Chapter 153: Olivia
Moana
After Ella and I had our little breakfast date together, we headed out for training. I dropped her off at the training facility before heading over to the orphanage to spend a few hours volunteering and helping Sophia out.
Ever since Ella mentioned wanting to refer to me as her mother, my heart couldn’t stop fluttering. I felt both anxious and ecstatic at the thought; I had considered this before, but never seriously. I had only ever thought of us occasionally as acting a bit like mother and daughter, but I knew that I could never really replace Ella’s biological mother. I wasn’t sure if it was really appropriate to even bring the subject up to Edrick, as he had never really brought up Ella’s biological mother. All I knew was that Ella’s biological mother died when Ella was very young, and no one ever really talked about her. There weren’t even photographs or anything indicating her existence around the house. Edrick’s family never mentioned her, and Edrick never really gave off the feeling of being a widower. But, then again, maybe that had something to do with his fear of commitment. Maybe he didn’t talk about her because it was too painful, and part of me always wanted to see if he would be willing to tell me a bit more about her. If Ella really wanted to refer to me as her mother, then I wanted to be able to do it in a way that was respectful of her biological mother.
When the driver eventually pulled up to the orphanage, the hot summer sun was climbing higher in the sky. It was supposed to be very hot out today, but thankfully it was one of the last hot days of the summer. With autumn just around the corner, I was excited for the vibrant fall leaves, warm drinks, and the cool air. I loved summer the most out of all four of the seasons, but I still got tired of the heat by now; not to mention the fact that the pregnancy was making the heat take more of a toll on me. I was glad that I would be done with this pregnancy by the time the next summer rolled around.
I climbed out of the car and headed inside with the bodyguard on my heels. When I got inside, I could hear what sounded like Sophia giving the children a lesson from the classroom upstairs, so I decided to just sit down at the front desk like the last time I was there and take care of all of the secretarial duties. The front office felt a bit stuffy, but after opening the windows and watering the plants, letting some air and sunlight in, it felt comfortable.
The orphanage, especially this room, had been so dusty and unkempt for a long time. Thanks to Edrick’s foundation, it seemed as though the entire orphanage was improving, and Sophia had hired builders with the extra money to fix things such as cracked window panes, creaky doors, and unpainted walls. Now, the orphanage felt much nicer than it ever did, and it made me happy that Edrick had taken the time to put together this foundation for the orphanage.
However, many of the children still had yet to be adopted. Most werewolves weren’t interested in adopting human children, and most humans couldn’t afford to take care of extra children. When I grew up here, I only saw a small handful of the other children go to live with families. The rest of us grew up here until we were old enough to move out, so Sophia was really more like our mother than anything. I knew that, even with Edrick’s foundation, most of the children who were here now would live the same way I did unless people changed their minds about human children.
As I thought about this, I couldn’t help but remember the story that Ethan had told me ages ago at his art opening: the story of the Golden Wolf. He had said that the Golden Wolf would supposedly bring humans and werewolves into a new era. I didn’t know exactly what that meant, and of course the Golden Wolf was just a fairy tale for children, but I wondered if it would mean that humans and werewolves could live as equals if the Golden Wolf was real. If I was the Golden Wolf, that would be something that I would have wanted to achieve.
Unfortunately, though, the Golden Wolf wasn’t real. And I wasn’t going to get my hopes up that it was.
Instead, all I could do was hope for the best, and do my best to help Sophia. Maybe, between that and the foundation, at least some of these children would eventually go on to live with families; and if not, then at the very least they would be able to experience a greater quality of life and more opportunities thanks to the foundation.
I worked for a while that morning, but the phone didn’t ring too often. However, when I opened the appointment book, I was quickly reminded that there was one appointment this morning… And my eyes widened when I saw the name on the page and was reminded of it.
Olivia.
Surely it was just a coincidence. Olivia was a common enough name, and there was no way that this was the same Olivia who I had overheard Edrick arguing with before.
However, her appointment was in five minutes. And, like clockwork, she walked in the door at exactly ten o’clock.
She was beautiful. Not only that, but she looked oddly familiar.
In fact, she looked almost exactly like Ella. The face shape, the dirty blonde hair, the button nose… The resemblance was uncanny. She was wearing a pretty, yellow sundress and had a wide-brimmed hat in her hand. As she walked in the door, she took off her sunglasses and put them on top of her head, revealing almond-shaped eyes that were a different color from Ella’s, as Ella had her father’s gray eyes, but they were the same shape. Even just looking at this woman, it was almost like seeing Ella from the future, as an adult.
“Hello,” she said, flashing me a warm smile as she approached the desk. “I’m Olivia. I’m here for my appointment.”
My eyes were wide, but I blinked quickly and tried to hide my shock. She couldn’t be related to Ella; Ella’s mother was dead. Perhaps Olivia could be a different relative, though? A cousin or an aunt, perhaps?
“U-Um… Yes, hi,” I stammered, trying not to show how confused I felt. “Um… Which of the children were you hoping to meet? They’re in a lesson right now, but they should be done soon.”
Olivia’s smile widened, and she shook her head. “Actually, I didn’t come today to meet any of the children,” she admitted.
I c****d my head in confusion. “Oh? Were you looking for a tour? Did you want to meet the headmistress?”
Once again, Olivia shook her head. What she said next made my heart race faster than I ever thought possible.
“I came to meet you, Moana. I’m Ella’s biological mother.”
