SEQUEL: TWENTY

Alina rolled out of bed and a bleary look at the clock told her it was almost noon, she shucked her thick robe tighter around herself and stopped to put on her bedroom slippers.
It had been three days since she left Silverfall, three days since she fought with Maddie, and three days since she had seen or heard from her best friend.
Alina knew some of the fault was also her own because she had made no effort to reach out to Madeline but she was still upset at the side her supposed best friend had decided to take.
She padded to the cozy kitchen of the house she had chosen to stay in, it was one of those places she had heard her father mention a long time ago. Honestly, she was surprised she had been able to find it but it was the perfect location although a bit too small.
Her father wouldn’t be able to find her here - not like he would even make an effort. They wouldn’t bump into each other mistakenly when she was all the way in this obscure house that her father had probably forgotten he still had, and the only reason she had met the house clean was most likely because it was affiliated with a cleaning agency that handled everything.
Alina had never been here before, which was no surprise, the house was small and tucked away in a suburban area at the edge of Mistbourne. She got to the warm toned kitchen which gave her a shocking sense of nostalgia although she didn’t remember ever having warm cozy kitchens.
She never even went to the kitchen because for as long as she could remember, there were cooks for that so there was no need for her to go through the trouble. So why did making coffee on the fading counter feel like something she had done so many times before?
She had almost turned away when she first got to the house, intending to stay at a hotel instead but it had been in the evening, and she didn’t have the energy to interact with people so she just went in. The cozy house quickly grew on her and by the next morning, she was walking down the street to the grocery store to buy supplies.
She had also ordered clothes and by the second morning, she was already settled in. It was the third day now and it felt like she had already been living there for a couple of years. Alina stood by the kitchen window with her steaming cup of coffee, peering through the curtains at the people going through their daily lives.
There was a young mother pushing a baby carriage and talking animatedly on the phone to someone while a toddler enthusiastically waddled beside her. Although she was making a call and pushing the carriage where the toddler should have been, she had her entire attention on her child who was overexcited to walk.
They walked past an older lady in a sundress who stopped to pick up the toddler and twirl the child around, sweet laughter filling the street.
Alina didn’t realize when her lips started to tug up in a smile, it must be so nice to grow up with parents who gave you attention, and even better an entire neighborhood who cared about you.
Maybe she should call Maddie… she didn’t have a lot of friends, and she couldn’t afford to lose Madeline. But she couldn’t face Madeline without telling her the truth even if her father cautioned her not to.
This was Maddie, who was literally her only friend. If she couldn’t tell her this, then who would she tell? She just had to do something first before that, and that was to pay a visit to Roman and complete her end of the deal.
Now that she was calmer, it was best that she decided on the clauses of their contract mating. She would travel down to Reef in a couple of days and just get it over with, then she would go straight to Madeline and tell her everything.
Alina focused on the road again, the mother and her toddler had stopped, and the little child was reaching out their arms to be picked up, and she felt a pang in her chest.
She had never thought about having a child before, content to travel around the world, shop, go clubbing, and terrorizing the media. But after being presented with a contract mating, she found herself doing just that.
She would certainly never be too busy for her child, she would do everything she wished her father did for her. Trips to the park, the zoo, and even the diner down the street.
When Alina pulled away from the window, the street was already empty and her coffee had gone cold. She poured it into the sink and washed the cup before returning to the bedroom to clean up and get dressed in comfortable clothes.
She had spent the time in the cozy apartment trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life, she wanted some peace and quiet and the company of people who cared about her. Her father was obviously not included in this demographic because he was too busy to care for her but Madeline was a huge part.
Alina had never thought much about Fated mates, not when fate didn’t listen to her wishes and make her Lukas’ Fated mate. She didn’t care enough to search for them, not even now because she knew first hand that not everyone who was supposed to love you did. What was the use of searching for her Fated mate if they ended up being just like her father? She wasn’t sure she could take it.
She wore a loose shirt and baggy shorts, she wasn’t going anywhere so she didn’t bother looking presentable for the cameras. Even when she went out grocery shopping, she had just put on shades and a face mask, and not even a single person had recognized her, so she was free to dress as she liked.
