Tonight, dinner was served on the veranda outdoors. The candlelit dinner by the sea with the wind blowing in my face and hair reminded me of the dinner I had on the stargazing tower with Edward. The romantic atmosphere wasn’t the only reason that I was reminded of that night Edward told me about the fact that he saved me all those years ago in the forest. I felt that tonight, I will come to learn of some important hidden truth that will change the course of my life once again.
Lucien didn’t beat around the bush, thankfully so. After the maids left us alone, Lucien started talking immediately as I sat opposite him. Similar to the dinner I had with Edward that time, the food tasted like dry sand on my tongue.
“Can you tell me what it was like living with your mother? You know, before I met you two…” Lucien asked slightly hesitantly.
“Why are you asking after all this time? I thought my mother probably told you everything already,” I replied, thinking that it was unusual for him to bring this up. What good will asking about my childhood do?
“She did tell me, but I want to hear your version of the story more,” Lucien replied firmly.
“What do you want to know…specifically?” I asked him without bothering to hide my suspicion.
“Your living conditions. How did you two get by? Did your mother work? What type of school did you go to? All the general stuff. Just tell me whatever comes to mind,” Lucien replied.
“I don’t know why you’re asking me this and I was quite young back then. Anyways, my mother and I lived alone. It was just the two of us. My mother didn’t have a fulltime job. She worked on whatever job she was offered or sometimes she didn’t work at all. We always lived alone, and we moved places quite often…probably once every few months. Whenever that happened, I had to move school if the new place was too far from the old one. I didn’t have any close friends and my mother didn’t seem to have many friends either…so it was largely just the two of us,” I replied with an honest view of how I remembered my life from back then.
“So…it was always just the two of you?” Lucien asked a little surprised. I couldn’t quite understand why he was surprised.
“Yes, there was never anyone else,” I replied flatly. If Lucien wondered if my mother had a boyfriend of some sort on the side; then he can rest assured that she didn’t. However, if she did, I had never heard of or seen him before.
“What do you know…about your father?” Lucien asked seriously.
“What am I supposed to know? My mother never talked about him…except for that he left her after finding out that she was pregnant with me. She’s never seen or heard from him since. I don’t know his face or his name and, just as my mother advised, we think of him as better off dead,” I replied emotionlessly. I hated my father for leaving us, yet I didn’t quite hate him. It’s hard to hate someone you don’t know anything about at all.
“I see…” Lucien answered as he seemed deep in his own thoughts.
“Why are you asking this all of a sudden?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“No reason…” Lucien replied in a low whisper.
The candlelight flickering in his green eyes made it seem like his eyes were wavering with hesitation. Lucien would never ask questions like these without a logical reason which meant that there was something he wanted to confirm. Depending on my answer, he may or may not tell me something…but what was he going to tell me?
“Lucien…if there’s something you wanted to tell me…” I started to say before I was interrupted by another question.
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