Drawn
Page 24
The GPS navigator on my phone tells me that her house isn’t much further. It took me a while to find her. She’s moved to Phillip Island in Victoria and is unlisted, so I had to coax her location out of friends.
But now I’ve found her, and I can’t wait to see her.
Henrietta
Walking around the house with a basket in my hands, I lean down and pick up random items that have been strewn around the house, shaking my head, but smiling to myself all the while.
Pulling out the vacuum from the hall cupboard, I plug it into the wall and switch it on, gathering all of the dust bunnies that have accumulated under our couch.
My brow pulls together as I think I hear the doorbell over the drone of the motor. Hitting the off button, I move to the front door and look through the screen.
“Yes?” I ask the man who has his back to me. But I don’t need to see his face, as soon as I get close enough, my body lets me know who it is. “Damien?” I whisper, not quite believing it’s him.
Turning around, he gives me his most charming smile, and I feel my mouth go dry with a need for him I’ve never managed to get rid of. “Henrietta,” he says softly.
Henrietta
I forbade anyone to call me Henrietta after we broke up, the sound of my full name just seemed to hurt too much – my heart couldn’t take it.
“What are… what are you doing here?” I ask, my voice breathless just looking at him.
“I came to see you Henrietta. I haven’t stopping thinking about you. All this time, you’re the only one I’ve cared about,” he explains.
“You need to forget about me.”
“I can’t.”
***
Aaron
“What’s this?” Evie asks.
“It’s a shell,” I explain, taking it from her tiny fingers and turning it over in her palm, smiling as her little mouth tries to pronounce the words. It comes out more like ‘Wha dis’. But I understand nonetheless.
“What’s this?” she asks again, this time showing me a piece of seaweed.
“It’s seaweed. Let’s go and see if mummy is finished with the cleaning. Do you have your bucket?”
“Yes,” she says, rushing over on her chubby little legs to grab the plastic yellow pail out of the sand.
“What about your spade?”
“Here!” she squeals, waving it over her head as she rushes toward me, flicking sand everywhere as she runs. “Shoulder ride!” she yells, a big grin on her face as I hoist her onto my shoulders and start the short walk home.
“My love you daddy,” she says suddenly, hugging the top of my head and planting a sloppy kiss in my hair. My heart fills up and bursts a little. Who would have thought such little hands could hold so firmly onto my big heart.
“I think we have a visitor,” I muse as I round the corner and the cul-de-sac, where we live, comes into view. There’s a black Commodore VE parked on the curb out the front of our house.
“A visitor,” Evie parrots, always happy to repeat the last two words of most sentences.
“Holy shit,” I breathe, suddenly coming to a stop at the base of our driveway.
“Holy shit,” she parrots again, although I barely hear her. I’m too shocked to find Damien standing at the door, talking to Etta.
The moment she sees me, she shakes her head then touches her hair to try and cover up her slip. I take the hint and start to move away. But Evie has seen her mother.
“I want mummy!” she yells, wriggling on my shoulders, wanting to get down.
It’s enough to alert Damien to our presence. He turns around with a smile on his face, but it vanishes almost instantly when he sets eyes on Evie.
“Is that… is she…?” he stammers, pointing at the little girl I call my own, as she rushes toward her mother, her jet black hair streaming behind her as she runs, brandishing her bucket for her mother to see her new treasures.
Damien’s hand covers his mouth as he watches her. He knows. Of course he knows. Holy shit. I think my whole world just exploded.
The End…for now.
Dear Reader,
I have a massive surprise in store for you with Drawn 2. There will be a choice – and YOU will get to make it. Keep an eye on my Facebook page, my blog, or sign up for my newsletter to find out all about it.
Lilli xoxox
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