𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬

chapter 19

NINETEEN:
a disastrous reunion
♠️

"You never made me feel like I belonged in this family by being myself. All you did was try to change me to be someone that I wasn't and... and with these people, this family—my family—I feel like I'm really at home..."

ellie

After a long day with Dimitri, Ellie finally let him go at 3pm to play with his toys. She went straight upstairs and struggled to open the one of the large double-doors of the bedroom. The second she managed to open one of them, she shuffled inside and collapsed on the bed, ignoring Blaze's curious stare as he looked up from his book.

Having to spend five hours with an energetic five-year-old was exhausting. Ellie never complained about it because she was obsessed with Dimitri and loved the boy to death, but she could never keep up with his crazy playing ideas and random spurts of energy whenever she taught him. However, she would deal with it because, at the time, it never really felt like a bad idea to play Tag and run around the entire house for ten minutes before Dimitri got bored and wanted to go back to learning.

"You okay?" Blaze questioned, gently pulling her to him and rubbing her back. Ellie hummed tiredly, nodding her head.

"Just sleepy," she whispered back, smiling up at him in reassurance. "Have any work to do?"

Blaze shook his head, turning his attention back to his book. "Finished it an hour ago."

She rested her head on his chest, closing her eyes at the relaxing motion of Blaze's hand. Ellie could feel the fatigue beginning to sneak in and yawned at the feeling.

"Don't fall asleep on me yet, baby," Blaze spoke up, interrupting how close she was to passing out, "as adorable as you look when you're tired. We need to talk."

Ellie grunted, keeping her eyes closed. "About what?"

"About going back to pay mommy-dearest a quick visit to talk about something important."

That caught her attention as her eyes snapped open. Ellie sat up quickly, her violet eyes growing as she stared at Blaze with disbelief.

"You're joking," she whispered.

"No," Blaze answered. "This has been something we needed to discuss for awhile now, Ellie. It's quite obvious now that you're not being used as leverage because we have a relationship going on between us, so we need to talk to your mother about everything."

Ellie held her breath for a moment. "Everything?"

"Yes, everything. We need to talk about why you were taken and if you're going to be going back—"

"I'm not," Ellie interrupted quickly, biting her lip and blushing when she saw the grin stretch across his face. "I-I just haven't seen her in months after she gave me to you like I was some sort of... of sacrificial object."

Blaze frowned when her voice choked up from the angry tears, helping her into his lap so she was straddling him. He wiped away a stray tear, kissing her cheekbone next.

"I know she hurt you, baby," he mumbled to her, "but you need to face her after the shit she pulled. I mean, I'm partially to blame after being the one to take you but..."