Chapter Seven #3
“It is, isn’t it? But it’s from Tiffany so there are probably thousands just like it.
It’s just that this is all I have,” Helen said, the words spilling out uncensored.
“My dad says she must have been planning to leave for a long time because by the time he figured out she had left us, all the pictures were gone. Every single one. Even pictures he thought she had no idea he’d taken. ”
Helen stood up suddenly and started pacing around aimlessly.
She walked to the far end of the library, looking at all the books that the Delos family had collected together, all of the antique furniture they probably handed down, generation to generation.
It was a family legacy Helen had been denied, and she felt a sense of loss not knowing where her mother was, or where she’d come from.
But she also sensed a possibility in that ignorance.
“Your family is tight, I can see that. You always know where everyone is. But my mother did something drastic, right? She ran away.” Helen struggled with the right way to phrase her thought, and decided the best thing would be to ask a question.
“Why were you so sure that the House of Thebes was the only House left? How could you possibly know that?”
“We keep very close watch over our numbers, Helen,” Cassandra said.
“Yeah, but how can you know for sure?”
“It’s barbaric,” Castor said, shaking his head. When Helen gestured for him to continue he did. “When one demigod kills another from a rival House there is a traditional celebration for the champion called a Triumph. It’s considered a great honor.”
“But that doesn’t mean my mother is dead. Maybe she’s just missing! You don’t even know who she is!” Helen said. The tears tipped over the edge of her eyelids and splashed down on her shirt.
“The fact that you exist proves that anything is possible,” Cassandra said. But she wasn’t able to look Helen in the eye.
“Right around the time you were born, the Houses were going through a period of intense fighting that was thought to be the final confrontation. There were a lot of deaths,” Castor said, looking down at his hands as if he expected to find blood on them.
Helen turned her back on Castor and Cassandra and tried to breathe her way through the tears, but still it took a few moments before she knew she wasn’t going to start sobbing. She didn’t even know why she was so upset. She’d always thought she hated her mother.
“Helen, we understand that you might need some time before we continue. We still have a lot more to talk about, but we’re not going anywhere and we can finish this conversation when you’re ready.
In the meantime, please know that we really do want to help you,” Castor said gently from somewhere on the other side of the room.
Helen heard them get up to leave, but she couldn’t bring herself to say good-bye.
After they’d left, she opened up the French doors and went out onto the patio.
The sight of the pristine beach and rolling blue water blunted the sharper edges of her emotions and before she knew it she was shuffling down the beach.
“Are you okay?” Lucas asked from behind her.
Helen just nodded, not surprised that he had appeared. They both looked down the beach, watching a big, hairy dog jump in and out of the surf with glee. After a moment Lucas moved and stood beside her.
“I’m relieved,” Helen said. She turned her head to look at him.
“My whole life I thought my mother hated me so much that she didn’t even want me to know what she looked like.
” A pained expression darkened Lucas’s face, but Helen continued before he could interrupt her.
“I’m not saying an ancient blood feud is a good thing, but at least it’s a reason why she left me. I’ve never had one of those before.”
“She could still be alive, you know,” Lucas insisted. “Regardless of what Cass and my dad think.”
“I don’t know what to feel about that yet,” Helen replied honestly. “Kate has been more of a mother to me than Beth, or whatever she was called, ever was. I guess I’ll decide how I feel when I find out the truth. The whole truth.”
“That works,” Lucas replied, smiling out at the water for a moment before another thought occurred to him and his face fell. “For now, anyway.”
He squeezed her fingers, and Helen glanced down, surprised again that they had joined hands when she wasn’t paying attention.
She didn’t know who had initiated this new habit of theirs, but she realized that it would be nearly impossible to stop.
She had never held a boy’s hand before and it should have made her shy, but it didn’t.
It felt like the most natural thing in the world for her to touch him.
That thought made her shake her head in wonder.
She looked up and noticed that he was looking down at their hands as well, probably thinking the same thing.
“Do you want to sit down for a moment?” she asked, suddenly conscious of the fact that the last time she had seen him he was unable to walk without Jason’s help.
“Nope. But I wouldn’t mind something else to eat.” He threw a distracted glance over his shoulder at the house.
