The Unclaimed Human Luna
Chapter 26

El POV

Her mother showed her around the apartment that she and Logan lived in. It was bigger than the house that they lived in with her father, and it was filled with plush and expensive furniture. It had four bedrooms, including a master bedroom, which was bigger than the apartment El was in right now. Everything was white and black marble, or plush pile carpet, and it had a massive balcony that spanned the entire length of the building.

Their apartment took up the entire eastern side of the apartment complex, her mother was going on about it and everything inside it excitedly. Telling her that Logan had let her change the colours in there and it was all freshly carpeted to her liking, the furniture they’d picked out together. Gushed about how he spoiled her and even took her into the walk-in, with all her new clothes and went on about the labels and how Logan wanted her to have anything she wanted, never told her ‘no’ to anything.

Eliza stood out there on the balcony and looked at the view, could see all the way to the lake from here, as well as the forest between here and the lake, strolled along the length of the balcony and looked at the view, it was just her and her mother. Logan had some sort of business to attend to. He was going to join them when he could. Apparently, something needed his attention.

No real surprise on that front, she thought, he was trying to be civil or nice to her, but she had the feeling that was solely because her mother wanted him to be. Her mother had offered her a glass of wine. Surprised her more than a little, considering she wasn’t old enough to drink.

El shook her head, she did not need to go and get drunk, might just do something stupid like confront Conner, or go and hunt him down in a drunken stupor later on. She didn’t need anyone to know how dumb she was, where he was concerned.

There were many photos in this apartment, of her mother and Logan; on their honeymoon, she thought, some on that boat of his she’d said was out on the lake, more of them on their wedding day, El got to see just how big and lavish it really was.

Stared at a few of those so many people were at that thing, no wonder, the people here dismissed her, she had not been invited to their most important event. Kind of sent a message to all of them about her. That she wasn’t worth Logan’s time or effort. He didn’t want to get to know her, hadn’t cared to even invite his soon-to-be stepdaughter to their wedding. She was nothing to him, to this place.

She could see just how happy her mother was in those photos. It certainly had been impromptu, she thought bitterly, it would have taken months to plan an event that lavish. She saw that her mother was watching her look at them, and didn’t bother to say anything. What was the point really in doing so? It was over and done with now.

There were pictures of Conner and his father. Conner didn’t look happy at their wedding either, likely didn’t much like her mother. Walked around the living room and looked at other photos, Conner growing up she could tell by his eyes, they hadn’t changed, saw him smiling as a young boy. But then noted there wasn’t much smiling as a teenager, mostly formal photos where he looked bored all the time.

Wondered if he didn’t like growing up here himself, though Marlo had told her Logan was hard on him, maybe he always had been, who knew. Wondered what the man’s mother looked like. There wasn’t a single photo of her anywhere in here, not even with Conner.

“What happened to Logan’s first wife?” Eliza asked her mother.

“Divorced when Conner was a child.”

“Logan obviously got custody.” Likely wouldn’t give up his child to his ex, to possessive of a man to do that.

“Yes.”

Looking back at the photos of Conner as a child, she was willing to bet that happy boy turned into a not-so happy a boy with the loss of his mother. “Does she ever visit?”

“No.”

She turned and looked at her mother. “Not ever?”

“Not that I heard.” She shrugged, “nothing to do with you and I, best not to bring it up.”

“Why’d she leave?” Eliza was curious.

“I don’t know, I didn’t ask.”

“Probably should have, don’t you think?”

“It was a very long time ago, and does not concern me or you, El. Don’t bring it up.”

“She left him, in other words, and it’s a sore point.”

“For Conner it is, not Logan.”

They sat down to dinner and were served by a young girl who couldn’t have been more than 16 or 17. She didn’t speak, just laid out the food and went back to the kitchen. It was weird to have someone in the home serving them dinner. Though she noted her mother seemed comfortable with it.

“You don’t cook anymore?”

“Not really. Logan has a chef and servers for all meals, has had for years. He wants to keep that.” She shrugged “I don’t mind it, didn’t like coming home and having to cook after a long day.”

“You weren’t that good a cook anyway. Dad was better at it.” she stated, just as Logan walked in.

Saw that man frown as he walked over and sat at the table, “Sorry I’m late. Conner will not be joining us, he is on clean-up duty down in the gym.”

“What happened?” Her mother asked him.

“It’s not important Brit, we can discuss it later.” He nodded.

“What were you two discussing?”

Watched her mother just smile at him and shake her head “Nothing important.”

“My father, and that he was a better cook than mother was.” Eliza stated, seeing as her mother thought it wasn’t important. She had been married to that man for twenty years and now talking about him was not important.

Saw her mother frown at her and Logan looked right at her, “Or am I not allowed to mention him around you? Make you mad, does it?”

“You may talk about your father anytime you like Eliza, and no, it doesn’t make me mad. I to was married once before, Brit and I have simply agreed not to talk about our past marriages around each other.”

“Interesting,” She commented.

“You’ll understand one day when you get married, that it’s just a common courtesy not to talk about your ex’s is all.”

“I guess so.” She shrugged.

“Do you see yourself getting married one day, El?” Logan asked her.

“Never really thought about it, haven’t thought much past my studies. Didn’t need to.”

“Well, your mother and I would love to throw you a lavish wedding one day.”

“We’ve already set money aside for it, El.” Her mother smiled right at her.

Stared right at her now, “Why bother? I’ll likely just elope, it’ll be very impromptu.” Saw them both frown at her. They could no longer state they had an impromptu wedding, there were too many photos of their wedding for them to deny it. “or I simply won’t tell you at all. Just go and get married without telling you.”

