Now...

I wake slowly, blinking my eyes open and it takes me not even a second to know where I was.

The curtains part slowly as morning light streams in.

"Good morning Mrs. Kri. It's eight AM."

I'm given details on the weather, my schedule from my calendar, the number of words I had completed as per schedule and how many more I had to go and finally a reminder of the date to submit my first draft.

I smile widely as I toss my covers off.

I wonder if Kri had woken. I get off the bed and the bed promptly makes itself. My brows raise. Okay, then.

I stalk straight to the bathroom and brush my teeth with vigour. I look into the mirror and see wide hazel eyes, sparkling. My cheeks were coloured and healthy. My hair...

Could be better.

I laugh at myself and quickly pull it up into a knot at the top of my head and tug at the front to ease the pressure off of it.

All I had to do was walk out of my room and I could see Kri. Happiness bubbles and froths over. I do a little jig, walk back into my room, grab my phone and leave. I stop outside his door and hesitate.

I raise my hand to knock. My fist hovers before the door for half a minute before I bite my lip and take the plunge. I knock.

My heart pounds.

I wait.

My brows furrow after a minute of silence. I wet my lips and knock once more.

"Kri?" I call.

No answer.

No sounds. Nothing.

Maybe he was already outside. I perk up, walking towards the swivel door and pushing past it.

The whole space was well lit from the sunlight streaming in through the glass walls. I walk into the room.

The living space is empty.

"Kri?" I call.

I continue walking towards the kitchen. At exactly that moment, a fair haired Yade pops her head out of the kitchen. I blink. She seemed in her late twenties. A turquoise head band keeping her hair off her face.

"Hello." I say.

She smiles widely, her teeth flashing.

"Hello." She says. I like her voice immediately. It's soft and kind. I walk towards her. She's wearing a simple flowy dress, a deep blue in colour.
I come to stand before her and she comes to my shoulder.

"I'm Hrei." She says said I see her knit her fingers together as if keeping them from doing something.

I hold my hand out to her.

"I'm Alanna."

She beams at me and takes my hand into both of hers.

"It's really lovely to meet you!" She says, her eyes a dark brown that shimmered with her sincerity.

I smile at her and my nose catches the smell of food. My eyes widen.

"That smells lovely." I whisper, my eyes locked on the stove.

"Please, sit. Let me get you something." She says.

I float to the breakfast counter, place my phone on it and settle on the chair and swivel to face her.

"Is there anything you are allergic to, Mrs. Kri? Any preferences?" she asks me as she slices up a tomato with the speed that rivalled my mother's.

I smile a small smile at how she'd referred to me. I loved it.

"Please, call me Alanna." I say.

She stops slicing and turns to me. She smiles softly.

"Alanna." She says, her voice as gentle as her smile. She turns back to her slicing.

"And to answer your question, no. No allergies. And preferences...none really." Then I add, "I do like quite a bit of salt in my food. It bothers my parents to no end."  

"Would you like some help?" I ask, when she sets a pan onto the stove.

She smiles at me and shakes her head.
"Your company is what I'd like." She says, tilting her head forward shyly as the stove begins to warm the pan.

I turn and boost myself onto the counter.

"Company it is." Then I confess, "Which is probably a better choice anyway. Having two connoisseurs slash chefs at home meant I was never allowed near the kitchen. They often fought one another to claim use of the stove and I enjoyed the fruits of their labour."

Hrei laughs as she expertly dances the oil bottle over the pan and tilts the pan in a circle to spread the oil and coat the pan evenly with it.

My words and her actions create a pang in my chest at the reminder of my parents. I had always been their first taste tester. The judge to their squabbles over food. I cast a glance at my phone.

When I hear a sizzle, I look to see that Hrei had added two slices of bread.

My brows furrow.

"You will be eating with me right?" I ask, "Or have you already eaten?"

She looks at me surprised. Then beams.

"I'd like to eat with you." She says.

I pull out a two more slices of bread and add it to the pan, gently moving it around to spread oil on to it.

Then I leave her to her ministrations. I cast a glance around, surreptitiously. 

"Hrei, did you happen to see Kri?" I ask her, holding the counter on either side of me so I could lean forward.

Hrei throws me a surprised look.

"Oh, he left for work about an hour ago." She says.

My eyes widen. An hour ago?

"What time is it?" I ask.

"The time is eight twenty six AM, Mrs. Kri." The house says.

"Oh. Um, thank you." I say, chuckling.

"You're welcome, Mrs. Kri."

Hrei chuckles when I widen my eyes at her. Hrei begins to spread some sesame seeds and herbs on the bread.

I drop my gaze, my brows furrowing.

He had left the house at seven thirty in the morning? Work? That early?

Yesterday was our wedding day.

I tighten my fingers on the counter edge.

