The Addition

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The next morning, I wake up to light streaming in through the window, and I look over to see Kaden sleeping peacefully. I sit up, and then lean down and kiss him on his head, his cheek, his chin.

"Good morning love."

"Thank you for letting me stay here."

He smiles. "I could get used to this."

I place a quick kiss on his lips. "I should get back to my room."

"Wouldn't want anyone assuming anything."

I step onto his floor and turn back to him. "Could you imagine the scandal?"

He shakes his head and stands up as well. "My parents would kill me."

I smirk as I cross the room. "Let's hope not."

Before I make it to the door, Kaden grabs my hand. "And Elle, if you ever need anything else, I'm right here."

I smile and stand on my tip-toes, kissing his forehead. "That goes for you too."

He shakes his head, smiling. "I love you."

I walk the rest of the way to the door and open it. "I love you too."

~

After breakfast, Emily tells me that Maxon and America want me to meet them in their office.

I take the short walk down the hall and knock on the door, and a few seconds later, Maxon opens it and shuts it behind me.

"I'm glad you're here Elle."

Eadlyn and America are already there, and I take a seat next to them. 

"I'll cut straight to it, the selection has not worked out as well as we'd hoped."

We all nod.

"It's worked out great for the public so far, but once the press gets the news that the heir to the throne was kidnapped, it won't look good for us. But even more importantly, this has not been a safe experience for Eadlyn. We've had two assaults and one attempted murder!" he says this with an exhausted look on his face. "Eadlyn, your mother and I have decided that it would be best to narrow it down to the Elite."

America speaks up, "Honey we know that it's early, but we want you to choose the suitors that you absolutely trust."

"And Elle, we know that you'll be able to help the most with that decision." Maxon continues, "We consider you family, and we want you to feel safe here too."

I smile and nod graciously. "Thank you."

After a few moments, America reaches out to Eadlyn. "Eady? What do you think?"

Eadlyn takes a deep breath, "I understand. I'll announce that I'm narrowing it down on the report tonight, and then I can host a party to announce who's staying."

"That sounds great darling," Maxon smiles at Eadlyn, "Now both of you need a break, I'll finish up the work for the day."

"You don't have to ask me twice," Eadlyn laughs slightly and kisses both of her parents.

Eadlyn and I decide that we should hold the elimination party as soon as possible, so we head up to her room to start planning.

We're only a few minutes into it when there's knock on the door.

"Knock, knock," Kiera says, walking in with Genevieve at her side, "Your maid said that you two would be in here."

Genevieve sits in the chair next to me. "Yeah, we're just planning," I say, turning away from the papers Eadlyn and I were looking at.

"Well I just want to apologize to both of you for Henri." She says seriously, "I should've told you that that was a possibility. I had a draft of the book where this happened, so I knew that it was possible, but I have no way of predicting these things."

"Is this going to alter what happens?" I ask.

"I wouldn't worry yourself over that Elle. You've already altered everything just by being here. This isn't my story anymore, it's yours. You get to decide what happens."

For some reason, I get teary-eyed at her sentiment.

"And I have something else to talk about, and I needed you and Genevieve here."

I raise my eyebrows and she continues, "I just wanted to talk about you staying here. This is the deal, whichever world you choose to stay in, you have to stay in forever. You can either choose to go home, or stay here, but you can't jump between the two."

I exchange a look with Genevieve, and I know both of us have already made our decision. A look of worry still creeps over Eadlyn's face.

"What will happen to our family?" Genevieve asks.

"It isn't exactly ideal," she explains, "But it'll just be like you're gone."

Kiera gets up and heads toward the door. "You have a few days to decide, but whenever you're ready, one of you come tell me." Then she leaves us to our silence.

"Which are you going to choose?" Eadlyn asks us, unable to contain her questions. "And don't let me sway you, if you want to choose your family, I would completely understand."

"It's quite easy, actually," I tell her, looking over at Gen, who nods. "We're choosing home."

Eadlyn's face falls, but she pulls herself together within a second. "O-Okay, I understand."

I shake my head. "It's easy because home is here, Eadlyn. We're staying here."