A/N: This chapter uses the term 'half-breed' and has classism in it (or whatever the discrimination between levels can be called in unOrdinary).
Seraphina held her secret phone up to her ear with only her lamplight on to give the little light that it gave. She laid along her bed, prepared to slip below the covers at any moment.
"So, I would be staying in your house?" she asked over the phone.
"Yes," Leilah replied. "We don't have any place to stay at the lab, unless you want to make a bed there. I don't recommend that."
"No, it's fine. As long as there is a spare bed or you will get a spare bed."
"Don't worry. I have a spare bed." She paused. "I also have boyfriend. You may be seeing him about quite a bit."
"You have a boyfriend?"
"I do," she replied. "It's not the only one I've had, by the way."
"I am not surprised," she said. "It's just you haven't mentioned him before."
"I haven't?" Leilah questioned. "I guess I'm slightly surprised by that, but we have been a bit rocky recently. Zeta-Sci sent me away for training for awhile – I assume I've told you this before – and I didn't speak to him for awhile. During that and after I found about your ability. It's my fault; my work takes up too much of my time."
"When do you plan on doing this?"
"On moving you in?" she asked. "As soon as we can. I can't risk Kayden for that much longer and also you."
"What do you want me to pack?"
"On moving you in?" she asked. "As soon as we can. I can't risk Kayden for that much longer and also you."
"What do you want me to pack?"
"Anything you don't want to lose," she replied. "And maybe a few sets of clothes. Especially underwear. There's no guarantee when you would get more."
"This would be so much easier if I left after school," Sera said. "I would already have all the stuff I would want."
Leilah laughed on the other side of the phone. "If only we had thought of that sooner."
"I don't think I had come to the conclusion that I had to leave so soon then," she replied. "I thought I could make another year. A lot has happened this year."
"I know, I know." An air of silence fell over the line. "I'm sorry for leaving. I never considered what would have happened to you after I left."
"It's fine, Leilah," she responded. "I know that you didn't have anywhere to take me."
"Yes, yes. I know there were reasons I didn't take you with me and you wouldn't have the same friends you have today if I did. That's a positive you have received from staying."
"I'm glad I made those friends. I'm not sure the kind of person I would be if I hadn't met them, but if I had gone with you, that wouldn't have been necessary."
"You wouldn't have met your soulmate if you had gone with me. Or at least, not in the same amount of time."
"I'm sure John would prefer me there." She glanced to her alarm clock on her bedstand. "It's getting late. I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow so I may want to get up early."
"Yes, you probably want to catch up on the lost sleep too."
"Goodnight," she whispered into the phone as it clicked off. She slid the phone beneath the pillow as she rested her head on it.
Her door was pushed open with a click.
Her eyes snapped open as she focused on the footsteps that entered her room. "Who's there?" she called out.
"Seraphina," her mother responded. "Why were you talking on the phone at such a late hour?"
"It's none of your business," she replied as she sat up on her bed. "Why are you in my room? I'm trying to sleep."
"You weren't trying to sleep mere seconds ago," her mother said. "Why were you talking to Leilah? When did you two get back in contact?"
"I wasn't talking to Leilah!"
"So you know someone else called Leilah?"
"The person I was taking to wasn't called Leilah."
"Oh, then why did you call them Leilah?" she asked.
Seraphina bit her lip. "So what if I was talking to Leilah?"
"She is corrupted," she replied. "I wouldn't want you talking to her. You shouldn't want you to be talking to her."
"Who said she was the one who was corrupted?"
Her mother sighed. "I don't want you talking to her. She is a failure. You are my perfect daughter. I don't want her influence rubbing off on you."
"What influence?"
She sighed again. "Seraphina. Give me the phone."
"No!"
"Seraphina!"
She snapped the flip phone in half. "There!" She threw across the remains across the room.
"Seraphina!" her mother cried out again but now her mouth fell open and her eyes wide.
"Get out!" she screamed at her. "Get out of my room now!"
"Mistress Sallow." Narcissa looked up from her desk in her study to where Fyora stood in the doorway. "The mail has arrived."
"You can leave mine in here. Leave my husband's in his study for his return."
"And what about Seraphina's?"
"Seraphina's?" she questioned.
"Yes, she has received mail."
"What did she receive?"
"A package and what appears to be a letter."
"And who is this form?"
"I do not recognise the sender, Mistress Narcissa."
"I would like to check it over," she told Fyora. "I'm worried that someonei s trying to get in contact with her."
"Surely she has plenty of friends from school who may send something to her?"
