Our victory over the baddies bound us together like some bizarre old people’s football team, with Ariadne and me as honorary captains. Everyone was celebrating. The dining hall looked like a pep rally. But I knew we were far from safe.

“Um, Ariadne,” I started but didn’t know how to say it exactly. I needed to tell everyone about the bombs on the roof, but I didn’t want to create a panic. I wasn’t one hundred per cent sure those were bombs.

Luke raced over to us. “I’ll take care of those two.” He pointed to the pirates.

“That’s good,” I said, “But––”

He interrupted. “The other waiters have captured at least two more bad guys. We’ll tie them up and lock them in the office. A few of the bad guys may have escaped in boats.” We weren’t the same people we were yesterday. His smiley nature had turned serious. I, well, I didn’t know what I was any more. His friends were already carting the pirates away.

“Well done, Luke,” Ariadne said, patting him on the back.

“Uh, Ariadne, Luke…” I started again, but he dashed away before I could get the words out.

“Someone needs to…” Ariadne was explaining how we should organize a search and rescue team.

“Ariadne,” I said, but she wasn’t paying attention to me. People were starting to gather around her. One word was pulsing in my brain – bomb. I had to tell them. “Excuse me,” I tried again, but she brushed me aside as she continued to give orders. I couldn’t wait a second longer. “Bomb,” I blurted, but no one heard me. “BOMB!” I shouted. That got their attention. Everyone stopped what they were doing. All eyes focused on me. “Everyone out of the dining hall!” I shouted and pointed to the ceiling. “I think the pirates planted bombs on the roof.”

People scrambled out of the building, running in every direction. In our mad dash, Ariadne rammed into a table and crashed to the floor.

“Go on!” she demanded. “I’ll be right behind you.”

I wanted to run and keep on running. My survival instinct was in overdrive. But I wasn’t about to leave my grandma. I lurched back to her and held out my hand. “No one messes with the Sinclair ladies,” I said.

I lifted her to her feet. She was exhausted and our pace slowed.

“Come on,” I told her. “We’ve got to get as far away from here as we can.” I didn’t know if the bombs were on a timer or if someone had to trigger them, or maybe they weren’t bombs after all. I didn’t want to wait around to find out.

We staggered out of the dining hall. I was half dragging, half carrying Ariadne. We stumbled on to the beach as…

KABOOM!

The fiery blast was like a giant’s hand tossing us skyward and then slamming us back to earth. The force crushed my lungs, and for a terrifying second, I couldn’t breathe. When I finally gasped, the air had jagged edges. Fire rained down from the night sky.

I raised my head to search for Ariadne, but even that slight movement was agony. I spotted a lump in the sand a few feet away. That had to be her. We were the last two to leave the dining hall. I attempted to stand but couldn’t.

The dining hall was a black mass. Smoked oozed from it over us. Hot sparks peppered my skin. I rolled over and over until I reached Ariadne. Sand gritted every inch of me.

“Ariadne,” I said, shaking her gently. She didn’t move. Her clothes and hair seemed to be smoking. Ash smouldered on her yellow dress, creating black polka dots. I patted her down, brushing off the fiery embers as quickly as they landed. “Ariadne,” I cried. We needed to keep moving. The building was burning. The fire was spreading. I crawled to my knees. I tried to prop her up, but her lifeless body was heavier than I expected. There was no way I could pick her up.

I looked around for someone to help me. The hostages were blackened and bruised from the explosion. They looked like zombies staggering to the sea. I waved to the man I’d freed earlier. “Help,” I called weakly.

He rushed back to us and scooped Ariadne up. We stumbled forward, away from the blast.

“You are quite the hero,” the man said, when we reached the water’s edge.

I didn’t feel like it. I shrugged.

“I think everyone escaped and that was down to your quick thinking,” he said.

Ariadne began to wriggle in his arms. “Put me down.”

“Thanks,” I told the guy as he lowered Ariadne to her feet before rushing off to help others.

A feeling swept over me and took me by surprise. It wasn’t love. I didn’t know her well enough to love her yet, but it was a deep, warm connection that I hadn’t felt for anyone except my dad. I hugged her. Her body stiffened in my arms. I squeezed her tighter but she didn’t move.

I relaxed my grip when Ariadne moaned. She might really be hurt. “Are you OK?” I asked. Every inch of me was aching. She was way older than me so she must feel a million times worse. I inspected her from head to toe. “What hurts? Is something broken?”

“I’m fine. Don’t treat me like an old woman.” She dusted herself off and grimaced with pain.

I wanted to point out the obvious – that she was, in fact, an old woman – but for the first time in my entire life, I didn’t blurt the snarky comment in my head.

“Thanks,” Ariadne said, patted me on the back, and turned to go. “We need to help the others.”

And that’s when I lost it.

“Thanks?” I flipped her around to face me. My clothes were smoking from nearly being blown up. “I’ve travelled halfway around the world and nearly got killed, like, a dozen times trying to save you and all I get is thanks?” I huffed. “At least that’s something. It’s more than you’ve said to me in the past fourteen years.”

