CHAPTER 64

They sat in the living room which was quite cramped, Rosa and Kevin were sitting on the couch while Elijah was sitting uneasily on an armchair. The sound of the ticking of a grandfather clock which was placed in the corner of the room, resonated the heart-beat of Elijah.

“So, Elijah,” Kevin started speaking to him quite informally but guarding himself, “You and Rosa, what’s the relation?”

Elijah looked at Rosa and somehow was able to read the desperation in her expression. They always keep their past to themselves, their association with the pack and so Rosa had never disclosed anything to Kevin.

Of course she hadn’t. Why should she focus on those painful moments that she had in the past and bring them up to the present?

“We… grew up together,” Elijah said carefully, not realizing that he was on the verge of saying too much. “In the same… community. ”

Rosa only nodded, and wasn’t fully convinced until she saw the hint of relief wash across his face. “We’ve known each other for quite some time,” she continued and there was calmness in her tone that still had tight muscles on her shoulders.

“But, of course, we have not met for years now; perhaps that is why I am asking myself…” She looked at Elijah seriously. “Elijah! Oh my God, what on earth brings you here? What is it that has you down?”

The time had come to go to address the elephant in the room. Elijah sighed deeply; he realized he had to say a lot of things concerning the matter at hand. But before he could utter a word more, a child’s voice came from upstairs.

“Wow, you have grown so tall mom,” “Mom! Have you seen my soccer cleats?”


Rosa’s face softened instantly. “Oh, have you seen John?” he asked her, “Look, sweetheart, in the laundry!” she replied. The appearance now shifted to Elijah and Kevin as she continued, “The boy child baptized as Michael. He does have a match this afternoon. ”

Elijah didn’t know what was worse, the possibility of the attack coming from someone within the camp or the knowledge that he was hurt. Rosa had a son. A normal, human boy, who had liked soccer and had, surely, no clue about the existence of the Other World that had entered his mother’s life. how in the world could he have the heart to do this to them now?

He had not eaten until the evening and feelings of hunger interfered with his thoughts: “I’m sorry,” Elijah got up from the chair.: “I shouldn’t have come. This was a mistake. ”

Rosa also remained erect, looking very confused and a little worried at the same time. “Elijah, what are you up to? You did not drive all this way to come here and go back empty-handed. ”

Elijah shook his head, feeling like a cornered rat, which was already getting ready to bolt for the door. “Oh no, no please, it is just a small thing, quite unimportant truly. ”

“Elijah. ” Rosa sounded almost angry now, and there was an authoritative quality to her tone. It brought back memories of the girl with spunk that he had once known, the girl who could argue with the best of them even holding her ground against anyone. “Appy,” I beg, gripping his arm fretfully, “just tell me what’s the matter. ” “It’s… is it Amelia?”

Its thunderous presence rose above the words that never crossed their lips to join the other silence of that man’s life. Elijah noticed that Kevin looked puzzled, while Kevin's fingers curled around the back of the chair, he looked at Rosa and said, He noticed the panic rising in the woman’s eyes, that primal maternal urge that made her realize something was very wrong.

At this point, Elijah made up his mind. He struggled to do this and now that it could be done it was done in a way he could not condone. Rosa needed to be told the truth, and it was her right to be told how things were but not in front of her husband and son when everything she had built would crumble.

“Amelia is fine,” he lied thick and the taste at the back of his throat was bitter. “I just… I wanted to see how you are, but it’s very clear to me that you are content now You have a beautiful family, Rosa. I’m glad for you. ”

The relief was visible in Rosa’s face but the doubt in her eyes was still evident to Elijah. She understood him so well that whatever thin excuse he gave her could barely convince her.

“Yes,” he said and looked into her eyes with deep concern, “that is all. ” “You seem… troubled. ”


Elijah forced a smile. “Just tired from the drive,”-repeated Elijah. “You know what, I have to leave now. I didn’t mean to barge in like this. ”

Confused, Kevin stood and watched the exchange until Elijah looked at him, and then Kevin stuck his hand out and the two shook it. “It was nice to meet you,” he also added. “As for somebody being a friend of Rosa’s, we can say that such a person can come round here any time he or she wants to. ”

The handshake was firm as Elijah extended his hand to Kevin a sinking feeling in his stomach. This kind man knew nothing of the goings on between Elijah and Rosa, of the secret that Elijah nearly blurted out that would upset the calm in their lives.

Rosa walked him to the door, which opened out into the moonlit street, and as he went out, he felt her eyes following him and knew that she expected him to explain an edition he was not prepared to defend. They reached the door of the house, and she touched his arm gently to prevent him from going in.

“Elijah,” she said softly, her audible level made certain that David did not hear what she was saying. This prompted a surprising response from Theodora; “What is it, I know you, you wouldn’t have come all this way for nothing. ”

His eyes met hers and he saw worry, fear, and lingering attraction towards him. There was a wild impulse that rose in him to tell her everything – about Amelia being kidnapped, her escape and then the vanishing. But the memory of the family photos on the wall as well as the shrill voice of the child in the house calling for the mother pulled him back.

“I just needed to see you,” he said to her after a while perhaps aware that there was little else he could say in a situation like this. “Just to know that you are okay. That you got the happiness that you needed in your life. ”

Rosa’s eyes grew tender such that one could feel a blend of emotions reflected on her face. “I have,” she said. “But Elijah… if there’s something I need to know that especially concerns Amelia…”

Elijah shook his head. “Amelia is fine,” he said, the words bitter in his mouth, though he was even more angry with himself for agreeing to the rouse. “Rosa, do what you want to do, be as happy as you want to be that is all anyone ever wished for you. ”

This stopped and silenced her before she could press further and in haste to avoid the confrontation, Elijah walked to his car. He could feel Rosa watching him as he walked away and or failed to see him drive off; he could nearly hear the questions that were running through her mind.

When the suburban street was gone in the rearview mirror, the carefully constructed wall that Elija had put up came down. He gets out of the car, moves to the side of the road and takes hold of the steering wheel, he is trembling.

What had he done? He had come here to tell the truth, the get the facts to Rosa, who deserved to know the truth. And tell her a lie right to her face; to conceal from her that her daughter is missing from her home.

As Elijah sat himself there, now literally wrestling with his conscience, he could not find it in himself to repent of his decision. The tranquility of the family, of the home, was depicted through such simple scenes as the boy calling down for his mother saying he needs soccer cleats, the husband who was not only alive but watchful for his wife’s well-being – all of these were reminiscent of a life rebuilt, of hope espoused after having suffered so much.

How could he maple that? In what way could he pull her – Rosa – back into the dangerous and chaotic life she’s fought to leave behind?

No, Elijah decided. He would get on with it all by himself. He and Bruce continue looking for Amelia, would go to the ends of the earth to look for her and bring her home. But only when he has something good to tell his daughter he would knock on the door of Rosa again.

With a sigh, but the zest coming back to his spirit, Elijah started the car and moved it back on the road. Down the empty road through the empty pack lands the drive was long and lonely before him. But in his mind, the next plan was already in the making or rather the search for Amelia was ever continuing.

He would find her. He had to. All of them, for Amelia and the pack, and for Rosa – the woman who stirred something in him that he did not remember he had. Emotions that he had no business having, nowhere in his life did he have any business with such feelings.

As he got into the car and negotiated the car through the thickening gloom, Elijah made a silent promise. Charles would have to guard Rosa and her newly found happiness at all costs. Including the memories of secrets and lies, if need be. Including one that said, ‘Even if it meant lying to the spark of feelings deep in his chest. ’

And maybe that was all he could do now, for the family he had disappointed, and for the woman that he had never stopped loving.