The Secrets We Hold

Chapter 5

After the lesson was over, Stan escorted me to the guardian building. The walk over to the building was silent, only Adira's little giggles were to be heard. I tried to give her a pacifier to keep her silent in class, but she spit it at me. She got her stubbornness from me and I don't know if that is a good or bad thing.

Once we get to the guardian building, we are immediately sent to one of the meeting rooms, where I see my mother sitting along with Dimitri and the other guardians.

I take a seat at the empty chair next to Dimitri and set the carrier on the table. As if she knows, Adira stays quiet and looks at me with her fingers in her mouth.

"Rosemarie." Janine says, causing me to look up.

"Mother." I respond.

Alberta speaks, filling the awkward silence that filled the room. "So, we are here to talk about the Strigoi kill that Rose made a month ago. Guardian Alto, if you would show us the video." He nods and sets his phone up on the projector.

While the video plays, I keep my focus on my daughter, who started playing with her foot. She smiles at me when I wipe her dark hair to the side and kicks her legs. I give her a smile of my own before unbuckling her and taking her in my arms.

I hear the video stop and look up to see everybody in the room staring at me.

"Well, there is only one thing we can do. And that is give her a molnija mark." Alberta says.

"But she is still a novice." Another guardian who I didn't know mentioned.

"While she may still be a novice, she did kill a Strigoi and that means she receives the mark."

I feel Adira start to lean towards the side and hold her arms out for Dimitri. "Do you mind?" I ask Dimitri once I was unable to hold her properly.

"Not at all." He says before taking her from me.

"Now, we will hold the ceremony in one weeks' time. Guardian Hathaway, during the ceremony, since you will be attending, are you able to watch Rose's daughter?"

"Umm..." My mother says and I can tell I look just as uncomfortable as I feel. Though I have only known Dimitri for a day, I look to him for help.

"Guardian Petrov, I can watch Adira for the ceremony." He says and I shoot him a grateful look.

"Who is Adira?" My mom asks and I couldn't help but smack my hand against my head.

"Adira is my daughter's name."

Everybody leaves the room except for Dimitri, my mom, Alberta, and I. I was buckling Adira back into the carrier when I hear my mother speak.

"So, who is the baby daddy?"

I stop what I was doing to stare at her. "It is none of your concern."

Since I don't give her a clear answer, she turns to Alberta and Dimitri. "Do you two know?"

"No, she never told me." Alberta says.

"I've only known her for a day." He says honestly, though he already knew part of the story.

"Mom, stop it. Nobody knows but me. Now, drop it," I said, clipping the belt on the carrier and leaving the room to go to my next class.

My next class passed by in a blur, only really remembering the many stares I received from both my classmates and the teacher. However, the next class I had, which was Animal Behavior and Psychology, the minute I walk in, I see Lissa sitting next to Aaron, who I assume is still her.

The only empty seat was by Christian Ozera, the boy who's parents willingly turned Strigoi. It's not like I have anything to lose so I go take a seat next to him and set my daughter on this other chair.

"Ms. Rosemarie Hathaway. I heard you were back. And with a baby none the less." Said the teacher with snark in her tone.

I lounge back casually in my chair. "I'm not back willingly. And who are you to say something? I mean, it's my private life and you should know, never mix business with pleasure." I said, remember this morning that she snuck out of a male novice dorm disheveled.

Her eyes shoot up into her eyebrows and she turs around with a huff, not responding to my comment. She continues writing something on the board, but I turn to see Christian looking at me. I raise an eyebrow at him in confusion.

"You've only been here for a day and you already caught on the Ms. Neno's secret illegal boy toy.?" He said.

"I caught her leaving the dorm. Does everybody know about it?" I asked him.

"Nope, I found out when she and the dude decided to fuck in the back of the library. Seriously, you would think that she would have some common sense, but no."

I laugh a little. "Well, you can see a little hickey on her collarbone, peeking out from her blouse. So maybe everybody is either oblivious or they know but won't say anything."

"They are most likely oblivious. I mean, all of them are so focused on Princess Dragomir to pay mind to anything else."

Turning to him, I ask, "What did I miss this past year?"

He turns in his chair as well. "What didn't you miss? Vasilisa had gotten really popular after the accident, mainly due to pity. Now, she has everybody wrapped around her little finger. Trust me, be glad that you weren't here. You would've lost her as a friend probably within a month. She's done some bad things."

"That doesn't sound like Lissa. What are some of the bad things she did?"

"Whether it sound like her or not, after you left, she would lash out at anything and everything. She actually found a replacement for you and that girl, Mia, left her because she was being a bitch. Mia has been blackballed ever since."

"I've never heard of a Mia." I noted, a million thoughts running in my head.

"She is a Moroi, but not a royal. Her last name is Rinaldi so I'm not surprised you haven't heard of her. Anyways, you have gained a bad reputation ever since you ran away and it is due to everything Vasilisa had said about you. To be honest, no matter what she said yesterday about how shoe would've helped you with the pregnancy, she probably would have been the one to spread the news."

"Well, maybe she became like this because I left." I say, trying to defend her.

He just shrugs his shoulder. "Maybe, or maybe not. Just, don't tell her who the baby's father is. If you do, that news will spread like a wildfire."

"I'm not sure if that was supposed to be a pun since you are a fire user, but I'm not ever going to tell her. Speaking of which, do you know who it is? From what I can tell and as much as it pains me to admit, you are intuitive."

"I usually get up pretty early in the morning. I heard yours and Belikov's conversation this morning. Not all of it though so no, I do not know who it is. I do find it kind of interesting though that you told Belikov and you have only known him for a day. And the fact that you actually believe the boy whose parents turned Strigoi."

I laugh at the situation. "Well, I only told him part of the story, so he doesn't know either. And no offense, but you don't really have anybody to tell things to and you don't seem like the person to mess with someone when your own life is a living hell."

"Fair enough." He says and that is the end of the conversation.

We both turn to face the board and I can't help but think I just replaced Lissa with someone with someone we used to talk bad about. I talked to her for only a few minutes, yet hearing Ozera say all of those things, I can't help but think that he was being honest. Looking at her, I see her flipping her hair and laughing at something Aaron said. Almost all the girls are staring at her in envy and she knows it. I can tell that she knows it. In reality, she embraced her royal side as she was supposed to.