The little obscure cottage in the depths of the woods, was his mother's den. She was a peculiar woman, who liked the confines of solitude. Samara Andrews lived alone, ever since her husband left her, twenty years ago, chasing a curse. She was surrounded by her two pythons Fluffy and Fuzzy, while she poured herself and her son Ace another cup of coffee. She knew that what he has been asking her was going to shutter him to pieces, but she couldn't help herself to sigh, watching him lightning another cigarette.
"So you're telling me this duo are, what, my brother and sister?"
"No, just Dante is. The girl isn't Negan's."
Hearing his father's name after so long, it still painted him, and he cringed like always.
Ace came to his mother a couple of hours ago to get answers, but he sure didn't expect to hear this. Occurring to Samara, his father fell in love with her best friend, before he was born. Lucielle Blossom was the high priest's daughter. Every coven of witches had a high priest, and this one had two daughters, Yehnnefer and Lucielle. Yehnnefer, he knew, he even talked with the woman a couple of time's, when one of her witches caused problems around town. What he didn't know was that, before Yehnnefer was a man who hated every living hunter, and didn't understand the balance that was needed, for them to both survive. And when his oldest daughter fell in love with a hunter, he cursed them. At the time, he didn't know that Lucielle was already pregnant with Dante, and he cursed Negan and her, to always have the life of predator and prey. He hated his father all his life, but that man fought with the curse for ten years, before he went insane. So he embarked on a journey to hunt Lucielle and kill her, like the curse demanded so. Ace was so caught up in his own mind, that when her mother's cold fingers touched his hand, he startled.
"So please, again I ask of you, stop hating your father, son. None of us had a say in the way our life turned upside down. I don't hate neither of them. Lucielle and Negan were true soulmates, and I will always love them both from the bottom of my heart."
"But he cheated on you with her!" He was baffled how his mother forgot that important detail.
"He didn't, at the time I already knew from one look at the way they looked at eachother, that they were soulmates. I already slept with him, before they met, so you were already in my womb. But with one look at them, I knew. And I didn't regretted a second, and never will. Because I had you, honey."
"But who's Cheryl? And why does she have all those red sparks all around her?"
"It's been awhile since I last heard from Lucielle, so I can't answer you something that I don't know. I don't know who is her father or why does she have red sparks. But what I will tell you, is that you have to stop this stupid chase. She didn't do you any wrong, or your Clan, Ace. And from what you've told me, she doesn't even know what she is."
"Yes, I heard in their conversation, that Lucielle was coming at midnight to tell her everything, and that she broke some kind of sigil."
"It means that she concealed her powers. Or at least she tried to do so."
"But why? Why will she do that? That brother of hers was not new to this, he knew everything. So why hid it from her? Something's in wrong with that woman, with her powers, it has to be. There's no other explanation."
He stood up from the chair so abruptly, that both python's hissed at him angrily. Ace flicked his hand in their direction, being used to their overprotective behaviour around Samara. He was with his hand on the door, ready to go home, to be near Cheryl apartment, in case something bad will happen after she also learns the truth, when his mother's words stoped him in his tracks.
"Ace, I know your suffering, and I also know what Imed did to you, you often forget you are my son, and although I leave here, I feel everything you feel, since the day your heart started beating in my womb. So hear my advice, do not vent your sorrows on that poor girl. Give her the benefit of the doubt, and get to know her first, before you do something that you'll surely regret."
He didn't replied to her, he couldn't. Not when she touched a sensitive cord like that. So he choose to stay silent and left, heading for his apartment in a hurry.