Amy Riddle - Volume 2: The Half Blood Prince (A Voldemort's Daughter Story)

Part 23

Chapter 23

Amy's POV

I hadn't really been expecting much else for a reaction. The man - William - my stepdad, stared at me blankly. His mouth dropped open ever so slightly and I could tell he was flustered and trying to think of at least one thing to say. I had sort of dropped a bomb on him. It made sense he had no fucking idea what was going on.

"I know this is sort of a shocker to you," I said. "I'm sorry. It's probably hard for you to -"

"No." William Sorenson cut me off.

I was scared for a moment that he was mad at me and would reject me and tell me to go away because I was being crazy or I was lying. I wondered why I felt so scared, realizing that I didn't come here to make friends with him or even tell him the truth anyway. I came here to kill him. But I felt my heart sink nonetheless.

"No, that's - I can't believe it! That's wonderful!"

I furrowed my eyebrows at the complete opposite thing that I expected.

"I mean, Corrine told me she had a baby, like, fifteen years ago, but..." He put a hand on his forehead and grinned. "Wow. Oh! Yes, you should come inside. Come in, come in!"

I confusedly followed him inside the house. It was a cute place - small and modest. There were stacks of books and papers on the tables and counters. The refridgerator was covered in sloppy, badly crayoned pictures. There were old dishes in the sink and the entire room smelled like coffee.

"I'm so sorry, the house is a mess," he explained, quickly trying to clean.

"It's -" I scratched my head. "It's fine."

"Would you like something to drink? Some tea? Coffee? Something stronger?" he asked. "Or - how old -"

"Something stronger would be great," I quickly said, not really caring at all about the law or what anybody thought. Plus, if I was gonna be killing this guy...

Before I knew it, the two of us were sitting down at his small kitchen table, each with a small glass of firewhiskey. I felt nervous and I noticed that my hands were shaking ever so slightly. Only problem was, I didn't know if I was nervous about killing him or nervous that my stepdad was so nice to me.

"So you're Corrine's daughter," he murmured. "Amazing. Amelia, right?" I nodded. He smiled. "You can call me Will."

I smiled in response, not really knowing what to say. I hadn't expected him to be so accepting of me so soon. He was so excited, and he didn't even know me. He didn't know if I was telling the truth, and he certainly didn't have any sort of obligation to me. A bit foolish, if you ask me.

"She thought you were dead all these years," Will explained. He shook his head in amazement. "She told me everything. How you disappeared from the hospital two days after you were born. She was absolutely distraught." He sighed. "Of course, she was killed two years ago. I didn't even know who did it. She would have loved to meet you."

I hesitated, bringing the glass to my lips. The alcohol burned my throat as it went down and I had to physically try to cover up a wince. "I - Yeah, I wish I knew her."

"Where do you live?" Will asked.

"Uh - Um, I live with my foster parents," I explained. "Arnold and Melinda Wolfe. I lived in France for fourteen years but then we decided to move. I'm in Hogwarts right now -"

Will's eyes lit up. "Ah, yes, of course. Are you enjoying school?"

I nodded. "Very much." The first genuine thing I said today, I felt.