Ariadne stared at me as if I was one of those complex math equations with more letters than numbers.

“It’s not my fault that Mom’s in prison.” I was shouting now. “Would it kill you to be nice to me? I mean, we don’t know each other, but maybe we could. Why am I being punished for what my mom did? It’s not fair!” I crossed my arms and stamped my foot. Yeah, I was acting like a toddler.

“What did you say?” Ariadne asked.

“Yeah, I know my mom’s in prison,” I spat out the words.

“How?”

The heat of my anger fizzled away a bit when I realized to answer her question was to admit I’d been digging around in her handbag. Not my finest moment. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you hate me, and I haven’t done anything to deserve it. Well, not really.”

She tried to hide a smirk, which made my anger flare. “What?” I screamed. She was laughing at me, and it hurt – not as much as nearly drowning and being incinerated – but it felt pretty lousy.

“You have a fire inside you like she did,” Ariadne said. “Your mum always knew what she wanted and knew how to get it. She was strong and determined.”

“I’m not my mom!” I shouted and stomped again – even though I realized she was sort of giving me a compliment. The rest of the hostages were gathering on the beach. The explosion had ignited tiny fires everywhere. Wisps of smoke swirled around us in the sea air.

“I can see her in your eyes,” Ariadne took a step towards me. “You and your mum seem more alive than everyone else. You emit this energy. You almost glow with it.”

I shook my head. I wasn’t like that, was I?

“You saved my life.” She reached up to touch my face, but I flinched. “You saved everyone’s life. And you are right. You deserve more than just my thanks.”

Then she hugged me. It was what I had been waiting for, but for some weird reason I didn’t feel like hugging back. When you had to beg for it, it lost its meaning.

She pulled away and whispered, “Maybe you’ll forgive me someday. I should have reached out to you long ago. I thought you’d be better off without me. I was not a good mother. I assumed I would be an equally bad gra––” She stopped herself.

If she couldn’t say the word, how would she ever be a good one? “I think I deserve to know about my mom.”

Ariadne nodded and looked anywhere but at me.

I waited.

Ariadne wringed her hands. “Soon,” she whispered, but I felt that if I let this moment pass, I might never ever get the chance to know the truth about my mom.

I shook my head and planted my feet. “Now.”

Ariadne searched the night sky as if the smoke drifting across would form the words she needed to say. She cleared her throat. “Your mum was thrilled when she got pregnant.” As she spoke her gaze shifted from the sky to me to the ground and back again. “She promised me she’d settle down. She had been in trouble with the law ever since…” Ariadne paused, “for most of her life.” I could tell she was censoring the story. “Her promise came too late. Her past caught up with her, and she was convicted and sent to prison.” She looked me directly in the eyes when she said the next part. “You were born in prison.”

It was as if another bomb exploded inside me. I bent over and clutched my stomach. I was going to throw up.

“Your dad took you almost immediately to the States,” Ariadne continued. She paced around me as she spoke. “Your mum was devastated, but she wanted you out of the prison as soon as possible. We agreed that it would be best for you to have a fresh start with no connection to her past.”

I had no memories of my mother. I’d always assumed I’d gone to live with Dad when I was very young, but Mom and I never had any time to bond. In a strange way I knew that, I felt that, already.

“She loved you – still loves you – enough to let you have a life without her.” Tears sprinkled Ariadne’s cheeks. So she did have feelings.

I was born in prison. That thought would not sink in. No matter how many times I repeated it in my head, it smacked me and then bounced off like a big rubber ball. There was only one more thing that I desperately wanted to know and not know. “What did she do?”

Ariadne took a deep breath. “She was convicted of multiple homicides.”

Multiple! I couldn’t speak. I knew she’d done something pretty horrible. They didn’t keep you in prison for fourteen years for shoplifting. Maybe she’d accidently killed someone while saving kittens from a burning building, or shot a bad guy who was robbing a bank.

I wanted to ask about Mom’s crimes, but I couldn’t make myself say: who did she kill and why did she kill them? Kill wasn’t a word that I wanted to link to the woman who gave birth to me.

“She was sentenced to life in prison,” Ariadne continued. “Her parole was recently denied so she’s going to be in there for a little while longer.”

I wanted her to stop talking. That was enough information. More than enough. After everything that had happened today, this was the scariest. I thought I wanted to know everything about my mom, but now I wasn’t so sure. I was the daughter of a murderer. I was scared of myself and what was in my DNA.

Ariadne opened her arms for a hug. I bolted. I didn’t look where I was going; I just wanted to run away from everything as fast as I could.

Smack!

I charged right into someone, nearly knocking us both to the ground. I stumbled backwards but kept myself from falling. Dazed from the impact, I looked up at the guy who was dusting himself off. I recognized his over-gelled hair, his pressed white shirt and khaki trousers. But it couldn’t be. Was I hallucinating? Was it a ghost? Maybe the shock of the explosion mixed with the blast of info about my mom had finally caused me to crack.

“Artie?”