It was a wedding day to me. It needn't have been the same for him. I press my eyes close, the memory of the question I was to ask him haunting my thoughts.

"He's always worked like a maniac."

My gaze snaps open and I look at Hrei. She doesn't look at me as she places two slices of tomato on each bread.

I look down at my knees. I remain quiet, not wanting to speak about my husband like this. I'm aware she was trying to comfort me, but I didn't wish to step onto this slippery slope.

I clear my throat and turn back to her.

"So, where did you learn to cook?" I ask her.

The topic change was obvious and I see the small smile she casts my way in acknowledgement.

"My mum is an adventurous cook. She was always whipping up something or the other. Sometimes disastrous, sometimes lovely. Either time it was a miracle the house didn't burn down. I took over just to save the house...but I fell in love with it."
She begins to whip up a smoothie as she speaks. I grin at her, smothering curiosity at her words.

"The kitchen was always a no-man's land that was fought over at night for possession in my house." I chuckle.

She pours the smoothie into two glasses, places two pieces of toast on each plate and begins to bring them to the breakfast counter. She carries the glasses so I slide off the counter and carry the plates.

I place one plate near the glass she had set for herself as she brings cutlery for us.

When she joins me, conversation flows easily between us. I'm curious about their culture and listen intently whenever she speaks about her family or community.

She speaks of them fondly...and also with a little longing. I straighten in realization.

"Are we not...are in we not inside the Yade community?" I ask.

She blinks and shakes her head no.

"We are miles out from there." She says.

We were not inside the Yade community?

Why would we not live there? That was Kri's home. Then...What was this?

"How long have you been living here?" I ask.

She bites into her toast, "A week."

A week?

"This house is new." I whisper in realization.

She nods, sipping on her smoothie.

"He bought it before the wedding."

"Why?" I whisper.

She places her glass down and looks at me.

"He bought it for the wedding." She says.

I bite into my toast and I can barely appreciate how well it tasted. My thoughts swirl and dive. He was living outside the Yade community. He was living among humans.

The Yade were people of family. They always always lived close to one another. No one stepped out of their space or lived alone. Why had he moved here? A week before the wedding?

I hesitate to come to a conclusion...

Was it...was it for me? To feel at home.

Or...

Was it to kickstart the Yade-Human initiation?

I route the topic as far from Kri and the Yade as I can after that and we speak about things we like. Movies. Books. Entertainment. Work.

She has been working for Kri for seven years now. Her voice has a soft note when she speaks of him and even her eyes smile. I take it he's been a kind boss.

I ask about Bal. Hrei rolls her eyes.

"Those two have been together long before anyone has ever known. They're almost like brothers. Can't see one without the other."

I grin.

"He's the only on Kri trusts. He's the Head of Security." Then she leans forward, as if to divulge a secret, "We also call him Keeper of Secrets. Because he and Kri are always plotting about something or the other."

I laugh softly at that.

I had so many things to ask my husband. The word sends a thrill up my spine. I couldn't wait for him to return.

"When does Kri return from work?" I ask as we pick our plates and glasses to place in the washer.

She has a thoughtful look, "He's very erratic actually. Forgets to eat. Forgets to sleep. Arrives and leaves as he wishes."

She tosses me a smile, "I'd like to think that having such a pretty wife waiting at home should bring him back earlier."

My cheeks colour mildly. We sit and speak for awhile longer before the house graciously reminds me once more about my schedule.

I hadn't known how well synched it was to my phone. It was easier to ignore a phone that could be turned over, than the whole house telling you to get to work.

Hrei and I have a laugh at that. I sigh and get up to get to work and Hrei does as well, saying she'd like to see her mother. She assures me she'll be back for lunch.

I wave my hand, "Please, take your time." I pat my stomach, "I can last awhile."

I wink at her and begin to head out of the kitchen. I start meddling with my phone, wondering if there was a way to tone down the whole schedule-reminder thing. 

"Alanna." Hrei calls.

I turn to look at her. She looks a little shy and hesitant once more.

I smile and walk back to her.

"You can say whatever you're thinking." I tell her, dropping a hand on her shoulder.

She smiles at that.

"We've not always had very memorable interactions with humans. I don't ...blame them. We're so different, it must be frightening." she lets out a small laugh, gesturing at herself, "I was wary—"

She looks at me and when she sees the encouraging smile on my face, she continues.

"I was wary to continue to work. I didn't want to make you uncomfortable.." My brows want to furrow, since when she had started speaking, but I refrain, not wanting her to misunderstand.

"But Kri assured me."

My ears perk up higher than they were before. I think she can tell, because she chuckles.

"He said I had nothing to worry about. That it would upset you if he removed me from my job just because I wasn't human."

When I sense she's finished, I speak.

