Page 15 of Owned By Two

But she had made a different decision, and under the circumstances, her decision counted for a whole lot more than mine.

“Yes,” Lizzy said, more confidently now. “I must go to his funeral. What happens now?”

The assistant spread her hands. “Now, you come with me.”

“And my Seeding?” Lizzy asked. “And Blor’s Steyatt?”

“Everything will be taken care of,” the assistant said. “Sometimes tragedies come up. They are unfortunate but we are prepared. Please follow me.”

I trailed the two of them out of the room. I couldn’t help but look back at the room we were vacating. The room of my greatest happiness.

And my greatest sorrow.

7

LIZZY

I had never been particularlyclose to my father. And I didn’t know quite how to deal with the feelings rushing through me when I first heard about my father's demise.

I wasn’t exactly sad about it… not that I was happy about it either. I mean, he was still my father, even if it was only in name.

My immediate reaction was to refuse to go anywhere, to change any of my plans as that was exactly how he would have reacted upon hearing of my death. He didn’t care for me. The handful of times we had met, it had been with the awkwardness of strangers, not the closeness that was supposed to tie blood relatives.

There were times during my life when I had truly hated him — outright hated him — but it was usually not his fault. Not directly, anyway. It always had more to do with the way the other students at my school treated me, teasing me for being, effectively, fatherless.

My mother had died five years earlier. And that was the only time I had ever seen any emotion on my father’s face at all — not toward me, of course, but the hole in the ground where his first wife was buried.

He’d wiped a hand across his fat cheek and muttered something under his breath that I couldn’t hear. I only learned later from my aunt the words he had spoken:

“I wish I could go back in time and change the mistake I made in leaving her.”

He’d been looking for forgiveness. From me, I supposed. But I wouldn’t grant him it. I hadn’t been ready then and I wasn’t ready now either. I doubted I would ever be ready to forgive him.

As the assistant led me through the long corridors of the Seeding Facility, back toward the Claiming Room, I realized there was something I was ready for… and that was to say goodbye to him at his funeral and forever forget him.

My mother had never remarried. For her part, I supposed she must have always carried a candle for the love they had once shared.

I changed my mind a dozen times on the way to the females’ changing room where I donned the clothes I had worn when I first came to the Facility. Although I didn’t really want to go to his funeral, I still sensed I would regret it if I didn’t take this opportunity to bid him farewell. He could then leave me spiritually the same way he had abandoned me physically all those years ago.

There was something else too, something deep, tugging at me, pointing in the direction of Blor, who stood watching me with great interest. Or perhaps it was trepidation — as if he had something he wished to say but couldn’t bring himself to voice the words.

The assistant led us to the end of the corridor to a large steel door with bright red lights above it, signifying it was locked.

Blor’s large hand snaked into mine as we approached it. I looked down at it, the white-blue marble of his skin deeply at odds with the plain human tint of mine. He stroked the back of my hand where the thumb and index finger met, and smiled reassuringly at me.

I was relieved he understood. He could have reacted very differently, as I was sure many of the other alien males — judging by how animalistic they had been in the Claiming Room earlier — would have.

I was pleased he had been the one to Claim me, even if we did only get to make love one time.

The assistant leaned forward and wiped her keycard over the display. The lights blinked from red to green. The locks hissed and the doors drifted open.

Outside, a shuttle sat on a landing pad. It was small — tiny compared to the huge transport ship we females had taken to get to the Seeding Facility. Its engines shone blue-white in preparation of a quick dust-off. I was surprised they had taken such pains to escort me off-planet.

“The shuttle will take you back to your father’s planet,” the assistant said, extending her hand toward me. “I hope the next stage of your life will be a little more… exciting.”

It was a strange way to refer to a funeral, I thought. But the assistant was of a different species, so who was I to judge?

The shuttle’s hatch door whirred open and thunked into place on the metal platform. I didn’t immediately head toward it. It could wait. I had something important to do first.

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