(while trying to mass upload, I accidentally uploaded the chapters without chapter 048(it has been uploaded, sorry for the confusion), I understand that this might have made you confused but I hope you can merge this to it. I'm really really terribly sorry and thank you for not giving up on Freya, Alan and Eliza's story. I also thank you for understanding in advance lovies!")
CHAPTER 048HER WAR, OURSPOV (FREYA)The soft sound of a zipper broke the quiet.I stood by the doorway, watching her. Eliza sat on the edge of the bed, folding her clothes with a kind of quietness that needed to be studied. Her fingers moved slowly, as if dragging the moment out, as if each garment was one more memory she had to tuck away.“You’re awfully quiet,” I said, forcing a smile. “You sure you don’t wanna go to the beach one last time before we leave this island?”She glanced at me, lips curling faintly. “I would love that,” she said. “But I’m leaving anyway.”My heart dropped.“Eliza…”She didn’t stop packing. Didn’t even look up. Just kept folding, as if my voice hadn’t even registered.I turned, storming into the living room where Alan sat on the couch, elbows on his knees, head bowed like a man in prayer.“You’re just going to let her go?” I demanded.He looked up, weary. “No. I’m not.”“Then stop her!” I snapped. “Do something, Alan! She’s.... she’s packing like she’s w
(while trying to mass upload, I accidentally uploaded the chapters without chapter 048(it has been uploaded, sorry for the confusion), I understand that this might have made you confused but I hope you can merge this to it. I'm really really terribly sorry and thank you for not giving up on Freya, Alan and Eliza's story. I also thank you for understanding in advance lovies!")
CHAPTER 050HOME SWEET.... HOME!POV(FREYA)She didn’t hesitate. She kicked the door open with both feet and lunged.The man staggered backward with a grunt, hands flying to his face as Eliza’s fist connected with his jaw,hard. His back hit the corridor wall, and he let out a strangled yell.“What the hell. Elizaveta?! It’s me!”Lucien.My stomach dropped.Eliza froze mid swing, eyes wide as if waking from a fever dream. Her fists were still clenched, her breathing sharp and ragged. The adrenaline that had surged through her veins now made her legs tremble.Lucien cupped his face with one hand, wincing. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I’ve been running around this damn train trying to find you, and I get sucker punched for my efforts?”Eliza blinked, confused. “I… I thought…”Alan appeared behind him, eyes sweeping over both of us, then Eliza. His shoulders sagged with obvious relief.“I thought I lost you,” he said, his voice tight and low. “What happened?”“She thought I was someone e
CHAPTER 049MESSY DIARESPOV (FREYA)Just a few minutes before we were supposed to leave, I found Eliza sitting cross legged on the floor, hunched over a thick, battered looking bundle of notebooks bound together by string. Her pen was moving in slow, deliberate strokes. Her lips were pressed into a thin line, eyes low, hair falling messily over one shoulder.“Hey,” I said softly, crouching beside her. “What’s that?”She looked up, startled, then quickly closed it. “Nothing. Just something I write in.”“A diary?”Eliza wrinkled her nose. “No. God, no. I wouldn’t call it that. Diaries sound… organized. Pretty. This is just messy. Pages of spilled guts and moments I didn’t know where else to put. I guess it’s more like… a long, angry draft of my brain.”I tilted my head. “Do you write about everything that’s happened to you?”“I’ve had it since I was eight,” she said simply.I blinked. “You’ve been writing in it for twenty three years?”She smirked. “Makes me sound ancient, doesn’t it?”
CHAPTER 047THE WEIGHT OF WHAT I HELDPOV ( FREYA)The sky was pale with the blush of early light as we stepped into the garden behind the villa. The grass was still damp, and the leaves glistened with dew. Eliza wore one of my cardigans, sleeves rolled, hair tied in a messy braid that still somehow made her look ethereal. I trailed beside her with a small wicker basket tucked under one arm, brushing past the rosemary and mint.“This,” she said, crouching by a patch of lemon balm, “is the secret to surviving Russian winters. You boil it with chamomile and honey, add a little ginger. Clears the lungs, calms the demons.”I smiled. “Sounds powerful.”“It has to be. You ever try calming a Russian grandmother with a cold?” she teased.I laughed softly, kneeling beside her as we began snipping at the leaves in quiet tandem. Birds sang above us, and for once, the world felt... still.Then her voice cut through it, unexpected and feather-light.“Can I ask something?”I glanced at her. “Of cou
CHAPTER 046THE BATTLES WE FIGHT INSIDE OF USPOV (Freya)Lucien burst in like a storm that forgot it was invited to dinner.His voice came loud, too loud, cracking through the walls.“She’s gone.”Alan and I jolted from the bed, still tangled in heat and breath and something unspoken.“Who’s gone?” I asked, sitting upright.“Eliza,” Lucien said. “She’s not in her room. She’s not anywhere.”Alan was already halfway out the door before I’d found my robe.We sprinted. Through the halls. Down the stairs. Every door flung open, every corner checked.I don’t know what I expected to find. A note? A broken window? A quiet goodbye wrapped in crimson?But what I didn’t expect… was the scent of ginger and steam.We turned the last corner into the kitchen hearts pounding, panic in our bones and there she was.Eliza.Standing barefoot on the tiled floor, hair pulled into a messy braid, flour on her cheek, shaping steamed buns like she wasn’t the most hunted ghost in this villa.She looked up at u