N-701124 {b. barnes}

XI

"I'm practically famous now." Autumn announced when she walked into the apartment later that day.

Belle chuckled. "I'm glad. Can you hand me the mail off the table?"

Autumn handed the papers to her and hopped up on the counter. "Anything interesting in the mail?"

"Not that I can see." Belle shrugged.

"Can I have the newspaper then? So I can not get paint everywhere?"

"Go for it."

Autumn snatched up the newspaper and dashed off. Belle chuckled and began making dinner.

"I found something in the paper." Autumn handed a torn out sheet to her mother. "There's a seventy-five year old lady who is on a mission to find her older sister she never met."

Belle took the paper from her. "I'm sorry to have to be the one to say it, but I think her older sister is probably dead."

"Mom!"

"I'm sorry to look on the dark side, but it's probably true." Belle skimmed over the paper. "Elizabeth, huh? Lost her parents when she was a baby, raised by family, now wants to find her older sister?"

Autumn snatched the paper back from her. "Elizabeth Dixon, seventy-five, has made it her last goal to find her older sister, whom she never had the chance to meet. Her family never spoke her name, and there is little information left, but Elizabeth isn't giving up hope." Autumn stopped reading. "Did you ever have a sister, ma?"

"No." Belle shook her head. "I was an only child growing up. My parents never had another kid. At least not to my knowledge. I stopped talking to them when I went to college. They didn't want me to go. I went anyway." She forced a smile.

"That's rude of them." Autumn scoffed.

"I'm learning from their mistakes." Belle shrugged. "If you go to college, I won't stop talking to you."

Autumn grinned. "Good. Can I ask you something, though?"

"Go ahead." Belle hummed.

"Do you know how your parents died, ma?"

Belle tensed up and tightened her grip on the spatula she was holding. "Why are you asking?"

"I don't know. I'm just wondering."

Belle exhaled. "My parents were murdered. I remember reading the news article. It's one of my first memories after your father and I escaped."

"By who?" Autumn pressed.

"Drop it."

"Ma-"

"That's enough."

"But-"

"I said that's enough." Belle snapped. "My parents were murdered, that's all there is to it. I don't know who or why, but someone murdered my parents. Not that I care, because they only cared about themselves and wanted to live their lives through me and make me be the perfect child. But I didn't, and they disowned me and I had to live on my own."

Autumn went quiet for a few minutes. "You did it, didn't you?"

"Autumn."

"Ma, please, I'm trying to figure something out." Autumn pleaded. "Just answer the question and I'll stop talking about it. I just need to know."

Belle stared at her and let out a defeated sigh. "My parents were murdered on March eleventh of nineteen forty-seven. Two years after I was caught in that goddamn building." She let out a quiet laugh. "It took two years for everything they did to actually pay off. Then they sent me off on my first solo mission."