Chapter 4 Chapter 4

"Just thinking about your strategy," he said, refocusing on her laptop. "Have you considered approaching any boutiques to carry your pieces on consignment? It might be a good intermediate step between online-only and your own store."

The conversation returned to business, but Iris couldn't shake the feeling that something had shifted. Tony's advice remained practical and insightful, yet there was a new guardedness to him that hadn't been there before.

By the time they wrapped up, the café was closing. Iris packed her laptop away, feeling both energised by the progress they'd made and unsettled by the strange moment they'd shared.

"Thanks for the help," she said, standing to leave. "Some of your suggestions will definitely strengthen my plan."

"Anytime," Tony replied, gathering his things. "And good luck with the Lawson competition. I have a feeling you'll do well."

Iris shouldered her bag. "I don't believe in luck. Just hard work and good planning."

Tony smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Sometimes fate plays a hand too."

"Fate is just what people call it when they don't want to take responsibility for their choices," Iris replied, more sharply than she intended. "Anyway, I should get going. I have an early class tomorrow."

As she walked back to her dorm in the cool evening air, Iris couldn't stop thinking about Tony's reaction to her birthday. Why would that random detail affect him so much? And why did she care?

She shook her head, pushing the thoughts away. The Lawson competition was less than three weeks away, and she had a collection to finish. Whatever was going on with Tony Kennedy was irrelevant to her goals.

But as she unlocked her dorm room door, a small, nagging voice in the back of her mind was that there were times she wondered how to find her birth family, but being left at the fire station meant that they either didn’t want her or someone in their family wanted her to disappear, so she hadn’t opened that can of worms.

‘Geez girl, you shouldn’t have said anything about your birthday, you don’t even celebrate it, you barely come out of your room that day.’ She thought to herself.

Meanwhile, Tony couldn’t stop thinking about Iris. There was something about her he couldn’t put his finger on.

‘Idiot, you just made the hot girl all weirded out over her birthday, great job,‘ He thought to himself.

He rubbed his hand down his face, but he knew he couldn’t push it; being the Kennedy heir to his father’s business, his mother had been pushing him into marrying a banker's daughter. Still, he had saved a lot of his spare money in a different bank account not owned by his family, so he did with it what he liked. There wouldn’t be questions of what he was up to; his mother always had an idea of who he was to marry, and it wasn’t for love. Much like his parents, he was a business deal, and that was what she wanted for him as well. He couldn’t understand why, though, when he was a child, he had overheard her talking to her friend about how she hated how his father was more at work than home with her and their son. How times have changed.

Tony couldn’t help but feel guilty about the questions about her birthday family. He had to try to fix it. He had felt something between them that could turn into a lot more, but he had put his foot in his mouth.

He tried to apologise to Iris, so he sent her a Discord message.

Antony_K: Sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean to upset you; just not used to coincidences like that.

Iris_M: It's ok, it's the running joke with my adoptive parents' family, it’s just unlikely I was found at a fire station, yes, but from the other side of the country, I don’t see how that would be likely unless by plane. But I think if I were the missing heiress, I would have been found long before I was even put on one. The police think my mother was a teen who freaked out once I was born, or her parents had.

Antony_K: Have you ever thought about trying to find your birth parents?

Iris_M: No, there is no need to, besides, if it was just some scared teen, you can’t just go knocking on their door, ‘Hi mum/dad, sorry you missed the almost 20 years of my life. I thought I’d stop by and say hi. Oh, wait, you have other kids, ah, yeah, shit just turned their lives upside down too.’

Tony stared at his screen, fingers hovering uncertainly over the keyboard. Her candid response struck a nerve; it was practical, unvarnished, and showed she'd actually thought about this before. Unlike him, she wasn't living in some fantasy where family reunions always ended in tearful hugs and resolution.

Antony_K: That's... a really good point. I hadn't thought about it that way.

He leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. The Kennedy family portrait hung on the wall of his apartment, his mother's cold smile and father's stern gaze watching him even here, in the space he'd created to escape their influence. They'd hate Iris on principle, a scholarship student with no connections, no pedigree. Just raw talent and determination.

Across campus, Iris set her phone down and returned to her sketches. The conversation with Tony had unsettled her more than she wanted to admit. She rarely discussed her adoption, even with close friends, not that she had many. The subject always invited pity or curiosity, neither of which she welcomed.

Her adoptive mother, Carol, called just as Iris was putting the finishing touches on her centrepiece design for the Lawson competition.

"Hi, honey. Just checking in. How's the competition prep going?"

Iris smiled despite her exhaustion. "Good. I think I've got a strong collection. How are the boys?"

"Driving us crazy, as usual," Carol laughed, the sound warm and familiar. "Buck and Finn are fighting over which college to apply to, and the younger twins Jakob and Nikolaus won't stop playing that new video game even to eat dinner."

"Tell them I miss them," Iris said, meaning it. For all their chaos, her brothers grounded her.

"We all miss you, too, sweetheart. Your father keeps asking when you'll visit."