Miriam D'Onofrio (lady_miriam) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2021-11-12 14:16:00 |
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Entry tags: | #june 2018, caius, caius x miriam, miriam |
Who: Miriam and Caius
Where: Caius’s house
When: Early evening, Thursday, June 21st
Status: Complete
After thinking on it for a few days, Miriam finally came to the conclusion that she needed to talk to Caius about Tessa. Personally, she would rather not. She would rather the girl disappear off the face of the earth, like she’d never been there in the first place, but since that wasn’t going to happen, it was probably best she tell him now rather than later. If it had just been an affair on Anthony’s part, she’d keep it to herself, but there was a chance that he might meet Tessa someday and she didn’t want him to be as caught off guard as she had been. So she waited until she thought he was home from work and asked if she could drop by, thinking that was the best place to speak to him about it. Not at work, not in public, but at home, where he could be appropriately pissed off if he felt like it.
Even though it wasn’t her infraction, Miriam felt her nerves rise as she knocked on the door. She’d thought about the various ways to do this, but knew that it would come down to just telling him. It wasn’t going to come up in conversation, unless Anthony had already gotten around to telling him, but she doubted that was the case. If Caius already knew, he would have said something, she was sure of it.
Caius had slept much better after Chase and Mara had left the night before, and work had been fine that day, but he was still tired and feeling a bit out of sorts when he received a text from his mother. She wanted to come by? That was pretty unusual. He was weary of guests and people in general, but Caius couldn’t say no to his mom, so he’d told her to come ahead. Reagan was working late at Belladonna and they’d already agreed to easy stuff for dinner, so he at least didn’t feel like he had to make a big thing of it. Hopefully whatever Miriam wanted to talk to him about would be quick and painless.
He’d changed into comfortable clothes by the time she arrived, and had a drink, so Caius was at least looking more relaxed when he opened the door. He smiled at Miriam and stepped back so she could come in. “Evening,” he greeted, leaning in to kiss his mother’s cheek once she was inside. “Want a glass of wine?”
As soon as Caius opened the door, Miriam felt the rush of magic to her core, like she’d just been filled with a breath of crisp, clean air. It was a feeling she was still familiarizing herself with and hoped to eventually experiment with, but tonight was not the night. She smiled at Caius, hugging him as he kissed her, then stepped inside. “Yes. A glass of wine would be lovely.” And very much needed, at least in her case. He might find he needed one as well. “Is Reagan home?” She hoped to have this conversation with him alone, but fully expected his wife to be around. It was her house, after all.
Caius gestured for her to follow and led the way to the kitchen so he could get them both a drink. He had no idea what was coming, but he could still do with a refill. Some part of him was aware that he’d been drinking more ever since Reagan had begun ... whatever one could call what she was doing, but he couldn’t actually muster up any concern. “No, she’s still at the shop,” he answered Miriam. “She’ll be there a while yet, inventory, I think.” He got down a wine glass and opened up a bottle of red to pour her a generous portion. “So what’s going on? Everything all right with you?” he asked as he offered the wine to Miriam.
No, everything was not ‘all right’, but Miriam gave her son a small smile anyways, not wanting him to worry. Miriam’s bar for how fucked up things could be had risen much higher after getting trapped in another world for six months and this seemed like nothing by comparison. That didn’t mean she was happy about it though. “Things are strained at home,” she said. She knew it was better to get straight to the point, yet found herself stalling, taking a sip of her wine and wishing there was an easy way to say this that didn’t make her want to stab her husband. “A woman named Tessa showed up at our house the other day. And… Your father may think differently, but I think you deserve to know about her. It turns out she’s your sister.”
The first part wasn’t a shocker, and a tiny smile quirked Caius’s lips as he poured himself another scotch. Wine was all fine and good, but he’d started the evening with stronger stuff and he wanted to stick to it. He was lifting the glass to his lips, casually leaned against the edge of the kitchen counter, when Miriam continued. He froze for a second, processing those words. “My ... sister?” he repeated, staring at her blankly for a few heartbeats. For one stupid second he almost asked Miriam when she’d had another child he didn’t know about, but then the logic of it clicked into place. Anthony must have had an affair -- an idea that wasn’t shocking to him -- that had resulted in a child. That part was startling. Caius would’ve expected better from his father. “Wait, and she ... showed up? At the house? How old is she?” he asked, thick brows furrowing. “Did he know?”
