Unveiled Shadows

Ella came back to the busy newsroom and felt at home again, but also sensed something different. The boss, Diana Ross, who's great at finding big news stories, noticed that Ella had gained more experience. Diana took Ella to her office with clear walls. They could see the city's tall buildings behind them while Diana asked Ella questions.

Diana started with fake kindness in her tone, “Ella, sweetheart, we've missed you.” Then she got right to the point. “There's something about Alexander Knight. I need to know that story.”

That sent a shiver through Ella, who clutched onto her notepad tighter. “Diana, I'm not sure—”

“Nonsense,” Diana interjected sharply. You know how to reach that boy. That attachment you two share, look past it, use it.

The weight of her secret lay heavy in the pit of Ella’s stomach, it stared back at her as if it were a scream trapped within the walls of a hurricane of whispers.

Ella tensed, clutching her notepad, making her knuckles white. “Diana, I'm not sure—”

“Nonsense,” Diana interjected sharply. They spoke of you, how you can do things through him…indeed you have a way about him.

I wish the burden of her secret weighed as little as the scars on Ella’s chest: a voiceless scream amid the whispers.

Several hours later, when the sun had gone to sleep behind orange and pink clouds, Sophie Martinez, Ella’s closest friend and her secret disclosure, finally came knocking at her door. Her hands swollen from carrying heaps of take out bags, while her eyes shone with the surety of eternal allegiance.

Ella, grinning, said, “You are really a lifesaver, Sophie” before allowing her in.

Sophie’s eyes rested upon Lily, who was lightly dozing; she was wrapped into a colorful blanket nest and encircled with stuffed toys. “Hello darling, is our little princess up yet?” Sophie asked, her voice soft, just like a baby’s lullaby.

Ella observed them, the affection within her very soul was a shield to the darkness of her hidden desire.

Sophie and Ella sat cross-legged on the living room floor waiting for the night to begin as sweat and steam rose from the Wok packed with the exotic combination of Chinese food. Lily grinned, squirming excitedly, her little hands stretching out towards the cookies that said ‘Fortune’.

The days that followed were a fragile dance of evasion and half-truths. Ella dodged Diana's ruthless chase for the scoop on Alexander, while nurturing the bond with her girl who grew stronger with each passing moment.

One afternoon, as Ella sat at her desk, her phone buzzed with a content from Alexander. Her clue caught as she read the words that hinted at a longing to learn the space betwixt them.

She typed a response, her heart a troubled sea of hope and fear. Let's meet, she wrote as well as sealing her fate with the press of a button.

Alexander and Ella collided their present with past during the meeting. They were in a Café at a distant part of the world where its people, moved fast for them.

“I have missed you dear, especially because you complete my life,” Alexander said in an earnest voice.

She was looking at him directly as his heart raced and swelling up her eyes like burning suns that caused nothing. “Because I had my reasons,” she barely uttered.

His eyes wandered into hers as he leaned forward to meet her face. “Would you mind sharing those reasons with me now?”

Ella took a step back from the precipice of revelation. “Not yet,” she breathed, is all she could say.

Ella felt a stab of thinking about it- the weight of her secret was heavy on her heart. She wanted to speak, to confess the dark shadow of her silence against his lightness of being, but fear ruled her. No, he whispered, no, her downcast eyes.

Words unspoken sat heavy between them. And then, Alexander reached his hand across the table and laid it on top of hers. “Whenever you're ready, Ella. I'll be here.”

As Ella tumbled along a much rockier path within her dual life, the love she held for her daughter was still considered this dark nightlight. She got every Lily giggles, every new find through the eye of her camera, a quieted finish of the existence they experienced.

But for all the shadows her secret created, Ella took comfort instead in the quiet moments of joy still to be found and more importantly, in the strength of their bond which was one thing no secret could ever destroy.

Ella's days became a balance. At work, Diana's detection by intuition seemed to grow, rather than diminish, with each passing day. “Ella you're holding back, I can feel it.” Her eyes followed Ella, constantly watching and scrutinizing every move Ella made.

Ella remained unruffled, her determination not to exploit Alexander’s personal life unshaken. ‘Diana, my beat is politics, not the gossip pages,’ she replied, sidestepping her editor’s insatiable thirst for scandal.

Sophie was Ella’s sanctuary and reminded her of the life beyond the walls of secrets she had built. They would spend evenings together; Sophie’s laughter and breezy talk acting as a salve to Ella’s tired soul.

One evening, the hot restlessness of the day subsided at last. Ella and Sophie sat on their balcony and watched the first stars appear in the twilight sky. The darkness of infinity seemed a pity to them.

“How long,” asked Sophie quietly at last, “can you keep it from him? From Lily?”

“As long as I have to,” said Ella dully.