Luminary {Book 2 ✔️}

Chapter 9

He coughed a little and straightened up. "So, did you find anything interesting?"

I wished, more than anything, that I could say yes.

"Not really," I muttered and passed him the calendar, thinking of the dates that had the mysterious notes scrawled under them. "Not unless August 1st or September 9th mean something to you?"

Ben thought for a moment and I allowed myself the tiniest bit of hope.

"August 1st is right around when you moved in, right?"

I nodded and he smiled.

"Well, that's significant to me."

I gave him a playful shove, not stopping the smile that spread on my face. "You're such a sap."

He shot me a goofy looking face and settled onto my bed with the information we'd collected from Owein's office. I turned back to my English paper. Unfortunately, even though Shakespeare was super dead, I still had to write a paper guessing on his intentions for a play he'd written hundreds of years ago-

"Hang on," Ben interjected. My train of thought derailed. I turned to him as he held up the familiar-looking portfolio. "Do you know what this is?"

"No." I hadn't at the office and I still didn't now.

Ben flipped through the first few pages, his eyes wide. He was definitely seeing something that I wasn't.

"It's a real estate portfolio," he said with wonder and held up the folder, "these are all of the properties that Owein owns."

"Owned," I corrected before I could stop myself.

"Yeah," Ben murmured thoughtfully, "I guess they're technically Tucker's now. Fuck, that's strange. But don't you think, if my mom is alive -big if- and Owein somehow knew where she was...she'd be in one of these?"

His question hung in the air between us. Both of our eyes regarded the folder as if it were explosive. Of course, Ben's hypothesis made sense if we ruled out my own father's involvement. Which, I wasn't sure I was ready to do. I wanted to, obviously, but I had to be logical.

"It couldn't hurt to check out a few places every once in a while."

Ben's smile grew and I suddenly felt like I'd agreed to something that would closely resemble an FBI stakeout. As long as he was up for it, I would do whatever it took to find his mother. I'd never been an optimist, but I knew she was alive. I felt it.

Ben spent the rest of that evening playing Xbox with Harry while I attempted to finish my homework. My valiant attempt, however, kept being interrupted down the hall by loud yells. At one point, I think Ben had taken Harry's controller and thrown it across the room. All I knew was that something hard had hit my wall and was succeeded by lots of yelling.

It was the second night in a row that Mom didn't cry.

Unfortunately, the silence in the house didn't stop the nightmares. I woke, again, in a cold sweat with my heart threatening to beat out of my chest. When I had these nightmares, they weren't exactly prophetic.

It wasn't that they were dark, per se. I was surrounded by nothing, nothing at all. If I reached out, there was nothing. If I tried to touch my face, there was nothing. It was as if I, or anything around me, simply didn't exist. Vaguely, I wondered if that was what death felt like. Oblivion.