Chapter 22
Avidya
Standing in the doorway of the office, I stared at the pile of brown boxes that were set up around the large overstuffed chair that was backed up towards the row of bookshelves along one wall. Surely, this was more than the few boxes mom had mentioned.
“Your mom had your room packed up when my men went over to gather your belongings,” Zachariah’s voice reached my ears. I assumed he had followed me after he had told me where to find the boxes. There was more than just a few.
“There’s no way this is all mine,” I said, still not tearing my gaze away from the mountain.
“My men are positive that it is, in fact, all yours,” he spoke, stepping up behind me and laying a hand on my lower arm. His touch was warm, and I was extremely tempted to lean into him. “Clothes, books, and then the items your mother had mentioned. Whatever you don’t want can be donated or packed away until you decide on what you would like to do with them.”
“Okay,” I muttered. I didn’t want any of this stuff, but I’m sure mom wouldn’t have boxed it up if she had no reason to. Mom wouldn’t have packed all this, as I knew for a fact that father would have just burned it to ashes before she would have willing sent it to me.
“What you want to keep, I can get up to your room after you get through it all. Or I can put in storage,” he went on. “There’s no hurry.”
I had no plans to keep much out of all this stuff if anything at all. Zachariah already had more than enough clothes stocked up for me, things that I actually liked even.
“What about the journals?” I asked. That was the whole point of this man sending his own men over there to get them.
“You’re welcome to keep them in here, or in your room,” he answered with a shrug as he dropped his hand from my arm. “I do want to read them, but they belong to you, Avidya.”
The journals would be the first and possibly the only thing that I’d keep. What would I find in them, though? Did I really want to know? What secrets did they contain?
“Any idea what box those would be in?” I asked, glancing up at him, already knowing the answer.
“Nope,” he replied. “I gave my men orders to not look inside the boxes.”
“I wouldn’t have cared,” I replied. I was used to not having much privacy.
“But I do,” he returned, his eyes meeting my own.
“Why?” why did he care so much?
“Someone should,” was the only answer I received with a soft look like it was that simple.
Before I could say anything more, Zachariah went straight to his desk and busied himself with booting up his computer. I couldn’t help but let my eyes wonder over his form. Even dressed laid back, he was a sight to behold. His dark hair was slightly damp from his shower, and he forewent shaving. Again.
I noticed in the short amount of time I had known him, I had never seen him complexly clean shaven. There was always a small dusting of facial hair, and I rather enjoyed it that way.
I still couldn’t figure out why he would pick me when he could easily have a line out the door of willing women.
“Are you just gonna stand there all day?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
“If I can stare at you, yes,” I answered. A moment later, I blushed as red as a tomato. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but this man caused me to blurt my thoughts.
He gave out a chuckle as I looked down at the floor, wishing it would open up and swallow me whole. Could I possibly embarrass myself anymore?
“You are certainly a breath of fresh air,” he said, his voice light and cheerful. “If you want to stare, go for it.”
Instantly, my head lifted and met his dark eyes. I hadn’t expected that response.
“I could watch you all day, too, Avidya. You are the most beautiful innocent girl that has been in my company for many years,” he went on. “But I do have work to do, and you should start on getting through a few of those boxes and see if you can find those journals.”
“What will you do with the information that’s in them?” I asked, letting my feet carry me to the pile and sitting down on the chair.
“I’m not sure. Depends on what I find out. It’s possible that the journals will not have any information that will help me figure out where you came from,” he answered.
“And if they do?” I asked.
