The Siren's Curse ✓

36. Fates Intertwined

"It was devastating for him. He spent so much time and effort on crafting each weapon to be unique and to have its own special aspect to it. He lost so much potential profit, and he blamed himself for not being strong enough to fight the thieves off, so he started drinking. But like I mentioned earlier, Anna helped him through it. She was only fifteen at the time, but somehow, she was able to get through to him more than my mom ever could."

Jimin stayed silent, watching me intently. It seemed he wasn't going to say much until I finished, so I went on.

"We were lucky. It didn't take him too long to sober up, which I'm sure was mainly because he didn't want to let us down. He hired some help so he could make up for all his stolen work. He was there day and night for almost a year straight, crafting as much as he could to try and get things back on the right track..." I trailed off, leaning my head against the wood behind me.

"But one day he never came back from work. My mom went out looking for him, but he was gone. His shop was locked up so we know he left intentionally." My voice broke, "I still don't understand what happened. It doesn't make sense that he would have left us on purpose. He loved my mom and me and Anna way too much to just disappear on us."

Jimin continued to stare at me.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, tilting my head. His brows were drawn together, lips parting open before closing again.

"What was his name?"

"Huh?"

"Your father. What was his name?" Jimin asked urgently.

"Nicholas," I answered. Jimin swallowed, once again looking at me like he couldn't decide whether he wanted to reach out to me or run away.

"I... I knew him."

"What?" There's no way.

"I knew your father, Katherine," he said, watching my reaction carefully, but I was too shocked and confused to even move.

"How?"

"I was the help he hired. After the orphanage burnt down, I had to get away... I ran off, and eventually made it to a smaller village that felt safer to me. I needed to make money for food so I went around asking people for a job. Your dad was the only one willing to pay me."

"How old were you?" I asked with a hammering heart as flashes of a young, brown-haired boy came flooding through my head.

"I think I was fourteen or fifteen," he replied, looking at me carefully, "Why?"

I remembered him. I remembered how I'd defied my mom one day, knowing she didn't want me visiting my dad at work. She always said it wasn't a good place for young girls, that I should stay away from all those weapons and the rough men that came to buy them. I was never allowed to go to his shop, but that day I decided to try anyways. And I remember peeking through the door, looking for my dad, but instead spotting a boy no more than a few years older than me. Even then, I thought to myself how beautiful he was - how he seemed to stand out from all the other boys I'd seen before. But my mom came yelling after me and dragged me back to the house before I could walk in and meet him or visit my father.

"You were the boy my dad used to talk about..." I trailed off, a whirlwind of emotions spiraling through me. "He said he tried inviting you over for dinner but you always refused."

"He's the blacksmith that taught me how to fight," Jimin stated, sending another wave of surprise through my body. "He invited me over a couple times but I was too nervous to ever go with him. He talked about his daughters - about you and Anna, I guess. But I was so used to being an orphan that the idea of being in a family's home felt too strange to me."