Sophia was sitting up at her vanity, and her image was staring back at her. The bracelet plan was a bust and even worse, Ethan had decided to defend Christiana before the whole world. Her pride was flaming, yet there was one that came up beneath her pride. And, should I not be able to dissolve them with lies, then I will excavate into his past. Something must be happening behind his back.
Sophia later sneaked into the room of her father. The room smelled of paper and leather and files lay piled up on the desk, those of the orphanage where Ethan had lived. She searched them until she happened upon one slender folder bearing the name Ethan Cole.
The papers were hungrily read to her eyes.
Born as an orphan...there is no record of parents...was discovered wrapped in a bloody blanket in front of St. Mary Hospital.
Sophia opened her lips to show surprise. Bloodstained? She flipped the page. Whispers and reports on the authorities, of a suspicion that the parents of Ethan had not left him there-- was something ugly about that. A bloody culmination, a murdered crime, a secret.
She smiled slowly. You know you are not the ideal boy Ethan. You're a mystery. A broken puzzle. And maybe... a danger.
The following morning Sophia met Ethan in the garden. She spoke with a false sympathetic expression, and her voice was full of dripping false sympathy.
Last night I could not sleep, she started. "I kept thinking about you. Of where you came of, about how little we know.
Ethan stiffened. "What are you trying to say?"
Sophia threw her head up, and looked at him. That maybe you have a past... it is not as pure as you are trying to make it appear. The orphanage records--"
"Stop." His voice was keen and sliced through her words. You were not supposed to peep at them.
The eyes of Sophia were shining with victory. Got you.
Christiana now came in, with a tray of tea. She hesitated in seeing the strain of their positions. "What's going on?"
Sophia turned to look at Christiana and then turned to look at Ethan. "Ask him," she whispered. Ask him about the bloody blanket he was in. Ask him why his parents never returned to take him.
Christiana stood still, with her eyes agape. Her tray was shaking in her hands. "Ethan... is this true?"
Ethan's jaw tightened. His fists were tightening on his sides.
Yes, yes, he went on in a hoarse voice. "It's true. I started my life not as you, Christiana. My background is full of darkness's that I cannot describe. But I am not ashamed of it." His eyes were softening and turning to her. You have been the light I have never seen before, because of meeting you.
The eyes of Christiana rang with tears. She dropped the tray, flouting the smug expression of Sophia, and pressed her hand on the one of Ethan. "I don't care about your past. I care about who you are now. Who you've always been to me."
Sophia's smile faltered. Instead of destroying them, as she believed that the secret which she had discovered would tear them apart, had only cemented them together.
It was the first time Sophia had experienced something new in her chest, not jealousy, but fear.