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The Eichen House

Micheal POV:

I was back at home, where the laughter happens, and I can rest at the end of the day. From the street, it is bricks and mortar topped with tile, the same as any other mansion. If you step inside, you'll feel it's so different, a place where the lungs choose to fill a little deeper and the heart beat a little steadier. I had purchased it for a fortune.

I stretched out on my burgundy leather couch to watch the Weather Channel with my two female Siamese cats, Mee and Yow, curled against my chest. Mee, a big seal-point, rarely cuddled with me. Yow, a blue-point, was in my lap the minute I sat down. He felt a kinship with the cats, who had become my family; they were all I had. They always sat with him while I watched television at night. They curled up on the big oak desk when I worked there at my computer. Late at night, they climbed under the covers on either side of me and purred me to sleep. That was the summary of my sad life, I never allow anyone to get too close to, for the fear of getting hurt again.

My mind strayed to Aurora again, and her mother. I was still in shock at how coldly she rebuffed me. We didn't end on a bad note, I sent her a letter of recommendation and a full-month salary. So how dare she give me a cold shoulder?

The faint scent of her Rose perfume still up my nose. Amazing how much I missed that scent around me. She had become almost like a stick of furniture, aware of an odd, tender nurturing of himself that I'd never had in my adult life. She made me think of open fireplaces in winter, of warm lamplight in the darkness. Her absence had only served to make me realize how alone I was. I spent the rest of the night thinking about ways to get her to come back, but none came.

I remembered that the elderly Mrs. Hardy was allergic to fur. Aurora loved animals but couldn't get any. She kept little figurines of cats on her desk. I never asked her to my home, but I was certain that she’d love my cats.

My eyes flashed suddenly at the thought of Aurora working with that damn Leo Jordan, perhaps he was still bitter over the divorce and the custody suit his wife had brought against him. I was only doing what any other attorney would have done in my place. His now ex was as happy she seemed wanted to be seemed in that high-powered property law job she held in New York City, she wasn’t likely to ever come home. She loved the little boy as much as Leo did, and she felt it was better not to have him dangling between two parents and wanted full access.

I shook my head. What a pity that people had children before they thought about the consequences. They never improved a bad marriage. The children were always the ones who suffered most, I had a first-hand experience of it and learned the hard way.

He is still salty about the divorce, he will try to snatch Aurora from me. Perhaps he already had, that was why she was acting so cold.

'Snatch Aurora away from me?' I cringed at my thoughts. When did she ever belong to me to be snatched? Why did I care about for whom she works for and who she gets involved with? I caught myself, I felt weird unable to provide answers for myself at first.

'We may have parted on a not so good terms but yet, she's my ex secretary, I couldn't watch get entangled with a man like Leo Jordan. It was my duty to protect her' I muttered to myself.

I dared to breathe again after providing a satisfying answer reasonable enough to convince myself.

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