15.
~ "But you did let me go." Ariadne whispered.
"That was mine and Mal's doing." Dom interjected soberly. "We convinced Arthur not to expose you to this life. That it would hurt you and him. That you would be better off with parents who... weren't like this." He explained with difficulty.
Arthur was slouched in a chair by the window. He looked exhausted and lost in thought.
"Did you really look for my family?" She asked Dom, feeling tears were eminent.
"Yes. We sent out your picture to news papers, radio and on the television. We never said you had been found. Just your picture and a phone number. We never had a response." He said sadly.
"How long did I live here?" She asked.
"A little over a year." Dom said as Arthur looked out the window, his eyes sad.
"You sent me away?" She asked.
"We had to. We found a couple who wanted a little girl. We set up a trust for your support. The adoption was technically illegal, but there are ways around that." Dom told her.
She looked back at the photograph of her and Arthur. He had the youthful smile on his face as he held her in his lap. He looked happy. She recognized herself at six years old. She was dressed in a pink sun dress. The same dress she wore in the first picture Arthur had given her of her and her new parents. It had to be about the time of her adoption, if not the same day. But Arthur looked the same in this old picture as he did now. It was impossible.
She looked up at a large window, catching the reflection of all three men in the study.
Dom chuckled. Reading her mind.
"No, were not vampires." He said. "We can go out into the sun and eat normal food and all that."
She nodded and felt foolish. Of course they weren't vampires. None of what they were claiming could be real.
"Look, I'm not stupid." She said at last. "This is crazy. You photo shopped this." She said feeling angry.
"I wish we had." Dom said coolly.
"Did we photo shop this?" Eames said roughly pulling out more pictures from the metal box and slapping them on the desk.
Arthur remained perfectly still as Ariadne looked over the weathered and obviously aged images.
They showed Dom, Eames and Arthur in various versions of black,white and sepia. The oldest looking one depicting Arthur in a Union officer's uniform.
"That was from the Civil War." Eames said. He pulled free more photos. Showing the three men with women and children around them.
"This is Grace." He said pointing to a black and white photo of himself holding a blond little girl. Their clothing and the style of the print looked like it was from the 30's.
"Before Grace was born, I had another wife. She gave me two sons. They were killed in the Great War." Eames said. His voice raw with emotion.
"It can't be real." Ariadne whispered. None of this could be real.
And yet, the feel of the photograph was real. It was faded with age and made of heavy, old fashioned paper. These weren't faked.
"This is Mal? Your wife?" She asked Dom holding up a picture of a handsome couple.
Dom nodded.
"It's been hard for her. She grows old, I don't. People... think things when were out in public." He explained.
"It was just the same with Gracie." Eames said. "When she was a baby, she was my daughter no question. Then when she was a teenager, she had to pose as my little sister. It got strange when people started to think she was my wife."
Ariadne was shaking her head as she looked over the pictures of Eames and Grace in the 40's. They looked more like a couple then a father and daughter.
"Mal wasn't my first wife. We have been married before and had other children. Only to watch them grow old and die and leave us behind." Cobb said.
"We had an outsider who came to live with us in 1880." Eames said. "Our cousin who was orphaned. She realized what we were and it drove her mad. She threw herself off the tower, convinced we sold our souls to the devil."
"After that, we vowed never to bring an outsider into this life." Dom said. "It's not fair to them. All of this, has been hard on Mal and our children."
"James and Phillipa." Ariadne whispered. Dom nodded.
It was real. It was all real.
"How?" She asked at last. "How did this happen?" She asked.
Arthur seemed to snap out of his trance and stood.
"We don't know." He said curtly.
"Of course you know. How could you not know?" She said back to him.
Dom and Eames looked to Arthur.
"Your the three sons aren't you? You were cursed by the witch?" She accused feeling sick to her stomach. "Your almost 200 years old?" She breathed feeling faint.
"Yes." Dom admitted sadly.
"There was no witch." Arthur barked. "She wasn't a witch." He whispered fearfully.
"This didn't happen, just because." Ariadne said quickly. Her mind numb from this impossible information.
The men stood as still as statues.
"So you gave me away so that I wouldn't find out about the curse?" She asked sensing they wouldn't speak as to why they were, what they were.
"We gave you away to protect you. It wasn't fair to bring you into this life. To have you grow old and have us remain the same. It's why we vowed to never marry again. To not have anymore children. It's too hard on those we love." Eames explained.
"It was very hard for Arthur to let you go." Dom said looking at the sad man by the window. "We found a couple who we thought would take good care of you. We thought it would be best."
"Then you showed up here, demanding answers we couldn't give." Arthur said coldly.