Clary walked through the front door of her apartment, too busy thinking about how she was going to approach the subject of her father and new found brother, to notice her mom sitting on the couch in the living room.
Clary and her mother lived in a small two bedroom apartment. Technically they lived alone, but Luke, her mother's boyfriend, was there almost every night.
" hey honey" her mom said, motioning her over to come sit with her.
" how was school?"
Clary's mom had long red hair, similar to her own, except her's sat on her head much better than Clary's.
" It'll sit better as you get older Clary, trust me." her mother always said when she complained about it too much.
" Clary, is everything okay?" her mother asked.
Clary suddenly noticed that she had zoned out and completely missed everything her mother had said.
" oh, uh yeah, everything's fine.." she trailed off, not wanting to start the conversation she'd been replaying in her mind the entire way home.
" are you sure? You seem... Distracted."
Clary had gone through at least twenty different ways to approach the subject of her father. When she was little, she had wanted to know about him so much, but she never had the guts to ask. After a while, her curiosity had died down, and the urge to ask her mom, had almost completely disappeared. Almost.
" Mom... can I ask you something?" she decided that this was how people usually started these conversations in movies, then again, these scenes never ended well in the majority of movies Clary had seen...
" yes of course, ask away."
Clary took in a deep breath and finally asked the big question.
" Can you tell me about my father?"
Her mom sucked in a breath, clearly not expecting that.
" well there's not really much to tell really, we got divorced a long time ago, and I haven't seen him since."
Although Clary desperately wanted to believe everything Jonathan had said was a lie, and that her mother was telling her everything, she knew this wasn't the case. her mother was being extremely vague, not telling her the time of the divorce, not even her father's name.
" mom, I have a brother don't I?" her mother looked at her, shock written all over her face.
" how did you know that?" her voice came out harsher that usual. It cracked on the last word, as if even the memory of her child was too sad.
" He called me... today. He said he was my brother, and that..." she couldn't quite get the words out.
" mom... he said my father's dead."
Her mother looked at her with horror in her eyes.
" what? he's..."
she trailed off not finishing the phrase. Her eyes started to water, and her shoulders began to shake.
" mom, are you alright? Should I call Luke?" Clary's heart began to race, she had never seen her mother cry, let alone sob. What was she supposed to do?
" n-no Clary. It's a-alright." she said through her sobs, before walking out of the living room, and into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.