Silence is the New Riddle

【45 prt. 3】

'Anna Bradford.'

The name echoed in my head. I had a name. I had my mothers name. Not only that; I had my own name or at least half of it. Bradford, not Wayne. That brought up a whole nother slew of questions. What was my real name? I knew that Ridley was merely a name that Bruce gave me because it was the only clue that he really had.

I subconsciously pulled out the necklace that Bruce had given me before my kidnapping and rubbed it between my fingers.

"You have a delicate psyche," Jon said, "that's why Bruce probably kept the information from you."

I started and glanced over at him, How'd you know...?

"As I've said before," Jon said plainly, "you're like an open book. You really should work on that."

Of course, I signed, I'll do that along with the rest of the stuff that I have to do, like making sure that I don't go crazy with you not telling me stuff.

"I am telling you," Jon said with a huff. "Edward had a strong attachment to your mother, and I personally think that your mother made a mistake by letting him hang around after you were born. Kind of like a childhood friend of sorts, though he's quite a bit older than you."

Childhood friend? How old is he exactly?

"Edward's two years younger than I," Jon said, "so he's roughly around 33."

I tried to not think about the weirdness of the fact. I most certainly didn't want to think that I might have feelings for someone who 1) liked my mother and 2) was 15 years older than me. Both of those were creepy by themselves.

"You should be honored that he wants to pay that much attention to you," Jon added as he started to pace again. He wiped some invisible dust off of the table.

How do you even know all this? I asked.

"Some stuff Edward told me directly," Jon said, "others I just figured out based on how he would act. I also used a marvelous thing known as the internet."

Under any other circumstance, the use of sarcasm would've been funny, but right now it was just plain mean and uncalled for.

"The question is," Jon said, turning to face me, "why didn't you look it up yourself? If you really wanted to know about your past, it would've been as easy as searching it up on the internet."

He had a very good point. Why hadn't I looked into it more? I had nearly every opportunity throughout the years, but I hadn't taken it. Maybe it was a trust issue, or maybe not. I hadn't really thought much about my past until recently, certain that Bruce would've told me when I needed to know. But would he have really? Knowing him... probably not; that was the sad thing.

Bruce was a good guy, I mean, anyone who was willing enough to take down bad guys like he did was; he just needed to get his priorities straight. Of course I was one to talk about priorities.

I guess I really didn't think about it until recently, I signed carefully. I always assumed that Bruce would tell me when the time was right. Or maybe I was— I wasn't ready to hear it?

I had almost signed afraid but stopped myself. Giving any advantage to the Master of Fear was risky.

"People will never tell you anything unless you make them," Jon said, face darkening. I wondered if he had any personal experience with that, he most certainly seemed to based on his mood.