Saw her mother glare right at her now, knew she was taking shots at her, didn’t really care. Yes, she was going to play the good daughter and get along with others and play nice, not try to leave. She still had a few things that she needed to sort out until then she was going to stay here and not once try to leave. Before she bailed, she still needed to wait for that reason as well. Though it was only a month away now. But she found it was actually hard to play nice when it was clear they had lied to her about everything.

She was going to play that dad card when it came to it, there was no way her mother or Logan could deny her that one thing, and if they did she was swimming across the lake to get the hell away from them. Wondered just how long it would take them to replace her if she swam across that lake, would they consider it or think no way in hell would she do that.

“El, I understand you’re upset about not coming to the wedding. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not.” She cut Logan off. “I wouldn’t have come anyway. I already told mother. I just think you need to be reminded, every now and then, that not everything revolves around you. Perhaps you should take others into consideration when making decisions that affect others’ lives.”

“I do that every single day El, with everyone that lives here, is actually a big part of my job. To make sure everyone here is happy, and their needs are met.”

“Didn’t take my thoughts into consideration at all, about anything from what I can tell.” She was not going to make it easy on him. “But then, I didn’t live here either, now did I?”

“El, please. We’ve apologised for things.” Her mother sighed “Can we please move on from this? It’s tiresome.”

“Probably should have left me to live with Cordi, or shipped me off to Italy, I wouldn’t be so tiresome to you. I wouldn’t bother you at all, and you and Logan could just go about doing whatever, without a single thought about me. Like you did before making me come here.”

“Eliza, please, this was supposed to be a nice family dinner.” Logan was frowning at her once more.

“Mm, because that’s what you wanted.”

“You agreed to come.”

“To get you off my back.” She muttered and stood up “I’m no longer hungry mother. I’ll take my leave.”

“El.” She sounded exasperated “Please just give Logan a chance, you came here with the attitude of not wanting to be here, not even wanting to give Logan or this place a chance. Couldn’t you please just do that?”

“I will do that if I can go to Italy.” She put right on the table. “I will cause you no more trouble, be polite, the perfect daughter for the entire time I am here, smile and laugh and be happy.” And she would, it would all be an act, but she would do it.

Looked right at Logan and saw him frown “No, I thought not. It doesn’t matter to either of you what I actually want in life, does it?” shook her head, “Excuse me, I’ll retire to my room.” Then she walked out of their apartment.

Walked away down the hall, only to replace a hand on her arm about halfway there, turned and looked to replace Logan standing right there looking down at her, “You need to cut your mother some slack Eliza, it was my doing that you didn’t get invited to our wedding. She did want to invite you, I left you off the guest list. She feels bad about it.”

“If you didn’t want me here, Logan, then why am I here? Why not just let me go back to my old life?” she brushed his hand from her arm. He let go.

“It’s different now that she and I are married. She does want you here, and I want that for her. I want for her to be happy. You need to give this place a chance, for your mother. Every time you state things like that, it hurts her. Makes her get upset and sad.”

Just stared at him, “Let me leave Logan, I don’t need to be here. You don’t want me here anymore than anyone else does. Why must I stay here, when I don’t want to be here?”

“It’s for your safety, Eliza.”

“I’m not in any danger, Logan, I never was. I never will be, your paranoid is all.”

Saw him sigh “I’m not Eliza. You have no idea what people in my world will do to hurt others like us, to bring down big corporations. Even here, in this gated community, it’s not always safe, rivals send people to hurt me. It’s happened before. If you’re out there, you could well be a target for them, to hurt me and your mother.”

“So, I was brought here to stop someone from hurting you, your company.” Shook her head, “I don’t understand you.” turned and walked away.

“Eliza,”

“I’m not interested Logan, go back to mother. If she’s upset, console her,” turned and looked at him “As her husband isn’t that your job. I’m nothing to you, not your flesh and b***d, and don’t want to be either.”

“You make things more difficult than they need to be.”

“How would you feel being held in a place you don’t want to be? Forced to stay inside a place and not allowed out. If you get out, people are sent for you and you’re brought back against your wishes. Tell me Logan, what is the definition of being a prisoner?”

Saw him frowning, “It’s not like that Eliza, we want you to live here and be happy.”

Walked away from him. Not from what she’d just heard, he wanted her here to keep him safe, keep someone from hurting him and his company by taking her, and what? using her to extort money from him in all likelihood.

Having her here was just a way of keeping his assets safe guarded, and nothing more. Wondered just how many other poor unsuspecting people had been brought here by him and weren’t allowed to leave. There could be a lot of them. Likely why his last wife left him, couldn’t deal with his paranoia and controlling ways. Got over it and just left after she’d had enough.

Wondered if that woman had an escape plan or had she just walked out one day and not come back, or did she actually divorce him. Must have done for him to remarry. Showered and sank down onto her bed to check the status of her scholarship applications for her university. No changes as of yet. It was too soon for that, but would be checking them daily, really was going to need that if she was going to be on her own.

Though there was an email to state that they couldn’t just reinstate her application for the university, that she should reapply for the following semester. There was nothing about her circumstances mentioned. They didn’t seem to care about that. Likely already filled in her spot with someone else. Sighed and started looking at other universities over there, spent several hours filling out applications for other universities in Italy. There wasn’t much she could do other than that, either way, she was getting out of here. She just had to get accepted with on campus living.

Which shouldn’t be that hard to do, seeing as she was an international student, though she did have relatives over there in Italy on her father’s side. She would have to talk to her grandma about that, see if she could connect with any of them if she couldn’t get accommodation. Perhaps one of them would take her in for the first few months till she could get into a share house of some sort.