Page 77 of Destined to Fight

Kade motioned for Kelly to sit in the chair that was across from her father, and he stood behind her for support. Everyone else took their seats around the room, lessening the tension in the room.

Somehow, she felt Kade level down and knew that his fangs had retracted and his eyes were back to normal.

Her dad finally spoke. “Can we back up a minute here? What the hell are mages and fae?”

Fabian kindly and briefly explained the two races.

Growing impatient with her dad’s inability to comprehend the life-changing news, Kelly kept moving on her mission. “Someone in the family had to have something special about them, Dad, I need to know who it was.”

He looked at her for a moment, then bowed his head and rested it in his hands.

“What is it?” she asked, impatiently.

He looked up at her, then sat back and clasped his hands over his stomach. “I never thought you would need to know all of this, but I guess I was wrong.”

Suppressing a scream of frustration, Kelly spoke slowly, “Need to know what, Dad? What the hell don’t I know?”

He sighed. “Your real mother died the day you were born.”

22

Kelly would have fallen if she wasn’t sitting already.

She’d always wondered how she could be related to such a hateful and low-functioning human being, and it turned out that she wasn’t. Relief washed through her, followed by hurt and sorrow at the realization that her real mother had never been around.

“Who was my real mom?”

Her dad put his hand on his face and let it slide down slowly as if it would wipe away whatever he was feeling.

“Your mom died before her time. She was the love of my life, kiddo, and she would have loved you so much.” He paused, waiting for comments, and continued when none came. “She and I dated for about a year, and it was the best year of my life. Three months in, she was pregnant with you, and we were ecstatic at the thought of having a child. Two weeks before you were due, she was attacked in an alley on her way home one night. Someone interrupted the attack and called the police. They stayed with her until the ambulance arrived and then disappeared. They never found the attacker or the person who stepped in. By the time they got you both to the hospital, your mom was gone, but they were able to save you.”

A tear slid down her dad’s cheek. She’d never seen him cry before.

“What was her name?”

His voice cracked. “Emma.”

She whispered it, feeling the sound of it in her soul. “Emma.” Her mom’s name felt like home.

“I don’t understand why you would marry someone else and let me call her mom. How could you replace her when she was the love of your life? How could you let that witch replace her?” What started as confusion turned to fury as Kelly processed the truth.

Leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, her dad stared at the floor and shook his head. “I honestly don’t know, Kiddo. I met her two days after everything happened. She said all the right things, convinced me she was the one for me if I couldn’t have Emma, and then managed to make me think you’d be better off believing she was your mom. She said you’d be healthier and happier growing up with a mom who was there instead of one who was murdered. By the time I realized something was a little off, you were a toddler, and we were living a normal life. A man doesn’t just stand up and leave all that because something is slightly strange. She loved you in her own way, and you were cared for.”

Emotions rattled Kelly, hitting her one after the other: hurt, sorrow, longing, anger, betrayal. She couldn’t speak.

“What was Emma’s last name?” Fabian asked.

“Katz.”

Connor’s face lit up at that.

“What, Connor?” Kade asked.

“There’s an old mage family with the name Katz. There are only one or two left now, but they do their best to stay off the radar.”

Kade was suddenly very interested. “How old are we talking?”

Connor shrugged like it was no big deal. “Back to the time of our creation, around 1300 B.C. I’d have to do more research, but there is evidence they were the original mage family.”

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