Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 34309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
“Oh my God, I wasn’t sure if that was you two, but here you are, in the flesh,” Meghan’s nails-on-a-chalkboard voice was as loud and clear as ever, and it reminded Freya of all the times she’d been in the house with her.
“Meghan,” Elijah said in a tight voice but kept Freya close to him.
Meghan stared at them for a few seconds, and then realization dawned on her face.
“What the fuck?” Meghan said in a soft but still screechy voice. “Are you two…?” She let that hang in the air, and when Freya and Elijah didn’t deny anything, Meghan snorted and shook her head with a look of disgust on her face. “Is this what you two were doing when I wasn’t at home?” She looked pointedly at Elijah. “Were you fucking her while married to me?” Meghan raised her voice, and Freya noticed several people looking over at them.
“Keep your damn voice down,” Elijah said and pulled Freya behind him. “And I’d never do that while I was married and to a teenager. You’re sick.”
Meghan crossed her arms over her chest, glared at them both, and then shook her head again as if she couldn’t believe any of this. “So then how did all this come about with you two?”
“It’s none of your business.” Freya was the one to speak. She moved away from Elijah, knowing she wasn’t that teenage girl any longer who felt inferior to this woman.
“Wow, not the shy, timid little thing you were back in the day, are you?” Meghan said and smiled, but it was far from friendly.
“What Elijah and I do is none of your business. In fact, us breathing hasn’t been your business for over four years, Meghan.”
Meghan pursed her lips and looked over Freya’s shoulder at Elijah. “Robbing cradles now, Elijah? I didn’t think that was your style.”
“Robbing graves, Meghan? That is so your style.” Freya pointedly looked at the elderly man Meghan had been sitting with, the one who screamed money. She also shouldn’t have stooped to Meghan’s level, but the bitch had this coming.
“Excuse me? So because you’re grown now and have Elijah at your back, you think you can speak to me this way?” Meghan scoffed. “If it wasn’t for me staying with you after your dad died, forced to take care of his kid, you would have been homeless.”
Freya just stared at Meghan, and a part of her, a part that she really didn’t want to rise, couldn’t help but feel sorry for this woman. “I feel very sorry for you, I really do.”
Meghan’s eyes widened before they narrowed.
“You’re a lonely woman and always will be. The fact that you look for love in the wrong places, in the places covered in dollar bills, makes me feel so incredibly sad for you, Meghan. One day, you’ll have nothing but the money you so desperately needed in your life surrounding you. You’ll have no one, Meghan, because no one will love you.” Freya turned and looked at Elijah. “I don’t know about you, but I think I’m ready to go.”
“You uppity little girl,” Meghan ground out. “How dare you speak to me that way, and how dare you just stand by and let this … child—”
“Meghan, marrying you was the worst mistake I ever made, and staying with you all those years was like a hell all in itself,” Elijah said, this thickness in his voice clear. “And when that divorce was final, I swear the weight lifted off my shoulders, and this freedom filled me. I didn’t think I’d ever have that kind of pleasure fill my life again.”
Meghan made an outraged gasp, but Freya was too stunned by what Elijah said to pay attention to her.
“But then I saw Freya again.” He pulled Freya close to him and wrapped his hand possessively around her waist. “And I realized that the greatest feeling wasn’t when I got that divorce from you finalized, but when I realized I loved Freya.”
And the world turned upside down, the earth opened up, and she knew if Elijah wasn’t holding her, she would’ve fallen right in. The way he sounded told her he spoke the truth.
“But the past doesn’t matter anymore, Meghan, because I’m looking forward to my future, and that future is with Freya.” And then Elijah turned, and he and Freya walked away from a stuttering Meghan, out of the mansion and into the waiting limo.
She knew, just knew, at that moment that this was the man she’d be with, that this was the man she wanted to be with. She loved him, and she hadn’t realized how much until this very moment.
15
They’d arrived at the cabin in about two hours, and that entire time as the driver took them out of the city and toward isolation, all Freya did was lean against Elijah. But Elijah had loved that she curled into him, and he could wrap his arm around her and just hold her.