Page 22 of Eternal

Abe stands behind Serena, looking a little more pissy than usual. He walks away and takes their bags back to their room. Serena goes to the kitchen for a coffee and then plops down next to me on the couch.

“Well, spill! How big was his dick?” Serena starts to gossip.

The coffee I had just sipped almost ended up on the white rug under our feet. I sputter for a moment, eyes bugging out.

“Nothing like that happened. Although he walked in while I was changing.” I trail off, wishing I could crawl into my coffee cup to hide.

“He saw you butt naked, and you didn’t fuck? Goddamn, he has a lot of self-control,” she mutters.

“No, it wasn’t like that. I had underwear on, and I covered my boobs. We watched a movie, then we went to sleep.”

“My god, you guys are acting like an old married couple. How boring. I was hoping to hear about your crazy sex stories with Soren.” She frowns.

“Honestly, Serena, I don’t think I’m ready to face that yet. Or at least last night, I wasn’t. When he looked at me, it reopened many old wounds I didn’t realize were still healing,” I say, spilling my guts to her.

She looks at me with concern. “You should speak more candidly to your therapist.”

I shrug my shoulders. Serena knows why we can’t do that, considering our family. We sit in silence watching TV while drinking our coffees when Abe returns to the room.

“I should start packing,” I murmur to her as Abe sits down next to her.

“Freya?” Abe’s voice breaks the silence that falls over us.

I look over at him, his hair flat across his forehead in comparison to it usually being spiked up, and there are bags under his eyes today.

“Thank you. For choosing my life,” Abe whispers.

I shrug again, “It’s the least I could do for you both. I should be the one thanking you. Without you, I don’t think my sister or I would be alive today. You’ve saved us both.”

Abe nods as tears well in his eyes. I stand and walk back to the bedroom to pack.

He doesn’t fully understand how important he is to us. Serena would’ve drank herself to death, and me? I was supposed to die. It was my turn to return the favor, but even then, it doesn’t feel like it’s enough.

The rest of the day goes by slowly, and it’s spent with me packing a couple of necessities for my trip back to Seattle.

When the three of us arrive at the airport, Serena is the first to break the silence. “Why can’t you stay just a little longer?” She cries.

“Serena, I’ll be back in three months, if not less. I have some business to take care of, and I’ll be home in no time.” I lie through my teeth. I have no idea what my future entails; I am now a puppet to my father and Luca.

I board the plane, saying goodbye. I slip in my headphones after plopping into an empty seat, and minutes later, I doze off. I wake to a flight attendant shaking me awake.

“Ma’am. You’ve arrived, and someone is here to drive you back home,” She tells me softly.

I apologize and thank her. Descending the stairs, I get in the back of the car and head toward the heart of Seattle. I am greeted by a package placed on the floor as I open the door to my tiny apartment. I wasn’t expecting anything in the mail, and it causes a spike of anxiety to flow through my body. What if it’s a bomb? I shake my head. I sound ridiculous right now. I read the note scrawled on the brown packaging.

For my darling bride to be.

Soren found my apartment?How the fuck does he have access to that information? I did everything in my power to prevent anyone from being able to trace my background back to my lineage. I never wanted my father’s status as a dominating weapon dealer to define me.

A little irked, I opened the package sitting on the couch. It had significant weight to it. For a girl who could have anything in the world, I wasn’t sure what I didn’t have that could be gifted. Ripping into the package, I find three books in pristine condition.The Shining, IT,andPet Semetary, all by Stephen King. Soren has given me such a kind gift. I opened the book to the first page, first edition, and signed.

Holy fuck.

I gasp audibly and carefully hold the books now. These are incredibly hard to find. My heart swells over the gifts. He was trying to make this marriage work for us. Both of us can be happy with time and work. I’ll have to thank him for these the next time I see him. Who knows how long that’ll be tough.

I pad to my bedroom area, where I have a small shelf of books next to my bed. I place them with care and stare back at my apartment. It mocks me. It’s modest in terms of what I could find at local thrift stores and a coworker’s pickup truck. There’s a floral sofa plucked straight from Granny’s living room, an oak coffee table, and a lamp in my living room. No dining room, no seats at the kitchen counter, and not even an entertainment center. The TV sits on the floor, just waiting to get kicked one drunken night.

It’s nothing beautiful, but it’s all mine. No one paid for this except for me, which made me proud. Otherwise, I had everything quite literally handed to me my whole life. It’s made me grow up a bit and changed me completely. But there’s still a tumultuous turmoil within me as I take it all in. The collision of two vastly different worlds. This will all have to be left behind, as I enter into the role I was born to take on.

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