Page 70 of Dream Mates (Into The Parallel Omegaverse #2)
“Look, her name wasn’t Thora Silvers. Her name was Rosalind Ellington.
I don’t know her last name before she got married.
She never told me. She couldn’t play piano for shit.
She was one of those people that no one ever believed did wrong–especially once she started preaching with the church.
” I met the nurses’ gaze. “Does that help?”
It wouldn’t though.
The nurse looked at her tablet and frowned. “Not without an additional name.” She looked at the professor.
“Grace, would you like to meet Harry?” The professor’s voice went hesitant. “I… I think you’d like him.” He looked to the nurse. “Could you bring Harry after he comforts the children? Just for a few moments? We’re not quite ready for the little ones.”
Lark shot me a look. One that clearly said See, he’s trying to respect your feelings.
“I’d love to meet Harry,” I replied, even though I wasn’t so sure.
“I can do that.” The nurse left.
“Harry and I are married and he’s only with me. Pip adores him though. She was there when I saw him for the first time. I made a total idiot of myself.” Nate chuckled.
I recalled what Creed and Verity said about Harry. “He has a restaurant.”
“He does. He’s a molecular gastronomist. The youngest three are mine and Harry’s.
We call them the littles because they’re so much younger than everyone else .
My sister carried the twins, and his sister carried Hope.
It’s a bit odd having kids both in graduate programs and preschool,” he explained.
“Yeah, I can see that.” That was quite the age gap.
“You said that your mother’s name is Rosalind?” He turned to Lark. “May I see your tablet? I want to show Grace a picture of Thora.”
“Um, sure.” She handed it to him.
He typed for a moment then turned it to me. The headline was about a piano competition. An older teenager with dark blonde hair and blue-grey eyes stood there, smiling, holding a trophy.
I sucked in a sharp breath. That was my mother.
Yet it wasn’t. There was something about her smile, her eyes. She was too joyful.
The teenager wasn’t alone. There was a man and woman who were obviously her parents with her, two brothers… and another teenager, who looked exactly like her.
But not quite.
The look in her eyes was shrewd and calculating. Her expression was almost jealous of the teen with the trophy. Almost.
To most it looked like she was happy for her. But I knew that look–the one that outwardly looked socially acceptable, when the feelings within were not.
It was the same expression she wore telling people at church how proud she was of me for my grades, then berating me for embarrassing her with all my advanced classes.
The look she used to convince a member of the church who was a psychiatrist to give me meds that made it hard to think, all in the name of my own good, of course.
Most people bought it. The ones that didn’t were avoided.
The room spun and I grabbed my head, squishing my eyes tight as I started to recite Pi again. If this was all true, then how the hell did I end up in my world, with that woman ?
“Rosalind Silvers is Thora’s identical twin,” the professor said softly. “She disappeared around the time Thora died. The police came looking for her. Said she was dangerous but wouldn’t say why. Just like we never knew how and why Thora died.”
“Oh. When I look up Rosalind Silvers, the record is blocked with a message saying she’s a dangerous fugitive and to…” Lark’s voice shook. “To alert the Office of Designation Management. If they’re identical twins, I could see why they might be having record issues.”
“Indeed. Hmmm. Identical twins nearly always have identical designations–and as I’ve said before, I would absolutely believe Rosalind being a sigma. Thora had no idea, I’m sure. It’s not like they test for it without cause. Sometimes people never know,” he explained.
“Sigmas often test as alphas when young,” Lark said.
“Are you saying that Thora is my birth mom, but I was somehow raised by her identical twin who pretended to be my mom?” I tried to make sense of all this.
Somehow the woman I thought was my mother took me to another world.
I needed Spencer so that I could figure out what was happening.
“That’s all that makes sense to me. If Rosalind was on the run, she might have thought it would be easier to hide with a child by changing her profile,” Nate told me. “Sorry, Harry likes true crime dramas.”
“That makes a lot of sense. But shouldn’t I have had a record? Shouldn’t I have come up on the face-scanny thing?”
“You do have a record under Grace Theodosia Silvers. That’s how I knew your name and birth date.
But they usually don’t add the genetic profile of babies when they’re first born, especially back then,” Nate told me.
“The genscan automatically attached itself to that record, based on your name, birthday, and me, because I’m listed as your father.
The record you grew up with was faked, I’m sure.
Especially since you’re listed as being a year older, but the same month and year. ”
“Grace Theodosia? ” I started giggling, because this was all too weird. “It’s Grace Cassidy. ”
He frowned. “Oh, Cassidy was a name that Rosalind liked. But I’m surprised that she even kept your first name and birth day and month. That was a little sloppy and I’m surprised I never found you. I… I did look.”
“I believe you.” My mind–and heart–raced. No, Rosalind could be sloppy because somehow she ended up in a different world. How did she even do that?
Unless…
Spencer’s dad and Dr. K took in illegal omegas. What if in return someone helped them smuggle illegal designations out and somehow Rosalind was one of them?
I really needed to talk to Spencer.
But if Rosalind was from this world and she was the one who raised me…
“Professor?” My chest grew tight. “Rosalind knew who you were, didn’t she? She would know you’re an omega? And that you were my dad and there’d be a chance I’d be like you?”
“Unfortunately, I knew Rosalind very well. We didn’t get along, and I’m sure she knew that I was your father.
Thora’s parents knew I’d gotten her pregnant and left her.
Her mother was never any help in finding you,” he replied.
“Told me that it served me right. I always wondered why she wouldn’t care about finding her grandchild.
But if she knew that you were actually with Rosalind, well, that explains it. ”
“She knew.” Panic seized me as my body shook. Memories came back to me. Every time my mother scolded me for making a burrow or a blanket fort. Every time I was punished for too many stuffies. She knew that there was a possibility of what I could become.
When she found out about Wes, she knew that I could end up being an omega and had somehow found an alpha.
Not just any alpha, my soulmate.
This also meant that me being good at math had nothing to do with embarrassing her. Me wanting to travel to other worlds using math wasn’t delusional.
No. It was a direct threat to her existence.
Also, she might have an actual reason to hate alphas.
“She knew.” I wrapped my arms around my knees and started to sob.
“Grace, sweetie. Oh…” Worry filled the professor’s scent. “I’ll give you all the space you need after we get out of here, but please, let me hold you now.”
His arms wrapped around me, and I sobbed into his shoulder.
“I’ve got you. I’ve got you. What are you trying to tell me?” Nate said softly.
“There’s a recent note in Grace’s file stating she was raised beta and only recently discovered that she was a gamma,” Lark said softly.
Nate sucked in a breath, arms wrapped tightly around me as he rocked us back and forth.
I kept crying into his shoulder, thinking of all the times I huddled under the bed with only my pillow, of all the times I was grounded for too many blankets.
Of her knowing what me dreaming of Wes actually meant.
And her knowing that he could be real.
“I’ve never really believed everyone about this gamma stuff, I mean how could I be an omega?” I sobbed, trying to work it all out in my head.
The reality crashed down on me. I’d been born an omega, and not only did wilderness camp rob me of so many things, it halted a genetic process that was quite possibly close to being finished. No wonder my body was so screwed up.
“She did that, is that what you mean?” The professor held me tighter.
“Yes.” It came out as one big sob. She knew. She knew that Wes was real and had me convinced he wasn’t.
Just like she knew that my theories about travel between worlds were possible.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry she did that. I’m so sorry that I didn’t find you sooner. I looked for you and I never stopped looking. I promise.” His voice broke.
“It’s not your fault. You never would have found us,” I whispered, letting him hold me as love shot through the bond.
But how did we get there in the first place?