The Inevitable Eclipse

Chapter 22 - The Blood of the Covenant is Thicker than the Water of the Womb

    Ezra couldn't pinpoint an exact moment that provoked him to search for his biological parents. Rather, it was a lifetime of little moments; well meaning people saying, 'you don't look like either of your parents.', 'who do you get your green eyes from?', studying nature vs nurture in school and then watching Ivy and Safiya walk around as a real life example of it. Worrying there might be some hereditary disease he should be aware of.

    He really had no reason to worry about what his parents would say. On the night before every one of his birthdays, his mother would sit on the end of his bed while she recounted the adoption story. He knew it by heart.

    'We were out for dinner when the phone rang. Said there was a match. Your father jumped so hard he spilled rib sauce all down his shirt. They told us you had been found at a fire station and had already charmed all the staff there, they told us they had wanted to keep you for themselves! A little baby boy in a basket, wrapped up tightly in a blanket with little stars on it, with a note that had your first name and your date of birth. The moment we laid eyes on you we knew that was it. You had us wrapped around your little finger.'

    His mother suggested using a DNA kit, one that was connected to an app and could show you living family members. His father helped him set it up and laughed at the face Ezra pulled when doing the cheek swab. It took a few weeks before the results arrived. He was both excited and apprehensive about it, so much so that he thought it best to keep it to itself, the results might show nothing and then his friends would be disappointed and he would have to act like he didn't care.

    Then again, it might lead to something. He might meet a parent and maybe he wanted to keep that to himself, he wanted to figure out how he felt about it alone first. Then he would tell them. Especially Ivy, he would want her to meet his birth parents. It was important to him that she be important to his parents, although he had no idea why it mattered so much. But it did.

    The day he got a notification on his brand new phone, he was reading by the fire. He jumped so high the book almost landed in the flames. The app was ready to be set up. He leaned forward and bit his lip so hard it almost bled while he navigated through the settings. When he figured it out, he opened up the family tree screen. It was empty. Except for one other name. That one name more than made up for the blank spaces.

    Father:
    Mother: Clarissa Addams
    Siblings:
    Maternal Grandmother:
    Maternal Grandfather:
    Paternal Grandmother:
    Paternal Grandfather:
    Maternal Aunts:
    Maternal Uncles:
    Paternal Aunts:
    Paternal Uncles:
    Cousins:

    Had she been looking for him too? Was that why her data was available? It seemed no one else in his family tree had a reason to send their DNA away. That name was familiar, for some reason. Did she live in Tenebris? Or did he know it from TV? Was she famous? Is that why she gave him up? The questions came from all angles and were firing full speed ahead.

    Two weeks, multiple long conversations with his parents and one daunting phone call passed and he was standing in front of City Hall. She was a politician, a semi-successful one too it seemed. There were rumours that she would be mayor in the next election.

    The doormen were rude and did not believe that a lanky kid in one of his father's shirts, and a tie that he did not know how to tie, would have a meeting with Clarissa Addams. She had her very own office so he knew she was a big deal. Then a young man in a tight suit appeared, asked for his name, consulted a clipboard and led him up the stairs. His heart hammered and he tried to still his fidgeting hands by readjusting his tie. He had never worn a tie before.