Make Your Move Katherine

The File

Weeks later.

Katherine stared at Anthony as if he had grown two heads.

“That’s not a nice thing to say to me,” she muttered and her eyes growing teary. “I thought you were my friend Anthony- why-” she gulped, “Why would you say such a thing to me? Did Oscar put you up to do this?”

Anthony stared at her then pointed the papers in her grasp and said, “It is true, just see for yourself.”

They were alone in her office space again and she had just stood up, her chair behind her, the desk in front, Anthony beyond that. She looked down at the documents in her hands and scanned them quickly, gasping when she saw what he said was true. She had questioned him about Oscar and why he thought that telling someone their parent wasn’t theirs, was an okay thing to say when they died. Her mind was made up about the king- he is not in his right frame of mind…despite being a vampire and all that mojo.

Kat shook her head vigorously to shake the thought of Oscar’s brooding vampire expression, out of her mind. The face that she saw when he had spurted his venomous thoughts out loud at his relatives when they were comforting her. She saw how afraid they had become when he snarled his fangs at them.

Maybe she was the insane one, for this world where supernatural creatures like vampires and mages existed, was still hard to believe at times. Maybe, one day she would wake up and find herself in an asylum.

She had just wanted to understand the cruel man to avoid his bad mood swings and judgments as much as possible. According to some of the classes she took, it usually stemmed from something in their childhood?  

She wasn’t even allowed outside at nighttime anymore- how both cruel and weird was that?

Anthony had looked at her strangely and said that it was the truth and frowned like she was the insane one. “Hold on,” he had said and left returning with the documents he now placed in her hands. In the few minutes of his absence, Kat had felt a hollow building up in her chest. It was as if she knew the bottom was dropping and her mind was in a turmoil.

Why was it when Oscar said it, she did not get this feeling? Why did she trust Anthony’s words over Oscar’s?

His handsome face came into her mind. A handsome face that did not alter when he bared his fangs but somehow contorted when he was angry. She shook her head to clear her mind with all thoughts of him.

Her mind went numb as she reread everything slowly, not even noticing he still held one more folder in his hand. It was her adoption paperwork that stated a Michael Turner had adopted her.

Kat’s legs gave out and she fell back on the plush chair behind her. How was it even possible to be adopted at age fourteen and not remember. Every memory she had was of her father- from since as far back as she could remember. How? Her father was- is her stepfather.

“Is my mother, my mother?” she asked stupidly and he nodded, his face more lugubrious than she’s ever seen but he made no move to comfort her. In fact, the man stepped further back from the desk. She had a flash of her mother in a wedding gown then. How could she know this?

“How? This is fake. It has to be.”

“My Queen, we ran your bloods, he’s not your biological father,” he said solemnly and she looked away, shaking her head.

'Well twice would be-'

"Twice, just to be certain ourselves. The King does not like mistakes," he added as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

“It must be fake, you are – this is Oscar’s sick joke,” she brought her hands up to her head, elbows on her desk “Right?” she added when he did not answer her.

“No, I’m afraid not. We all assumed you knew but Oscar was the one that figured you did not.

She took a few minutes for her brain to come to terms with the fact that Michael Turner is not her real father. Was Turner even her name now? Yes, of course, the adoption is legal, her mind argued back.

‘Julian- not Turner anymore.’

“Where’s my real father?”

“Dead,” he deadpans and she glanced up then, certain she had misheard him. She had not- his expression confirmed it. It was then she saw the other manila file in his hand, by his side.

“It gets worst from here,” he warned her and Kat remembered Oscar’s similar words to her about this same situation too, back in her apartment. Back when he had said her father wasn’t her biological parent then proceeded to drink her blood.

‘Worse than that?’

The royal guard pulled in his lips as he stepped forward, holding the file out to her. Anthony’s words were cold and offered her no sort of warmth. “This is also the truth. We did the investigation.”

“Does Oscar know I have this?” she probed, looking up at him as he grimaced.

