It had been an entire night since Aunt Anita dropped the bomb on me of whom I was and where I came from. A whole night to cope with this new information and I still couldn't wrap my mind around it. Anita was my mother, Andrew was my father. Shane was my uncle. And the baby in my locket next to Andrew is me. That was a lot to process.

What was I going to do?

A knock at my door startled me. I blinked a few times before I managed to find my voice. "Come in."

It was Thomas looking just as hot has ever, regardless of the fact that it was eight in the morning and he probably just rolled out of bed.

He stopped in the doorway and looked me over carefully. "Whoa, Liv. You look tired. Did you sleep at all last night? Wait, don't tell me you went skinny dipping without me! I knew I shouldn't have gone to sleep last night. Freaking jet lag!"

I couldn't help but laugh at him. "Do you always have inappropriate thoughts?"

He thought about it for a second. "Not always, but most of the time, yes."

I blushed. It's amazing he still does that to me. "For your information, I didn't go skinny dipping. I was up thinking."

"The whole night?" he said, crashing on my bed. "Sounds exhausting."

"Well, I did have a major bomb dropped on my last night."

"It must have been to make you stay up all night."

There was another knock on my door and it was Anita standing there with a bright smile on her face, almost completely repaired form our conversation last night. If it wasn't for the slight bags under her eyes this morning, I might not have known it happened at all.

"Breakfast is here. Shane brought the works! Come on, let's have breakfast on the patio. We can catch the life guards going on duty."

She fluttered by my doorway just a quickly has she had came to it and Thomas laughed. "Your aunt is bubbly in the mornings. And apparently has a thing for life guards."

I puckered my lips like I just tasted something sour.

"What's wrong with you?" Thomas laughed again.

"Nothing. It's just that the things Anita does aren't nearly as amusing to me anymore."

Yeah, like my mother checking out young lifeguards. I shivered. It was amusing when she was my aunt, but not my biological mother.

"Okay. Did you two get in a fight or something?"

I stared at the door way she was just standing in and sighed. "It's not a superficial as that. But we can talk about that after breakfast. Come on. I'm hungry." Stood and pulled Thomas from my bed.

"I'd much rather stay here with you," he smiled mischievously.

"I know you would," I giggled. "And that's why we should probably go."

"You torture me, Liv," he said, stumbled out of the room after me, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Good morning, Olivia," Shane said then glanced at Thomas and nodded. "Thomas."

Out on the patio, there was a huge spread of food. Anita was right, he got the works. There were bagels, pancakes, bacon and eggs, fruits and jellies and a variety of pastries. My mouth watered. I could get used to this kind of treatment. I took the seat next to Thomas who was already filling his plate with food. I grabbed a pitcher of orange juice and poured myself a glass.

"Where's Courtney?" Anita asked Shane.

I watched them out of the corner of my eye with rapt interest. I could actually believe they were only friends now, given the new information I received last night. Anita knew him because he was Andrew's older brother. My uncle. I paid special attention to Shane. My uncle, I repeated to myself.

He didn't look like me, but now that I was noticing him, he did share some of the same features as Andrew. They had the same smile and round chin shape, but that was about all.

"She's at home. The morning sickness has her down. She said to tell you she's sorry she couldn't make it, but she'll try to come by later."

Anita smiled. "I bet she's excited about the baby."

Shane nodded, returning her smile. "We both are."

"Congratulations again, even though she's almost at the end of her first trimester and I've told her that about a hundred times already," Anita said.

He reached out an arm and pulled Anita into a friendly hug. "Thanks, little sister."

I dropped my eyes at the odd title. Little sister. Andrew was long gone and yet he still referred to her as his sister-in-law. It was kind and sweet.

"Are you going to eat, Olivia?" Anita asked, coming to sit next to me. "It all looks so good, doesn't it? Shane, you have to tell me where this came from so I can write about it."

After breakfast I took a quick shower and went to my room to throw on a pair of shorts and a loose blue tank top. My hair was still damp, and took far too long to dry so I threw it up in a messy bun and was on my way. I stopped in Thomas's room on my way out and saw him Skyping with his brother. When he saw me he told him he had to go and closed the computer screen.

"Sorry," I told him. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

"You're never interrupting, Liv," he said.

"Oh, well, in that case, do you have thirty minutes?"

"Always for you." I ignored the way my heart was beating sporadically in my chest and stepped inside the room, closing the door behind me.

Thomas got a mischievous gleam in his eye, and I laughed. "It's not what you're thinking so no. Don't even think about it.

"Then what is it, Liv?" He grinned. He clearly didn't believe me.

I tried to smother my smile. "I'm serious. This whole situation is serious."

He raised his eyebrow, "There's a situation?"

I nodded and leaned my body against his door with a heavy sigh. "There is."

