Page 11 of Eternal

“Well, there you are, my sweets. Oh, you two girls look so lovely.” My mother pulls us in for a hug. "You're fucking late." She squeezes my arms tight, and I swallow a whimper down. My heart is still beating a million miles an hour.Yup, I’m going to combust.

I swallow hard as I can only hear Soren’s voice, as he’s in the living room around the corner from where we are. There are two other voices in the room, Luca, and I’m assuming his wife. Honestly, I can only focus on the way he’s talking; he sounds more rigid and business professional than the first time I saw him.Serena tries to break me out of my trance by grabbing my arm and pulling me into the living room. My eyes are focused on the ground to prevent the meltdown from occurring again. I see my father’s feet shuffle over to stand before me. His words were muffled, and I could only hear my breath and heartbeat.

My eyes focus on Soren. He’s watching me with hard eyes. I watch him with eyes filled with fear. What is he doing here?

“Freya? I’m sure you remember the Astor family from last night?” My father’s grip on my arm tightens, warning me to behave.

Soren takes a couple of steps closer, reaching his hand out for me to shake and offering me a small, kind smile. The softness in his eyes dies away, as he watches my father’s grip tighten on my arm. He looks at his hand, and then his face. My father immediately lets go of me, taking a step back. My eyes stay glued to Soren as I try to gauge what is happening. But as our palms connect, everyone else falls away into the background. My father’s muffled voice is lingering somewhere, but I can’t hear it. Soren looks at my arms, and notices the half-moon crescent indents from my mother's nails left behind from moments ago. His jaw tightens, and his eyes narrow. I subtly shake my head at him.Not here, not now.He holds my hand for a moment too long before clearing his throat and releasing me. My hearing finally comes back when our eyes disconnect. Soren looks to my father, who is announcing dinner is to be served.

We file into the dining room, where a long table with eight gray upholstered chairs awaits us. Serena sits to my left side, while Soren sits on my right. I know his moves are calculated, testing to see if it was the alcohol speaking for our spark last night.But I know now it wasn’t.Dinner commences, and I can’t eat, knowing my real dinner is seated to my right. Interal face-palm,Jesus Christ, Freya. Get it together. He does not attempt to speak with me directly but instead holds a conversation with my father and my sister. I remained silent throughout the meal until the table was cleared. Serena keeps looking over at me, but I don’t return her gaze. I just want this dinner to be over as soon as possible.

“Well then,” my father clears his throat, and the parents sit up straighter giving their full attention, “We brought you, Freya and Soren, together to make an announcement. Luca and I have decided for the sake of our companies and their interests, something that involves you two.”

Soren and I turn to each other, equally confused. “In three months, on April 14th, you will be wed. To each other.” My father finishes as casually as possible.

I stare blankly at him.What?

“What the fuck does he mean to be wed?” An angry voice growls from my right.

Luca answers, “Just that. You and Freya are to be married on April 14th. This is a decision we made to benefit both of our business dealings. Besides, you two make a beautiful couple and will bear beautiful heirs or heiresses.”

Soren sits back in his chair, anger flowing through the air. “I don’t want this, and I can’t imagine Freya does either. She’s too young to be getting married.” Soren turns to me, waiting for me to express my frustrations.

“And you were supposed to be married by 25, but here we are six years later.” Luca bites back. “Besides, Freya here’s a little incentive for you to go through with it. If you do not marry Soren and try to escape like you did when you were 18, I’ll personally kill Abe.”

Serena’s mouth falls open and tears well up in her eyes. Her eyes immediately snap to Abe who stands in the entryway of the dining room. His face is pale, and he’s watching Serena like she’s the last thing he wants to look at when he dies.

“You can’t do that! He’s innocent!” Serena stands abruptly, throwing her napkin on the table.

“I can and I will, little girl. You best keep your mouth shut and stay out of this. This doesn’t involve you,” Luca hisses.

Soren’s hand reaches over for mine, which I pull away from him quickly. He fucking knew about this last night. I confided in him about their relationship. I allowed him in. I allowed him to know more of me than anyone else does, and this is what he does with it.

“No, you can’t,” Serena whispers, her voice breaking.

“Abe will be fine as long as your sister does what she's told. She just needs to be a compliant housewife for Soren. He will take care of everything else,” Luca snaps, “Well, Freya, what do you say?”

I glare at Soren, hating him at this moment. He’s the reason I’m in this position. Fuck him. Soren says nothing, instead just huffing and sitting back in his chair. He looks at me waiting for my answer, but there’s nothing to add. I have just had my future taken away from me. How the fuck was I to react? I’m not surprised, though. This is how it’s been my whole life. I think deep down, I knew this would happen.

I look at my father. “You promised me I would still have control of my life regardless of my involvement in your business dealings.”

“Yes, sweetheart, I think I have let you make enough decisions. Not that you’re actually getting anywhere with your literature degree or your dreams of becoming an author,” He says, emotionless.

And that sentence knocks the wind out of me. That was such a low blow.

I feel Soren bristle beside me, and his jaw ticks, I can see it out of the corner of my eye. I shut down. I stare at my knotted hands on the table. More voices argue around me, but I can not react anymore. I don’t have any more fight left in me. What’s the point? My entire life has been dictated from the beginning. How I dress, when I can speak, who I was friends with, what my future will entail, and now who I will marry. I should’ve seen this coming. Serena sits quietly beside me, frozen with tears streaming down her face. My mother gathers her up and they retreat to the other room as the men around me await my answer.

It’s an easy answer for me. Of course, I will pick Abe’s life over mine. Abe makes Serena happy. I’ve never known happiness like she does. So obviously, I’ll pick her happiness over mine.

I clear my throat, stopping Soren in his argument, all attention is pointed to me. My voice comes out smaller than I intended, “I’ll do it.”

“I have your full compliance?” Luca questions and a disgusting grin graces his face.

“Yes. You do.” I hold back my tears as I hand my life over to Luca.

Soren leans over and tries to make eye contact. “Freya? You don’t--”

“No. I do.” I shut him down, not even looking at him.

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