XXIII. The Key

Diana sat up the next morning in an empty room. Suddenly, the plan flooded back into her mind and she scrambled from the floor. She pressed her ear gently to the cold wood of the door, with no response, Diana opened the door and found the hallway empty. Now was her chance. Diana walked quietly and quickly down the hallway to her Aunt's room.

She stopped a few yards away when she heard Aunt Daryl's voice. Her Aunt exited the room talking with someone on her cell phone.

"Yes, the musicians should here at 9:30 tomorrow…. No, I don't want them setting up in the ballroom! This is supposed to be a lovely Sunday brunch in the gardens."

Diana waited till her Aunt turned the corner and swifty she closed the space between her and the door to the bedroom. Once inside, she noticed that the room messy. Messier than she would have expected. By the desk there were paper stacks and a full ashtray. She forgot that Aunt Daryl smoked, but she shook off the thought and continued to the bed in the far left side of the room. There was nothing weird about the bed but there was a dresser three of its four drawers open. The one that wasn't open had a strange design on it.

Diana reached into her pocket for the star shaped rhinestone and discovered that it was a perfect match. She fit the rhinestone into the design and the drawer clicked open. Diana feasted her eyes on whatever secrets lay inside.

There were various keepsakes like photos and jewelry, but there was a small black box with felt-like material on the outside. Diana carefully dislodged the box from the back of the drawer and opened it. A small locket almost fell out before Diana snatched it up. It was a locket with Alice's picture inside it and the words: In my heart always. Diana knew this was even more proof of Alice being Aunt Daryl's past girlfriend, but the other object inside the black box was damning evidence. It was an white diamond engagement ring with a small note crammed into the box. Diana sat on the floor looking at the note in disbelief. It was Daryl trying to figure out how to purpose and what to say.

"That fucking bitch…" Diana said gritting her teeth together.

That was all she needed. Diana got up with the ring, note and locket. She took out the rhinestone and closed the drawer. Diana exited the room with mixed feelings. She had expected to be happy, but she was seething with rage. She knew that her Aunt was a hypocrite but this was more than she was expecting. Daryl was flat out lying to her. All this time, she had been projecting her own issues onto Diana.

Diana knew she didn't want to wait until the Sunday brunch, enough was enough. She turned on her heel and angrily stormed down the hallway with a vengeance. She was going to find Aunt Daryl and demand an explanation, she didn't give a damn that Aunt Daryl could rip her to pieces with magic. In the heat of the moment, Diana felt that her indignation at Daryl's hypopsy was all she needed to take her down.

Diana marched rapidly down the hallways and checked various rooms. When she flung doors open, the servants inside shrank back at the aggressive energy. Diana searched for a couple of minutes with growing frustration. All this time Daryl had shown up when Diana was unprepared and now that Diana had dirt on her, she was seemingly nowhere to be found. Diana thought about screaming at Daryl's name but decided against it.

"Pardon me Milady." Said a voice to Diana's left. Diana snapped out of the heat of her rage momentary and found herself in the foyer of her home with Anna talking to her.

"Yes, Anna." Diana said composing herself.

"You have some friends from Luna Nova that are her to see you." Anna said gesturing to the main entrance.

Before Diana could look past her, a bundle of joy launched itself at Diana knocking her over.

"SURPRISE, DIANA!" Akko said hugging on to Diana, giving her a giant kiss on the cheek.

Diana got up to see Sucy, Amanda and the rest of the gang smirking at her.

"I don't understand, what are you doing here?" Diana asked looking around at all of their faces for an explanation.

"Hannah and Barbara told us about the event you have Sunday." Lotte said.

"Sooo. We thought that now would be a good time, since it was fixed, to give this back to you." Amanda said stepping aside as Constance and Jasminka walked up with Diana's white suit, as new as the day she had bought.

Wide- eyed Diana stumbled toward the suit and smiled with tears starting in her eyes.

"How? I-I thought I'd never be able to wear it again." Diana said in disbelief.

Amanda and Sucy smiled.

"What part about about us all being witches did you forget?" Sucy said cackling.

"We used the combined power of all of us to perform a repairing spell, to connect all of the scraps of the suit back together and make it all shiny and new again." Amanda said casually.

"Yeah! We all agreed that in order to take down your Aunt like the superwitch you are, you need a superwitch outfit!" Akko said doing some air punches and kicks.

Diana smiled and decided to tell everyone about her recent discoveries. After catching everyone up on the case with all of the pieces of evidence that had been uncovered, everyone was in good spirits.

"Wow. That's a lot of gay." Sucy said as she took a mushroom out of her pocket and took a bite out of it.

"Tasty tidbits." Said Jasminka.

"So what's the plan Diana?" Amanda asked.

Before Diana could answer, Hannah and Barbara's voices drowned her out.

"So, you see Diana's doing a family history project! That's why she's here."

"Yeah, that the only reason-"

"ENOUGH." Aunt Daryl said with her harshness deflected at Diana's teammates.

As soon as Aunt Daryl saw everyone gathered in the foyer, her look hardened.

"DIANA!" She yelled as her voice shook everyone in the room.

"It's time for you tell your friends to leave." Daryl said, barely containing her anger.

Diana's anger and indignation rushed back into her mind, seeing only red, she marched up to her aunt.