"You know what I mean, Fyora."
Fyora did not respond and when she checked behind her shoulder, the next time, there was an empty doorway. Eventually, the footsteps sounded out on the wooden floorboards and Fyora entered the room. She laced down several parcels at the very end of her desk before she walked over with one small parcel and letter.
She dismissed Fyora from the room and she looked over the return address and name. The address was unfamiliar but she had heard of the name before.
Narcissa's husband returned that evening and she called him into her study to go over the package.
"Have you read the letter?" he asked her.
"It's from the boy and that she is claiming her soulmate. Not that he is that good at words – he's just mentioning something he did with a boy named Adrion. Apparently, he works at U-mart."
"Are you saying he is a low-tier?"
"From the description, a mid-tier, but probably barely one. I wouldn't be surprised if it the only one in his immediate family."
"Why would a high-tier have a friend like that?"
"I went and looked up the postcode of the return address. It belongs to a low-tier neighbourhood."
"But you've seen Seraphina owns soulmark. Her soulmate is a high-tier."
"Well, I see two explanations to this. She is either getting him to lie about bheing her soulmate, or he is a half-breed, living with the low-tier parent. Though, a messed up adoption could also be an answer, but I find that the least likely."
"Why do you think that is the least likely?"
"Her soulmark is in a fairly easy to figure out place – why would this only be brought up this year and not the last few? But her soulmate is a late-bloomer. The half-breed situation would make sense for that – no parent around to help and the other one a low-tier who would know about the ability."
"Adoption could also be the answer of it."
"Maybe I trust the adoption agencies more to make sure a high-tier baby goes to at least an elite-tier family instead of a high-tier to have a bastard."
"You have those stories about a baby being switched at birth on accident in the hospital occasionally. It could be one of those situations with the adoption."
"Why does it matter at this point if her soulmate is a half-breed or adopted? His families won't have the same connections as her fiancé's anyway if they are low-tiers. That's what we should focus on right now and that we need to cut this off."
"What is the gift he got her?"
"Some cheap jewellery. It wasn't worth anything. Nothing that she should be wearing, even discounting the source."
When the door clicked open, Seraphina jumped as she turned to look at them from where she sat at her desk. "What are you doing here?"
"We need to talk."
"About what?!"
"You received a letter today."
"A letter? I haven't been told about this."
"Do you know the sender of this letter?"
"My soulmate and I decided to send letters to each other. Can I have it now?"
"No!" she shouted back. "Why does your soulmate live in a low-tier neighbourhood?"
Her voice fell. "I never asked about where he is living."
"But do you know why he would be there?"
"Er... His dad is a cr- His dad is a low-tier."
"And due to that, he is a late-bloomer."
"Why would it be his dad's fault that he is a late-bloomer?"
"A significant difference in levels can result in an odd development of an ability of the child."
"His ability is complicated. I doubt many would have got control of it an early age."
"If his mother had taught him how to use his ability, I doubt it would be the case."
"But you don't know whether his mother is in the pictures or not?"
"Do you know?"
"She-." She cut herself off and stared. "I don't know."
"Then I think that we can assume what is the case."
"You don't know why she isn't in the picture."
"I don't think we were talking about why he hasn't at least mentioned his mother. What we are focusing on it that he is a half-breed."
"A half-bred?!" she exclaimed. "Why would you call him that?"
"Seraphina, I assume we both know that the mother we were referring to is a high-tier. And you yourself said his father was a cripple. I don't think there is anything."
"But why does it matter?!" she shouted.
"His family doesn't have any connections. How do you think you are going to succeed in life?"
"Leilah is doing just fine."
"Leilah doesn't matter here!" she yelled. "And you don't know if she is doing well, do you ? You haven't talked to her in the last few years, have you?"
Seraphina stared at her. "What?"
"What I mean is that you need to go into the marriage with Thiago for you own benefit."
"Really?" she questioned.
"Seraphina, just listen to us for once."
A/N: You may notice that this chapter is being posted on a Sunday evening instead of a Friday evening. This is because I have lost interested in unOrdinary, at least not to the same level as I used to have. I've been thinking about discounting this work and I've decided that at least for now that I will discountinue this fic and I doubt I will write an unOrdinary fanfic again (and if I do, I would hope to continue this fic or rewrite as I like soulmate aus a lot).
I have written this fic fully up to chapter 38 and have partially written chapter 39. I have a plan of how this fic will end so I will also post that.
Thank you for reading this chapter. Please share your thoughts in the comments.