Second Chance

Chapter Six

A/N: This is Baby Violet when her parents died

Claire Broker

"So, what you're saying is, I'm Nephilim?" I ask, massaging my temples. "I mean, our entire family is Nephilim because of Ignis, but your father was also Nephilim, too, so you have almost as much angel blood as Grandma V," Mom explains, burping Ellis. "Why have I never met him?" I ask, wrapping my arms around my legs again. "Nephilim and mortals aren't supposed to be able to survive giving birth to Nephilim because an angel's grace is too powerful for a mortal body to handle. Your father and I agreed we didn't want children for that very reason and we would just adopt. Then, I accidentally fell pregnant with you. I fell in love with you instantly, and I knew there wasn't anything anyone could do to take you from me. Your father decided he didn't want to stick around to watch me die, or to see if you would even survive," She answers, moving Ellis to rock her. "Then how did you survive?" I had so many questions, but I don't think anyone would actually be able to answer them. "Honestly? I never really figured it out. Eden and the rest of our family survived because Ignis gave up his grace to be with Eden before she got pregnant, but I'm not sure about how I survived," Mom explained, smiling doing at Ellis as she began to coo. A black figure appeared out of the corner of my eye, so I look over to see Eden standing on the steps of her study. "You can go, just bring in the picnic stuff when you're done. I'll bring in the trash when I head in with Ellis," Mom assures me, so I nod before getting up and walking towards Eden. She moves inside through the opening in the door, so I quickly follow. Eden stands in front of the desk, her scattered letters still strewn out everywhere. A blush rises, the guilt from earlier flooding back in. "Sorry about the letters, I'll clean those up," I promise, moving closer to them. As I start gathering the letters off the floor  Eden moves closer. I place them on the desk, watching as she tries to spread them out. Eden's hand goes through the letters, but she still makes the sweeping motion. I start spreading them out, watching as she tries to stop me as I reach closer towards the end. I point to the letter third from the bottom of the pile, "This one?" I ask Eden. She smiles in return, I guess unable to control her head due to her neck being broken. I pick it up, realizing it was in horribly written cursive. "I can't read cursive, it's not really something we're taught anymore," I explain to Eden, "but I can use my phone to translate it." She looks at me confused as I pull my phone out of my pocket. "A phone is like a really fancy book, but way more advanced," I  explain, and while she doesn't seem to understand she just takes the answer. I pull up an alphabet of the cursive for that time period, studying the letters to the best of my ability. 

"Eden, this is going to take forever if I translate all of this. Can you just show me the memory you're trying to share, or just tell me?" I plead, but she just raises an eyebrow. I'd barely gotten halfway through the first letter after sitting here for the last twenty minutes. "Okay, I guess not," I sigh, deciding to call Sophia. "Hey, Soph, you know how you're really good at all of the tech stuff?" I ask, running my hand through my hair. "Uh, yeah?" She was clearly confused, but had learned a long time ago not to ask questions. Faintly, I could hear her mom yelling about finding something in the background. "If I send you pictures of really old letters can you run some sort of program to translate them into modern day writing or something so I can read them?" I ask, chewing on my lip. "Uh, yeah, I can do that, it'll take a few minutes, though," Sophia sounded off, but willing to help. "Are you okay?" I press, but her mom's yelling became clearer. She was yelling about Grandma Ivy's estate, but she wasn't yelling at Sophia, I could hear Uncle Jeff yelling back. "I just... I will be, but right now I'm going to help you with this. I can let the program do its thing while I work on solving my problem," Sophia's response left me confused and concerned. "Soph, you don't have to help me with this. I can do this by hand, I was just being lazy. If you need to focus on something else you have every right, and if there is anything I can do to help, let me know and I will," I assure Sophia, but she just sighs. "Claire, I want to help. I was going to surprise you, but dad and I are coming to visit you. Mom doesn't want us to go because she hates the fact dad and I have 'tainted blood' because of dad's side of the family," Sophia whispers, and for a moment I'm speechless. This was Sophia's way of getting back at her mom. "From what I can tell, these letters are between Ignis and Eden," I muse, making Sophia let out a dark giggle.