“Right this minute, no but he did say your file is available to you if you should ask. He did say that you did not believe him when he told you and to make everything, we have available to you about your parents…er, that is if you wanted to know.”

But Katherine heard instead that Oscar was keeping her in the dark and only if she found out then disclose the information to her. She nodded her head as she took the file and he stepped back again looking to the left, his hands behind his back.

“After I sacrificed my life for him- he thinks he owes me a file? Hah,” she muttered scornfully.

“Pardon me, Your Majesty but my King informed you as soon as he learned of it- which was after his death. After your escape. And pardon my words again but he did think that he was giving you some comfort there.”

Kat frowned as she opened the folder, “By telling me the man I thought was my father my entire life- is not?”

“Yes. You need to understand that he thinks differently. He was under the impression that you knew but chose to forget it and he was reminding you of your father- who he thinks missed you-er misses you.”

“By making me miss my dad’s funeral and the goodbye I needed, he thought that he was offering me a way out?”

Anthony who was looming above her cleared his throat and answered simply, “Yes. He thinks differently.”

She looked down and gasped. It was horrible. It was pictures of a murder scene- so much blood. “My father is a murderer or was he murdered?”

“The victim, My Queen.”

She looked up at the royal guard who had once again looked away to the wall. She ignored the photos and instead took to reading. Ten minutes later she rested the folder down. “My mother murdered my father?”

He nodded, looking at her then.

“Bullsh*t. She has been with me in Armedia,” Katherine denied as she looked back down to the photos of her bloodied father. Her stomach curled at the gruesome sight.

“Before, she was here, Your Majesty.”

‘My mother is a murderer? Who murdered my real dad?’

“I need to see his grave,” she muttered.“I need to see his grave,” she muttered as she thought of the charge she had just read- first-degree, homicide.

“Yes, I’ll make preparations for tomorrow with your ladies and Yeon.”

“Fine. How could I have not known my father? He does not even look familiar… I was almost fourteen when she remarried for heaven’s sake.”

It was then Katherine understood what she said. What she had known all along- her father was her step farther. She recalled the wedding, vividly. It was around the time she met Oscar…why was her mind blurred about her own personal life but she remembers Oscar clearly from back then?

She remembers telling him that her mother had remarried and they had moved. Kat furrowed her forehead, remembering then too that Oscar had shown up at her new school. Had he taken a transfer because of her? And everyone just went along with her?

‘Was this part of my mother’s plan?’

“Well, the picture is old. Maybe you will recognize him in time,” she heard over the light buzzing in her head. Kat's teen years sort of made a cameo in her mind for a few seconds; her break off from her best friend back then Sally. Scott dumping her for her new bestie Lexie and Diane caught between the girls. Then Oscar's- she gave herself a mental shake. Now is not the time to sulk about her life and past troubles.

She needed to get to the bottom of why- why Oscar and her other memories were intact but not of her mother? The guard's sharp intake of breath brought her out of her deep thoughts and she focused back on his words- Kat doubted she will remember a dead man but hoped she will get past the indifference she was feeling.

‘Charged with first-degree, homicide.’

“Maybe. I want everything you have on this. Where is my mother? Was she arrested?” Kat noticed the paper clip with a photo behind her father’s only normal picture and pulled the photograph out. She stood up, gasping loudly and pointing.

“What is it, My Queen?” Anthony was in front of the desk immediately, a slight furrow between his arched eyebrows, concern in his eyes.

“That woman- I- I remember her. I drew her.” Her mother’s best friend, Kat realized. It was the woman she had sketched and was puzzled about it. While she did not know her, she had looked familiar to Kat and now she knew why- it was this woman here.

Her mother’s best friend she knew now- it had been of the one and only photo she had with them in front of a house- her mother’s parents and her mother’s best friend- who were all dead. Wait- her mother had said it was in a tragic killing.

Could this have been what she was referring to when Kat had asked her about her grandparents as a child? This…murder scene?

It was not the exact photo here, nor was it the photo from her what her mother had either but it was the same face. To confirm she needed to go back home- to Armedia to get the photograph.

“Your mother?”