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.CHAPTER SEVEN.
[07]. Mombie Dearest.
【 PART ONE 】
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❝ ᴀɴᴅ ɪ'ᴍ ɴᴏᴛ ᴀ ᴘᴀʀᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜɪꜱ
ꜰᴀᴍɪʟʏ. ❞
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MALIK WAS AWAKENED BY the sound of a loud scream. Malik gasps awake and looks down realizing he was completely naked. He smirks then looks over to see who the lucky girl was but his eyes widened when he sees Elizabeth freaking Saltzman beside him as well— no clothing. Lizzie awkwardly puts her hand on his shoulder and siphons him so she could do a spell to poof up clothing.
And that's exactly what she did. Malik looks to the side and throws on his pants.
"Um... d-did we...?"
Lizzie anxiously nods. "Y-yeah... I think we did."
Malik awkwardly stands up, he rubs his head in frustration. "Oh god— we can't tell anyone about this Elizabeth."
"Well, no shit."
"I— um." Malik looks down at his watch, he sees the date. "Oh, shit— happy—happy birthday."
Lizzie grabs his arm so she could see his watch, her eyes widened. "Oh my god— I need to go set up!" she runs out of the gym leaving behind Malik.
The hybrid realizes he was also in charge of setting up today as well. He runs to his room and freshens up before he goes to the grand hall. Now, Malik has gathered his pack in the grand hall, where he is getting their help in preparing for Josie and Lizzie's birthday party that evening. He stands halfway up the staircase and starts giving out instructions to the various wolves in the room.
"All right, let's get the rest of these chairs and tables and get 'em out of here."
When the wolves look at each other warily, Malik comes down the stairs and claps his hands to spur them into action. "All right? Let's go, let's go!"
As Malik walks toward the middle of the room to start helping, Rafael appears behind him and starts walking in his direction. "Landon is gone."
"I'm aware." Malik starts to pick up a chair to move it aside while Rafael tries to continue to talk to him.
"So you just don't care?"
"You just don't stop." Malik narrows his eyes suspiciously and retorts in an annoyed tone of voice. "What do you want? I'm busy."
"Landon."
"Him being sent away was good for him."
"You've known him for two minutes, and you know what's good for him?"
The mention of Landon being gone visibly angers Malik who had been tired of hearing his name, he sets the chair down with a loud slamming noise before turning around to face Rafael. "Listen to me, wolfie. I voted for your boy to stay, okay? I had your back."
Rafael seemed taken back by what he admitted.
"So how about you have my back, and help the pack with setting up?" Malik shoves a chair in Rafael's chest before walking away. As he walks away from the group he goes to Alaric's office where he was met by the two twins. "O-oh... hey guys. Happy birthday."
Josie smiles. "Hey, Malik! Thank you." she smiles hugging him.
Malik awkwardly glances at Lizzie who tries her best not to make eye contact with the boy. Josie notices the tension but brushes it off. Malik goes for the doorknob and rattles it loudly, realizing it was locked.
"What the hell?"
"Uh, Dad? Why is your door locked?" Lizzie questions as she knocks on the door.
There was no answer.
"And when were you going to tell us that Mom wasn't coming back?" Josie adds.
Malik's eye brows furrow. "Care isn't coming to the party?"
Lizzie shakes her head. "No— your bitch witch of a friend told us this morning."
"Of course she did." Malik softly chuckles, he focuses his hearing on the inside of the office, he hears two heartbeats. "There's someone else in there with him."
The twins share a determined look before they each place their right and left hands, respectively, onto Malik's shoulder siphoning magic.
"Salva."
The doors burst open, and Alaric quickly lets go of some woman— clearly unable to come up with a good cover for what they've been doing. Lizzie immediately assumes that Alaric is having an affair and gives the woman another scathing look as she sizes her up. "Who's this trollop?"
Alaric eyes the three teens. "I need you to leave right now."
"No can do, Ric."
"I'm sorry... How old are you?" The woman questions, eyeing the twins.
"Sixteen."
Josie continues to stare at the woman while Lizzie shrugs her off. Malik just stands there as some sort of bodyguard.
"Today. It's our birthday."
"You're twins?"
Lizzie suddenly remembers what they've just walked into and returns the subject to the events at hand. "What are we interrupting here?"
Alaric, wishing he could take back the last few moments, once again tries to force the twins out before they figure out anything else. "I'm serious! Do as I say and now just go! Malik take them out now!"
Malik rolls his eyes, he looks at the woman once more before taking a step back. "Holy shit..."
Lizzie rolls her eyes in annoyance before turning to the boy. "What happened now?"
Josie catches on as well. "It's her."
Lizzie scoffs. "Her who?"
Josie turns to the right and rushes over to a nearby bookshelf, where she takes a framed photo off of the middle shelf. The photo is of Alaric and Jo at their wedding, just moments before Kai killed Jo and ended the festivities. "Her."
Jo is dumbstruck by the fact that her daughters are standing in front of her.
Lizzie gasps when she comes to the same conclusion as the two beside her. "Holy crap! You're Bio-Mom."
Jo starts to make sense of all of this information. "I wasn't even showing at our wedding. How—?"
Alaric, who has begun pacing around can't find what to say.
So Malik takes over and finally responds with the truth. "Hate to get involved with family drama but from what I know... your family's crazy cult magically implanted the twins in Care when you died. She's their birth mother."
Jo looks at Malik in shock, she then automatically assumes this means that the two— Caroline and Alaric—are now in a relationship together. "So... you two..."
Alaric shakes his head. "No. She married Stefan Salvatore, who basically died on their wedding day, too... But that's a long story."
Lizzie, intent on defending who she very obviously sees as her "real" mother, speaks up on Caroline's behalf. "They're still very close."
Alaric nods in agreement. "We opened this school together."
Lizzie continues to act standoffishly in front of her biological mother, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly. "She's overseas right now, doing very important recruiting work." After a moment, Lizzie decides to introduce herself. "I'm Lizzie... After my mother's mom."
Jo smiles despite Lizzie's attempts to make her feel bad, while Josie, who seems happy to finally meet the woman who created them, smiles and introduces herself as well. "And I'm Josie. Josette. Like—"
Jo realizes that she was Josie's namesake and beams at her "...Me."
Josie smiles warmly at her biological mother, and Lizzie glares at Josie as though she's betrayed Caroline by befriending Jo.
Malik clears his throat. "And I'm not a part of this family so I should uh— I should go..." he quietly walks out the room.
Well, that was very weird.