“Me too. My god, I’m a pig!” Helen said, still surprised at herself.
“You went hours without eating during the heal,” he said, leading her away from the water’s edge. “That’s crazy talk.”
“You know, if it weren’t for the whole ‘agonizing pain’ thing, I think I could get to like heals. People carry you around, and feed you nonstop. It’s like being an infant, only you’re old enough to appreciate it.”
“Not so much fun when you have to go to the bathroom, though.”
“No! Especially not when you’re around strangers,” Helen said, expecting a laugh or a witty response from Luke, and not getting either.
“We’re not strangers,” he said quietly, slowing down so he could look her in the eye.
“Well, not anymore,” she agreed. She felt a hot blush stinging her cheeks and had to look down. His eyes were so honest and so blue that Helen felt if she didn’t force herself to look away right from the start that she’d get stuck and never stop staring at him.
They held hands as they walked back. When they got close to the house, Helen noticed Cassandra looking down at them from one of the second-story balconies. She didn’t look happy.
When they went into the kitchen, they found Noel already hard at work over half a dozen pots and pans.
She set them up with a pint of ice cream, cookies, nuts, and caramel sauce and told them they were strong enough to make their own darned sundaes before she went back to snarling at the ox-sized roast she was wrangling into the oven.
After a decadent snack that tempted the rest of the house into the kitchen to spoil their appetites, Noel told everyone that they might as well just stay in their seats because dinner would be ready in another twenty minutes.
“I can’t. I have to go home,” Helen admitted in a disappointed tone as she pushed a few soggy pecans around the bottom of her bowl.
“Ridiculous. You’re not going anywhere,” Lucas responded.
“No, really. I have to go home, get the Jeep, and then pick Kate and my dad up at the airport.”
“One of us can get them for you,” Ariadne said, rising from the seat on the bench to Helen’s right.
“Sit, Ari, you’re still drained from healing. And don’t think for a second all that blush you’re wearing is fooling me,” Pandora said with a twinkle in her eye and a snarky finger wag that set her bracelets dancing and tinkling. “I’d love to go and meet your dad, Helen.”
“No, you can’t!” Helen said a little too forcefully before she got hold of herself and continued in a steadier tone.
“My dad doesn’t know about any of this. Please.
It’s very kind of you to offer, but if you could just give me a ride back to my house, I’d really appreciate it.
” She couldn’t look up, but she knew everyone was shooting each other meaningful looks over her head.
Ariadne touched Helen’s hand and opened her mouth to say something, but Lucas spoke first.
“I’ll drive you home,” he said as he slid out from his seat on the bench and pulled Helen along with him by the hand. “Let’s go.”
“You’re in no shape to travel,” Noel said, shaking her head, but Lucas was already walking toward her and smiling mischievously.
“I’m driving her home, not flying her there,” he said, suddenly grabbing his mom faster than she could move and kissing the top of her head with an exaggerated smooching sound.
It couldn’t have been too comfortable, but it was funny enough to get Noel to laugh and admit that Lucas was strong enough to drive.
Helen tried to give everyone a heartfelt thank-you but Lucas made a snoring sound, grabbed her hand, and dragged her across the room, saying, “Yeah, yeah. You’ll be back tomorrow, anyway.”
“What?” Helen said in a flustered daze as Lucas pulled her through the kitchen door that led to a huge garage packed with fancy cars. He bundled her in a little, classic convertible Mercedes and started the car as he hit the door opener.
“You’ll be back here tomorrow afternoon,” he said, finally answering her question as he pulled out and headed off the compound toward Milestone Road.
“I can’t. I have track,” Helen reminded him.
“I have football. I’ll drive you back here after we’re both done. And I can pick you up for school in the morning if you’d like.”
“I thought you weren’t allowed to do sports anymore.”
“That’s mostly cleared up,” he said with a huge grin. “Look, all I’m going to say is I’ve seen the football team. And believe me, they need my cousins and me.”
“I should probably be offended by that, but I’ve seen the football team, too,” Helen said, mirroring his grin. “But regardless, I can’t come over after tomorrow. I have to work on Monday nights.”
“Tuesday then,” Lucas said.
“I can’t. I have to cook dinner for my dad,” she said in a rushed voice.