Chapter 31 #2
Trevor leaving would’ve destroyed me. It also wouldn’t have changed anything. Whoever replaced him would’ve done what they asked. Trying to navigate that without him would’ve been worse. I really couldn’t be mad at him, but I was still angry.
“This is some messed up shit, Trev.”
“I know, and I’m so sorry.” He breathed in deeply. “It was a shitty thing we did. I tried to tell myself it would get better once you knew the truth, but those were just words.”
Through the lens of my current situation, everything worked out for the best. I had Henry and there weren’t any difficult questions to answer. In the moment, however, those were some hard days for me. “Did it bother you?”
“Did it…?” He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Yes. It tore me apart. You were my best friend and I constantly hurt you. You should hate me.”
My personal life wore away at my self-esteem, but that wasn’t what I remembered most about those days.
“But I don’t. You were… are the best friend I ever had.
You made me laugh, feel wanted, and made sure I wasn’t alone.
We weren’t rich, but we had fun. This is gonna fuck with my head for a long time, but I’m not blaming you. ”
“Really?” Relief softened his expression. “We’re still good?”
“Yeah, we’re good.” I held out my fist and he tapped his to mine. “Just promise me no more secrets. I'm tired of everyone deciding what I can and can't handle.”
“Promise.” Trevor laughed, and I knew I’d made the right decision. “Not that I could do it again.”
The things he did for me to make my life happy was the real Trevor. “Good, because Henry’s worth all those crappy days.”
“You two are pretty lucky to have found each other so young,” Trevor said. “Most angels don’t find spouses for centuries. I mean Brenda’s over four hundred years old and still single.”
“What?” I might have yelled a bit too loud. “She’s how old?”
“I’m not sure exactly but Zeke’s about a hundred and fifty and he said she’s around two hundred and seventy-five years older than him.”
My mind was blown. “Zeke?”
“Orion’s about a thousand.” Trevor laughed. “Ares and Ruth have been married for like four thousand years.”
I thought decades were a long time. “Holy shit.”
“Welcome to your new normal, bro.”
Getting a handle on my life was going to take a lot longer than I expected.
Ifound Uriel in the study at the back of the safehouse.
He stood by the window, staring at the view as if the backyard of an ordinary house in Upper Northwest Washington, D.C.
held something so fascinating he couldn’t look away.
In other words, he was deep in thought. It was weird seeing him as Uriel and not as Alex, though his form seemed to flicker between the two, like my mind couldn't decide which version was real.
"You wanted to see me," he said without turning around.
I couldn’t tell if he welcomed my visit or if I interrupted him. “Not exactly. You have all the answers, but you've been avoiding me. I decided to find you.”
“I thought you’d need time before we spoke.” Leaving the window, his expression carefully neutral.
Henry described Uriel as enigmatic and mercurial. He’d also said Uriel cared for me. So far he was two for three. “What I need are answers.”
“Of course.” He gestured to a leather armchair.
Shaking my head, I declined the offer. “This isn’t a casual family chat. You lied to me for twenty-five years.”
“I understand your anger,” he said as he sat.
The almost casual way he dismissed my struggles irritated me.
“Do you? For years I told Alex everything. I poured my heart out about stupid dating disasters. We had brunch every third Sunday like clockwork. You bought me the first suit for the job interview at Consolidated—a company you and your family own. And the whole time, you knew exactly who and what I was.”
“I also knew what was at stake and what you meant to the world, to me, and what your mother sacrificed.”
It was hard to argue emotional pain with someone who had a logical answer for every complaint. I finally took the open seat. “Why the Fentons? They’re horrible people. Of all the families in the world, why them?”
“It was bad luck.” Uriel's expression remained impassive. “You and the human who would have been Nicholas Fenton were born minutes apart. When he died, switching you for him was the perfect solution.”
The real Nicholas Fenton didn’t die, I’d killed him. “The Fentons were hardly perfect.”
“It quickly became apparent they were not ideal parents,” Uriel said. “I watched, and did what I could to mitigate the worst of their failings. I wish I could have intervened directly, but I couldn’t risk moving you.”
I wanted to scream at him that it wasn't enough, but something in his expression stopped me. Despite his matter-of-fact tone, this decision haunted him. I could blame him and yell that he should have done more, but it was the past. He couldn’t change what transpired.
Uriel might hate how it happened, but he did what he promised my mother.
“Tell me about her. Please?”
“We were so close, the humans often thought we were the same being.” Uriel's expression softened. “They couldn’t have been more wrong. Ariel was the best of us. She had a laugh that could make flowers bloom. Literally. Her joy was so pure, it affected living things around her.”
Uriel stared at the wall, a sad smile on his face. “Once, when we were only a few hundred years old, we found a dying tree. I wanted to leave it alone. Circle of life and all that. But Ariel sat beside it and told it stories until it flourished again.”
The image was so vivid, I could almost see it. A female version of Uriel, glowing with light, whispering to a withered tree.
“What did she look like?”
“Like you.” He finally looked at me. “I have pictures I can—want to share with you. She was my HKarlin, which is not always a romantic love. I want you to know the amazing person she was.”
Uriel was crying. The heartbreak he was reliving was so raw I felt my eyes tear up. I wanted to ask more, but gave him time to tell me at his own pace.
“You have her eyes, and get the same look when you find something wondrous around you. She was tall, like you, but with hair the color of sunset. Losing her nearly killed me. When I attacked Michael after I learned he’d talked her into getting pregnant, part of me wanted to die because losing her would be a worse fate. ”
He sniffed, and wiped his face. “I should’ve been stronger and realized how terrible the Fentons were, but I was broken. I failed you, and for that I’m deeply sorry.”
