Chapter 27 #2
“Good morning, you two,” Pearl says from the kitchen just as we step in, lips tight with a knowing smile as he lowers me to my feet.
“Good morning.” He clears his throat and puts on that boss man tone that’s so damn attractive.
But I know the real him. The carefree Michael. The one who laughs with me like no one’s watching. The one who holds me when I have a nightmare until I fall back asleep. And I like knowing that I have something no one else does. Because that man is the most beautiful of all.
“Would you two like breakfast?”
“Not right this moment. I have something I have to show Elsie.” He grabs my hand and squeezes, and my heart squeezes right back. “If Sophia happens to wake up, keep her in the kitchen.”
“Of course.” The knowing expression on her face has my cheeks burning.
“Thank you,” he says as he pulls me out of the room.
“Did you have to say that?” I whisper while we stroll away. “She’s going to think we’re sex animals or something.”
“With the way you were screaming my name last night, I’d say one of us is.”
“Shut up!” I whisper-shout, smacking him on the chest as I giggle.
My cheeks flush even more as he glances at me with a deep smirk. He drags me by the hand into his office.
“Wait here,” he says, going to his desk and grabbing something.
“Is that a tie?” My eyes grow. “What are we doing with that, exactly?”
He chuckles. “It’s the only thing I have to blindfold you with.”
My pulse pounds, my body growing rigid. “I…uh…”
Images of being blindfolded while being taken to the sex club suddenly assault me until I grow dizzy, until my hands tingle and my throat closes up. I claw at my chest, rapid breaths firing out of me.
“Hey…baby…hey.”
I can barely see him, barely hear him, my senses blurred and dull.
“I’m here,” he says. “It’s okay. Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”
His arms come around me, and he holds me protectively for seconds. Minutes. I don’t know how long, but I can finally feel my pulse slowing down.
“Shhh. I’ve got you, little dove. I’m sorry. Fuck, I’m sorry.” There’s anguish trapped in his voice.
Gradually, with his reassurance lulling me out of the shadows, I start to come out of the living nightmare I was sucked into.
“I…I’m sorry.” My body heaves from my still-ragged inhales.
“You have nothing to apologize for.” He wipes under my eyes with his thumbs, and I hadn’t even realized I was crying.
“They used to blindfold us when they took us to that…that place.” I swallow past my dry throat.
His jaw flexes, the vein at his neck throbbing.
“Please forgive me.” His brows tighten and his palms draw near, holding my face in them.
“It’s okay. You didn’t know.”
“I should’ve.” He blows a breath. “We don’t have to do this right now. Let’s just go back to bed where I can hold you.”
“No.” I shake my head. “Show me whatever it is. Please. I could really use the distraction right now.”
“All right.”
But he makes no effort to move. Instead, he lowers his mouth to mine in a slow, unhurried kiss, his lips remaining there long after he stops.
His hand firmly clutches my nape, his breathing heavy, as though he’s struggling to let me go.
As though he blames himself for all I’ve been through.
But I get why he couldn’t help us. He had his daughter and she’s his world, and that’s how it should be.
He draws back, picking up my hand to his mouth and kissing the top of it. And with an overwrought sigh, he leads me out of his office and down a long corridor until we stop at a white door, a room I have not been in.
“I’ve been trying to keep this a secret since we got back, and it’s finally complete.”
My heartbeats quicken, from excitement this time, as I swivel my gaze between him and the door.
“Open it.”
Anticipation bubbles in my chest as he lets go of my hand, and slowly, he reveals what he’s been hiding.
“Oh, my God…”
I slap a palm over my mouth, warmth rolling down my body, shock and awe battling for space in my heart.
“You…you did this?” I struggle to speak. “For me?”
“Does that mean you like it?” he asks with a laugh.
“Oh, Michael…” My voice is a soft exhale, the tears bleeding from each word, unable to contain the magnitude of what I’m feeling. “This is…”
The rest of that catches in my throat.
“I…I can’t believe you did this for me,” I cry, throwing myself into his arms.
“I told you my wife would want for nothing, and I meant every word.” He pins me tighter to his body. “I want to give you everything you’ve missed out on. You deserve a place that’s yours, somewhere you can sing and read to your heart’s content.”
My own library and my own music room. That’s what he’s given me. He leads me further inside.
“I love it.”
I soak in the sight before me: a large room with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, some empty, some full, while on the other side there’s a grand piano and what appears to be a small recording studio with more equipment than I would even know what to do with.
My gaze falls to his, this man who’s managed to make me believe that good men exist and that, somehow, he’s one of them.
