Seven: Returning Home.

ELIANA.

“Eliana…”

“Are you there?” My Grandmother asked and a loud sob rang through my ears from over the phone. Heartbroken, terrified and soul-shattering. I could hear the pain in her fragile cracking voice.

And soon, tears started to form in my eyes. I stopped in my tracks on my way down the hill and Elijah was right beside me. It took a moment for me to fully grapple with what she was saying and even longer for me to say anything back. I just…I was just so confused.

“I don’t understand” I softly whispered.

“Your father is sick, Eliana” I’d heard her the first time but that was only one of the many things that raced through my mind at that moment. “No, how are you even…how are you talking to me right now?” I asked.

“I thought you were dead, Grandma.”

“All those years, they told me—“ “Eliana” She interrupted, her voice was just as I remembered. “I wasn’t dead, your father only kept me away. It was what Sienna wanted. She’d brainwashed him for all those years” She added and I pushe