"I don't believe that nonsense. I don't know why my mother allied herself with someone like that."
"So you're not going to stop?"
"No. I need to know about my mother."
"She won't say."
"I think I always knew she wouldn't, ever. But it's a good excuse to keep tormenting her."
"Anna... I'm going to prove to you that she's not joking, with a very simple question."
Anna leaned back in her chair, reassured.
"Then do it."
"If you were pregnant today. Would you know who the father of the child was?"
Anna felt her peace of mind fade. Adonis looked at her inquiringly, but she knew that he really believed her words.
"I... well, the tests I did before coming to this country weren't exactly to identify a pregnancy, and... no. I wouldn't know."
"That's what I'm talking about."
"There's no such possibility. Not that I'm pregnant. I've been on the pill for a few months. And I may not know who the father of the child is that she says will be a shadow in my life. That makes no difference to me, because I have Ian who is not Max's son and..."
"Ordinary pills? Or the ones Maxwell gives you?"
"He would never give me pills..."
"Then you're right. You would know whose son he is."
"Why do you say that?"
"For two reasons. There's a rumor going around that Maxwell isn't a werewolf, so the pill would work on him, but Adam is a werewolf."
Anna felt her heart freeze. How had she not thought of this before? She urgently needed the injection Kate was taking. She would arrange for Adam to allow her to see him. It wouldn't be difficult to convince a werewolf doctor that she needed an injection.
Anna stood up and looked around.
"I needed someone to serve the soup I brought that woman, but I don't see anyone here."
"I'll leave a note here. The staff will be here soon."
Anna nodded in agreement and went out of the house to the car to wait for Adonis.
She knew about the evil bloom Sarah was talking about. She was just late. For this evil was born within her when she learned that she had killed her mother. And in the course of time, events caused this evil to grow inside her. But she wouldn't let it inside her. After breaking up with Sarah, she would turn away from all that was bad and evil, and live a life of good, alongside Maxwell... or Adam.
...
Anna arrived at the mansion and found it empty. No one was home. She avoided the chapel, because she knew that people would be gathered around the bodies. And she didn't want to see the angry, sad faces again. She took refuge in her room and stared at the television for a while, but without knowing what was on. She was thinking about Sarah. She would come back the next day and finish what needed to be done. Not because she believed her words and curses, but because she was no longer satisfied with the torture. It had already become obvious that Sarah wouldn't say anything about what she knew about her mother, and she was already coming to terms with the fact that she would die without knowing her mother's story.
She got up and went to take a shower. When she came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, Ian was sitting on his bed, wearing jeans and a button-down shirt, like the clothes Adam wore. She was surprised by his behavior, as he had always resisted casual clothes, preferring to wear more formal clothes, like Max, who he believed to be his father. She felt she needed to be more attentive to the details about her son.
"Where were you Ian?"
He turned to her and raised the apple in his hands.
"I was in the kitchen. Uncle Adam asked me to come and get you so we could have lunch."
"Adam's cooking?" Anna asked, amused by the image of Adam wearing an apron.
"Of course not!" Ian said, rolling his eyes. "He's taking us to a restaurant."
Anna gave up on the shorts and shirt she was about to take out of the closet, and opted for a light dress and sandals. Ian watched her as she put on her clothes with a mysterious look on his face, but Anna didn't want to ask anything that might arouse bad thoughts in Ian, so she talked about other things.
"Ian... You never let me put jeans on you...'
"Yes."
"Why are you wearing them now?"
Ian frowned.
"Because I thought it was ugly. But now that I see Uncle Adam wearing them, I like them. But I'm only going to wear it while I'm here. When I go home, I want to keep dressing like Dad and Grandpa.
Anna smiled and went in front of the mirror to tie her hair into a ponytail. Through the mirror, she saw that Ian was staring at her intently.
"What is it, Ian?"
"Mom, do you also think that people disappear after they die?"
Anna turned to him and sat down next to him on the bed.
"No, Ian. I believe that the person lives on, just somewhere else."
"And do you think that a person who has already died can leave this place and come and visit someone, here, in this place, again?"
"I can't say, my son. I've never seen anyone. I've never seen your grandmother, and I think that if she could come and visit me, she would. Why do you ask?"
"Because I saw Alexander's son, with a woman, with beautiful hair and green eyes, just like yours... She looked a lot like you, but she was a bit older. They were holding hands at the wake. He waved goodbye to me, and she put her finger up to her mouth to silence me. Then she appeared alone next to me and told me she was my grandmother. But she was too young to be a grandmother... One of Dad's moms is also too young to be a grandma, but she's different. She has a secret."