EDENI was sitting at home when the guard passed. I hadn’t been paying attention because I was busy playing with Ethan while Herschel slept. She had been very tired and weak these days and I feared for her.I knew he went to Roman's office so I didn't really bother with it.“I’m hungry.”I was glad that he was speaking now. For a few days after he came, he still hasn't spoken and I feared that he was non-vocal. I asked Herschel if that was a new thing and she said yes because he had always been speaking. I just figured that it was because he was in a new environment.“Really? Let’s go get you something to eat then.”He jumped off the chair and we walked into the kitchen. Being around him made me not want to wait for this baby to come out. While Belle was still my baby, she wasn’t a baby anymore.“What do you want to eat, pumpkin?” He pointed towards an apple at the top shelf and I was just about to reach for it when I heard a loud crash.It sounded like glass breaking and it shocked E
ROMANWe headed straight for Maximus’ palace. This was the real deal. This time around, I was going to make sure this fool pays for his crimes. The amount of things that he had done and gotten away with annoyed me so much.Who the hell did he think he was?I’d been filled in on the things he had been doing since i left the pack. He made an appeal to the Council for them to kick me out out because I abandoned my pack and left to the city to chase after a woman.It was the most ridiculous thing because while that was not true, it had ended up being my goal.Once i found Eden again, my entire attention went into bringing her back home. So when i received a summoning fromthe council, i knew it had something to do with this particular issue. I didn’t want to go but Quinn being who she is forced me to and i ended up having to sit in front of stupid men who talked over each other, saying the same thing an beating around the bush.“If one of you doesn’t tell me why i’m here in two minutes, i’
ROMANHe knew what he was doing. He knew that I wouldn't make any sudden moves or I would try to act smart since he has a knife on her throat.“Stay away, Maximus. If you do anything stupid, I will kill her.”Belle was crying and I wanted to tell her to distance herself as far away from the blade as possible but I didn't know how to.”Let her go, Maximus. That's my kid. If anything happens to her, I will kill you. Trust me, you don't want to do this."Maybe I should have brought Quinn along. That way, he would be surrounded but that's okay,, I could still handle the situation.”Exactly! If I Let go, you're going to kill me.”“That’s where you have it wrong. Even if you don't have her, I will still kill you.”No matter what happens today, if I die or not, Maximus must die.”You are just like your father. So thirsty for blood. It's repulsive. One would think that you will be better but no, you're worse. A blood thirsty bastard.””Mind the words you use around my daughter."“Oh" he laugh
EDENI watched Ethan as he jumped on the bed, making different animal noises and then laughing at the noises afterwards.I couldn't help but laugh at his innocence and just for a moment, I seemed to forget my predicament.This boy was going to be my comfort through all this while I stayed and hoped that Roman would return with Belle.”What sound does the cow make?””Mooooo!" He fell on the bed laughing until his stomach hurt.I wish I could laugh like this.”A knock on the door interrupted us and I stood up to open the door.“Eden! You have to come now! It's Herschel, I don't know what's wrong with her.”Without thinking twice, I told the maid to stay with Ethan in the room while I went to check on her.There were people in front of the door when I got there. Alicia was inside with her and Herschel lay on the floor ,groaning in pain and holding her belly. “Alicia, what's going on?”" I don't know, I just got here and found her like this.”I looked and say the blood that was flowing
ROMANHow stupid was I?How could I have fallen for his stupid tricks that easily. The fact that I couldn't even see the ground in front of me wasn't helping issues.”Belle? Baby, if you can hear me, say something.”He had put his hand over her mouth because I could hear her muffled screams but I still couldn't pinpoint her location because the room was echoing .“Maximus, stop this madness. Give me my daughter.”“No Roman, how can I? We have only started this game and we must see it to the end.”I felt very stupid doing this.“Fine but leave her out of this, let her go. She's a child.”“She will bring me a lot of money. Imagine how much I will get when I tell them that she's your daughter and she's untouched..”Untouched? Did he just say untouched?“I swear, I swear on my life. If anything , anyone should touch my daughter in any inappropriate way, I will have you to feast on and that is not a threat."She was six years old and he was talking about her virginity?“Daddy!”Her voice w
EDENMy body hurt when I woke up.Her name passed through my head as soon as I opened my eyes.“Herschel!”“Eden! You're awake."“Alicia, what happened? Where is she?””Calm down, just take a deep breath. You just woke up. Relax."Her telling me to relax wasn't making me relaxed. It just made me more worried. But I took a deep breath.“Are you okay? Do you need water or anything?”I shook my head.“No, I just need to know what happened to Herschel? Is she okay."“When you asked us to leave the room, we did. At first it was silent and I was beginning to wonder if I should come in and check on you and then we heard a loud widm, gushing in through the window. I was surprised because it was very sunny outside. I even sent one of the maids to check."I wasn't surprised. That was the way she came.“What happened next? I lost conciousness after a while.”“I pressed my ear against the door and I could hear you speaking in a foreign language. I couldn't t understand what you were saying and th
