It took me 15 days to get over my shit, put myself together, and be able to stop crying after listening to eomma's audios in the villa. Uncle brought me back, unconscious, to his place, and aunt Sofija has been coming to see me everyday, worried for my mental health that definitely deteriorated even more than it already had.
"I don't want to talk about it," I exclaimed as I sat down in front of them in the outdoor table where uncle has his breakfast everyday, in front of the infinite pool. Setting my hacking laptop over the table. Hair still wet after taking my first bath in 15 days, when I managed to motivate myself with the idea of searching for appa just like eomma last wished me for, in a black tank top with black sweatpants and black slides on, and my reading glasses on.
Both nodded, still shocked by seeing me, even though uncle has told the staff to put a 3rd place in the table, probably in case I miraculously came down, which happened. "So," he broken the silence, "you can really speak with animals."
"Took you long enough to realize I'm not prone to hallucinations," I mocked dryly, serving myself a glass of strawberry juice and a croissant.
I'll only need to stay alive until I check in appa and find my sister, then I'm excusing myself from this world. Until then, I'll try to live.
"Can you prove it?" Aunt Sofija asked, something similar to a kind of excitement glowing in her eyes, and a men came in with a black cat.
I blinked, chewing a bite of my chocolate croissant, "Sure."
"This is my cat, Jungkook," she pointed at the cat.
It was almost impossible not to choke with my juice, "Jungkook? As in the golden maknae idol of BTS?" I blinked, in genuine shock.
Her pale cheeks turned bright red, "I like their songs," no shit?
["Like?"] He mocked. ["She's obsessed with them, Mischief."]
"Oh, you already know my name?" I arched an eyebrow, then back to her. "He knows my name, and he said you're obsessed with BTS. So, is that enough to prove it? Or do you have something in mind?"
Her eyes almost popped out of her face as she half him in her arms. "I'll show him something on my phone, and if you tell me what he sees, I'll fully believe in your… power, or whatever this is."
I rolled my shoulders, not really giving a shit, "Okay."
After a second, she showed it to him and he rolled his golden eyes, then turned to me, ["Repeat with me, Mischief,"] I nodded. ["I am dating Gustav Ivanov, the vice-director of the conglomerate who works directly with me. We've been secretly together since March 8th, and we are now moving in together, because he asked for my hand in marriage two days ago, and I said yes."]
I repeated every word robotically, and when I realized what that meant, my eyes widened, "You're engaged to uncle Gustav, aunt Sofija?!"
She turned strawberry red, "Oh shit, you can really talk with cats. Jesus Christ, this is insane. How is this possible? This is amazing," she covered her mouth with her hand, and I saw the ring. "I'm engaged!"
A smile curled up my lips, but it didn't reach my eyes, "Congrats. You deserve it, aunt Sofija. When do you plan on getting married?"
"In a year and a half, it'll take time to sort everything!" She beamed.
Seems like I'm the only one frozen in the past, "I'm happy for you."
"How many animals can you talk to?" Uncle engaged it.
"Ravens, dobermans, black cats, snakes, and rats. Five for as far as I know, I could be able to speak with others that I never saw in my life, but that remains to be seen," I told them, putting my croissant to the side and opening my laptop. "Thank you for grounding me that day… I… I would have done something stupid if I was alone there, but thanks to you I didn't." They said nothing, waiting for me to keep going. "I thought it would be good to learn everything with you on my side, so…" swallowing, I pointed to the laptop, "I'll hack into appa's information and see what I'll find."
"Can we sit at your side?" Uncle asked.
"I'll turn the laptop to you when I find it," I said shortly, needing this bit of distance, needing to be the first one to see it. Stuffing my mouth with the last bite of the croissant and chewing it with a good sip of the juice, I counted to seventeen, my current age. "I'll put my headphones on because it helps me concentrating when working on the computer," I mumbled, pointing at the green Apple headset already connected to my phone, my real phone, the one halmeoni got for me in January.
Putting them one, I set Drive Forever by T3NZU to play on repeat, setting my mind on working mode, I passed through the seven layers of passwords I set for my laptop security, and began working with all the info eomma gave me before passing away. Turning my mind off from the world.
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It took me three hours, eomma would be proud.
However… what I got was bittersweet.
"Why are you frowning?" Uncle asked when I pushed the headset down on my neck, sounding anxious, as they've been staring at me, waiting for all those hours, watching me work. "Did you find your dad?"
I clenched my jaw, "I found appa, and," I swallowed, "my sister."
As they both gasped, I turned my laptop to them, biting my bottom lip so hard I taste my own blood. Unsure of how to feel.
"Abigail Naomi Hamilton Sutherland Salvatore Solomon," I finally said the name out loud, "she is identical to eomma," now, that is bittersweet. "Copy and paste, plus acqua blue hair, there's no denying, no mistaking. 17 years old, born in October 7th, the place is taken as unknown in her birth certificate, as well as the hour, and her birth mom. The only daughter of Silas Sutherland Salvatore Solomon III, raised by him and Victoria Seren Hamilton, who is considered her mother, being the aunt of appa's oldest son Silas Sutherland Salvatore Solomon IV, Vanessa Skye Hamilton's 5-years younger sister, the later being appa's first wife who died in a car crash little after Silas turned 1 year old. He was also raised by appa and Victoria."
"Victoria and Vanessa are American by their dad's side, Scottish by their mom's side, so, American-British. They are part of an elite group of Old Money families both from the US, and from Italy, Japan, Armenia, France, Wales, Scotland, Sweden, Ireland, India, Turkey, Egypt, Poland, Mexico, Germany, Norway, Austria, and South Korea. The richest families of Illinois, and part of the richest people in the US, appa being the head of the group, the head of the conglomerate they all came together for."
"All in order to monopolize their power and their empire. Not much is know about them, and they are heavily protected cybernetically, though I'm eomma's daughter and apprentice, a prodigy," I said smugly, "and I did graduate as a valedictorian student from Computer Science in MIT. So, I was able to crack the center of their systems, where is the most protected, which is where the information on appa, my sister, and their little perfect family was guarded."
"By now they probably know someone attacked their services to get information on them, but they will hardly be able to track me down," I wouldn't give two shits if they did, though. "I threw a virus that will keep them away from me and that gave me enough time to get all I needed. Appa is the only son of Francesca Sofia Savellini and Silas Sutherland Salvatore Solomon II," eomma was right, it's a cheeky and obnoxious name. "Both families with original roots in Italy, nonna and the Savellini in Milan, while nonno and the Salvatore were from Palermo," where we were made.
I couldn't help cringing at the thought, or at the idea that we were almost born in Italy, had it not been for halmeoni's call. That doesn't make me less Italian though, which I'm still coming to terms with.