unsolved ≫ jake peralta

VII. CONFLICT OF INTEREST

"Happy birthday dear Helen, happy birthday to you!"

Helen Auden blew out the candles on her birthday cake. It was German chocolate, her favorite.

Ivy had spent the morning helping her mother make the cake. She was ten now, so that meant she was old enough and mature enough to help with important things, such as making her aunt a birthday cake.

She sat between Owen and Naomi, giggling with excitement as she watched Aunt Helen cut the cake.

"Ivy, I understand you helped your mother with this cake?" Helen said, watching her favorite niece with a wide smile.

"I did!" Ivy said, grinning. "I hope it tastes good!"

"I'm sure it will," Helen replied with a wink as she passed pieces of the cake to her nieces and nephew.

Ivy's eyes caught a glimpse of something shiny as her aunt leaned across the table to hand her a piece of cake.

"What's that?" Ivy asked, pointing to the golden heart that graced Helen's neck.

Ivy's question caught the attention of her parents, who turned to look at Helen's necklace.

"A gift from a secret admirer, Helen?" Richard teased.

"Only if that secret admirer is me, Ricky," Helen replied with a laugh. She brought her hand up to the locket, flipping it open to reveal a picture inside: it was the picture Vivienne had taken of Ivy, Naomi, and Owen the past Christmas. "A birthday gift to myself," she said.

"You can buy birthday gifts for yourself?" Owen asked while shoving his mouth full of chocolate cake. Frosting was smeared around his lips, and Vivienne rushed over to wipe his face with a napkin.

"Adults can," Helen replied, reaching over to gently flick her nephew's forehead.

"I can't wait to be an adult! I'm going to buy myself so many birthday presents," Owen said, turning his attention back to his plate, which contained a mess of crumbles that had once resembled a piece of cake.

Ivy's attention, however, was still on the necklace. She'd never seen a locket before, and she was a bit in awe. A necklace that you could keep something in. How useful!

"Do you want to see it, Ivy?" Helen asked, reaching around the back of her neck to unclasp the locket.

"Yes please!" Ivy said, nodding as Helen carefully placed the locket into the little girl's hands.

Ivy studied the golden necklace, running her fingers along the engraving on the heart. There was a daisy on the front, and Ivy remembered that her aunt's favorite flowers were daisies. That was why her mother always brought Helen a bouquet of them on special days, such as her birthday or on different holidays.

She opened the locket, looking at the picture of her and her siblings. It was such a small picture.

"How did you get this picture to be so small?" Ivy asked, looking up at her aunt.

"I have my ways," Helen replied, her nose wrinkling as she smirked at her niece.

Ivy shook her head. Sometimes, she believed that her aunt was magic.

She flipped over the locket, seeing that the back was engraved, too, with her aunt's initials.

H. G. A.

H stood for Helen, of course, and A was Auden. Ivy realized that she didn't know her aunt's middle name.

"Aunt Helen, what does the G stand for?" she asked.