Love made me happy. Giddy, even.
All because of the man I married.
After tossing on some clothes and brushing my hair, I made my way downstairs. I could hear Travis’s deep, amused laugh as I reached the bottom of the stairs. His laugh was deep and strictly his own.
He’d been gone for a few days, and apparently made this place his first stop. The past few days were filled with less worry than the last time he had disappeared off the earth. When he had returned, a year after running off without a word, mind you, he had scared the crap out me.
At least he learned to not be watching me in the middle of the night again.
“Hey there, sis,” Travis said, wagging his eyebrows.
“Knock it off,” Zachariah growled out.
“I had figured you’d be up and dressed by the time I got here,” Travis said in a way of an apology to me.
“Well, we weren’t,” I deadpanned. I let Zachariah pull me against his side as I reached him.
“It’s nine thirty!” Travis raised his hands up.
“So?” my husband argued, his voice low.
“Ah, whatever, man,” Travis said, giving up trying to make his point. Probably a smart move on his part.
“Since my wife has now joined us, mind telling us why you are here?” Zachariah asked.
“So, I did interrupt your morning,” Travis said, amusedly.
“Travis,” Zachariah warned, his body slightly stiffening against me.
That was another thing that I liked about my husband. What we did privately stayed private. He never, nor would he ever, blast what we did. He liked to keep things between just the two of us if he could.
Travis wasn’t deterred at all, simply giving my husband a look of utter disgust mixed with amusement. I sometimes wondered if my half-brother had a death wish. Seeing him now, willing my husband to prove that point, I knew that Travis did really love to test death’s boundaries.
“Why are you here?” I asked, hoping to defuse the soon to be killing that would occur shortly inside this house. I knew that Jonas was off doing something for Zach, as he hadn’t been here following my every move for the last week.
“I was able to see Racheal,” Travis said, his face turning into a careful mask of indifference. “But only for a few minutes.”
“Oh,” I said, not entirely sure what to say about that. Was I supposed to be happy? Sad? I had no idea.
“How’d you manage that?” Zachariah asked.
“Not easily,” Travis answered. “I pretty much told everyone I talked to that if she wouldn’t talk to me, I’d have to be taken off the property by force.”
“If she didn’t want to see you, leave her be,” I grumbled.
“I will do no such thing,” Travis said, shooting his eyes at me. “We need answers.Youneed answers!”
“What else is there to know?” I countered back, my anger rising. I could feel it pulse through my veins. “She left both of us, even if she’s not technically your mother. But she left me with a man and wife who wanted to marry me off to a powerful family just so they could get money. She wanted nothing to do with me and still doesn’t!”
“She’s not entirely in her right mind,” Travis was quick to explain. “Really, she’s not mentally stable, but given her choices, I don’t see how she could be. Racheal, once she finally did talk to me, really seems to feel sorry for her choices. She wrote a letter for you,” he went on, digging out a simple piece of paper from his back pocket and handing it to me. “I didn’t read it.”
“You believe her?” Zachariah asked as I took the paper as though it would burst into flames at my touch.
“Yes,” Travis said. “Without a doubt. She may be depressed, so much so that she has no chance of getting released. But she really is sorry for everything.
“Racheal would like to see you, Avidya. She’s afraid that you hate her, even though she really only wanted to protect you. Aaron wanted you dead, and still does without a doubt,” he paused, licking his lips. “Her precise words were ‘That man will stop at nothing to end her life, and I just wanted to protect the only person I loved.’”
“Does she really want to see me or did she just say that to make you happy?” I asked, my voice still slightly filled with anger. I wasn’t mad at Travis, just at the entire situation. Anger never agreed with me on a good day as it was.
“She does, but only if you want to,” Travis said. “I gave her the house phone number, so she can call you anytime. I don’t think she’d really ever call, but it’s her choice. It’s Racheal’s choice to talk to you, now. Not the other way around, I think.”
“I agree,” Zachariah stated. “It’s all in Racheal’s hands now, so to speak. We may never know why she did things the way she did; we may never find out why Aaron wants you dead, Avidya. It’s now up to her to giveusthe choice to see her and talk to her.”
I did have to agree. It no longer mattered what my birth mother had done. It was done and over with. No crying, no tears, would ever fix what has happened. It was all in the past.
