Page 47 of The Little Shop of Curiosities, The Music Box Part 2

I shake my head. “I can’t. That will leave you without protection.”

“I’m not the one caught up in the middle of a supernatural murder investigation,” he points out, grasping my wrist with his gnarled fingers. Determinedly, he wraps it around my wrist and fastens the braided band of faded leather. Woven into the braiding itself are tiny talismans—a pentagram, a triple moon, a triskelion. I remember tracing them with my fingers when I was a small child curled up in his lap as he read to me.

“Grumps,” I whisper as I stare at it, feeling the leather still warm from his skin.

“There, that’s better.” His tone is brisk, and I know the subject is not up for debate. “Now, tell me how your friends took the news about you being Vivienne’s son.”

I can’t keep the guilt from my expression.

“Harrison,” he admonishes.

“I’m trying, but it’s like the words are stuck,” I confess.

“The Harry I know is braver than this,” he says, and it’s like I’m a little kid again. I hate disappointing him.

“Sorry,” I say, feeling miserable.

“You don’t need to apologise to me, you need to admit why you haven’t told them yet.”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do, and so do I, but I want you to say it out loud, to acknowledge it.”

A loud sigh escapes as I toy with the handle of my teacup. “I’m scared.”

“Go on.”

“I’m scared that they won’t understand. That they’ll think I had something to do with my mother’s murder.”

“I’m sure that’s part of it, yes, but it’s not the core of it.”

I stare at him for several long, silence-filled seconds. “I don’t want them to know my mother didn’t love me. That she gave me away because she didn’t want me.” My voice is barely more than a whisper. “For the first time in my life, I have friends. I don’t want them to think I’m⁠—”

“You’re?”

“Not…worthy. That there’s something wrong with me. That I’m…unlovable.”

“Oh, Harry.” He releases a slow breath. “You know that’s not true. Your dads and I, and your grandmother, rest her soul, we all love you so much. This insecurity of yours stems from your mother, but, sweetheart, I am absolutely certain she made the choice she did because she loved you. I would bet everything I own that she did it to protect you. You’ve only been in London for less than a year, you’ve barely scraped the surface of your birth family’s secrets, and what you have found is dangerous. Vivienne’s instinct as a mother would have been to keep you as far away from that danger as possible, even if that meant she had to give you up.”

“You can’t know that for sure.” There’s something in his eyes that makes my stomach tighten. A realisation washes over me, leaving me cold. “Except you do know, don’t you? What did you do?”

He sighs. “I suppose it’s time you know.” He moves his teacup aside and leans towards me, his voice dropping so we can’t be overheard. “I came to London. You were about five years old, and it had become very obvious to me and your dads that you were incredibly powerful. I still have never seen anyone with the kind of natural magical ability that you demonstrated.”

“You came to London looking for my mother.” I swallow tightly.

He nods. “What I found was a scared kid. She’d lost both her parents in a car accident, and she’d already had to give up her baby. She’d taken over running the bookshop.”

“Did you…did you tell her who you were?”

He shakes his head. “But I shook her hand and I read her. I also stood inside that bookshop and felt the darkness, the weight of that family’s secrets, and I knew she had done the right thing. It would have been extremely dangerous for you to have been raised in that place. You needed time and safety.”

“To what?”

“To grow up, to come fully into your abilities. To learn how to protect yourself. Because just as I knew Vivienne had done an incredibly selfless thing by giving you up, I knew that one day her family legacy would catch up with you, and you needed to be ready.”

I slump back in my chair, my head reeling. “Did my dads know? That you went to London and met my mother?”

He nods. “Of course. The three of us decided the best thing to do would be to train you in the craft and keep you safe until you were ready to start asking questions about where you came from. Although we worry about you, we’re so proud of you. You’re not just a powerful witch, you’re a good man. I wish you didn’t have to face what lies ahead of you, but I don’t think you can avoid it.”