EDENI was dazed.That slap was so hard that I had fallen back on the bed. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones. Maybe it was the fact that I was already in a bad mood. But I slapped her back and she fell to the floor.She couldn't believe it.”I don't know what madness this is but you will not come into my room in my house and lay your hands on me, do you understand?!”“You murderer! I should have known that you didn't want us here. I told you guys that it was a bad idea to come here. They will kill us off one by one and they have started with Herschel!”I looked at the fool that was laying on the floor.“Herschel.” Ethan repeated.“Alicia, take Ethan out of the room."I was too pregnant, too pregnant for this rubbish that they had brought to me this afternoon.I was already in the wrongest of moods and they brought it to the wrong person.”No, Ethan belongs to us. Give him here.”She got up quickly and tried to lunge at Alicia but I grabbed her hair and pushed her to the ground.“Don
ROMANI woke up with a jolt.Belle was by my side, passed out.“Belle! Baby!”I carried her and got to my feet and ran out of the basement.As I ran out, I suddenly remembered that I had been stabbed so I looked at my chest.It was gone. The knife was gone.What happened?My mind flashed back to the conversation I had with Eden where she told me that she suspected that Belle was just like her. I didn't want to believe her because I didn't want my six year old daughter getting involved in all this.But she saved my life.“Roman!” Eden's Mindlink came through and I almost tripped. “Roman, can you hear me?"I was running towards the door so I could find Quinn and hand Belle over to her. Maximus had run away and I needed to find him.“Yes, I'm okay. Are you okay? Is everything good at home?”“Yes, everything is fine. You don't have to worry. Is Belle okay?"”You asked her to do this, didn't you?”I heard her sigh.“Yes, I'm sorry. I had no other option. I wasn't there with you and she was
THIRD PERSON POVWhile everyone back home was looking for Roman, he was on the other side of the town, looking through his pockets and swearing that he carried his phone.The minister noticed that he was distracted.“Is there anything you need? Are you looking for something?”Roman looked up.“Yes, I'm sure that I carried my phone but now, I can't find it.”Roman knew that he would have gotten so many calls. He'd left the house very early and no one knew where he was.He didn't take any guard with him either.“Maybe it fell on the way."Of course, it did. With all those bullets raining on his head, why won't it fall out?It had been pure luck that he had escaped. He was almost at the minister's house when he noticed a car that he was sure he'd seen when he got off the highway.He'd rolled his eyes, not wanting to be involved in any of this today.“Can we do this in a week? I have something to do today.”What should he do now? He knew he couldn't avoid them.To make sure that he was ri
EDENIT was already seven pm and I still couldn't find him. I was ready and so was everyone else but he was nowhere to be found.I'd called him and so had Quinn but he wasn't picking up his calls at all.“Edem, are you sure he didn't tell you where he was going?”I thought back to last night and scrolled through our conversation.“No, I don't remember him saying anything about going anywhere. After I told him about the officiating minister, that was where the conversation ended. Nothing more happened.”Quinn came back.“His phone is switched off.”Wonderful, just great. Roman was missing on no other day than our wedding day.Where could he be? Even if he was stuck in traffic, he could at least pick up his phone.Or maybe he truly wasn't interested in getting married to me.But then he would have just said it then when I brought it up. Why didn't he say anything? He had the choice to reject me last night but he didn't.”Eden, don't worry. We'll find him in time for the wedding.”Alicia
EDENI woke up early that morning.Well, we didn't sleep after that.. we stayed up the entire night talking about everything we'd been through and it touched me.Eventually, I fell asleep on his shoulder and I didn't even know. I was sitting in his lap and I woke up on the bed.Alicia was standing above me .“Hey, wake up. Let's get you ready. Roman left the house really early this morning and I have to go back home to get a dress for myself. I mean, I can't wear this.”She had eye bags and her face was very dim. She has started crying again sometime during the night.”Alicia, sit down. We need to talk.”She was avoiding my eyes.“Eden, there's a lot to be done today. I mean, you don't even have a makeup artist or a hairstylist either. Your dress isn't here yet and the food isn't ready. There's a lot to be done.”I knew that all that wasn't truly her concern. She was just trying to avoid talking about me.“Alicia, please -”“Eden, there's no time. We need to get ready."I had to get
EDENWhen I finally got into the house later that night, I couldn't sleep so I just stared out the window at the stary night.Alicia had fallen asleep while feeding the kids so I would break the news to her tomorrow.I'd had to tell Quinn what had happened.“Really?! Was that why you were staring into the dark?””Yes, she was standing there. I'm not going to die, Quinn. I'm going to be here with my kids.”She pulled me in for a hug and held me tightly.“I'm so happy, Eden. You don't know how terrible I felt when you told me that. How can you die without watching your kids grow up?"I was just happy that I hadn't rushed to tell Roman anything that was going on.He was clearly exhausted because he didn't even wake up when I entered the room and when I got in the bed. I was equally so tired because I had spent a lot of time getting things ready today.My body was tired but my mind was still awake and buzzing.I was going to get married tomorrow. I should have told Quinn that we should ju
EDENWe got back home late that night.Mostly because we needed to pull ourselves so that we won't show that we've been crying.Everytime we finally stopped crying, Alicia started again and we started another whole process of consoling each other.“Please stop crying. I don't know what I'm going to do if you're like this.”She finally pulled herself together and we got into the car and drove back home.“Are you really not going to tell Roman?"“I don't have a plan to. I'm sorry, I just can't bring myself to tell him. He will be shattered, Alicia.”She still wasn't fine with it but she didn't say anything else until we got home.Alicia went into the house to check in on Roman and the kids while I went to the back of the house to check in on what Quinn was doing.She was actually on a chair and table with her legs up while eating everything she brought from the restaurant.“You seem to be enjoying yourself.”My voice frightened her.“Sorry about that.”“You guys surely took your time..
