"Can I uhh, get you anything?" He asks as we walk into his living room. I pretend I don't know where it is, although I was already in here.
"We're fine." I quickly get out, just wanting answers.
He nods, taking a seat and gesturing for us to do the same "have a seat."
"So you uhh, how'd you know Juliet Howell?" I ask him as my butt touches the cushion. He looks to Sam then to me, still wondering if all this is true. I decide to encourage him to talk to us by saying "I just found out about this like an hour ago, so it's as new to me as it is to you."
He bites his lower lip and nods before starting to say "my uhh, my mother had some photos of them as children. I found them when I was a teenager snooping around our attic." His eyes avert between the two of us before landing only on mine "when I asked what happened to her, she just went kind of frigid and told me she had to go away."
"Away?" I echo his word, not sure I understand what he means.
He shrugs but goes on "my mother said she was sick, and needed to go somewhere so people could help her. I just figured she was in the coo coo house."
I look over to Sam whose probably thinking the same thing I am, that my mother wasn't sick but she was powerful, a witch, and she went away to school for it. "What's your mom's name?" I ask him. He hesitates in telling me, not sure if he can really trust me. "I never knew she had a sister, I never knew I had any family after my mom and dad died."
He thinks about what I say before telling me "Margret Dinners, or Howell, I guess."
"Margret" I repeat the word, trying to think back of the few memory's I have of my family, wishing something would come of it and her name would be familiar.
"Why are you? How did you find all this out?" He asks me, starting to get more comfortable with the idea that I am his cousin.
Sam covers for us "well, we're recently engaged" he takes my hand, wanting to sell the lie "and Jaclyn really wanted family to be at our wedding. We decided to do the ancestry thing and well, here we are." He puts on a small fake smile to sell the story.
His eyebrows curl up as he looks skeptical "and you pretended to be an FBI agent and question me at my office. No, I don't think so. Does this have something to do with that red headed women?" he snaps trying to think of her name.
Sam and I say it together, a bit in shock "Rowena?"
"Yea, that's it. Rowena. You're working with her?" He asks, a bit more defensive now.
My eyes widen now, curling my own eyebrows when I return "working with her? What? No. How do you know her?" I push, my head starting to spin a bit now.
"How do you?" He asks back.
Although I want him to answer first, I decide to tell him somewhat of the truth, wanting to gain his trust back "she knew my mother. She told me she was my aunt."
"Aunt?" He spits out "like, your mother's sister?"
"More like best friend when they went.." Sam slightly elbows me in the side to stop me from saying what I was about to say "when they were away at school together."
He hums, thinking over this new information "Rowena came to me over a year ago, telling me I was going to inherit some property from some distant family member. I was skeptical at first, but everything seemed to fit." I just nod, waiting for him to go on "I was excited to have something that belonged to my family. I was preparing to remodel it, but then I just, I just put it up for sale."
"Why?" I ask, biting my lower lip.
He shrugs "didn't really want it anymore. I just woke up one morning out of my sleep and decided I didn't want anything to do with that house anymore."
I can see him thinking, his eyes fluttering off my face and to something else as he thinks "what is it?" Sam asks him.
"It's weird, I was getting ready to pack everything up and move but then I just didn't want it. I don't remember why I changed my mind either." He explains.
I look to Sam, wondering if this is the spell Rowena had me cast. "You know, I could really use a glass of water." I smile at him.
He nods, standing up "sure, I'll be right back."
"Do you think that was the spell Rowena had me do, doesn't seem all dark and evil." I whisper to Sam when he is out of the room.
He shrugs and whispers back "I mean, the timeline fits but a spell that made him change his mind, it's not really her style." He agree's with me.
I shake my head "there's gotta be something more to it then that." I say back.
"But what?" He adds on, Luke walking back into the room with three glasses of water.
He places them down on the table "here you go." He says then sits back down "you know, I'm still very confused as to why you are here and why you lied to me."
"Did you ever see Rowena again after she told you about the house?" I ask him, avoiding his accusations for the moment.
He doesn't catch on to my elusive switch in conversation and tells us "yes, after I put it on the market. She came to me to ask why I would do such a thing and I just told her the same thing I told you, that I woke up the day before and didn't want it anymore."
"And that was all?" Sam questions.
He nods "she had a weird smile on her face about it, but yes, that was it."
"Luke, did your mom ever tell you where my mother was sent off to?" I question, wanting to know if he knows anything about witches.
So far nothing in our conversation is leading me to believe so, but I have to know if he's someone I can trust. I mean, he is the only blood family I have left. He responds "just that she went away to a school where she could be helped, I guess she had some issues."
"Issues?" I ask him, hoping he can elaborate.
He exhales and says "when my mother was dying, she told me some weird things. That her sister was a witch, she would play mean pranks on her as a kid, her parents didn't know what to do with her. A lot of things that are virtually impossible."
"Huh." I hum out "so, your mom was sick?" I question, wondering kind of illness.
He looks down at his glass of water "yes, she had brain cancer, took her rather quickly."
"I'm sorry." I tell him, truly meaning it. "Did she say anything else?" I ask, wanting to know everything.
He shakes his head "no, she was pretty out of it at the end. I tried to do some research after she passed away, to see if I could get a hold of her sister, but there was nothing." He then turns to ask me "do you know where you're mother was sent off too, what was wrong with her?" He asks.
Sam and I share another glance, and I lie quickly "she went to a boarding school in England."
"So she was sent away?" He says more to himself then others "I can't believe all of this."
"It's a small world." I return with a small smile, wanting to get out of there and talk to Sam without having to whisper everything. "Luke, I'm sorry, but I'm feeling a bit sick right now. Would it be alright if I give you a call sometime soon, so we can talk again?"
He straightens up in his chair and smiles "I would like that, it'll be great to get to know my cousin." He stands up to move and writes down his number on a piece of paper. "It's been a long afternoon." He says after he hands it to me and walks us to the door..
"It really has." I respond, turning to smile at him and say goodbye. We stand awkwardly for a moment not sure how to say goodbye.
Luckily, Sam steps in, and offers his hand for Luke to shake "it was great talking to you Luke. We will see you soon."
Luke takes his hand and shakes it, I then put my hand out and shake it as well, not feeling comfortable enough to leave with a hug "i'll call you soon." I assure him before we exit the house and head back to the motel.
