The Sebastian Smythe Story

Chapter Four

A week later and I'm sitting in my room at 'Smythe Manor', it wasn't  really a manor per say but it was a big house. It just always felt like one to me. I just stayed to myself for the whole time, recounting the extreme events that had taken place a week ago. Adrien wanted to talk today, no doubt it's about the whole name thing he mentioned two days ago. He said it would be safer for me to start completely fresh and use a new name, develope an alias.

Then I find myself asking, why can't a nephew go to live with his uncle with it not being weird? And the obvious answer, well it's suspicious of course. I walk down to Adrien's home office and Katherine is in there talking to him.

"I've sent them off," she said lowly in her thick French accent, "no interruptions then."

Adrien nods and takes his glasses off, I knock on the door that was left wide open.

"Barry," he says, "come in."

Katherine gives me a hug and I take a seat, Adrien starts to speak again, "So, what are we doing then? What's the plan?"

"It make sense, you know, the whole thing," I start, "it'll keep people from asking questions, I guess."

"So you're going to do it," he pulls out papers from his drawer, my papers.

"I'm not sure," I tell him with full honesty, "I just feel I'd be doing an injustice, you know, to mom and dad."

"And that's understandable, Barry," Adrien gets up from his desk and sits in the chair right by the one I occupied, "you sense betrayal to Henry, because he's your father and you're his strongest supporter. If it makes you feel better, I talked to him last night and asked him if this would all be fine. And he said yes, it would be healthy for you. Surely you know about the whole name debacle of 1990?"

"Yeah," I choked out, "it's one of a kind."

"It is, isn't it," my uncle smiles a bit, "well your father said that he wanted you to take the name back on. His reasoning being that you wouldn't really change your name, but you're adopting an old persona because this name is yours and it always has been."

"And he's okay with it?" I want to make sure, "Because he doesn't like that name very much."

"I am sure," Adrien laughs, "call him yourself if you need to."

"It's fine," I wave, "I trust you."

•••

Of course there's more to my life's story, a lot more. My life has been chaotic since I was born, there's even a point where I actually lived in France for a bit, but that's a story for a later time.

Anyway, this story literally starts at birth. My parents weren't married at the time, although they were engaged to be wed. We lived with my grandparents in Ohio.

My father wanted to name me Bartholomew and that is my name now isn't it? But it wasn't then, my mother named me Sebastian Marquis Smythe. Marquis after her father and Sebastian after her grandfather, Smythe being a no brainer since she was still a maiden when I was born. But dad didn't like it, he ending up leaving my mom after an argument over me and the wedding was called off. My dad moved back to Missouri with his parents and my mother stayed with hers in Ohio.

It was a simple life, with me being a helpless baby. I was constantly coddled with love and affection from my grandmother, and I still am. And then a year later, my dad comes back into our lives and we're moving to Central City, Missouri. My mother said he looked miserable and tired. He was working hard with going to med school and working side jobs. She wasn't mad that he left, he just needed time. She understood him. They were both only two years out of high school, engaged and now parents. Of course he felt stressed, she'd say.

He proposed again, nine months after getting back together. And they eloped at the Central City Courthouse. They both had time to rethink my name. With my father it was liking my name, somewhat, with my mother it was, 'Sebastian Allen doesn't sound very good now does it?'. I went from being Sebastian Marquis Smythe to Bartholomew Henry Allen in a day.

•••

I stayed silent for a bit and thought about the story, and I sat up with an eagerness, "Well, it is my name after all. And I do respond to it."

"Yes, you do," Adrien laughs, no doubt he thought back to when my grandfather called me for help, accidently saying 'Sebastian'. He walks back behind his desk and writes on the papers. He puts his pen down when he finishes, he looks at me and in French he says, "Welcome back to the world, Sebastian Marquis Smythe."

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Thank you for reading!
Well lookie here, two in a row. Quite shorter than the rest but this is a filler really.