He pulled back to look her in the eyes.
"This will seem a little conceited, but it's the truth. I'm a very lucky man. I've been blessed being born in a rich family and I have more wealth than I know what to do with. I have multiple homes but no one to share them with. I want to share them with you. I want to get to know you, if you'll let me."
She opened her mouth to argue but then closed it with nothing to actually argue. She felt conflicted inside, wanting to be with him. She wanted a better life and he was offering it with no stipulation or strings attached. But something was also nagging her at the back of her mind. She was finally free from Gharet. She didn't have anyone to answer to, and it was her time to find out who she was a person after living under someone's ruling thumb for her whole life.
Tears loosened from her eyes again. Her heart hurt and she folding her hands over it.
"I just don't know what to do right now," she said. "I've been with someone my whole life. I've never known who I am. I have only known one kind of life and that was doing things for others, especially when I didn't want to." She stopped for a moment and then with a panic stricken look on her face her mouth fell open and her lips quivered again. "I am so sorry. You're right. What am I even saying?" She looked down, her hands shaking and then she put them to her head. Sobs racked her body and her shoulders shook.
"What?" Evander leaned in and took one of her hands from her hair, willing her to look at him.
"I owe you and here I am asking for something," she sobbed. "I'm so stupid." Her tears rolled down in streams, running her narrow jaw and dripping from her chin.
Evander sat staring at her for a moment not saying anything. In front of him sat a girl who was so confused and felt the obligation to do something for him even though she might have wanted it partly but also he felt a part of her didn't want to be tied down to something again.
"Aurora, if you don't want to be with me, that's your decision. I was only asking to allow me to be beside you. But," he looked away, hurt. "If you don't want me, there's nothing I can do. And I understand how this might be something that seems like you're falling back into another relationship, but you don't have to have that if you don't want to. You're free from Gharet, and you're free to make your own choices. I was only asking. You don't owe me anything. I saved you because I wanted to. I risked my life for you, but it's only because I want you to have the life you want, and if I'm not apart of it, then I'm not. It's up to you what you want. You get to make your decisions now. You don't have anyone but yourself to answer to."
She stared at him not saying a word. The tears still fell but they seemed to have slowed now that her sobs had lessened. She sat thinking over what he had said.
"I..." she looked down tot he sand and then back up at him. Her fingers felt their way into the wet grains and she pulled lines through creating a clump in her hand. "I don't know what to do. I don't know how to make a decision. What do I do?"
Evander looked at her for a moment and thought over what she had said and then an idea struck him that might benefit both of them, even if some of it was going to work in his favor, but he would leave it completely in her hands to what she wanted.
"How about this, an offer." She looked back up, meeting his eyes, her grey eyes shimmered with unspilled tears. "For now let me help you get on your feet. You can do anything you want, but you will have a place to call home for the time you want to stay there. You can purchase anything you want. I am not asking you to do anything for me. I am offering you things that will help you to go where you want. You can stay as long as you want with nothing expected of you. If you want to stay in your room the whole time you're there an never see or speak to me, you are free to do so. I will be there if you need someone. A companion. Someone to talk to. Or I can be no one at all. You can make the decisions you want to that will allow you to have the life you want. You can go where you please and use anything I can offer you. If you want to leave Fhan and start a life somewhere else, I will give you a ship and a crew and enough gold to help you not look back. Whatever you want, I want to give you."
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Shadows of Iraedes | NanoWrimo 2021
RomanceAurora Bailey has had a hard life, and the horizon is only looking harder. She's finally had enough of her abusive partner and decides to leave him, but finds she can't when he keeps pulling her back, sometimes even physically. After many attempts t...
