So I was 100% wrong and it took over a month this time. I'm so so sorry again, it's been wild. Had to replace my laptop, then I was out of town for a week, and then I moved back to university and I've been adjusting to a new schedule with school. I'm so sorry that it's been a long time between updates, and that it's a shorter chapter. I'll do my best to have a longer chapter next time, but no guarantees on how long it will be before I get it done and posted since I'm back at school again.

Chapter 10

While most families spent their Thanksgivings preparing a turkey dinner and getting together with relatives to then eat the aforementioned turkey dinner, Cosette spent her Thanksgiving Sunday and Monday unpacking boxes with her papa and thinking more and more about how odd it was that she had never met any of his relatives. In fact, she had never even heard of any of them.

She couldn't help but feel a bit angry with herself for never having noticed how little family her papa seemed to have, though in fairness, she'd never had a normal family to compare her situation to. She'd had no real close friends until now, and her time in foster care with the Thénardiers had hardly been normal. Now that she did have close friends, and was receiving texts and pictures from them about their Thanksgiving and time with their family – particularly complaints from Courfeyrac about how incredibly annoying his younger sister was – it was becoming painfully obvious how her situation was not normal.

Nevertheless, she did her best to hold it all in. The last thing she wanted was to upset her papa during a holiday. But there will always be other excuses to put off the questions, won't there? She pushed the thought aside, just as she had with other such thoughts throughout the day, and resumed pulling things out of cardboard boxes.

It was mostly books, and a few framed pictures of the two of them together. There were no antiques or special heirlooms passed down through generations, no photo albums with pictures of her papa and his family when he had been growing up. This only served to make the unpacking even more tedious for her, at least until she pulled out a large wooden box that she had never seen before.

It was strange, until then she'd been certain that she was familiar with everything her papa owned – after all, they had moved multiple times while she had been growing up and she had always helped with the unpacking, and she had never had a social life apart from him until starting university a month and a half before. How could she have missed this box? Clearly her papa's apparent lack of a family wasn't the only secret he was keeping. Perhaps the box held a clue to that secret?

Again, she pushed the suspicious thoughts aside. Why would she know everything about her papa, even if he had been her only companion for so many years? They hadn't been together every hour of every day, after all, and she had kept her own secrets over the years – mostly crushes on fictional characters in the books she read (or, at least, she hoped that she had kept them secret) – so why should her papa not have his own secrets? She had no real reason to be suspicious. Nevertheless, her curiosity about the box was too much to bear.

"What's this?" she asked finally, looking up at him. Her papa looked almost frightened when he saw her holding it.

"It's nothing," he said quickly, grabbing the box from her.

Cosette frowned, but managed to more or less reign in her curiosity for the time being. Why was her papa being so secretive? What was he not telling her?

"Okay then," she said slowly, turning her attention back to the cardboard boxes. The entire situation just seemed to be getting more and more bizarre by the minute. Perhaps I'm just overthinking it. Other families have secrets too, right? Of course, other families have actual families, not just a single parent with an adopted child with no sign of any other family members. She sighed as she opened another box of books. She didn't know what to think of the situation any more.

"How about we go for a walk tomorrow?" her papa asked suddenly, making her look up again. "I think I've found a nice park. We can go check it out, have a nice afternoon together. Just like old times."

"Yeah. Just like old times..." It was painfully obvious that he was just trying to distract her, but she was glad to go along with it. She couldn't bear the thought of disappointing him, and as a wide smile crossed his face at her agreement, she felt her stomach twist.

"Are you alright Cosette?" She wished that he could be at least a little bit less perceptive than he was. She didn't know what would be worse, admitting her concerns about the secrecy, or lying to him about it. She settled for the latter.

"I'm fine, I guess I'm just a little tired still." It wasn't a complete lie, she'd had some trouble sleeping the night before, as she always did in a new environment.

"Why don't you go have a nap then? I'll finish with these boxes myself."

"Are you sure papa? It's really no trouble, and we always do the unpacking together, after all-"

"Go nap. You need the rest." He continued smiling at her, but the stern look in his eyes and his tone of voice made it clear that there was no point in arguing or trying to stay to help. He was far more stubborn than she was, and always had been.

She got up and headed for her room, pausing briefly to kiss his cheek. Perhaps a nap really was all that she needed. Yes, that was it. She was just tired from school and dealing with so many new things, and it had made her paranoid. That was the perfect explanation. She flopped on her bed, grabbing her phone to check it briefly and set an alarm. She had two texts from Jehan, one a picture of a small cactus, the other a picture of his rat, Flora. There was also a snapchat from Courfeyrac, a video of him rolling his eyes and looking incredibly annoyed while his sister gushed about some boy from her high school.

She smiled as she set the phone aside and curled up under her blankets. A nap was all that she needed, and everything would be fine.