39. Chapter 39
Erik
“Aunt Molly!” I shout into her house, subconsciously rubbing my chest. There is no reply, but a ray of light and faint music come from her art room.
I don't want to disturb her, and maybe I’m glad for every minute I get to delay our conversation, so I make a beeline for her kitchen and start her coffee machine. If she’s not here, she can’t shoo me away.
She has one of those fully automatic coffee machines, and her coffee always turns out way better than mine at home.
The sound of beans grinding seems to be what pulls her out of what I lovingly call her art trance.
A few minutes later, she enters the kitchen, her blue checkered shirt stained with paint and a paintbrush tucked behind her ear.
My heart is thundering in my chest, fingertips anxiously drumming against her kitchen countertop. Fuck, I’m nervous.
“Erik.” She opens her arms and, damn the coffee or the paint on her shirt, I step into them for a hug.
“It's good to see you, Aunt Molly.”
“Is everything alright?” Damn her and her great intuition.
“Yeah, everything's great.” Once my coffee is done, she retrieves a cup from her cupboards and starts the machine right back up again for one on her own. “What are you painting?”
“I have a few commission pieces to finish up.”
“Sorry, is now not a good time?” I ask, though it's more out of politeness than anything.
“When is there ever the perfect time?” She shrugs, grabs her mug, and sits down at the kitchen table with me. I tap my fingers against the top of her table, staring at the bee magnet on her fridge. “You’re scaring me a little, Erik. What's going on?”
I stare at her, and suddenly all of my words are stuck in my throat.
“We found her,” I choke out, holding onto the edge of the table to keep my fingers from trembling. “Alive.”
She keeps staring at me with the same little smile playing at her lips, not moving a muscle. My heart sinks. Did I imagine saying it? Did she not hear me?
“What?” she stammers, color draining from her face.
“I found Lilith.”
Her entire face scrunches as tears spring into her eyes and she covers her mouth with her hands. “Oh my God. Really?”
“She goes by Maya now. I saw her, but I haven't talked to her about the whole, you know, kidnapping thing. So don't get your hopes up too soon, but she's alive and, from what I can tell, she's well.”
A tear rolls down her cheek. “Oh my God,” she repeats, her voice breaking. “She's alive.” She jumps up, rounds the table to throw her arms around me with a sobbing laughter. “She's alive.” I hug her back awkwardly, still sitting down. “I knew you could do it.”
She grabs my face with both of her hands, smooshes my cheeks together, and kisses my forehead.
“Oh, you wonderful child. Thank you for not giving up!”
By the time she sits back down, our coffees have gone cold.
“It was Kylie, actually,” I reveal in a whisper. “I found Lilith thanks to her.”
“I like your girlfriend more and more.” My eyes widen. “Don't look so shocked,” she says with a smile and takes a sip of her coffee. Then she grimaces. “I saw you at the fair. And when you asked me to make the pizza rolls, it was obvious you were trying to impress her.”
“There goes my mysterious image.” I wiggle my eyebrows. “Anyway, she knows someone who knows someone who did a digitally aged-up picture with the photos of mom and dad you sent me. And for once, a data bank spit out a result and ta-da!” I shrug. “We found her.”
“I can't believe it.” She sighs and covers her mouth with her hand. “Does Frank know?”
“Yes, of course. He's the first one I called because nothing popped up in mine.”
“Right.” She nods. “The clearance thing. You mentioned it before.”
“Exactly. He ran the new image through all the databases he could and found her.”
She wipes another tear from the corner of her eye. “He must be so glad to solve this one.”
“He is. Apparently, he's retiring next year. I’m supposed to tell you ‘Hi’ from him.” Silence settles for a while, both of us trailing after our own thoughts.
Then I pull the real picture of her that Frank sent over out of my pocket, unfold it, and slide it across the table to her. She stares at it, not daring to pick it up. However, her eyes turn glassy again.
“I can't believe it.” She buries her face in her hands. “When are you going to talk to her?”
“Kylie and I are driving to her workplace tomorrow.” I rub the back of my neck. “I did let curiosity get the better of me and bought a book at her shop two days ago.”
“How did she seem?” She puts her elbows on the table and props her chin in her hands.
“She seemed well. Happy.”
“Oh God, this is so exciting.” She jumps up and paces the kitchen.
“Should I tell Dad?”
She stops abruptly, then turns to me in slow motion. “How are you planning on doing that?” She checks her watch. “You're not going to make it to visitation hours today. Did you want to stop by there tomorrow before you drive to work?”
“I was thinking about giving him a call.” I clear my throat.
“No,” she says firmly, finger pointed at me almost threateningly.
“Your father might have messed up and opened the door to this whole clusterfuck of a situation, but he deserves to learn this from you face to face. You go tell him the next time you see him. Be it tomorrow or the day after. Sometime this week. Okay? Promise me?”
I hold up my hands defensively, palms facing her. “I promise.”
“Good.”
She resumes pacing and I can tell she’s spiraling the same amount, if not even worse than I did. “What are you thinking?”
“I don't know.” She turns around and walks toward me. “I want to drop everything and drive out to see her, but the poor child... I don't want to overwhelm her.”
“Me neither.” Silence settles for a minute, only the ticks of the old analogue clock on her kitchen shelf disturbing it. “You're not mad?”
“Mad?” Her eyebrows shoot up. “About what?”
“That I'm taking Kylie along.”
“Honey.” She walks over to me and puts her palm on my cheek.
“You do whatever feels right. If the right thing is taking her along instead of me, then that's okay.
I've waited twenty-five years to see your sister again.” Her lips tug into a sad smile.
“A day or two or even a week longer is something I can live with.”
“Thank you.” I get up and let her pull me into a hug.
“I can't believe it,” she mumbles and sways our hug from left to right.
“This is the part where you say you never had any doubt in me.”
“Erik.” She breaks the hug and takes a step back. “I never doubted you. I doubted if she was still out there. Huge difference. And I'm just thankful that we get to meet her.”
“It's crazy, right?” I shake my head. “All of those years we searched for her. All those years they stole from us.”
“Hey.” She puts her hands on my shoulders and shakes me gently. “Whoever ‘they’ are, they will get their comeuppance. Finding Lilith was the first step. Let Frank handle the rest. Right now, don't be a cop. Be a brother.”
Her face slowly lights up.
“You found your sister, Erik.” She pulls me into another hug. “Celebrate!”
It still doesn't feel quite real. I can barely remember the last time I was a brother. But hopefully I'll have to get used to it again soon.