Chapter Four #2
“Yeah. I thought about going to Aldorhaven a few times after I found the note, but I worried about what would happen if I did go. I didn’t want to just show up and make a nuisance of myself, especially since I had no idea if there was a hotel nearby or how I would even go about finding my relatives without a name.
I couldn’t just go up to random people and say, ‘Oh, hello, do I look familiar to you? Could you point me in the direction of my father’s family?
’ Maybe, if I had gone back when I was twenty, I might have found someone, but it’s been nearly forty years since my parents were alive; there may not be anyone left who knew them or even remembers them. ”
“Even if they didn’t know them well, you might still have younger cousins or aunts and uncles left.”
“You know, Ol, you being from a murder town explains a few things,” Gwen replied with a cheeky grin as she looked up from the mess of papers floating around her. When she glanced into the strong box, her face brightened. “Ooh, is this your mother?”
The open ambrotype levitated out of the box and hovered a few inches from Oliver’s face.
Plucking the glass and metal diptych out of the air, Oliver nodded and stared down at the woman in the portrait.
She had a round face and bright, wide eyes framed by sleek black hair that had been parted down the center and pulled into a simple bun.
She stared directly into the camera with a look of surprise rather than the aloof poise or solemnness women typically adopted in photographs.
She couldn’t have been more than eighteen or twenty when the picture was taken.
Oliver swallowed against the knot in his throat knowing what came next.
Only a few years later she would be gone.
When he handed the photograph to Felipe, his partner’s gaze flickered between the picture and Oliver’s face.
“She was quite pretty. I can see the resemblance around the eyes and mouth.”
“Really?” Oliver squinted at the picture but still couldn’t see it. “My nana always said I took after my grandfather.”
“Your coloring is the same,” Gwen added.
“The photograph’s black and white!”
“Exactly.”
When Gwen let out a peel of stifled laughter, Oliver tried to stop himself, but he couldn’t help but join her.
His laughter came out somewhat closer to sobs, but they were tinged with relief.
He had kept so much to himself for so long, afraid that others might think less of him for never knowing his father or having no connection to those he came from.
Somehow, with Gwen and Felipe, it all felt easy.
The knot in Oliver’s chest loosened as he wiped at his eyes and drew in a ragged breath.
As he sat back, Felipe carefully closed the ambrotype and set it back inside the box before taking Oliver’s hand in his.
A wave of apprehension followed by the probing slide of Felipe’s presence on the tether came a second before his partner slowly said, “I have a proposal, so hear me out before you agree to anything. I would like to take a look at the file on the Aldorhaven case tonight and do some research on my own. I want you to visit and see if there is any way you can find out more about your family, but I need to make sure we aren’t walking blindly into danger by agreeing to this case. ”
“All right.” Oliver tried not to let his disappointment show.
Felipe was being reasonable, more than reasonable, but now that Aldorhaven was a real place with actual problems and not just a name on a piece of paper, he couldn’t imagine anyone but them going to help, even if it was a murder town.
“And if the case doesn’t sound horrible? ”
“Then, we’ll go.” Releasing his hand, Felipe plucked the note from Gwen’s invisible web and carefully set it back in the box. “Even if we do decide to take the risk and accept the case, I don’t think we should tell anyone about the whole family thing until we better understand what’s going on.”
“So we won’t tell the head inspector?”
“We won’t tell anyone, especially in Aldorhaven. We don’t know who might be connected to the case, and I don’t want you to needlessly put a target on your back.”
Oliver nodded. He was never good at lying, but it wasn’t particularly hard when he didn’t really know anything, though he couldn’t imagine what sorts of problems it could even cause.
“If you’re going to take the case, I will get started on putting together a thorough dossier on vampires.
And don’t you dare say there’s no such thing, Oliver Barlow,” Gwen said sternly as she used her telekinesis to carefully put the rest of the pages she pulled out into orderly piles.
“I’m sure Mr. Turpin will be cross with me for disappearing for so long, but it was for a good cause. ”
As Gwen handed Oliver the letters, his eyes drifted to what remained in the strong box.
He had shown Gwen and Felipe the pieces that had stuck in his soul like barbs, but there were things still untouched that he once found comfort in but now shied away from because their absence hurt more than he could admit.
Then again, so many things in his life stung less once he shared them with the people who loved him most.
“Before you go, would you like to see a picture of my nana?” Oliver asked softly.