“What kind of information,” Max asks, taking the words out of my mouth. Alexis doesn’t answer straight away but gestures to Tee. “Come sit with me,pulu.”
She immediately skips over and snuggles into his lap. “Now tell us,” she commands.
The professor looks like a man who doesn’t want to say the words, like a vet telling a kid their hamster isn’t actually asleep.
RIP Hammer-time. I still miss you.
“Larissa, the Dean, she told me about your parentage,pulu.”
“My birth parents?” she says, voice quivering.
“Yes,” Alexis says, stroking her hair. “This is going to be a lot for you to take in, but your mother was a teenaged girl who worked for the Crankshawe family.”
“What? I don’t understand. My mother was here? In Havengard? How did I end up in England?” Her eyes grow even wider. “Is she still alive? Who is she? Can I meet her?”
“Breathe,pulu. There’s more. This will be difficult.”
Oh Gods, I do not like the sound of that.
I move closer, dropping to the floor then taking Theo’s foot in my hand. I start to massage her sole, wishing I could massage her actual soul.
Feniks takes a deep breath. “Thomas Crankshawe is your father.”
What the fuck?
“He... he assaulted your birth mother.”
Theo turns white. “You mean he raped her?”
“Yes, I’m sorry,pulu. She became pregnant. Larissa helped the girl escape to the UK. After you were born, the dean approached her old school friend, Annabelle Wilson, to see if she’d adopt you. Give you a happy life.”
Max lets out a low whistle.
I just stare.
I can’t imagine how Theo is feeling. I know what it’s like to have evil asshole parents, but to be born out of rape?
Her poor mom.
My poor Tee-Tee. Gods. How do I help? How do you comfort someone who has just had that bombshell dropped on them?
After a beat, her expression changes, fire filling her eyes. “I am not a Crankshawe,” she says, like a boss, though her voice still trembles. “I’m not. I refuse to acknowledge Thomas Crankshawe's DNA.” But the defiance quickly wears away. “And my mum?”
I squeeze Tee-Tee’s foot harder. Please let this be someone good.
“She was sixteen years old,” Feniks says.
Sixteen? So young.
“She was originally from the north, but moved south for the internship— it was her only path into an academy. Theo…”
“Tell me.”
“Her name was, is, Opal.”
Theo blinks several times.
Opal? Didn’t we just meet an Opal?
