You Look Like The Undead

Edward frowned. “Do you even have her contact information?”

“No but I dropped her off at her house and happen to remember exactly where it is. We can find her no problem,” Mark said confidently. “Are you willing to try, sir? I can’t think of any other possible solution while we locate Mrs. Todd.”

“At least wait a few days until she’s had time to catch up on her homework. That might increase your chances of success.”

An excellent idea. Edward retained his wits even though he was obviously worried sick about Angel. He would do everything in his power to get her back and in the meantime Mark would take care of the rest.

He desperately hoped Lily would agree. Based on the type of person she had been seven years ago, she would inconvenience herself to help others but this might be too big of a favor even for her.

Whether or not she would help them wasn’t even his biggest question right now. He was more concerned about what on earth happened to Angel. Edward might not be the most affectionate person in the world but she and Aria were everything to him. That much was clear.

If something truly happened to her, Mark wasn’t sure how his boss would continue to function. He hoped those private investigators were able to dig something up fast.

===

Lily was incredibly grateful she held on to her old pair of glasses as a backup. The prescription wasn’t perfect but it was better than Angel’s and would do until her replacement glasses were ready to pick up.

She never would have managed to finish all of her spring break homework by the skin of her teeth if she couldn’t see. As it was, she considered herself extremely lucky to finish. Especially since she was dealing with readjusting to her proper medication.

It was a terrible few days. She made it back to school with an incredible sense of accomplishment that she hadn’t fallen behind.

“Girl, you look like the undead,” her best friend Miranda Kelly noted as they ate lunch together between classes in the cafeteria on campus.

Randi was a philosophy major so their classes were in completely different parts of campus but they were able to meet up for lunch most days. They shared a Greek mythology class their freshman year filling a general ed requirement and hit it off. They had seen each other almost every day since except during school breaks when they had other things to do.

“Because I am the undead. I was pretty sick for most of spring break so I had a lot of catchup to do the last few days,” Lily said simply.

Her expression immediately grew concerned. “Did you have another seizure?”

“Yeah but it was because of a medication mix up. I’m really fine so don’t worry about me.”

‘Fine’ was a bit of an overstatement. Not only was she physically worn out from overdoing it to get all of her work done, she was emotionally worn out from processing the fact that she had a hidden twin all these years.

Lily wanted to meet Angel rather than simply hear about her but wasn’t sure if that would even be possible. She might still be missing. Either that or she now knew about her existence and simply didn’t want to contact her.

Both scenarios were bad for different reasons. Obviously, the first was terrible because Aria needed her mother and Eddie needed her in his own way too. The second meant that the one biological relative she had learned about her existence and didn’t care to know more.

The thought hurt more than it should have. She had gone nearly two decades without having any biological family. She had a wonderful adopted family and was close with all of her siblings. There wasn’t a lack of familial love in her life at all.

She didn’t care about the parents that abandoned her in the slightest but had wondered about other relatives, especially siblings over the years. If there were people who looked like her because none of her adopted family did.

Donovan was Black. Her sixteen-year-old sister Genevieve who used a wheelchair because of spina bifida had curly chestnut brown hair and blue eyes. Her eleven-year-old nonverbal autistic brother Adam was half-Asian. Her six-year-old sister Emma had the facial characteristics typical of Down’s syndrome but her hair was light brown and she had brown eyes. The Bennetts were an eclectic bunch.

Randi scrutinized her doubtfully. “You don’t look fine. Do you need a pick-me-up? Because I have a gift card to the smoothie place at the edge of campus that we can use.”

Lily smiled as warmly as her exhaustion would allow. She was such a good friend. “Thanks, Randi. You’re the best.”

“Of course I am,” she preened slightly before laughing. “So, are you ready for the last month and a half of our junior year? Midterms and spring break are now behind us but there is still so much to do.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. End-of-the-semester stuff kills me every time. Why don’t you tell me about your spring break instead? How was the road trip up to Washington?”

Randi’s eyes lit up. “Beautiful! And so much fun. Four of us being packed into that little car with way too much junk food and endless road trip games was amazing. I wish you could’ve come.”

Lily had been the first person she invited but it didn’t work out because of the tide pool assignment. That ended up being a rather convenient excuse. Randi’s friends weren’t exactly her cup of tea so being stuck with them for a whole week sounded awful.

The rest of their break before their next classes was spent going over the trip in greater detail but she didn’t mind. Randi had a way of telling stories that could crack anyone up. It was nice having this bit of normalcy after the chaos of the last week.