"And that would be?"

"It's kind of a long story."

"We've got time."

"Right," I said. "Actually we really don't. We have somewhere to be."

He stood up from the bed and crossed the room to me. His hands found my hair. "You mean besides out on the beach with you today?"

"Yes, so I'm going to have to sum this up rather quickly. Our ride to Pasadena is waiting."

He looked confused. "Pasadena? And why would we be going there when we have all we need right here?"

I took in a deep breath. Okay, now is as good a time as any.Might as well tell him. After all, I might need his help dealing with all of this.

"Right," I said. "Here it goes." I let out the breath I was holding and let the words tumbl0de out with them. I went over everything. What Anita told me, how it made me feel, what I was going to do about, and whose help I needed. It was all a bit rushed and ungraceful, but at least it was out there."So, yeah, there it is."

To my surprise, Thomas looked surprised. He wasn't one for showing much emotion. "Wow. And I thought my family was messed up."

I frowned. "Thanks."

"I'm kidding, Liv. I think this whole thing is kind of remarkable."

"Finding out you're not who you thought you were and having everything you know ripped out from under you is remarkable? We have two very definitions of that word. This whole thing is one big confusing mess."

"You could look at it like that, or you could look at it as an opportunity to get to know your dad. All your life you thought you just had one mom and one dad and now you know you have more. It'll kind of be like an adventure...an investigation of his life. We'll be like detectives. "

I smiled up at him. He looked way too excited about this. I think I just discovered what Thomas should make as his career. After all, his brother is a cop. He probably knows a lot more about this sort of thing than I do. "Good idea, Ned. We'll be detectives."

He chuckled. "Well, at least you didn't call me, Bess."

I giggled. "You mean you've read Nancy Drew?"

"It was a long time ago and you better never tell a living soul," he warned, but there was playfulness to his threat.

"Well...I guess we could treat it like an investigation. That will make it easier to accept all of this, I suppose." Except I actually know this whole thing involves me directly.

"Okay. Let's not keep our ride waiting then," he smiled. A true, genuine smile. The excitement in his eyes made it impossible not to be a little excited about this myself.

While my dad might not be my dad, and the person that is actually my father is dead, at least I still had this opportunity to get to know him. It's better than not having anything to go on at all, making him always remain a mystery to me. This was something.

"Okay. Let's go."

Nancy and Ned out to solve the mystery of Andrew Harper, my father, who died far too young.

***

Anita kissed me goodbye before I left and I could see all the emotion in her eyes as she did. While she was not going with us today, she wished me all the best of luck and let a few tears fall before letting us go.

After Thomas and I plied in back seat of the car, we let the quiet settle of us. But with Shane, that never lasts for long and now I knew why. He wasn't strange after all. He just wanted to get to know his niece and the people in her life. And for a moment, I was touched by that.

I'd never had an uncle before, unless you count Anita's ex-husband, which I don't because I barely remember him. And my dad...the one who raised me, he hadn't been close with his family for as long as I can recall. I've never even met his siblings or his parents.

It was nice having an uncle even though I didn't really know him yet. He seemed to honestly care about me and not just to impress Anita and that was enough for me to decide I would accept him and I wanted to get to know him better.

I started with asking him a few questions about his life.

"So, do you live in Pasadena too? That's where you all grew up, right- you, Anita, Andrew and your wife, Courtney?"

"I did and I never left. Pasadena will always be my home. And it will always be Andrew's home." The feeling in his voice made me believe how much he cared about his hometown and his family.

"Do you live close to your parents?"

"Right beside of them, actually," he smiled into the mirror at me. "If Court is feeling up to it, you are welcome to come over and meet her."

I smiled back. "Thank you."

"We all went to Pasadena High School together. Court and A were inseparable. They were best friends. Then when A started seeing Andrew, Court welcomed him right into their little group. Those three did everything together. They were like the three musketeers. They'd come over to our house and just spend hours there hanging out. Then one day I became curious what they did all the time, so I started hanging out with them too and that's how I met Court. I learned then, that it wasn't what they were doing that was important it was how they were with each other. When we were all together it was like being home. We were one big happy family."

The way he spoke so fondly of them, it was like I could imagine it. Four best friends who would allow nothing to come between them. Well...almost nothing. Sometimes life has different plans for you and stuff just happens.

I looked at Thomas who said nothing, only watched quietly out the window. This was probably awkward for him, being here and dealing will all my family stuff, but he was here and that meant a lot to me.

I looked down when my phone started buzzing loudly in my lap. A picture of Farrah popped up on my phone, smiling brightly. I really missed her and wanted to answer the call, but I wondered if it would seem rude to do that now, while Shane was giving me information about my family.

"You can get that if you need to," he said kindly.