EDENWe'd ended up at a restaurant because the bar we wanted to go to was closed.Roman had already called me four times to ask Alicia questions about the twins and he sounded like he was about to lose it.“Let’s eat so much that we won't be able to walk again.”And that's what we did. I think we ordered everything in the menu and we basically had the chef at our call to make anything that we wanted.That was the first time I would be eating so much food in one day and it felt so good.“I don't think I can eat anymore. I'm so full.”Quinn had been the one to bring us here and now she was already full. Alicia's mood had changed and she wasn't speaking anymore.Quinn's phone rang and she stood up to answer it.“Alicia-”“What’s going on, Eden? And don't even tell me not to ask questions. Because you can't keep doing this. I'm your best friend. You have to be truthful.”What was sj to do at this point? I had no other choice than to tell her the truth.She deserved that much.“Balari came
EDENAlicia did come over that evening.And we stayed in the room throughout.“It’s fine. I'll take care of the kids. You guys just do what girls do. Whatever it is that you do.”Roman took the twins and left us.“What in the world happened? Why did you faint?"I acted like I had no idea what was going on.“I mean, I don't know. I just felt weak and tired and next thing I know, I'm waking up in a hospital.”“Woah, that is crazy.. but you're fine right? I mean, yorie okay?"“Yes, I'm fine.”I needed to change the topic.“Hey, about Henry, I've spoken to Roman about it and he had no idea that Henry wasn't home. He said he was going to help track him down.”I actually hadn't spoken to Roman about it but I just needed to say something that would make her forget about the previous topic.“Thank you. I just hope we won't have to go through everything we went through back then. He'll surely come back.”Surely, he will. He's probably just busy.Speaking of Roman doing things, I still needed t
EDENI'd come home the day after that. The doctor said that I was free and healthy to leave but I didn't feel free.“Why the long face? Aren't you happy to come home?”I turned to Roman who was driving.”Oh no, it's nothing like that. I'm just tired."What was the point of being happy when I knew what was coming? And I couldn't tell him. I didn't want him to feel responsible for it.Roman is very quick to blame himself and I didn't want him to. I should just die peacefully so that he would have the guts to move on from me.If I told him that it was because of him I was going to die, then I would mess things up.I recalled my last conversation with Balari.“Are you sure it's what you want, Eden? Men are not worth it. You can live with your kids and raise them in your own way. You don't have to do this.”But it seemed like the more we spoke about it, the more determined I was to do it.“I do, actually. I love Roman, I can't let him die for something he has no hand in.”“And you have a
EDENWhen I woke up, it was dark.Why was it dark and where was I? I knew this wasn't my room, and it surely didn't smell like this.I tried to move my hand and when I saw the IV line shake, I sighed. The hospital.How did I end up here and why didn't I remember anything?Me being here meant that something had happened to me but for the life of me, I couldn't bring myself to. I felt so weak so I just relaxed in my bed.I didn't even have the strength to call for help and eventually, I slept.The next time I woke up, the sun was out thankfully and my eyes didn't feel as heavy as a boulder.My stomach was hurting badly, partly the fact that I hadn't eaten in a day and half. I needed food or else I might actually die this time around..I sat up in my bed, clutching my stomach tightly. I also needed to pee. I've never been to the hospital before.Roman was born in the pack and Belle?Well, Belle was born at home because I had no idea I was in labor and since Alicia and I had never been mo