, “What. Day. Were. You. Born.”
“I don’t know.”
“Care to explain that?”
He’s hurting, but what Christopher doesn’t understand, so was I.
“My mother... Maleficent grew her fortune through child abductions. Kidnapping the children of wealthy families until a ransom was paid. Then she would set them free.” My words falter, the secrets these walls have held hostage finally falling free, “At least that’s how it was before she came across me.”
Christopher stays quiet, just watching me with haunted eyes.
