Alara

Ch.42 At Peace

I quickly forgot about the awkwardness of the night after dinner and fell back into a good routine of mine.

I looked at Ms. Andrews a little more different now that I knew she was Cyrus' mother. But not in a bad way, she was one of the most enjoyable people to be around.

I more or less focused on her mannerisms and tried to see what Cyrus got from her.

He definitely got a few facial features but outside of that nothing. Well his accent that he hid too.

He looked and acted like Takir. Minus the psychopath part. He was somewhat pleasant to be around when he was in a good mood.

I had caught a few of his very bad brooding days. And I knew to just avoid him and leave him alone. But the good out weighed the bad. We began to have breakfast together a couple of days out of the week.

By the time my 18th birthday came around I had a good read on him.

Or so I thought.

"My father says now that you are eighteen it is time to begin introducing you to the public." He told me one morning over breakfast.

I glanced up, from stirring my oatmeal. "Oh so now your Dad thinks its appropriate to acknowledge our marriage."

I was in a not so good mood this morning. My head was killing me and I was so tired. This was not how I imagined my eighteenth birthday going.

Cyrus ignored my bad mood though. "To the general public we are not married yet. We don't even know each other yet."

I frowned, what was he going on about this early in the morning?

"I managed to convince him to allow you to go back for two weeks to visit your family in Dallas. You leave later tonight." He said as he sat down his newspaper.

I felt a slight squeeze of excitement start to build up. But then I sat back. "There is a catch. There is always a catch."

"I go with you. And we are to be seen together. Out in public."

A publicity stunt?

He held up a finger, "He comes up with this stupid shit not me. Believe me I'd rather be dealing with other stuff."

I smiled fakely. "Best birthday ever."

"It's not all that bad. I'm giving you four days with your family before I show up and sweep you off your feet in a grand romantic way." He said sarcastically.

Four days was better than nothing.

"Do they know I'm coming?" I asked.

He stood up and shook his head. "No they don't."

"Two weeks is all I can give you though. And no matter how hard they try and convince you to stay you will be coming back. This is just a visit." He said seriously.

Yeah yeah... just a visit.

.
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I didn't allow myself to get excited until I landed late that night in Texas. Because I was still Takir's prisoner he had a security team accompanying me that would swoop in to snatch me up if anyone tried anything.

Fun.

We flew in privately so I didn't have to wait in any lines for customs or anything. I was just put in a car and they took off.

Apparently they knew my address too...

When we got close I made them stop at the gate. "You cannot continue onto the property. I have nieces and nephews that my mother does not want to be exposed to guns."