“Do you even know what this means to me?” I look at him once more, unable to express how I feel in words.
He smiles while I’m swallowed up with tears.
His gaze is unwavering and his eyes swim with emotion. “I’m glad I can give you something that means as much to you as you do to me.”
I gasp, grabbing him around his neck and slamming my lips to his. And I kiss him. Slowly. Passionately. Deliberately. And with our kiss, I hope he realizes he’s already given me enough.
The cell phone rings once, twice, but there’s no answer. Immediately, I drop the cell into my lap, my stomach in knots.
My foot bounces in the music room hours later, unable to pick that phone back up, to dial my mother’s cell number. After Michael located it, I realized she kept the same one she had from before I was taken.
What do I say to her? She’s going to have a million questions. My parents will want to find me and get me home. But that won’t be possible.
With a sigh, I lay my head on his shoulder, and his arm curls around me in that protective way.
“It’s okay, baby. You’re allowed to be nervous. Take your time.” His voice surges with tenderness, but it doesn’t do a thing to calm me.
“I don’t even know what to say. It’s just…” I huff out a breath.
“Just tell her you’re okay. That you’re safe. That you’ll be back with her soon. That’s all she’ll really want to know.”
I find the courage to pick up that phone again and dial her number.
And this time when it rings, someone actually answers.
“Hello? Who’s this?”
I jerk back, wild eyed and staring at Michael, shaking my head, tears swimming in my eyes.
I can’t, I mouth.
“Hello? Anyone there?” Mom asks.
She sounds happy. Why should I go and upheave their life? What if they’re better off?
“Talk to her,” he whispers, knuckles brushing down my cheek.
“I—”
My eyes widen, because the word wasn’t said with a whisper. She heard me.
Oh, God.
“H-hello?” Her tone drops a notch. “Wha-what did you say?”
She pauses, but I can still hear the quiver of her breaths.
Does she recognize me? Could it be possible that after all these years, she remembers my voice?
“Say something. Please,” she implores and a wave of paralyzing emotions washes over me.
“I’m sorry,” I cry softly, not even sure what exactly I’m apologizing for.
But all I’m met with is stark silence.
Her gasps are there, though, echoing through the line. She knows. She has to.
“El—” She chokes up. “I…oh my God. Is…is that r-really you?”
“Mom,” I sob.
My vision goes fuzzy, my body shattering as I weep, unable to say anything else.
“Elsie? Oh my God, Elsie! Baby!” She’s the one crying now. “How? We thought…”
She doesn’t finish. She continues to cry. But I know she meant to say she thought I was dead. After so many years, who could blame them?
“Where are you?” she pants, panic in her tone. “Are you in danger right now?”
“No, I’m safe. I’m okay.”
Her exhale is that of relief. “Who took you? Please, we need to bring you home. Your father is at work, but I can three-way him now, and we can both come get you.”
“I can only imagine how scary this has been for you, Mom,” I whisper. “But I’m okay now. I just can’t come home quite yet.”
“What do you mean?” The words rush out. “Is someone there? Are they hurting you?”
“No. No one’s hurting me anymore,” I cry, glancing over to my husband, and he takes my hand and holds it in his lap. “I’m safe now.”
She cries and cries. And I let her.
She sniffles before she says, “I have to call your father. We have to tell him.” She sobs. “Oh, Elsie, we missed you so much. My heart. You’re my heart. Every day without you has been excruciating.”
Her breathing turns shallow.
“We tried so hard to find you. The police gave up, but we never did. To this day.” She takes a second pause. “I scour the Internet for missing and trafficked girls.”
“Mom…” My heart breaks, and I weep.
“Oh, God…” she trembles out. “That’s what they did to you girls, didn’t they?”
“It’s over now, Mom. I’m okay now. I swear.”
“Oh, my poor baby.” Her weeping wrecks her. “Are Jade and Kayla with you too?”
“No. But I have a friend, and he’s helping me find them.”
She inhales sharply. “He?”
“Yeah.” I fix a gaze at Michael. “He.”
“Are you really safe, Elsie? Give me a sign if you’re not, and I’ll find you. I promise you.”
“He’s not like them, Mom. He saved me.”
My heart swells as I look at him, his kind eyes doing wonders to the shattered fragments of my aching soul. And with him, those same fragments have slowly begun to rebuild, finding a new home right here.
His mouth tilts up at the corner, and he picks up my hand, lifting it to his mouth and kissing the center of my palm.
“I’m singing again, Mom. And music never sounded so good.”