“Oh yes. He was well aware,” Miriam said, and it became impossible to hide the bitterness from her voice. She wanted to shelter Caius, but he was a grown man and he had to know how much this hurt her. Anthony was her husband, and she’d been faithful. She’d expected the same of him, and if he couldn’t manage that, then he should have been smart enough not to have the evidence come knocking at his door. “Apparently, she’d been trying to reach him and when he wouldn’t take her calls, she drove here to meet him. She’s staying in town until she gets what she wants, whatever that is.” Probably money. Miriam hoped that was all she wanted. Anthony could handle that much. “She’s twenty-five.”
Twenty-five put her at only a few years younger than Caius. So when he’d been a toddler, his father had cheated on his mother and impregnated some other woman ... and then let her keep the baby? Maybe he hadn’t known until this girl had been born, or after. He noted that Miriam said ‘meet him,’ so it didn’t sound like Anthony had actually been involved in her life. Like he was barely involved with Sera’s. But he’d known that Caius had another half sibling out there and had never told him shit about it. Or confessed to his wife, because Caius knew Miriam would have told him if she’d known. He took a burning swallow from his glass and then set it down with a clunk. “What a fucking bastard,” he muttered, his expression darkening. “... him, not her, obviously.” He moved in closer to put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Mom. Are you okay?”
Miriam shrugged and gave a little shake of her head. She was probably more okay than she would’ve been back then, when she thought they were much more fully in love, but it still hurt. The timing of it all made her doubt everything—if it had happened last week, or even while she was gone, it wouldn’t have surprised her near as much. But if he’d cheated on her back then, when she’d thought things were especially good, then how much was she missing now? How well did she really know her husband? “I don’t know how to deal with this,” she admitted. “I don’t blame the girl—woman, but I wish she didn’t exist. I wish she’d leave. If she’s hoping for anything more than money from your father, I doubt she’ll get it. She’s not a witch.” Which meant she was useless to Anthony. He’d never said as much, but Miriam knew it to be the case. She’d seen it happen with Sera and the best she could do for her was make her feel loved and get her out of Point Pleasant as soon as possible.
That last part explained a lot, and Caius suddenly understood why Anthony had never mentioned this girl. If she was a magical dud like Sera, she may as well not exist. While part of Caius was selfishly relieved to hear there wasn’t suddenly a rival claim on his inheritance, he could recognize how fucked up that was. “Yeah, he’ll disappoint her, I’m sure,” he agreed with a quiet bitterness. Even if she was just after money, Anthony was no fool with his checkbook, so she might not even get as much of that as she wanted. If she wanted some kind of relationship with him, she was definitely going to go home disappointed. Caius barely had that, and he was the heir to everything. “I don’t -- ... I don’t know how to deal with this either, I’m still just ... processing, I guess,” he went on, feeling useless to help his mother. “Where is she even from, did she say?”
“I don’t know,” Miriam said. “It all caught me so off guard that I didn’t get a lot of information. I was just so angry. I still am.” She knew she was expected to forgive her husband, and she probably would get past it eventually, but she felt like he deserved the inconvenience of her pain—she might not divorce him over it, but she wasn’t going to make him dinner at the moment, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to sleep with him. If he wanted peace, he would work for it. The problem was that she didn’t think he cared enough to do so, which hurt even more. “If she doesn’t get what she wants, she might come to you. Especially if it’s information she’s looking for. I don’t know how much she knows about us, but I doubt it’s much.”
Caius had a dozen more questions popping up in his mind, but he could see that asking his mother about them would only serve to hurt her more. He had no idea how the conversation had gone when this mystery sister had shown up at the house, but it couldn’t have been pleasant or in-depth. Caius rubbed at Miriam’s back and stepped in closer to give her a hug. “We’ll handle her,” he murmured. Caius was already including himself in that, because they were a family, and he was going to be involved whether Anthony liked it or not. Even if his father wanted nothing to do with her, she was a blood relative to Caius and that meant something. He loved Sera in spite of her lack of magic, and maybe this half sister had something to offer too. He at least wanted to meet her, but he didn’t want to say that to Miriam yet. “And you’re entitled to be angry, whether he thinks so or not,” he added as he pulled back, meeting her eyes. “He betrayed and lied to you for twenty five years, I’d be livid if I were you.”
