"You should search your files to see if those people have anything to do with you." Raphael suggested.
"That's the thing, I want to, but then I don't want to. I'm scared of what I might find in there. What if I find something that I never knew and never wanted to know about myself?" She paused. "There's this quote my mom used to tell me: 'Once you know some things, you can't unknow them--'"
"'--It's a burden that can never be given away,' Alice Hoffman. My mom always used to tell me that when I was younger, too." He paused for a while as he lowered his head.
Denella could tell that he was thinking about his mom. At times like these, she'd never known what to say. She tried to think about another subject to change the topic to but couldn't. She never really knew what it felt like to lose someone. With the job she had, she had witnessed many people dying before, but none she knew. She could have never imagined how it felt to lose someone so close to you, someone like your mother.
"So, what about you? Where are your parents?" Raphael questioned, breaking the silence.
"Two years ago, they both moved way up in Demsberg." Denella replied.
"Wow, Demsberg. That's like six hours away, right?"
Denella shook her head, "Seven. I hardly get to see them." She complained.
"At least you do get to see you parents. I'm still trying to find a way to get my dad out of jail, but everyone thinks he killed my mom."
Denella though hard about the scenario. His mom was kidnapped, and two years later, they found her dead in his dad's backyard. Now, his dad is in jail for a crime he didn't commit. She's heard about stories like that before. There was this one story where this young boy's mom was murdered and his dad was arrested for her murder. The only thing was that he didn't do it. When the boy got older, he was struck by lightning and he got this kind of superpower. Now, he's trying to find out who killed his mom and get justice for his father. Oh, yes, there were quite a few stories with situations like this, but only the ones Denella knew were just made up.
"My relationship," Denella started, "with my mom isn't that good. I mean, it always was, until now. She came to my house earlier today, before you showed up. She said she saw me on the news. She's mad about me lying to her and my father about working at R.O.S.S. as an agent. I've lied to her this whole time . . . but I did it to protect her. She just doesn't get that."