Page 33 of Emerald Queen
“I found my father’s journal.” The wall crumbled and she broke into a blubbering mess. Drake wrapped his arms around her, cradling her to his chest.
“It’s going to be alright.”
“No. Its. Not.” Emersyn snorted, her torrential tears soaking through his t-shirt. “My dad… he was,” she hiccupped against him, the words getting caught in her throat.
“Shhh… I got you.” Drake lifted her from the wooden perch and carried her to the bed, “take a deep breath.”
Emersyn sucked in a lungful of air and blew it out. “He… he fathered another child, Drake.”
“What?” Drake furrowed his brown, “You're not making any sense.”
Sarifena took another deep breath, “Before I was born… my dad was involved with the Sapphire Queen.”
“Ok, and, what does that have to do with other children?”
“Drake… my dad is Sarifena’s father.”
Chapter 19
“Wait…” Drake rubbed his forehead. “Are you sure?”
“Yes… it’s in his journal.” Emersyn pointed to the book on the floor, “It talks about his mistakes coming back to destroy him. He found out she was his when my mom was pregnant with me. Apparently,” Emersyn got out of the bed and retrieved the discarded leather pages. She returned to bed, sitting next to Drake and opened the journal.
“Here,” she thrust the opened pages at him, “Read for yourself.”
Emersyn chewed her nails as Drake read over the pages.
“Holy shit. Emersyn, do you understand what this means?”
“I have a sister?” She quirked a brow. “This is so fucked up. But what does this have to do with my letter and Dimitra’s kidnapping?”
“Did it say anything else?”
“The last entry I read was from December 14th, a few months before I was born. All it said was his past was haunting him again. Then you came in.”
“There might be more, but Emersyn,” Drake set the book on the table, “You need to rest. Put this to rest for now and when Sarifena is here tomorrow – maybe you can look into it more.”
“No, Drake,” She tried to reach for the book, but he captured her wrist in his hand.
“Emersyn, please. It’s late and you look exhausted. Please… you need to rest to be level headed when Sarifena is here.”
Emersyn could see the worry in his expression. His face had lines of worry and his eyes lacked their typical glint.
“Ok… fine. But on one condition,” She stroked his forearm.
“Anything, Emersyn.”
“Stay with me.”
“I’m here aren’t I? I hadn’t planned on leaving you tonight. Beside you is where I need to be.”
“Good. Let me go to the bathroom, I’ll be right back.”
Drake watched as Emersyn peeled herself from the bed and disappeared into the adjoining bathroom. He stripped off his clothes, leaving him in his boxer briefs. Laying back on her bed, he propped his head up by folding his arms beneath his neck and leaned against the headboard.
Emersyn emerged from the bathroom… Naked.
“Emersyn…” Drake growled.