"I'm sorry; this will only take a minute." I pulled the green bar across my phone and answered it. "Farrah, hey."

"Hey! You picked up this time."

I frowned. "When didn't I pick up?"

"Oh. It was last night. It went straight to voicemail."

That must have been while I talking to Anita. "Sorry. Things have just been a bit crazy."

"Crazy?" she questioned. "You're on vacation, shouldn't things be, you know, fun or relaxing?"

I sighed. "Not exactly. It's complicated." I looked up at Shane who was taking a turn onto another road and I shut my eyes. I really didn't want to be talking about all of this in front of him right now. I'd rather have this conversation with her in private "Hey, can I call you back later? I'm on my way somewhere right now."

"Sure," she said sounding a little disappointed. "Call me tonight, maybe. You know, central time."

I laughed. "Okay. Sure. And tell Grace I said hello and I miss her tons."

"Will do. Have fun at the beach, Olivia!"

"I will. Bye."

"Bye."

I placed the phone back in my lap and looked back up at Shane who was focused on the road. He didn't seem bothered that I took a call in the midst of things. I probably shouldn't have, it probably seemed rude. I just didn't want Farrah to think I was ignoring her.

"That was one of my friends from back home. I was supped to call her when I got to California. I forgot."

"Are you homesick yet?" He smiled.

I smiled and let out a small laugh. "No, but I do miss my friends."

His eyes met mine in the mirror again and it was a look of knowing. "I understand that."

I guess he did. Only his best friend was also his brother, so that couldn't have been an easy loss for him. Suddenly I felt guilty about complaining about my own problems. They seemed so trivial in light of his.

The rest of the ride was made in small talk. The weather, the best places to visit in California, the best time to hit the beach, and so on.

It wasn't until Shane broke away from our conversation and Thomas said something about now entering Pasadena that I realized that we were finally here- in my parent's hometown.

Everything was very small and quaint to my surprise. It wasn't as lively as some of the other parts of California I'd seen. It was...calm and peaceful. Neighborhoods were quiet and impeccable. Each house set just the right distance from each other- each yard flourishing with plant life. Trees, flowers and bushes aligned each yard, while timed sprinklers went off simultaneously with others. It was beautiful- picturesque. The sidewalks that bordered each yard made the neighborhoods seem so welcoming to visitors.

I couldn't have dreamed up anything more perfect, I don't think. However, beyond that, beyond all that perfection and beauty, all I could think about was that somewhere, here in one of these houses, was the home of my grandparents, whom I'd never met, and the place where dad was raised- also someone I'd never met. It excited me and scared me all at the same time. I supposed that in this situation it was okay to be both. This was a unique circumstance.

When the car finally began to slow down my skin took on the prickly nervous feeling. House by house we passed by encouraged my heart to race faster. We were close now. We were almost there.

And then we were. The house that stood in front of us was nice. Not some much different from the other houses I saw, but since I knew who was inside that house, it made it stand apart from all the others. It was more special.

Thomas took my hand and to my surprise he looked concerned. "You okay, Liv?"

"Um...yeah. It's just so surreal, you know, me being here and all? It feels like a dream."

"Well, if it is, at least I'm in it," he smiled. I smiled back. I really appreciated him being here with me and trying to make me laugh no matter the situation we were in.

"Yes. At least there is that." I laughed a little, but then just like that, my nerves were back and worse than ever. I was beginning to shake. As soon as I walk into that house, my life will never be the same again. The things I see and the things I learn can never be unseen and unlearned.

In a big way, I felt that just by my being here I was betraying my family and everything they had given me, but at the same time, I owed it to myself to get some answers. To know the person who might have raised me if not for unfortunate circumstances. And to know the people who knew him best. I wanted that. I wanted all of that. I just wish the emotions inside of me would quit fighting for space.

I took a deep breath and touched the car door handle. I wondered if my grandparents heard us pull up, if they were inside that house, right now, watching us, waiting to see me. Did they want meet me as much as I wanted to meet them? I hoped so.

And so, with that thought, I released the breath I'd been holding, slow and loud, then opened the door and placed my feet on the ground ready to add a new chapter into my life.

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A/N

This book has me so excited, guys. I'm enjoying writing this part of Olivia's story. I feel like I am really getting to know her better I hope you guys are too. When I write, all these new parts of her life come spilling out of me and it's like I'm just discovering them too. Sometimes it feels like Olivia is writing her own story through me.

I'm already planning out the next chapter. It shouldn't be long before it's up. Happy reading!

Comment, vote and follow! :)

P.S: I've added three covers into one picture in this chapter. Please check them out and let me know which one you like the best and I just might end up using one of them! Shout-out goes to the following for their lovely covers: @ACTUALLYSANNA @kreachermuch @captainobviousxx 

Thank you!!!!