Don't Just Speak Love

  * * * *

  In an SIA aircraft on the way to Seoul, Korea, I sat next to my mother in the first class cabin, but I was in no mood to enjoy the luxury. Our final destination was Vancouver, Canada, and to get there, we still had to go through another three plane transfers after this one. The entire journey was more than thirty hours, and the thought of sitting through the long hours with a mother who felt like a stranger to me was stressing me to breaking point. Not to mention being on my way to meet another stranger, who was allegedly my biological father.

  I sighed tiredly. Life was so complicated lately.

  Afraid to look directly at her in case it sparked off any awkwardness between us, I stole a peek at my mother and found her fumbling for something in her bag. Seeing her again still felt extremely surreal to me, and I kept wondering if it really was happening. After all, it had been seven years since she’d left. Seven long years...

  “You never answered my question,” I said. “Why did you only come back now?”

  She turned to me, watching my face intently with an incomprehensible expression. I squirmed uneasily under her fixed gaze. “I’ve been by Lucifer’s side all these years. He isn’t feeling that well, and I couldn’t bear to leave his side.”

  Anger blazed fiercely within me. “So you could bear to leave my side? Is that what you mean?”

  “There’s no need to get angry,” she sighed, her voice strained. “Lucifer’s your father. You don’t want him to be battling nasty health issues alone, do you?”

  “What health issues?” I asked, not bothering to keep the harshness out of my voice. I was still pretty unsure of how I felt toward Lucifer.

  She rubbed her temples, looking distraught. “He’s...rather frail. He never fully recovered from some old injuries.”

  “Oh,” I said, just to acknowledge her explanation.

  My mother took it the wrong way. “He’s your father, Averie,” she snapped incredulously. “How can you be so indifferent toward him?”

  “Well, I’m sorry, but he’s a father I’ve never so much as caught a glance of,” I said with more spite than I’d intended. It was easy for her to rebuke me because she had no idea what I was going through. A few weeks ago I had a completely normal human dad. Then someone came along and told me he wasn’t my dad. Archangel One—character unknown—was. I’d accepted that after a while but then my missing-for-seven-years mother came along and bombarded me with the news that Archangel Two—a villain—was my real dad instead. What exactly was I supposed to believe?

  I honestly had no clue. At this point I was beginning to think I would rather not have a dad at all.

  Her expression softened as she spiralled into apology mode. “Averie, I’m sorry we couldn’t be there with you these couple of years, but trust me, we never meant to leave you. We were moving around so much, there was no way you could have come with us. I had to entrust you to Morgan.” That was so ironic, it was almost funny; Dad couldn’t even handle his own life, let alone mine. “I knew I could trust him with you. He promised me when we got married that he’d treat you as his own. Averie, it was for the best.” She paused, checking my reaction.

  She was probably hoping I would go easier on her with that explanation, but I kept my face carefully blank. She’d selfishly decided everything on her own then claimed it was for the best. Fine. What more could I say?

  “Lucifer and I are living in Richmond at the moment, but we’ll be on the move again soon,” she continued wearily after several moments of harsh silence. “This time, however, we’ll be settling down permanently. That’s why I came back for you.”

  “You could have called. Checked on me,” I pointed out. There was a blatant edge to my voice.

  “Things aren’t always as they seem. Averie, I have my reasons—”

  “And excuses,” I threw in fierily, but she ignored me.

  “Although we travel around the world for trade and business, it still goes back to that horrid Albion Savant. He wouldn’t let your father off, and he’s bent on tracking him.”

  Sir Albion had always thought Lucifer was trying to make a comeback and create more mayhem. That’s why the old man was tracking him. Now, it was my job to find out if Lucifer really was going to start something terrible again before deciding on my next course of action. I needed the whole story behind this drama, not just bits and pieces.

  “It’s a good thing your father’s condition has been getting better recently,” she went on.

  “Why is that?”

  “He told me he absorbed some amazing powers.”

  “What kind of powers?”

  She shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

  “Oh.”

  “Do you want to know how I met your father?” asked my mother suddenly, surprising me a little.

  Well, I certainly did want to know that. How on earth does a human meet an archangel? And a fallen one at that. Definitely something worth hearing. “Okay, why not?”

