Page 63 of Fated to Them

That I won’t see Maya every day or my mother. That I won’t be the one she excitedly runs to anymore, and that thought hurts more than I thought it would. I have had custody of Maya since just before her third birthday. In a lot of ways, she feels like she is my daughter, and it upsets me a little how she will easily just accept her mother back into her life without giving me a second thought. I feel Eli’s hand on my lower back, making me look at him. Cyrus walks off with my mother toward the kitchen, and Taylor walks into the living room with Maya. Maya shows her mother the painting she’s done.

“Can we stay at your place?” I whisper to Eli.

He seems a little shocked, but everything is moving too quickly, and I am finding it overwhelming watching my family finally coming back together while I am being pushed out.

“You okay?” he asks, kissing my cheek and pulling me to him.

I walk off, going to retrieve some clothes. When I come back downstairs, Eli is no longer talking to my mother, and Maya and Taylor are still playing in the living room. I walk over to the table and grab Eli’s keys off it before grabbing my bag.

“Addie, everything okay?” my mother asks.

“Yes, mom. I’m just not staying here tonight,” I tell her, kissing her cheek and walking down the hall.

I stop to look at my sister and Maya. Taylor looks up and smiles. I smile back before reaching into my handbag and retrieving my car keys.

“Here, you can keep it,” I tell her, and she takes the keys from my hand, looking at them.

“Don’t you need them?” she asks, looking up at me.

“No, you can have it. I won’t be here much longer,” I tell her, and she nods.

I realize Cyrus has already told her I am moving because she doesn’t seem shocked at my leaving. If only she knew the sacrifice I had just made for her; if she wasn’t my sister and Maya’s mother, I never would have agreed. But I know I’ve made the right decision by how happy Maya looks.

I get up, sending Maya a wink before turning to leave. Eli and Cyrus are watching from the hallway when Maya runs over, grabbing my legs and hugging me. I pick her up, give her a squeeze, and kiss her hair.

“Thanks, Ada,” she says, and I feel a tear slip down my cheek at her words.

I squeeze my eyes shut. Maya is mature beyond her years and understands her mother staying means I am leaving. Placing her back on her feet, I kiss her head, and she runs back to her mother. I walk outside, heading to Eli’s car, and I unlock it before hopping in. They take a few minutes to come out, and I drop Eli’s keys on his seat before resting my head against the window, waiting for them to come out.

When they do, they hop in the car, and Cyrus starts driving toward their place. The trip there is silent, and they leave me to my thoughts. I am about to throw everything I have built here away for them and for my sister, and now with the days ticking down, it is starting to get to me. Soya. I won’t know anybody and have no family to fall back on. No friends, nothing familiar, and I will be heavily relying on them. I don’t like someone having that sort of control. I don’t like knowing that leaving here, I will be giving myself to them completely, that they will basically own me. That thought doesn’t sit well with me.

Will they really let me visit my family, or will I be shut off and forgotten about? It may sound selfish, but I am sick of being the only one to make sacrifices.

Pulling up on the driveway out the front, the lights are off, and darkness swallows the house. Nothing is out here, and it is a little eerie walking to the house. Cyrus opens the door before flicking the lights on as he walks through the house. I follow him into the kitchen and sit on one of the stools at the island bench.

“Hungry?” Eli asks, and I shrug.

“A little,” I tell him, and he nods. I watch as he starts rummaging through the pantry.

“Where is your bathroom?” I ask, looking around the open room.

“There is one down the hall or one in the bedroom. The main one has a bath in it, or there is a shower-only in the bedroom,” Cyrus says, and I nod, walking to what I assume is the bedroom.

I was correct. It is a bedroom, a huge king bed in the middle of the room with a gray duvet. Mahogany furniture and a big fluffy white rug sit on the floor. I also notice a fireplace in the corner along one wall and two doors on the other wall. Walking past the first door, I notice one is a walk-in closet, and the other is the bathroom. I push the door open; the bathroom is bigger than our main one at home. All gray tile and black finishings; the shower has no screen, only a drain and two shower heads. The shower takes up most of one wall. Cyrus walks in, handing me a fluffy white towel before walking out. I turn the water on, letting it heat up while I strip my clothes off. I hop in, wetting my hair, when I see the door open, and Cyrus walks in, pulling his shirt off over his head.

“Mind if I join you?” he asks, and I shrug, not really caring.

He strips off his shorts. He steps in behind me, turning the other shower-head on before putting his face under the steady stream, his hands braced on the tiles, the water cascading down his back.

I can’t help but admire the way the water moves over the lines on his body. I marvel at the hard-toned muscles that humans spend thousands of dollars and hours in gyms to try to achieve, yet, I’ve never once heard them speak of gyms or see them do any form of exercise. I envy that. I’d eat a Snickers bar and worry about gaining weight while they look like gods effortlessly.

“You’re gawking,” Cyrus says, snapping me out of my daze.

I can hear the smile in his tone.

“Do you work out, or is this a vampire trick?” I blurt out.

Cyrus laughs, his muscles flexing from the movement.