Chapter 37 Greer
Chapter thirty-seven
Greer
I’m sitting at my desk, unable to sleep. My stomach is full, yet that voracious hunger has returned in full force.
I came back to my condo after spending the day and well into the night with Avery and my family.
We had many discussions, ones that weren’t exactly easy but needed to happen.
We still have more to talk about and fences to mend, but we settled on an understanding and reveled in the happiness of being all together again.
I even spoke to Tim, who was shocked but grateful to get my call.
I celebrated Christmas with people I thought didn’t care about me but do. I spent time getting to know them again, feeling their love and giving them back love in return. I feel whole and alive in a way I haven’t felt since I was a child.
Yet something’s wrong.
When I got home, I didn’t shower or change. I went straight to my computer and started drafting a new email to Mr. Cross.
After what I saw and experienced over the last three nights and after speaking with Holly, I not only saw but also felt the forgiveness and empathy of those that I hurt. Because of that, I started to formulate an idea.
I know I can’t go back to Northlight Capital and continue as usual. I can no longer help clear towns of small businesses or leave them with soulless enterprises that only care about their bottom line.
I also won’t give up my job; I don’t want to. But I can change how I do business.
It may not work for Northlight Capital, but if it doesn’t, I can build my own company.
Not like the one I saw in my future but a different and better one, a business that truly cares about people and their livelihood, one focused not only on monetary wealth but also the kind of wealth that Remi spoke of.
I finish my email to Mr. Cross explaining what I’ve done, the apologies I’ve already made to Holly and Tim along with the ideas I want to implement in the new year.
I know my ideas can save Holly’s Restaurant and the few remaining businesses that still stand from before Northlight infiltrated Garland.
It’s a project I can oversee, one that will create more revenue for them but also bring back the heart and soul of the small ski town.
I schedule the email to go out in the morning and close my laptop, then I stand from my desk and walk to the large picture windows that look out toward the mountains.
The snow has long since stopped, but the ground is a picturesque white.
Now that my brain is quiet after getting my ideas out and I’m truly alone for the first time in days, I let out a breath that feels bigger than my lungs can hold.
My home is stark like the one in the future, just on a smaller scale. I have no holiday decorations, and the rooms are too empty.
I haven’t been away from Elysian Pines for long, but it feels like I have. I never thought I’d say I miss the sound of people or Christmas music—or the gaudy Christmas decor or bright lights or Christmas trees. Yet, I do. More than that, I miss the three Nephilim who have changed everything for me.
The entire time I was with everyone at Avery’s parents’, I kept thinking about them. Several times, I almost mentioned them but thought better of it because how do I explain what happened to me? I can’t.
I stick my hand in my pocket, and my fingers meet cool glass. I suck in air, remembering what I put there. Pulling out the small glass angel, I rub my fingers over it. It looks nothing like the beings I know, but I felt compelled to have it.
I meant to put it back before I left, but I forgot. I’ll have to return it in case it’s sentimental to Avery’s family—I just wanted it while I was in the house.
The more I look at the glass angel’s face, the more I feel as if it looks familiar. A flash of the decorative angel on the mistletoe I grabbed from the door in the inn comes to mind. It looked like this, and I’m pretty sure I broke it when I tossed it on the bathroom counter.
I cringe at my carelessness and decide I need to replace it. Not with Avery’s, of course, but a new one—that’s the right thing to do. It will also be a good reason to go back to Elysian Pines. The town will let me in to give it to them, right? Remi said if I needed them, they’d be there.
My skin prickles with excitement at the idea of returning, and I take the angel with me to my bedroom and get ready for bed, a plan formulating in my mind.
Tonight I’ll sleep, and tomorrow morning, I’ll pump myself full of coffee and go to the first store I can find to get a replacement angel after I drop this one at Avery’s.
It might be a stupid idea, but everything inside me wants to go back to Elysian Pines. To Malachi’s playful grin and stupid nickname for me, to Remiel’s piercing green gaze and domineering Daddy vibes, to Samael’s broody yet grounding presence.
I tuck into my cold bed and prop the angel on my bedside table before turning off the lamp.
The room is shrouded in darkness as I stare at the angel.
Exhaustion tugs at me, and my eyes begin to shut, the last few days and lack of sleep catching up to me.
Heat pools in my stomach when I imagine that the next time I fall asleep, I’ll have three Nephilim alongside me. At least, I hope.
Despite Remi’s words before I left and the fact that we didn’t talk about anything in our future, I can’t picture going on with my life without them. It would feel how I felt looking at my future self: soulless, like nothing.
That thought alone should scare me, but it doesn’t. There was a reason they came into my life, and I refuse to believe it was simply for the time we shared. I can only hope they feel the same way, too, that I wasn’t just a job to them and that the town welcomes me back.
As my eyes fully close and sleep pulls me under, I swear my room grows darker and a delicate kiss brushes my forehead…but I must’ve imagined it.