The Mysterious Benedict Society Meets the Mysterious Miss F

Chapter 23

Constance gasped and stumbled back, emerging from the memories. "You're... dead. You're dead!"

"Constance, what are you talking about?" Bex asked.

"How are we even here? What did you do to us?" Constance demanded, gazing intently at Joseph. "How is this even possible?! You can't be... we can't be..." She didn't want to believe it. But she had experienced it through him and she knew it was real. "How did you...?"

"Heartbreak." Joseph said sadly. "I died the next day, shortly after hearing the confirmation of my fiance."

Edaline's eyes were darting anxiously. "What are you talking about?"

Joseph ignored her and instead answered the unsaid question. "It was... like I was flying. I'd always wanted to fly. And then there I was. I was flying away from myself. I still remember how I looked all those years ago... I was absolutely still. It was like looking at myself in a painting."

"Wait- you're what?!" Bex cried, stepping back as Edaline stood in front of the two girls.

In a quick, split second decision, Constance transmitted the events Joseph showed her moments before.

"Jolie really is gone." Edaline said, confirmation relevant. Her eyes were sharp and pinned on Joseph. Constance thought she saw a change in Edaline Ruewen. Her face was still guarded, but there seemed to be... calm in her turquoise eyes.

But Joseph shook his head. "She's not really gone. She's here, somewhere." He gestured with his hands. "You can help me find her. You can meet her again. I'm sure you've missed her."

"Wait!" Constance yelled, interrupting Joseph's pleading. "How does any of this have to do with me?! How do we have the same last name? Are you my father or not?"

"I-" Joseph peered at her oddly. "There's no way to know for certain, but Jolie and I-" He took a deep breath. "I did meet Jolie once here, in this deathly little world. She was pregnant and told me we... We had a daughter. But she died pregnant, so the baby must've... died with her?" He looked like he wanted to come closer, but Edaline was protectively shielding them. " But you're here now... and you have my eyes."

"How is that possible? I would've died, and I would be a lot older." Constance said cautiously.

"And that's the thing about this place. Here, in Elysian, time is not the same. Somehow, someone ripped a hole in this place and brought you back to where you belonged, in the Lost Cities. Someone gave you a chance, seeing as you were only a baby. Jolie had a tough choice to make. She could give you up to the living world and let you find your way through life. Or she could keep you here with her and you'd never find... a will to live, I suppose."

"What... what would've happened to me if I had stayed... here?" Constance asked.

"I don't know." Joseph shrugged. "But you could find out now. You could stay- Yes! You could stay with me, your father, and we could search for Jolie. I'm sure she would come back to me if you were there. Oh, wonderful! I can-"

"No." Edaline said, protectively pulling Constance away from Joseph. "None of us are staying here."

"But Edaline, don't you see it?" Joseph asked, desperate now. "You could see your daughter again. Why don't you stay as well? You'd have a purpose. No way would Jolie refuse her mother and daughter."

"I've accepted that she is gone." Edaline strongly stated, a fierceness in her eyes like no other. "I wasn't able to save her or protect her. But I can protect her daughter."

Bex glanced at Constance. Constance didn't know what to say, what to think. It was all surreal. "It's okay, Edaline." Constance said and stepped forward.

"Look," She started, directing her words at Joseph, "I know you are technically my biological father, but I don't belong here in Elysium. I belong... in Stonetown with my real family." She said, thinking of her dad, Nicholas Benedict, and of Kate, Reynie, and Sticky: The Mysterious Benedict Society.

"And I also belong in the Lost Cities, with my other family." She said with a smile, looking at Bex and Edaline and thinking of all the important friends she'd made along the way. "And as much as I want answers, as much as I want to get to know my parents, I just have so much more elsewhere. And I can't leave them behind." She could feel the tears threatening to fall. This was what she'd been searching for for the entirety of her stay in the Lost Cities. Her birth parents.

But now that she'd found them (at least one of them), Constance felt satisfyingly... disappointed. It felt good to know that Joseph could never be what she already had with Mr. Benedict. It was nice to know that Jolie gave her a chance in life because Constance was going to use it.

"Okay." Was all Joseph said after the long stretch of silence. Then he added, very quietly, "You do realize that this is the only time you will ever see me. I could only open the door once for your passage." Another long pause. "I'll never see you again." His voice caught. "Well, not for a very long, long time I hope."

"Follow me." He said to the group. Edaline, Bex, and Constance followed Joseph to the back of the house, to a door that looked like it led to the garden. "Just out this door and you'll find yourself back where you started before you came here."

"Goodbye, Joseph Contraire." Edaline said.

"Goodbye, Mrs. Ruewen. I'm sorry... for everything. I never meant for things to end this way." Joseph replied.

"I know." But her face had softened just a tiny bit. "But just because you made wrong decisions doesn't mean you should hold onto that guilt forever."

"Thank you. That means a lot to me." Joseph said as Edaline walked through the back door.

"Um... Goodbye, I guess." Bex said unsurely. Then she faced Constance. "See you on the other side." Then she was gone.

Constance and Joseph stared at each other for a moment. "I guess this is it, huh?"

"Yeah." Constance agreed. "Maybe I'll see you again someday. I think I'd like to get to know you in the future."

"Me too." Joseph said sadly.

"I'm leaving you now, but I can promise this: I won't abandon you here like Jolie did." Constance assured him. "I won't be back in a long, long time. But when I do, I'll come see you first thing."

Joseph smiled at her. "Well, just in case you don't quite make it here, and you happen to find Jolie first, let her know where I'm at. Let her know that I'd love to reconnect with her... and that I'm sorry."

"I think you should say that to her yourself." Constance replied. "I'm not going to fight your battles for you. Maybe you should look harder for her. Just saying."

And then, before Joseph could respond, Constance forced herself to walk through the back door.

Everything is going to be different now.

But maybe it would be a good difference. Maybe knowing who her biological parents were didn't actually matter as much as Constance thought it would. Sure, she was glad to know. But... I already have a family. A family in which I couldn't ask for more.

The Mysterious Benedict Society. And some true elvin friends.