"First off, you're beautiful. Anyone that can't see that or doesn't treat you right has issues. But...I can understand why you were worried. And Kri was right. I would been really sad if I hadn't gotten to meet you. I would've lost a good friend."

She smiles up at me and moves as if going for a hug, before stopping and looking at me. I grin and hug her.

"We're a very tactile lot." She says as she leans back, "You'll get used to it."

I laugh, "I think I was born into the wrong species then, I would've fit in better with you'll." I say.

She beams, "Yes." She says, her eyes bright, "You will fit in well with us."

I smile, but somehow I sense we were speaking about different things.

———
——
—

Crap. All crap.

I'm deleting everything worth a week's effort.

It was all crap.

I didn't like a single bit of it. I press the delete button with all the vigour I can muster up.

A week's worth of crap. Gone. 

Dammit.

It was a few hours later, I had washed my hair, worn something I hadn't shopped out of the kid's section and walked around the house to find a nice spot. I finally settled near the pool.

I had worn a cream top and jeans. I roll the jean up just below my knee, put my feet inside the pool and placed the laptop on my lap.

Apparently the section open to air could also be closed. With darkened glass. It felt like late evening in here, which I was happy about. I loved writing in the dark and I loved the shimmery blue lights reflecting off the water.

I had dialled my parents an hour ago, they hadn't answered. I decided they would call when they—

My phone rings as if on cue. I place my laptop aside and pick up my phone.

It was my father's number.

"Hey dad." I say into the speaker.

"Hey, sweetheart." My mum's voice rings through the room and I stare up around me and back at the phone.

"Your father and I were in a meeting."

The call time ran on my phone, but her voice was filtering through the speakers in the room.

Okay, then.

I place the phone aside and lean back on my hands, shaking my feet in the water.

"What kind of meeting?" I ask her.

"A meeting with our son-in-law."

I almost fall into the pool.

"What?" I ask.

The shuddering breath my mother takes is loud and evident in the silence.

"He's really..." She sounds as if she was moving as the voices and sounds in the background turn distant, "He's really saved us, Alanna."

My eyes close and I let out a slow breath. He'd done it. He'd saved them.

"What has he done?" I ask.

"He's hired lawyers to negotiate the compensation. He's rehired all our chefs, our staff, our workers...pumped finance back into the company."

"Baby, he paid off our mortgage." I can hear the tears of relief in my mother's voice.

We'd have lost the house in another few months. I knew this.

My own eyes sting, because I knew he had quite literally pulled my parents out from the depths of a disaster and set them on their feet and was helping them create a better future for themselves. One filled with respect, happiness and wealth.

"He's also hired people to find Charles."

My mother's voice hitches, "He saved us."

I cry softy into my hands and my mother I know, does the same. My lungs expand for the first time since Charles Green had disappeared and relief spreads through me.

"He's returned the money we took from you on our behalf."

I jerk and pull my phone back towards me. I check my bank balance.

My eyes widen and I almost drop my phone. Oh my God. That was way more than I was paid. I was already paid quite a bit, adding the royalty to it, the amount was enough to tide my parents over for a bit, before we drowned again. But this...oh gosh.

"Alanna."

My mum's voice brings me out of my thoughts.

"He did more than he needed to. He's not even holding us accountable for the things he didn't need to pay off. Our mortgage was never in the contract, neither was your money." I can hear her smile when she says, "I thought your father may start crying again."

I let out a watery laugh.

"We hadn't expected any of this." She says, "We had everything to lose. We had already lost everything. But inside that room, he never made us feel like we had signed a contract to hand our daughter over to save out lives."

She begins to cry once more.

"Mom.." I say softly, "It was my choice."

She takes a minute to settle.

"You wouldn't have said no." She says finally, her voice firm, filled with emotion, "You sacrificed your life for us."

I blink and swallow at the knot of emotion I felt.

"I could never think that there was anyone who could be worthy of a daughter that threw her life away for her parents. But when I sat before him and he treated us like we were his own and not strangers who'd sold their soul..."

I let out a sob.

He had been kind to them.

In the end, that meant more than all the great things he'd done which meant the world to us. That he hadn't treated this like another business venture. 

"I can admit now, I've never fully believed that your dreams could be true. Even after all the evidence you showed us. I prayed it were, but a part of me always doubted."

My heart twists because I knew. Of course I knew they felt that.

"But after seeing him. I just know. I know everything you saw, everything you've told us of what he was like. It is all true. He is true. Believe in everything you were shown, Alanna."

I'm sobbing my heart out now, my face covered with my hands, the intensity of having someone believe in what you do, wholeheartedly...the realization that all these years of faith and prayers that it were true was not in vain. It was all real. He was real.

"Thanks mom." I say when I can finally control myself.

"Be happy, Alanna."