“I can’t believe the trial is tomorrow,” she said. She had been thinking about it for the past week, and the sex had only managed to distract her for a little over an hour. Now that her mind was clear, it flew to Avelyn, Max Blackmane, and their confrontation with the rogue wolves and the two earths of werefoxes.
“Yeah, we’ll probably spend the day in Roman’s room. He intends to be on the phone with one of Jonathan Redfur’s advisers until it’s over.”
“Who’s the guy? Is he trustworthy?”
“In fact, it’s a gal and she’s Redfur’s cousin. We can trust her.”
“Distant relatives, brothers, cousins… you fox-shifters really have tight communities.”
“Unfortunately, we rarely agree on the things that truly matter.” Seth sighed and squeezed Amelia’s breast. Touching her comforted him, made him believe everything would be fine in the end. If they were careful and ready for anything, there was nothing that could go wrong, right?
“It’s insane how they ended up in this situation!” Amelia shook her head in disbelief. “I mean, Av
elyn does have a unique talent at getting herself in trouble, but this is too much.”
“How come you never mentioned her before finding out about the battle at Alma Venus?”
“Oh, we weren’t that close. In fact, we kinda’ hated each other.” She chuckled. “We had different views, you see. She wanted to run away, refused to be bought by a shape-shifter, had great plans for her future… I, on the other hand, was grateful for being given a second chance.”
“A second chance…” murmured Seth.
“Hey!” She turned to look into his eyes. “I wouldn’t be here with you if it weren’t for Alma Venus.”
“Hmm… You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for those assholes who…” He stopped and tried to rephrase his sentence. He couldn’t let his anger get the best of him. “You would’ve had your parents, and I don’t care if growing up with them meant we would have never met.”
“Don’t say that… Neither of us knows how destiny works…”
“We found a lead. Blake and I…”
“What are you talking about?” Since she had told them about the murder of her parents and how the two murderers were never caught, neither Seth, nor Blake had mentioned the case again.
“It’s weird, though… Weren’t they married?”
“Of course they were!” The second she said it, Amelia doubted it was true. After all, what did she know about her parents? She was too young when they died, she understood too little.
“You see… You have your father’s name.” He threw her a quick glance before continuing. He knew shifter brides rarely kept their names after they were bought or taken in by a boarding school, and even though Amelia was one of the few, he was afraid that the sound of her family name would bother her.
“Bennett. Stephen Bennett was my father’s name.”
“Yes…”
“Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt anymore. I’m Amelia Sylfur now.”
He tried to smile, but it came out as a grimace. “Your mother didn’t have the same name.”
They were silent for a minute, then Amelia shrugged. “So what? She wasn’t Milla Bennett, she was Milla…?” She looked at him for a clue. She had never thought about it until now, but she actually didn’t know her own mother’s maiden name.
“That’s the thing. It’s just Milla. And that’s not even the weirdest piece of information we found since we started digging. We can’t trace back her life. We found everything there was to know about your dad… birth certificate, death certificate, old pictures, we even found some of his friends… but nothing about your mother. One month into this investigation, and Milla remains a mystery.”
Curiosity finally piqued, Amelia turned on her side, slipping completely from under Seth’s body. “What’s that supposed to mean? I’m not… I’m not following…”
“There’s nothing to follow.” He shrugged. “We’re just as confused and out of ideas, but it doesn’t matter because Blake and I are not giving up. We’ll just try a different approach, look somewhere else, think out of the box… We’ll stumble upon something eventually.”
Amelia sighed and snuggled against his broad chest. “What’s the point anyway? Even if you do find the ones who did it, that won’t change anything.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Don’t say that. You never know what might come out of this… It’s always better to know than to live in the dark, even if it means bringing back demons you tried to bury a long time ago. Trust me, I would know.”
“How come?”