Miriam had felt forced to bottle up her anger in front of Tessa, and knew that raging at Anthony would have little effect. That didn’t mean she hadn’t lost it when left alone, sobbing when there was no one around to see her. She hated being that weak, hated knowing that the man she’d dedicated her life to hadn’t done the same. She hated that she cared, especially when Anthony seemed so unbothered by the whole thing. Tessa was an inconvenience, but so was she, his wife. Whatever love had been between them had faded over time and no longer seemed important enough to salvage, except for appearance and convenience sake. She’d never felt so lost and it showed in her eyes, which turned glassy before she blinked the feelings away. “I am,” she said, her lips turning up in a bitter smile. “I’m just not sure what to do about it. I’m not sure he cares, outside of how it disrupts his routine. Things have been different since I got back from that place. I’ve been different. Or maybe I just started to notice things I hadn’t before.”
He knew just how fruitless and frustrating it could be to be angry with Anthony D’Onofrio and get nothing in return. Caius had been in that position himself more than once, though obviously with lower stakes than this kind of bomb to a marriage. If anything, he thought his father was lucky -- if he fathered a bastard child while still married to Reagan and she found out about it? Caius wouldn’t live much longer, he felt sure. Of course, Anthony never would have married an equal when it came to power. They were very different that way. Even though they now knew that Miriam had her own power, he was sure his father was still underestimating her. What she said about being different caught his attention, of course, and he thought back to his conversation with Zania at the recent fundraiser. “Different how?” he asked, looking at her intently. “What’s been going on?”
Miriam had been tempted to snap Anthony’s neck the moment she walked into his office that night, but she was glad to have gotten her fury under control. She had more power if she kept it wrapped up tight, waiting until she was absolutely sure that was the move she wanted to make. She didn’t actually want Anthony to die, but the pain of being in a loveless marriage was starting to eat at her, especially now that she knew how deep it ran. She’d been blissfully ignorant before, pretending all was well because she had no evidence otherwise. Now she’d started to wonder if she’d be happier elsewhere. But those wanderings of her mind were better explored another time, and there was no rush to make a move. If Anthony could hide a child for twenty-five years, then she could have more than a few days to decide what she wanted to do with him. “There’s a few things. I haven’t shared them with your father, and at this point I don’t intend to. Some are small, like knowing where the others are—the ones who were trapped with me. I can feel them. But there’s also… What’s something innate to being an air witch? Something that comes naturally, that you don’t even have to really practice?”
Caius listened intently, lines still furrowed between his dark brows. Zania had been changed by her curse, Reagan had been changed by something he still didn’t understand, now Miriam had been changed by her months-long ordeal ... seemingly in more than a psychologically scarring way. Zan had said something in her aura was different and foreign though, and so Caius was concerned. Before Miriam had disappeared, she’d nearly killed Anthony, and if anything like that started happening again, they had to nip it in the bud somehow. Her question about his magic seemed almost like a change of subject, and Caius blinked a bit in confusion. “Um ... creating a breeze? Raising and lowering the temperature ... why?”
Miriam took a breath and tried to tap into that, hoping that she could manage something simple. She’d been able to conjure one of Vex’s visions without a lot of instruction, but she knew most magic took a lot more practice than she had, which was none. She’d thought about trying around Anthony, but she hadn’t really wanted to clue him in on what she could do. Would he be able to feel it? Or was it just an extension of his magic that she was taking advantage of? Miriam knew that she wasn’t actually a witch, that if Caius were to leave she wouldn’t be able to do anything, but when a little breeze ruffled his hair, she had to smile. It was enough that she could feel it on her own cheeks and she knew he could too. “I can feel it now, when you’re close. I could maybe do more, but I don’t know how, and I’m not about to ask your father to teach me.”
The breeze came as a complete surprise and it showed on Caius’s face. His eyes widened and he instinctively glanced around like there might be another source for it, but he of course saw nothing but his kitchen. It was obviously coming from his mother somehow. He felt a cold spike of fear that she was draining him -- considering recent events for his wife, how could he not? The effect didn’t last long at least, a harmless puff of air, but that tiny thing could mean so much. “How are you doing that?” he asked, something cautious in his tone as he looked at her. “You can feel my magic now? And, what ... tap into it?” What if whatever was happening to Reagan was happening to others? What if it was going to become a war of who could suck everyone else dry first?
