Sappho Intl (Songs of Silk Book 1) Page 30

  “Good.”

  "Pharaoh, that’s all for now. You may excuse yourself and wait for us in the garden’s labyrinth. Diana and I will escort you to your jet in a moment.”

  "Alright then. Keep your head up, Prima. Oh and Silk, we'll hook up soon, alright?"

  "Most definitely…"

  The heavy heels of Pharaoh’s rocker boots echoed down the maze of halls and we began to speak again, once the back exit door slammed shut.

  “We have one more thing to address, as it pertains to Silk, and then we will dismiss for today.”

  I began to shuffle in my seat to straighten my posture.

  PrimaDonna simply stared into the central light.

  Inhale. Exhale. Purge.

  “Silk…”

  Madison paused as she looked at Diana.

  “Although the content of what we are about to discuss is far from the tragedy that we have experienced, it is truly the time to reveal the truth of it.”

  “Before your mother passed, she left us something of extreme importance. It seemed that she possessed an authentic and original copy of your family tree. The ancestral genealogy was passed on through the ages and before she passed, she left it to us for safekeeping. And she added—and I quote—until the time was right.”

  Diana followed. “She also added that we might find something of interest within the tree.”

  “We didn’t think much of it then and simply preserved it, along with many of the other Sapphian members’ rolls of genealogy. However, something phenomenal occurred when we re-opened our vault of lineages. We began to compare and record the descents, as we do every other decade and there was something very familiar about your mother’s tree.”

  “We studied, compared and traced the lineage of your mother's ancestral line, with our own known and documented ancestral rolls submitted by Sappho’s daughter, Cleis, herself; which had been preserved over the centuries.”

  “And although, Sappho’s tree had been interrupted and cut off over time; the family predecessors of your mother’s tree matched the known successors of Cleis.”

  “Excuse me, come again?” I wasn’t sure that I heard them correctly.

  “We traced and re-traced and each time, there was a distinctive match within the two bloodlines. And once you appeared within our organization we began to connect the dots.”

  “Are you trying to tell me…” My own words trailed into the hallways of the Nucleii.

  PrimaDonna lifted her head and looked at me in disbelief, at the same time that my eyes jetted from Diana and Madison to hers, in utter shock.

  “But before we came to you with this truth, we had to be certain of the validity of this discovery.”

  “We had to be certain that we were certain, to make this claim…” Diana added.

  “…and absolutely SURE to profess it as truth—we needed evidence.”

  I began to search the light myself, as it seemed both PrimaDonna and I had come alive.

  “Silk…at Illumin8, we told you about the sacred ring and blood lockets that belonged to Sappho and was submitted to the Legacy Chest.”

  Madison began to speak more quickly and excitedly.

  “Recently, we asked PrimaDonna to secure a tiny sample of your own hair. We compared the preserved sample with a tiny sample of Sappho's preserved blood—and there transpired an exact match in mitochondrial DNA.”

  I lifted my head from the light and peered directly at Madison in disbelief.

  "So, are you trying to tell me that…I’m a direct descendent of…Sappho herself?"

  "What we’re trying to tell you, Silk, is that you are the ONLY remaining blood descendent of Sappho and you are the heir to Sappho's Legacy and Crown.”

  “You are the true daughter of Sappho.”

  My mind began to reel and my heart began to accelerate, as I abruptly stood up from my seat. It was as if my own oxygen had been snatched from my body. I couldn’t believe what she was telling me.

  I—Max Silk—was the heir of Sappho!

  My eyes darted from Madison to Diana, as they smiled in awe.

  I wanted to be as excited as they were—but I couldn’t breathe.

  “I need to get some air.” I un-buttoned the top button of my dress shirt. “I need to get out of here.”

  “Calm down, Silk. It’s okay.”

  And before I knew it, I dashed up the stairs and out the door.

  I didn’t know where I was going and why I was running. But I found my legs taking me down the outside steps and towards the town car.

  “Silk! Wait!”

  I’d slowed only to catch my breath.

  Inhale. Exhale. Purge.

  PrimaDonna had reached me and we both now walked in time to my breathing. We hadn’t said a word, even as we opened the door to the town car and slid into the seat.

  I took deep breaths as PrimaDonna stared at me and the car began to move forward.

  "Did you know?"

  “No, Silk…I…”

  “Prima, don’t lie to me now…did you know?”

  I turned my face toward her slowly, as I could now feel my eyes blaze blades of a brilliant and pure light, as her eyes held my glare.

  “I swear I didn’t…I had no idea. I was only instructed to secure a sample of your hair. They did the rest in extreme confidentiality. I swear—I had no clue, Silk.”

  She scoped me with a newfound intrigue.

  "Why are you looking at me like that? It's not as if I’m changed by this, Prima.” Even though I felt it to be far from the truth, I spoke with a firm harshness. It seemed that disconnecting myself from my environment was the only way that I would begin to digest what’d been revealed to me.

  “I mean, I am still who I am. I am Max Silk.”

  "But you don't understand. This changes everything.”

  We rode the rest of the way in silence. Our minds riddled with and distracted by the rumbling pistons of our individual membrane’s now overactive engines.

  PrimaDonna serenely interrupted my mind’s thunderous processing, as we pulled onto Collins Avenue.

  “You know I never thanked you for saving my life and for standing up for us the way that you did.”

  I took a deep breath and looked into her sapphire eyes.

  “It was the right thing to do. Please let Madison and Diana know that I apologize for running out the way that I did. I just need some time to take all of this in.”

  “I’m sure that they will understand it…considering the circumstances.”

  She smiled softly.

  As the driver slowed to a stop in the front drive of South Beach's towering Setai Hotel, she handed a file to me.

  "This file holds all of the evidence to you and your family's background and the tree that leads all the way up to Sappho.”

  I took the file into my hands.

  “You can take your time reading it.”

  “It was always your destiny to lead, Silk. It is you who will usher in the new age of us Sapphians. It was always you, Silk. "

  She sweetly pecked me on my cheek’s dimple and placed her hand onto the door handle to exit the town car.

  She paused on exiting, turned and added.

  "Oh and by the way, Silk…”

  “I am the direct blood descendent of Sophia Luna.”

  PrimaDonna stood.

  “And like I said, this changes everything.”

  She gazed directly into my eyes and closed the door.

  As she walked across the front drive and the town car began to pull forward, I stared out the window and at the back of her hair in disbelief. And she looked back at me, one more time before entering into the lobby.

  Even though the truth can hurt the body, the truth ultimately sets your soul free—and I had finally found my truth.

  Yes, fate had a way of circling back around like a boomerang. And as fate would have it, my destiny with PrimaDonna, Sappho Intl, and the Sapphic Trust had only just begun.

  >   Mvxx. Amillivn, Sappho Intl (Songs of Silk Book 1)