Violet
"You want to come back to Islanda with me?" I paled. It didn't occur to me through this whole rush of events that he would want to come to my home. But of course he did. It made sense. He wanted to be with me and live with me and know everyone in my life. "Uh. I don't know if that is such a good idea." I blurted, backtracking. His face fell and just like that, I felt like the worst person in the world. "I'm sorry. Of cource, come back with me to Islanda." I shook my head in apology. "It's just going to be a bit strange with you being a faerie and all.", "Not to me." I quickly added. "Just to the others. They haven't seen any foreigners before, to my knowledge."
"I can stay here." He said solemnly. "No it's okay. Come with me; you can help with getting rid of my husband." I peared up at him through thick eyelashes.
His tone changed, "That would be my pleasure."
I showed Jameson to a spare residing area - Esmeralda's old quarters. She had no use for them, so he may as well use them. My people were unsure of Jameson, I could see that much, but they didn't dare say anything. Isla looked at me warely when Jameson stared at her after I made the introduction. I wasn't ready to tell her about her father when she hadn't even told me about her family. Had she even known? She was only a child when she came to live with us.
So I shot Jameson a look of warning. I needed everyone to hurry up and retire for the night so that I could delve into this book and find out everything there was to know about Isla's past.
One by one as everyone retired on to their quarters, and finally, I was alone... with the book. I flipped open the torn pages of Jameson's book, humming to myself that I was touching something so precious to him. Something that he had touched probably hundreds of times before as he searched for the meanings of its words and stories. But my hope was not to find what was important to Jameson, but rather, to find the meaning of Isla's secret. After pages and hours of searching, It felt like this book was just about Emerald's experience on the ocean and his regret of leaving his wife and children. I was yet to find out who they were. And then suddenly I found something, "It killed me to push Suki away and leave her and my child in the ocean. There is no regret bigger than that one, especially as I await my death in the Isle, knowing I will never meet my child. If the child was a girl we had agreed to name her 'Isla.' I hope that the child was a girl, because we didn't have a name picked for a boy." I read on, "Our future was mapped out for us, just like the maps I had drawn of my journey, right down to my tombstone. I had planned on coming back, but she didn't believe me and she ended up being right in that." My eyes skimmed down the page looking for more about Isla. "I wish I could have met my child. I would love to know if she was more faerie or mer. I wonder what people thought of her and if she'd fit in. Dear reader, whoever you are, if you find this book, please go and find my daughter and her mother and let her know how I would have loved to meet her." My eyes widened at his confession. Jameson was the reader and he had an agenda. My heart and my head made the same decision at that moment. Whether he thought he came here because he loved me, or because he was enchanted by these words, I would put my child first despite my feelings.
I awoke to Esmeralda sitting on my bed with my necklace still attached around my neck. I flew into a sitting position, "What are you doing here?" I hissed, furious that she had sneaked up on me. "I want to get this deal going." She babbled excitedly, "I couldn't sit there, waiting, when something this big is going to happen." I rolled my eyes and smoothed my hair back, "Move." I said, pushing past her. Jameson was already up, conversing with Mer when I stepped out to the common area. Despite me asking him not to, they all seemed at peace with him. And that is when I came to a different realization. Louie hadn't come home last night. Did he know about Esmeralda and my plan? "Where's Louie?" I snapped, "Did you already run him out of town?"
