One of the staff said he’d already left for the day, so I texted him the address of the bar. As I walked back to the metro, I began readying myself for an evening I knew would be full of proverbial bombshells.
****
CHAPTER 40
William, Josef and I arrived at the bar and grabbed two tables outside facing the canal. The night air was crisp but clear and so, with a good hat and coat, it was bearable to sit outside. William and Josef volunteered to go up to the bar and place an order. That left me sitting next to Gabriel. I leaned in closer to him to better hear our conversation over the din of traffic on the street. I hadn’t mentioned my mother was meeting us until we arrived at the bar. His face, upon hearing the news, took on an odd expression.
“You mustn’t worry,” I said, watching the traffic pass by. “My mother is a bit of an eccentric, but harmless. I promise.”
Gabriel smiled, but said little. He seemed a bit nervous. I could feel his tension, but could not detect the cause of his distress. It didn’t concern me. It seemed natural that he would be anxious, given the last few days. As I leaned in once more to speak to Gabriel, the sound of my mother’s voice caught my attention.
“Olivia, Olivia,” she said, pleading for my attention as she crossed the street to join us.
I stood up as she reached our table. “Mom, hello,” I said. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with dread; icy cold and creeping slowly up my spine. I shrugged off the sensation, hoping to understand everyone’s feelings better as the evening progressed. Since Gabriel was directly next to me, I decided to begin introductions with him.
“Mom, let me introduce…”
“I don’t need an introduction,” my mother said, cutting me off. “I know who your boyfriend is and you must stop immediately.”
I couldn’t fathom how she knew about William and I glanced at the bar where he stood placing our drink order.
“Mom, why would you say such a thing? I asked. “You’ve only just arrived and…”
“For God’s sake, Olivia, the man is your father.”
“My father, what on earth are you talking about?” I was baffled.
Now it was her turn to be silent. Her gaze was fixed on Gabriel, and to my surprise, he was staring back at her.
“Hello, India,” he said, sorrowfully.
“You two know each other?” I asked, feeling their collective dread freezing the blood in my veins. It was obvious they had not planned on seeing one another again in their lifetimes. William and Josef arrived, drinks in hand, but paused as they read our body language. I held out my hand and drew William to my side.
“Mom, this is my boyfriend,” I said.
India Rose narrowed her gaze, and I held my breath waiting for her to discover he was a vampire.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“All of the travel you two have been doing, the last-minute trip to Paris…I assumed that he was preparing to make you his lover,” she said, waving her hands frantically in the air toward Gabriel. “When I finally realized who he was, I had to come to warn you to stay away.”
“You know Gabriel?” I asked again, realizing that neither of them had answered that question.
“Olivia,” Gabriel said, remorse in his eyes.
In those few seconds, my mother’s ranting became crystal clear.
“Wait,” I said. “She means you? You are my father.”
“I was going to tell you,” he said. “Please, I came to Paris with the intention—”
“But my mother beat you to it,” I said, cutting him off as the blood rushed into my ears.
Then I spun around to confront my mother.
“Mom, you knew where my father was all of these years, but you never told me?”
I was staring at my mother and Gabriel, trying to see them clearly—these two people I thought I knew suddenly transformed by their lies. I turned back to Gabriel.
“Why now? I have been working with you … for how many months?”
A long, cold silence unraveled before us.
“I never told Gabriel I was pregnant,” my mother blurted out, breaking the silence. “I didn’t want him to take you away from me.”
“Take me away?”
“Olivia,” Gabriel said, “I am from a powerful family of witches. My relatives would have wanted to raise you in France.”
“But I…I’m not a witch,” I said, shocked by the facial expressions of the four people before me. I was in the minority opinion in this argument. I looked