Together, we started shaping. We worked through the mix, Ava giving me the business for my lack of skill. I laughed, all of it in good fun. About halfway through, something that had been stuck in the back of my mind came to the forefront.
“I wanted to ask you something, Princess, if it’s alright.”
She glanced up for a second from her shaping. “Depends on what it is, master of the castle.” She said the last words with a friendly, ironic tone.
“Hailey is your half-sister, correct?”
“That’s right.”
“And that means Ada, I mean, your mother, had remarried?”
Her expression fell a bit. “No. I don’t know the exact story, but when she met Hailey’s dad, she said that she’d been insistent on not remarrying. I’m guessing now that it’s because she was technically still married to my father. Don’t you know all of this already? My father didn’t fill you in?”
I shook my head. “He mentioned in passing that you had a half-sister. But the way he’d said it made it clear that he wasn’t too keen on discussing the matter of your mother being with someone else. I didn’t want to press him about it.”
She turned her eyes from me, nodding in a way that suggested she understood the king’s response.
“Now, this is just what Mom told me. When she moved to Seattle, back when I was a little girl, she’d sworn off men for good. Her goal had been to be single for the rest of her life, to focus on me and work and that was it. And that’s what she did for a time. She got a job at some company in one of those towers downtown, and before too long she was an executive. Mom made a good life for me, for us.”
Her expression fell a bit. “She had a hard time of it, though. She never quite fit in with the other parents. She told me that they always knew she was different, thought she came off as too good for them or something. But that’s bullshit. I know Mom, she wasn’t like that at all.”
“And I knew her too. She was a queen, but she never let her title go to her head. She was as comfortable in the royal court as she was in any of the villages in Edoria.”
My words brought a smile to Ava’s face. “That’s the Mom I knew. Either way, she never really made friends, always found herself an outsider. She never let it get to her, though. Anyway, one day, around when I was six or so, she met this guy named James, he went by Jimmy. He was different than the people she knew, a woodworker who owned a little furniture-making business in town. I think she was drawn to his blue-collar nature, the fact that he was a guy who made things with his hands instead of some office drone who was secretly intimidated by her.”
I said nothing as I listened and continued to shape, letting her continue. As she spoke, I could sense that her life story was something she didn’t tell many people. I listened with great care, eager to know more about her.
“Wasn’t long before Mom was pregnant. They moved in together, and a few months later Hailey, my little sister, was born. For a time, they were happy—wewere happy. Mom was in love, and I had an adorable little sister. Jimmy was always a little weird toward me though. I could sense that he wasn’t crazy about taking care of a kid that wasn’t his.”
“But hedidtake care of you, yes?”
She nodded. “Not nearly as much as he did Hailey, but I guess that’s to be expected.” Her face darkened, her hands working the cakes slowing down. “Then Mom got cancer. Happened when I was about twelve.” She gave herself a moment to process what she’d said. I couldn’t resist stepping over to her, putting my hand on her shoulder.
“Thanks. But, uh, your hand has crab all over it.”
I glanced down at my hand, realizing that she was right. We both laughed.
“Sorry. Got caught up in the moment.”
She offered me a weak, but genuine smile. I took my hand away and wiped it clean.
“Anyway, I don’t like to get too into that. Mom passed, the treatment draining most of her savings. By this point, Jimmy had gotten way too into drinking to cope with the stress of losing Mom. When the funeral was all said and done, I learned that Jimmy didn’t want me.”
“What?” I wasn’t sure I heard her properly.
“He wanted to take care of Hailey, not his girlfriend’s kid with another guy.”
I narrowed my eyes in anger. “What a prick.”
Her eyes flashed. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen you get that mad, Luc.”
“I try not to. But the idea of someone throwing a child out on the street… I don’t like to hear it.”
“Well, that’s just what he did. Granted, I was fifteen, so almost an adult. But yeah, I ended up in foster care. Hailey and I stayed close. Mom had left me a little money that Jimmy couldn’t get to, and it was enough to pay for my college and get me out on my own when I turned eighteen. I busted my ass in business school, learning how to cook when I wasn’t studying. I set aside the last bit of Mom’s money so when it came time to buy the truck, I had some for the down payment.”
I stopped shaping, leaning against the counter.
“And now you’re here.” I was still processing her story.