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chapter twelve - poison, poison
ophelia trailed behind neal and henry as they walked to get food. she was distracted, barely paying attention as they roamed the streets, only stopping when emma grabbed her because henry and neal had stepped into a pizzeria. while ophelia was hungry, she didn't want to follow them in. instead, she spotted a bookshop across the road. she gestured to it and emma nodded, watching her twin enter the store without a word.
ophelia loved to read, she did but she just never had time anymore. not when she was the saviour and there was drama every other day. but she wanted to nurture that love in henry.
henry noticed his aunt's absence when he stepped out of the pizzeria, slice in hand. "where's auntie ophelia?"
"she went into the bookshop."
emma knew her sister. she knew that look on her face. she missed hayley. seeing neal brought it all back up, after all everything overlapped. neal leaving. hayley dying. ophelia was reliving it all. she never spoke about it. not really. she acknowledged what happened but she never recalled how hard it all was. she lost her girlfriend and her sister went to prison all at once. she lost everything in a day.
"let's go then." henry was already walking towards the crosswalk to follow her. emma didn't have time to process as neal and he rushed across to find ophelia.
then henry went looking for her, neal lingering at the door as he knew ophelia didn't like him, not that he really liked her either. she was staring at a shelf, books in her arms.
"auntie ophelia?"
her head snapped towards him. she smiled. "hey henry. i thought you were getting pizza?"
he nodded to the door. "neal's holding it." his eyes narrowed. "are you okay?"
"i'm fine," she assured, grabbing another book. "go eat your pizza, i'll be out in a second."
---
despite feeling as though she was in some kind of daze, ophelia had heard henry say something about the museum and getting his camera.
she lingered behind henry and gold and ahead of neal and emma, not wanting to intrude on anyone's conversation.
they entered the apartment building, gold, emma and ophelia waiting in the lobby, which was really just a small box before a gate. again, she didn't catch on to much that was happening, her mind elsewhere, not until the door opened behind her and she was shoved to the side, head hitting the wall. hard. she groaned, dropping her bag of books before she pushed herself back up.