Henry and I had only found each other a short time ago, but losing him would be devastating.
I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to watch him die after being together four thousand years.
I reached over and grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry too.
In my anger, I ignored your loss. You didn’t fail me, Uriel. I’m alive and finally happy.”
“You’re kind,” he said. “I want you to know, even though Ariel only held you for a few moments, it… it brought her immense joy.
Uriel broke down, covering his face with his right hand. I realized the cold exterior was a wall he’d constructed to hold back his grief. The anger I had for everything that happened to me, for everything I lost, fled when confronted with Uriel’s pain.
Doing what his sister asked cost him so much, but Uriel stayed true to his promise. How could I hate him for something he did out of love?
I stood in front of Uriel and waited until he moved his hand. Spreading my arms apart, I waited until he realized what I was offering. He rose, and I embraced him. Tears rolled down my cheeks for the mother I’d never know, but whose love was passed on by the brother who grieved her passing.
Uriel was the first to break the hug. “Thank you,” he said. “She would be so proud of you. I know I am.”
I sank into the chair, still overwhelmed by everything. “There’s so much I want to know, but I don’t know where to start.”
“Understandable,” Uriel said, moving his chair around so we faced each other. “Do not feel you need to ask me everything today. I’ll always be available to talk to you about Ariel and anything else you want to discuss.”
He was right, but there were some questions I wanted to ask right away. “Do you know who my father is?”
“I do,” Uriel's voice betrayed his feelings. “This is not a simple topic. There was no love between the two. My visions guided her to the angel with the necessary genetic makeup.”
The clinical description made me sound like a transaction. “Is he dead?”
“He’s alive.” Uriel sighed deeply. “I will tell you his name, but as I said, this is complicated. After you were conceived he had no contact with Ariel, or me. He made no inquiries after Ariel died as to your wellbeing. Perhaps he learned from his family you had died, but it was never widely disseminated that Ariel was pregnant or died in childbirth.”
He didn’t sound much better than the Fentons. “Who is he?”
“Eliakim Grant,” Uriel said. “Ephrem Grant’s oldest son, and older brother to Esrom Grant—Trevor’s father.”
Clearly it was complicated for more than a few reasons. “So Trevor and I are first cousins.”
“You are.” Uriel nodded. “And before you ask, Trevor does not know. Raphael and I told the world you had died. If the Grants even knew Eliakim was the father of Ariel’s child, they would have thought you didn’t survive.”
A dozen thoughts whizzed through my brain, one of which was how glad I was Trev and I never hooked up. “Are you going to tell him I’m alive?”
“I will let you decide if you want me to,” Uriel said. “Eliakim is difficult. He's not evil, but he's also not a pleasant man. He makes Michael look warm and fuzzy.”
From what little I knew of Michael that was a grim comparison, but he was still my father. Or at least my sperm donor. “Can I think about it first?”
“Yes, of course.” Uriel stood and walked to a side table.
“I suggest you talk to Trevor first. When he was a preteen, he tried to speak to his father and Eliakim back handed Trevor sending him flying across the room. Trevor has a scar on his lip from Eliakim’s ring.
Esrom nearly killed his brother for hurting Trevor. ”
I was wrong, he sounded worse than the Fentons. “I think I’ll ask Trev before I decide. Besides, that means I’m a Grant now, and not a Fenton.”
“Not exactly.” Uriel removed a sheet of paper from a notebook and passed it to me. “That is your true name.”
It was a New York State birth certificate. Written on the front was my real name. “Abraham Daniel Chandler. “Why Chandler and not Grant?”
“Eliakim did not know of your birth.” Uriel returned to his seat, carrying the book. “Ariel and I use the surname Chandler so I used that to honor her. You may change it to Grant if you prefer.”
I wasn’t ready to make any name changes just yet. “I want to talk to Henry first.”
“A wise idea.” He handed me the thick leather bound book. “In her long life, your mother acquired many things. They are yours now.”
I opened the notebook, and my breath caught. Page after page of assets, accounts, properties. Numbers with so many zeros my brain couldn't process them. “How…. All of this is mine?”
"It is." Uriel smiled. “A trustee is managing things for you. I’ll set up a meeting. In the meantime….” He pulled out a credit card wrapped in a piece of paper. “This is a debit card for an active account. You don’t need to worry about money ever again.”
I flipped through the pages in shock, my mind stuttered over the possibilities. When I shut the book, Uriel was watching me. He had a velvet pouch in his hand, which he offered to me. “This was hers.”
My fingers trembled slightly as I opened it. Inside was a simple silver ring with a stone that seemed to shift colors in the light. When I looked up, I noticed Uriel wore a matching ring.
“Our parents had these made for us on the day we became adults.” Uriel twisted the ring on his finger. “The stone is from our home world. We never took them off. When Ariel died, I took mine off as well as hers and put them away until today.
I slipped the ring onto my finger. It adjusted itself to fit perfectly. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
The sheer amount of change in my life was daunting. I needed time to digest everything. “I think that’s enough for today.”
“Very well, Nick,” Uriel said, looking a little more at peace than when I arrived. “I’ll be around whenever you’d like to talk.”
Mumbling a distracted thank you, I went in search of Henry. I had an entire family I hadn’t known about and I wanted to share it with him. The first of many new things we’d share.