  “I’ll keep things short,” she said, lowering her voice so only I could hear her, even though there was a lot of space between us and the other passengers. “Twenty years ago, I wasn’t married to Morgan yet. I’d been on a nursing attachment in Peninsula, Malaysia and, one night after work—a couple of weeks into the attachment—there was a sudden loud crash in the garret of the house I was renting. When I went to investigate, I found Lucifer gasping in a pool of silvery liquid. I was completely unnerved. He looked like he was in agony, and I wanted to rush him to a hospital, but he stopped me. He told me he would be fine in no time because he had an extraordinary healing ability. I didn’t buy it. Which is why he told me he was an archangel. Of course, I didn’t believe that either, so he showed me his wounds. All the silvery liquid in the garret came from there. He told me it was his blood. No human has silver blood. I had to accept it, even though part of me still doubted. I slowly nursed him back to health, and saw his healing ability for myself. After that, I believed his story entirely.”

  “What happened with me?” I asked my mother. “When was I conceived?”

  “Nineteen years ago, honey.”

  I was so annoyed, I almost rolled my eyes at my mother. Was she trying to be cute? Of course I knew I was conceived nineteen years ago.

  I can count.

  “You know what I mean,” I told her sharply.

  “After living together for some time,” she said faintly, looking resigned, “we fell in love and had you.”

  My forehead furrowed. “Why did Lucifer leave you then?” I asked in frustration. “How did you end up marrying Dad? Even in my earliest memories, we’re living with Dad in that same house.”

  “Remember the time I went away on a one month assignment in a hospital in the US?”

  I nodded after a brief moment. “The year I turned eleven. You went to New York after my birthday.”

  “Yes, that’s right. New York. I ran into Lucifer there. I never thought I would see him again. I didn’t even try looking for him, because he’d left no clue about his whereabouts when he left. Well, it turned out Lucifer was afraid we wouldn’t be safe with him. He knew Albion Savant would come for him one day, so to avoid being tracked down by the Savants, he’s been on the move since the day he left us.”

  “But how did Dad come into the picture?” I demanded.

  “I went back to Singapore after the attachment in Malaysia. Morgan has always been…into me. He looked me up a couple of months after I came back, and when he found out I was pregnant, he offered to marry me. I accepted his offer to give you a better life.”

  I swallowed hard, bracing myself. The question I was about to ask was very important to me. “Dad’s really known from the start that I’m not his kid?”

  “He knows,” she said, and I suddenly found a new respect for Dad’s magnanimity. So he knew, and yet he still treated me like his own daughter. “Morgan is a great man…” Shutting her eyes, she continued with a hint of regret in her voice, “But I couldn’t love him. I couldn’t forget Luci
fer no matter how hard I tried.”

  “Maybe you didn’t try hard enough?” I suggested adamantly. “Aren’t you moved by what Dad did for you?”

  “Being moved and being in love are two entirely different things. You’ll understand one day, Averie, when you meet the love of your life.”

  Sasuke’s handsome face immediately popped into my mind. Right now, I was crazy over everything about him. Before I’d boarded the plane to Seoul, I’d sent him a message through WhatsApp to tell him where I was headed. Relaying everything I’d found out last night, I asked him not to say a word to anyone, and to tell Sir Albion I was sick when I failed to turn up for training.

  Following that, my mother did her best to catch up with my life. Asking me every aspect of it, she eventually got dangerously close to the topic of Dad.

  “Why do you have to lock your bedroom?” she asked.

  “To prevent Dad from wrecking it like he did the rest of the house,” I told her truthfully, watching her reaction closely.

  “Why?” she cried, her wide, round eyes transfixed on mine.

  “He...erm...” I explained slowly, treading cautiously around the topic, “turned to drinking after you left... Whenever he’s drunk, he takes his rage out on everything in the house...”

  The shock on her face transformed into worry in an instant. “Does ‘everything’ include you?” she asked, concern lacing her voice.

  “No. I stay out of his way,” I lied, deciding to leave out the horrid incident that happened just the day before yesterday. I had got a feeling she’d overreact and blow things out of proportion. It might not have mattered if Dad did it by mistake or not.

  She exhaled heavily. “What’s up with Morgan? He doesn’t have to do that to himself.”

  “He’s never gotten over the fact that you took off by yourself. You’re too important to him.” Frowning, I found myself defending Dad. “You should’ve explained things to him properly instead of leaving without a word.” My frown deepened. I felt like I was the mum here, and it exasperated me no end. “That was really irresponsible.”

  For a long time, my mother didn’t say anything. I waited impatiently until she finally spoke. “I didn’t know how to face him…so I simply left without a word.” She sighed, her eyelids closing for a moment. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have done that.”

  I pressed on, feeling the need to set Dad’s life on the right path again. “Promise me you’ll make things clear to Dad and help him get back on his feet,” I said to my mother uncompromisingly. “You’re probably the only one who can.”

  She nodded after a short pause. “I promise.”