“I could feel it the moment I arrived,” Miriam said, a small smile playing on her lips. “I can feel your father’s too, but I’ve been hesitant to try and use it. The ability fades when you get too far from me, so it has its limitations, but it’s more than that. I went to visit Vex and when I was there, I had a vision, like he has. So it’s not limited to magic. He thinks I might be able to mimic other’s abilities.” And the more she experimented with it, the more she thought he was right. There were drawbacks, like the fact that she didn’t know how to actually use magic or control the visions, and that the ability seemed limited by proximity, but the fact that she could tap into them at all was incredible. She wanted to test it out, find people with other abilities and see what she could do, but it wasn’t easy to identify them and she wasn’t eager to tell others about what she could do. Caius was an exception to the rule. She knew she could trust her son.
Caius felt a tiny bit of relief that this sounded different than what Reagan was doing, but it was still unsettling. If they all had a family dinner together, could Miriam access the strength of all their magic combined? That would make her incredibly powerful, especially considering the way Reagan’s magic was growing by leaps and bounds. He didn’t think his mother would use that sort of thing for any nefarious purpose, but his mind couldn’t help but jump in that direction. It was something he might do. “That’s fascinating,” he murmured, still studying her face closely. “What was the vision like for you? And your telekinesis is still the same? Intact like it always was?”
“Well, I wasn’t expecting it, so it was disorienting,” Miriam said. “Vex said sometimes they just happen, but that since he got back from the other place, he can control them—focus on a person and make one happen. I was able to do it as well. It’s like… overlying one place with another. I was in his kitchen, but also standing in your office. You were working behind your desk.” She’d called out his name, but he hadn’t seemed to notice, which Vex had told her would be the case. Still, she’d felt safer trying it on Caius than her husband. “My telekinesis seems fine. Nothing’s changed in that regard.” It had been horrible not having it in that other place and if it had disappeared for good, she probably would have freaked out. It felt like an extra limb to her, even if it wasn’t one everyone knew about.
He was a little surprised to hear she’d been watching him, but not, at the same time. She was his mother, after all. Caius was just relieved that she hadn’t had a ‘vision’ of him while he was doing something objectionable, such as cleaning up a corpse his wife had made. Caius was not prepared to answer any questions about that situation yet. At least it sounded like Miriam wouldn’t be able to repeat the experience without Vex around, and he was far from her favorite companion. “Amazing,” he murmured, though the word was laced with concern. Caius paused, considering how much to share, then sighed and ran his free hand through his hair. “I wondered if anything had changed for you,” he said, lips pressed together briefly. “At the fundraiser the other week, Zania Castell asked me about you. She can see auras now -- long story -- but she said yours seemed different.”
Miriam could see the wheels in his head turning, but she didn’t know what had him so bothered about the situation. She’d chosen to look in on him because he seemed least likely to be doing something nefarious at that date and time—midday on a weekday, Caius should be at the office. And he had been. It was sad to say, she didn’t find her husband quite so reliable anymore. “What else did she see?” Miriam asked. It irked her to hear that Zania Castell had been able to see something was different about her, as someone who wanted to keep her abilities private, but she wondered what she might see if she stood close enough to her. It was something she’d have to test out at the next charity function, should Zania be in attendance. “I think all of us that went over there may be touched in some way, but it’s just a theory right now.”
Caius shook his head a bit, trying to remember the whole conversation with Zania. It was kind of fuzzy, he’d been drinking that night and tired, and he couldn’t recall all the details. “I’m not sure,” he murmured. “She’s still trying to learn what it all means. Didn’t exactly come with an instruction manual.” He quirked a faint smile that didn’t have much humor in it. “That wouldn’t surprise me, though. I can’t imagine being somewhere like that for as long as you were without it affecting you on some deep level ... and this is way better than the lung cancer I was worrying about.” Caius chuckled and finished off his drink, then turned to go get himself a refill. He felt like he needed one. “Have you talked with any of the others besides Vex?”
Miriam knew exactly what it was like to suddenly have powers with no instruction on how to use them, so she thought she’d just have to get a glimpse of what Zania was seeing to understand. It made her wish she could summon the powers later, on her own, because that could be incredibly useful in helping her identify others that might have been taken by AIR, but she supposed she’d just have to comb through some of the records at the library. Missing children who suddenly returned back home tended to get noticed. “Just Vex so far. I was going to speak to Brianna McCarthy about it, and possibly officer Solomon. I believe he just got back into town.” No one had told her, but she somehow knew. It was that other ability that she’d gained, the one they might all share—at least, she and Vex had. She’d have to ask the others to know for sure.
