Chapter 10

The cafe's lights were all off, the curtains were drawn, and there were no signs that anyone was inside. Sophie's Aunt Cara had originally owned Cara's Cafe, but she left a long time ago. She wanted a better life; she wanted to do more than just own a little shop. Now it was just Sophie. She had wanted to be a painter and studied Art History at a school in France, but when the cafe was given to her, she didn't want to sell it.

The metal steps up to the apartment clanged loudly with each step Arder took. At the top, the door was already slightly ajar, and the sound of the radio drifted out into the open air. Arder left her shoes outside and pushed the door open wider before slipping inside.

"Sophie?" Arder called, not seeing anyone.

The apartment fit Sophie's personality perfectly. Her many paintings covered all the walls of the small space. The numerous art books she owned were scattered across the coffee table along with her dirty paint brushes. It wasn't exactly tidy, but Sophie wasn't known for her organizational skills.

"Arder, is that you?" Sophie yelled from one of the back rooms.

"Yeah, where are you?" Arder replied, walking through the living room. Sophie's apartment had an open kitchen/dining room connected to the living area, although it was not exactly much of a living area anymore. The room had a small couch and desk for her laptop, but the rest of the space was taken up by her two large easels. The larger easel had a huge canvas with a dark oil painting of the sea, where an empty canoe floated miles away from a rocky shore. Sophie had been working on it for weeks, and in Arder's opinion, it was one of her best works.

There were three doors at the back of the apartment that lead to Sophie's bedroom, a bathroom, and the spare room. Sophie walked out of the second of the three, a towel wrapped around her head and dried oil paint on her clothes.

"What happened?" she inquired, seeing Arder's tired expression.

"Can we sit?" Arder asked in reply, walking back over to the couch. Sophie quietly sat next to her, ready to listen.

"I went home and she did it again. She wouldn't tell me a single thing. She didn't even care when I told her I would leave," Arder murmured, shaking her head.

Sophie leaned forward and hugged the younger girl. "Looks like we're having another sleepover, huh?" Arder laughed in reply and Sophie let her go.

"Coffee?" she offered. Arder nodded and waited silently for her to return.

She had stayed at Sophie's many times before this; she had slept there more times than she had at Lexie's. Arder trusted her employer, who was always happy to have Arder around.

After the coffee was made, they sat on the red velvet couch and watched movies on Sophie's laptop. It was around eleven when they both decided to go to bed.

The guest room was already made, so Arder just got changed into the clothes she had left in the dresser on a previous night and tucked herself into bed. Just as she was falling asleep, she heard a beep as the room flashed with light. Recognizing the sound, Arder leaned over and picked her phone up from the side table.

Are you going to come home?

The message was from her mother.

No, and don't bother talking to me until you're ready to tell me something.

Arder typed out, promptly pressing send before she could think better of it. She wanted to know who her father was, and even her mother couldn't keep her from the truth forever.

No reply ever came back from Aubrey. Arder didn't mind, as she knew her mother wouldn't answer. But she also knew that her mother would have to tell her eventually.