She made her way back to the kitchen with her hair in a loose ponytail, planning to make a late brunch. One look at her stocked fridge and she lost the energy to cook anything, instead, she went to get her phone so she could order pizza.
Her phone had been so quiet, and by that, she meant that Madeline hadn’t been texting her like she usually would when they were apart. Now, all the notifications she got were from strangers who only showed interest in her because of what they could get from her.
Her fingers hovered over Madeline’s number briefly before she gave up and ordered pizza instead. While she was waiting on the delivery, Alina decided to occupy herself by wandering around the house.
There were two rooms and she had taken the bigger room without question, and other than a quick glance at the smaller room, she hadn’t checked it out yet. Now, she did.
It was a copy of the bigger room, every personal effect had been cleared out and the wardrobe was filled with laundered sheets. Although Alina knew that there was nothing to find in the room, she checked the drawers anyway to distract herself, and to her surprise actually found something.
A decorative ball on the bedside dresser had fallen off and rolled under the bed and in a bid to reach for it, her fingers touched something else. Decorative ball long forgotten, she pulled out something which was wrapped in an old plaid scarf, it was slightly dusty but that didn’t deter her.
She sat on the edge of the bed and proceeded to loosen the knot that the edges of the scarf were tied into. There was something wrapped in it but she wasn’t exactly sure what it was, it could be books or letters or… pictures.
When the undid the scarf, the stack of Polaroid pictures that had been kept in it was revealed, some sliding off her legs and ending up on the ground. She didn’t make any effort to catch them though, her wide eyes fixed on a picture right in front of her.
She had never seen the picture before but she instinctively knew who it was. It was hard not to when the lady smiling at her from the picture looked exactly like her… Her mother…
Alina had never really seen many pictures of her mother, there used to be some in their home when she was much younger but that house had been burned down in an attack so they had lost everything. She had started to forget what her mother looked like, nothing but a vague memory so the sight of a young version of her mother slammed into her like a ton of bricks.
Here her mother looked so young, like she was no older than eighteen. And Alina would have looked exactly like her when she was eighteen as well but her hair had been blonde instead.
Alina didn’t realize how long she stared at the one picture of her mother smiling freely, not until her vision started to grow blurry and a tear drop stained her mother’s smile. She quickly wiped her eyes, not wanting to ruin the pictures with tears.
Just as she gather up the pictures so that she could go to her own bedroom and look at them better, her doorbell rang. She had already forgotten that she had ordered pizza so this startled her, making the pictures spill to the ground again.
She wasn’t able to pick them up because the door bell kept ringing incessantly so she abandoned the pictures on the carpet and hurried to the front door, ready to tear down the impatient delivery person who couldn’t even wait a few minutes.
The door opened to reveal a young boy with the biggest grin on his face, he looked no older than eighteen and looked really proud of his job. Alina’s reprimand died on her tongue and she took the box of pizza with a nod of response to his greetings.
“Pizza always fixes everything, you’ll feel better after you have a slice.” He said as he tipped his hat to her before running off to his bicycle which was parked by the street.
Alina blinked in surprise at this, still clutching her box of pizza and standing in the open door way of the apartment. How had the delivery boy been able to tell that she had been feeling sad? Was it obvious on her fac-
Alina nearly facepalmed when the realization hit her, the delivery boy had said that because it was the pizza place’s logo, it had nothing to do with her. She rolled her eyes at herself and walked back in, placing the pizza on the table in the living room and going straight to the room.
She quickly and carefully gathered the pictures back into the scarf, taking it to her own bedroom while clutching it close like a precious treasure. She sat down on her bed and placed the scarf in front of her, just staring at the fading red color of it.
If her mother’s pictures were in one of her father’s old houses, it meant that this used to be her mother’s house, it added up. It also meant that her father had to know about these pictures for a long time but he just hadn’t seen the need to tell her, that really hurt but it wouldn’t be the first neglectful thing her father had done.
She untied the knots of the scarf again and settled in, her pizza long forgotten, as she slowly went through pictures of her mother while she was still young.