He still didn’t know of everyone who had gone missing with his mother, but part of him was kind of glad one of them was Brianna McCarthy. At least she was on their social level, someone easy for Miriam to talk to. The idea of talking to cops about anything set Caius’s teeth on edge, considering current circumstances, but he tried not to think about it. He poured himself another scotch and turned to face his mother again. “I forgot there was an officer there,” he murmured with a faintly amused huff. “Wonder what he thought about the place.” All the police Caius had ever known had no imagination, all about the facts ma’am, practical minded bullshit. To imagine one thrown into such an insane situation, in a place like that ... he found it kind of darkly funny, and wondered how badly Officer Solomon’s mind was cracked now.
“I don’t know how he was before, but I suspect this opened his eyes to the reality of this town, if he didn’t already know,” Miriam said. She had no issue with the police force, except that they didn’t seem to know how to handle most of the issues that plagued their town. When things got bad, they were often as defenseless as the next person, and that made them rather ineffective, in her opinion. But Ty had shown himself to be capable on the other side, holding it together when so many of them were struggling. She didn’t plan on sharing everything with him, not like she had with Caius, but suspected she could casually ask him if he’d noticed any changes since returning. “I think Brianna will be easier to talk to, but if Ty’s developed any new abilities, it might be nice to know.”
“It might be important to know,” Caius added on as he lifted his glass to his lips. Just like it was important for him to know this new sister. He wasn’t sure that his father would agree, but Caius didn’t really give a shit. Some things were out of Anthony’s control. “Let me know how it goes, please,” he said to his mother after he’d had another swallow of scotch. “And if there’s anything I can do to help ... you know I’m here. And I’m sorry my father is an asshole, you deserve better.” Caius’s relationship with Anthony was complicated, like most of the rest of the family. He could love the man in one way and think he was a complete dickhead in other ways. It was just like him to hide a love child for twenty-something years, but it made Caius so deeply angry at the same time.
Miriam hadn’t cared much about knowing everyone who’d been trapped with her before, just like she’d had no interest in meeting other AIR subjects before, but a lot had changed over the last six months. Hell, over the past week even. She’d never liked the idea of being categorized as “other”, but those were exactly the sort of people she needed to seek out now, if only to know if she could replicate their abilities. The limitation of having to stay near them was bothersome, but maybe it just took practice. Maybe she could stretch it. There were a number of possibilities and she wanted to explore them. It was a far more interesting track to take than worrying about what to do with her wayward husband. “My only request is that you not tell your father. I don’t feel like sharing this with him yet, if ever.”
He nodded. “I won’t say a word to him,” he promised before his tone dropped into a mutter. “Hell, I don’t even want to talk to him right now.” Caius already knew that his anger would be inconsequential to Anthony, so it would do no good to confront him about hiding this sister from him -- from both him and Sera. Didn’t he think his other daughter deserved to know she had a sister? What if one of them needed a kidney donor or something? The gall of it, just tucking a whole family member away like she was some dirt he could sweep under a rug, it made Caius taste acid in the back of his mouth. So much of his magic centered around blood, just as Anthony had taught him -- blood was powerful, blood meant something, and Anthony had just hidden more of their blood like a fucking coward. He didn’t want to say any of that to Miriam, though. She had her own unique angle on this issue, and she probably didn’t want to listen to him vent about it. His dark eyes had glazed over for a moment, but Caius blinked himself back into the present and took another quick drink. “Let me know if I can help,” he murmured.
Miriam recognized that they weren’t in the same situation—he had gained a sister, but she hadn’t gained a daughter, or even a step-daughter. Tessa wasn’t even some kind of love child. She was an accident that Anthony had discarded, and for that Miriam felt for her. She had loved Anthony once, but he was not the best father, even to the child who held his interest. “I’ll figure it out. Right now he’s sleeping in the guest room, but I realize that’s not a permanent solution.” She just hadn’t decided if she wanted to leave him over this or not. It was true that it was twenty-five years in the past, but it had brought to her attention how little affection still remained between them. Yet, leaving him would likely ruin her life. He’d put her in a position she’d never expected to find herself in and that made her angry with him all over again. “I’m sorry to drop all this on you, but I thought you should know. Your father might not want a relationship with her, but she’s still in town, in case you do.”
