To Know

Chapter 31

Content Warning: Child abuse

The woman with lilac hair that cascaded in waves down her back walked across the ground floor of the mall. She walked up the steps on the other side of the temporary dip in the floor and headed along.

Leilah.

She wore a shoulderless blue-grey blouse that had a collar bent to form a straight line.

Seraphina's head turned to follow as she walked in her black jeans to a restaurant on the other side of the floor. She shifted to look in further, but the wall cut her off.

"Hey, what happened?" John asked, trying to find what she looked at. His eyes flicked about. She removed one hand from his shoulder and he finally followed her gaze to the restaurant.

"I thought I saw my sister." She removed her other hand from his other shoulder and began to walk in the general direction of the restaurant. "Wait here."

John did not wait there.

He followed her as she walked up to the archway that led into the restaurant and then her eyes saw the flowing lilac hair. She was walking across the floor of the restaurant, between the different tables and chairs, to the far side of the room where the floor to ceiling windows looked out onto the park next to the mall. In that general direction sat a man with dark blue hair that wasn't quite navy and dark tan skin with the dark shadow across his chin where a beard was beginning to grow.

Seraphina burst out into a run, pushing past one of the waitresses, which resulted in a sharp gasp, and wrapped her arms around the woman's waist once she was just in front of their table.

"Leilah!" she shouted in joy. Her heart raced with energy sparking in her veins.

She pressed her body into her back, pulling her in tighter.

"Seraphina?" Leilah questioned as she let go. Shock sparked through her voice with an underlining hope wanting to burst through. She turned to face her and Sera hugged her again. Leilah was an inch or two taller than her now and wrapped her arms around her too.

"Where did you go?" she asked. Every thought came rushing to the surface – too many questions to the point where it was the boiling over the top of the pot – and no question, statement, could encompass any of it. So, only the unanswerable question became clear.

Leilah let out a small laugh. "That's too much to say right now." She glanced back behind her to where the man sat with a weak smile. Her eyes widened. Doc.

Who was glaring at John.

"I'll give you my phone number and if you give me yours, I'll be able to contact you again to talk later." Leilah's hand slipped into her black handbag that hung off her elbow and pulled out her phone and selected an app. They swapped phones and typed in the number before they gave the phones back. "It's good to see you, but I've got a date to go to. See you later."

"Bye," she replied.

Seraphina smiled nervously as Leilah walked back to her table, but there was a sinking feeling in her chest. It had been so short. And there was an upsetting anger in her chest.

She turned around and walked out the restaurant with John on her heel, trying to catch up as she sped walked.

"Does Doc hate me?"

A day later, Seraphina sat in a booth in a private room in one of the top restaurants in Wellston alone with a glass of pink lemonade in front of her and a tray of focaccia bread with a small pot of olive oil.