Page 82 of Owned By Two

It felt wrong,so wrong.

Blor fell into the seat beside me and leaned over to kiss me on the forehead, before wrapping his arms around me tight.

Tears rolled down my face and I knew they had nothing to do with my father.

Some part of me, something in my chest, felt like it was being torn free, like a loose page from a book, never to be complete or totally whole again.

The shuttle took off and we entered deep space.

“Wait,” I said. “Uhti… He shouldn’t leave. He shouldn’t…”

I wasn’t sure what I was saying or even what I was feeling but I sensed there was something wrong about this whole thing, something I didn’t completely understand.

“It’s okay,” Blor said, stroking my face. “It’s better this way. Trust me.”

I shook my head. “No. It’s not. He needs to come back. He needs to—”

The shuttle shuddered to a stop and the lights flickered and went off.

“Backup power engaged,” the pilot said.

He flicked various switches and turned various dials.

“We’ve lost engine power,” the pilot said.

“Try restarting all systems,” the co-pilot said.

“I have. We’ve lost all engine power.”

“There must be something—”

A bright light filled the entire shuttle, brighter than anything I had ever seen before, turning everything white.

Blor clutched me close and bellowed:

“Keep your eyes closed! Keep them shut!”

He turned and yelled at the pilots but they didn’t respond.

A loud roar like a jet fighter passing close by overhead screeched.

I slammed my hands over my ears and screamed…

But the sound was lost to the roaring above us and everything went black.

27

UHTI

It was a day for goodbyes.

I decided to pay my respects to James who, despite the few years I had known and worked for him, had been more like a father than a boss.

That was something I could never share with Lizzy for fear she would become jealous and blame me for taking all the love and attention she deserved as a child of his own blood.

Nothing was further from the truth, but Lizzy’s past with her father was a difficult one — especially today, on the morning of his funeral — I didn’t want to risk making her feel worse than she already did.

These were also the final few moments I would get to spend with her and didn’t want to poison them and whatever memory I might have of them going forward in the future.

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