Caius couldn’t help but feel a flicker of amusement at the idea of Anthony being banished to the guest room. It was an incredibly mild punishment compared to what he probably deserved, and Caius kind of loved that his mother could dole out those types of orders. The prospect of his parents divorcing at this point in his life was very different than it would have been when he was still a kid. As an adult, he just wanted them to be happiest, whatever that looked like. And now with Sera leaving the house soon ... maybe it was time. Not that he was going to say that out loud, he knew it wasn’t that simple. Frowning vaguely, Caius shook his head and waved off her apology. “Don’t be sorry, you were completely right, I definitely should know. I should’ve known years ago, and so should you. Thank you for telling me,” he said. “Did she say where she was staying? And her name’s Tessa, you said?”
While Miriam didn’t think she was taking it great now, she was sure it would have been much, much worse if she’d found out when it happened. She probably would have wanted a divorce, and with young kids involved it would have been messy. Especially when it came to Caius. While she wasn’t happy to have found out now, she supposed it was better for her children that it had happened that way. “Yes, Tessa. I don’t recall her last name, but she did say she’s staying at the Juniper Inn. Room 9.” That information had been for Anthony, but Miriam had been privy to it at her own insistence of staying in the room for the conversation. “I would like to avoid a scandal, but I don’t really know if that’s possible.” All it took was one person outside their family knowing that Tessa existed and the gossip would start. They were a public enough couple that people were sure to see through the cracks, especially with how cold Miriam was feeling towards her husband at this point.
Caius didn’t know if he would go seek this woman out, at least not yet. He needed to sit with this information for a while, ruminate on it. But it was good to know where she was, if he decided to find her. His mother’s worries about a scandal made him want to roll his eyes, but Caius resisted the urge. Her life was far more entangled with the opinions of Point Pleasant’s elite than his own. Caius could just shrug them all off, Miriam not so much, even if he thought all that gossip shit was ridiculous. “Well, I’ll keep it close to the chest,” he offered, which was all he could really do. “Hopefully she will too, and maybe it just won’t get out. Maybe she’ll leave fast once she realizes what kind of man Anthony is.” Caius’s tone was laden with meaning -- this girl wasn’t going to find a loving father to reunite with. She’d be lucky with cold indifference as opposed to Anthony actively trying to make her leave. Sensing that she kind of needed it, Caius moved to hug his mother again. “Do you want to stay for dinner? I was going to make something easy, Reagan won’t be home for a little while.”
Miriam knew that Caius could care less about the gossip, but with the state of things as they were, her reputation was one of the only things she had left to cling to. There was little to no love left in her marriage, her children had both grown up and moved on, and if she wanted to remain active in the social scene, she didn’t want people talking behind her back. Perhaps now was a good time to reinforce and better cultivate her friendships. “I don’t think it will take her long to figure that out,” Miriam said with a roll of her eyes. It was disappointing, but she’d long accepted that side of Anthony. Miriam sighed and shook her head. “No, I’ve taken up enough of your time. Thank you for the invitation though. Maybe we can do lunch later this week?”
Caius would’ve been fine having dinner with her, or he wouldn’t have offered, but part of him was still relieved that she declined. He needed private time to think about this, to really digest the news that he had a half sister. Plus, Chase and Mara had been over the evening before, and Caius wasn’t social enough to want guests every night of the week. He nodded and smiled faintly at Miriam. “Definitely. Just let me know when you’re free, I’ll make time.” Work was busy this time of year, but part of the privilege of being one of the bosses was ducking out whenever he wanted to. Caius moved back so she could stand up so he could walk her to the door. “And call me anytime, of course, if you need to talk or ... anything,” he offered.
Miriam didn’t doubt the sincerity of Caius’s invitation, but suspected he needed some time to think over all that she’d told him, and that when Reagan arrived home he would share it with her. It just made more sense in her mind to leave now, then maybe catch up with him later, when such heavy topics weren’t so fresh and painful. She finished off her drink, then let him lead her to the door, stopping to give him a hug before she left. “Of course,” she said. “And the same goes for you, dear.” She hoped that he would keep her informed if he did decided to meet up with Tessa. She was curious about her intentions and with the way things were at home, she doubted she would get any more information from her husband.
He hugged her back with a warm squeeze and kissed her cheek as they pulled apart. Caius was sure she didn’t really feel better about the situation, but he knew he couldn’t make it right for her. He could just try to support her, and figure out where his own feelings were about this new sister. They also had to figure out how to tell Sera. Caius wanted to say it should be up to Anthony to do that, but he had a feeling he knew how well that suggestion would go over. He hardly wanted to talk to her as it was. “I’ll talk to you soon, Mom,” he said as he opened the door and held it for her. Maybe by the time they had lunch he would know something more. In the meantime, he had a lot to think about.