True Identity

Chapter 50

"Where is he?" Was the first thing I said when Morgan opened the front door of Eli's house. I'd paid way too much money to get to Worcester by midnight, enough to make my dad cringe as it was in economy, and I was not in the mood to dawdle when she stood there shocked at my presence.

"Your dress is pheno..." She started but I put my hand up to silence her and walked passed her through the large doorway of the huge home.

"You wouldn't tell me anything or let me talk to Eli so I left the White House and came straight here. You're my friend Morgan but he is the love of my life so tell me where he is before I punch you in the face with no regrets because I will and I have a lot of muscle to back it up." I said, pking her sweater clad chest, clearly from being tucked up in a spare room somewhere in the mansion. I wondered why his mother hadn't answered the door or a maid but Morgan must have been expecting her. It must have been obvious she wasn't just going to leave it. After a second of staring her down, Morgan sighed heavily.

"After you, tough lady." She said, pointing the the stairs that led to his basement I'd been in only a few times. I lifted my skirt and marched down the corridors to the stairs where I walked down and immediately saw him, laying on a sofa, the whole of his right arm in a cast, staring into the nothingness of the ceiling, not flinching as I stomped towards him.

"Eli?" I called, making my way over to him steadily but he remained catatonic, not even moving at her presence.

"Eli?" I repeated with the same results.

"Look at me, I'm here." I said, sitting down on the sofa next to him but instead of grasping my hand as I went to take it, he pulled away, turning his whole body onto his side, burrowing into the cushions.

To be honest, I was shocked at the Eli I was seeing. I'd always seen him as this strong man who was always there for me with no baggage and could support whatever issues I had. I would never have thought he could be this withdrawn, not even wanting me to touch him, something was very wrong and she'd sensed it back in D.C. As much as it shook her to a unbelieveable way, she couldn't leave him like this. They'd been through too much to just let him shut off without any explanation and she wouldn't let him. He owed him whether that's how he saw it or not, she wasn't going to give up on him.

"You may not want to talk to me or even look at me right now, but I'm here and I'm not leaving, not ever, I love you..." I breathed, dying to touch him as I told him my true feelings for the first time. If I had a choice, this would definitely not have been the moment, it would be intimate and passionate and he wouldn't have his back to me and reply the way he did.

"No, you don't." He mumbled into the couch.

"You know I..." He jumped up and stood, leaning over me before returning to the couch with his head in his hands.

"You can't love me Coral, no one can love me. I'm better off down here where no one can find me." He said, his voice full of the kind of emotion I'd never heard from him; a mixture of pure loneliness and nothingness. He truly believed every thing was over.