Anna sat staring at her father, not sure if she believed anything that he had just told her. It all seemed too surreal and impossible. How could any of it be true? She had known the Layton family her whole life and had not suspected that they were anything other than what they said they were––normal human beings. Never in her wildest dreams had she considered that they might be from a different galaxy entirely.

  She sat there stunned.

  According to Dad, the Laytons were of the same people that ship on the news belonged to. And according to Dad, Michael was not only one of them, but the son of these people’s Emperor.

  But the hardest of all to wrap her head around was that Michael had gotten on that ship and now was gone. Presumably, they left to go back to that far-off galaxy.

  He had just left.

  Gone.

  Without so much as a word.

  No, he had left a word, a few of them in fact. She remembered the bizarre text he’d sent her earlier. The one that had left her shaking her head in puzzlement.

  Ily and im srry, id much rather stay with u but there wasnt time for smth else, dont wait for me

  And now the puzzle made sense, but Anna refused to believe any of it, because if she did, it meant he really was gone. He had left her. That everything her father had just told her was real.

  “Anna, did you hear what I said?” Her father asked from across his desk, which should have been the first clue something was wrong when he’d led her into his office.

  He only ever perched himself behind his home office desk before starting a conversation that had bad news. Like when Mom had been diagnosed with cancer that took her life only months later, or when her younger brother Jack had been arrested for dealing drugs during his freshman year of college. This desk was where life-changing news happened, and it was happening again.

  “I heard you,” she said finally, her voice hollow. “I just... I don’t know what to do with any of this information. Maybe you got it wrong? Maybe you misinterpreted what Mrs. Layton was saying?”

  Her father sighed and shook his head. “I didn’t get it wrong. If you’d been there, you would have seen how torn up she was about all of it. I’m sorry, Anna, I really am. I wish…” he paused as if searching for what to say. “I wish I could tell you something different. Michael is gone, and Cassandra doesn’t think he’s going to be coming back.”

  His words were like a knife to her heart. She felt the pain stabbing into her. It was excruciating. How could Michael be gone? She had seen him just last weekend. They’d spent two days making love and making plans for next month when Anna was to visit New York so they could start looking at houses.

  As soon as she was done with her residency at Johns Hopkins, she was going to move back to New York. She’d get a job at one of the local hospitals. He’d work his way up the ladder at New Horizons and eventually take over the company, just like Mr. Layton had always intended him to. She and Michael would get married somewhere along the way, and then spend the rest of their lives together. That had been the plan. And now…

  Now, she didn’t know what to do. What to think. She wasn’t even sure how to breathe. It was as if someone had sucked all the air out of the room. Like the world itself had suddenly been turned upside down. What was she going to do? Michael had always been there. Always been a part of her life. First as childhood friends, then as something more when they were sophomores in high school. She couldn’t even conceive of a life without him. Not now, not ever.

  She wiped one tear that was dangling from one of her cheeks. She saw her luggage out of the corner of her eye. As soon as Dad had picked her up from the airport, he’d brought them straight home. She had left her two bags sitting in the front foyer as they took the few steps into his office. He had been so silent in the car on the way here. That too had been a bad sign.

  But he had told Anna about Mr. Layton’s stroke as soon as she’d gotten in the car, so she hoped that was why he’d been so quiet. Her dad and Arnold Layton had been close friends for almost twenty years. He must be taking all this pretty badly too. But right now all she could see was concern for her in her father’s eyes.

  “Are you going to be okay?” he asked, leaning forward as if being closer to her might help.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Anna shook her head, more tears spilling over. “Okay? How could I possibly be okay? How can anything ever be okay again?”

  She felt as if she were drowning. Like someone had ripped away the foundation of her entire life. She’d planned everything around Michael. Their future together had been so clear in her mind—the perfect house in the suburbs, the two of them building their careers in parallel, maybe children someday. Now it was all gone, vanished like smoke.

  “I want to talk to Mrs. Layton. I have questions.”

  Her father nodded. “I’m sure you do, and so do I. In fact, there are several things I need to talk to her about, but it’s late. I think we should get some rest and see about reaching out in the morning.”

  It was dark outside. It had been dark when her father picked her up. She always hated this time of year. The days are getting colder. The nights are getting longer. Michael loved the cold and all the things that went with it. The hot chocolate with marshmallows, evenings cuddled up by a fire, snowball fights with the neighbor kids, and ice skating in Central Park.

  “Yeah, I guess,” Anna said.

  “I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, Hun, but it’s going to be okay. You are going to be okay. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but things will get better. And I’m here for you. Whatever you need. Like always.”

  Anna couldn’t help but smile at that. He had always been there. He’d been there holding her in his arms when Mom had died. He’d been there to cheer her up when Jack had been sentenced to prison. He’d been there when Anna had broken her arm after being body slammed by an opponent during a high school soccer game.

  But so had Michael. He’d been there too. He had been a constant. Someone she could always count on to talk to, even when she had things to get off her chest that she didn’t feel comfortable talking to her father about.

  Her smile faltered, but she nodded to her dad. “Thanks.”

  “Of course.” He then paused a moment and then spoke as if he wasn’t sure how she’d react. “Cassandra also asked if we could keep all this to ourselves for the time being. I told her I was going to tell you––obviously––but other than that, she’d like us not to spread this around.”

  Anna snort. “She has to be kidding. Who is she to tell us what to do? She’s been lying to all of us for years.”

  “I get that, I do, but don’t forget that she and Emmaline are going through a hard time too, doubly so with Michael gone and Arie in the hospital and not knowing if he will recover. I’m not happy about them keeping this a secret either, but I think we can give them some time to grieve and to figure things out.”

  Anna blinked at her dad incredulously. “How can you not be pissed, Dad? This is a really big fucking thing to lie about. Our family had been friends with them for years. Hell, you’ve been in business with Mr. Layton for almost that entire time. Aren’t you mad? Furious, even?”

  Her dad nodded solemnly. “I am, but I’ve had a few hours before your plane landed to process this, and you didn’t hear the way Cassandra spoke when she talked about bringing Michael here to protect him from his Ethian family. Yes, I’m still angry, but maybe hurt more than anything that they didn’t trust me enough to say something.

  “But I have also spent years as a close friend to Arnold and Cassandra. Maybe they weren’t truthful about where they came from or why they were here, but I know who they are as people. I have to believe that everything they did was for good reasons, even not telling us the truth about themselves.”

  Anna was silent about that. It’s true that the Laytons had been good friends to the Delaney family, but that’s what made it so hard to believe the things her father was telling her. How could any of it be true? How could they have lied about something so important? And what else had they been untruthful about?

  And suddenly, a terrible thought occurred to her. How long had Michael known the truth of his heritage? “Did he know? Did Michael know? Did he lie to me too?” She could feel the fury building inside just at the thought of it.

  Dad shook his head. “No, he didn’t know until the ship showed up. From what I understand, he was upset too when he was told. Very upset.”

  She felt relief wash through her. Good, at least he hadn’t lied to her. That was something at least. But she was still angry that he’d left.

  “It didn’t stop him from going after Mr. Layton,” she replied with an acid tone.

  “Would a revelation like that have stopped you from going after me if it had been us instead of them?” Her father gently offered.

  Of course not. She absolutely would have gone after her dad to stop him from doing something that would get him killed, even if she’d found out he was lying all her life to her about something important. And that, more than anything, helped quiet some of her anger. Michael had only been trying to save the man he thought of as a father. And the worst part was that maybe his sacrifice had been for nothing. What if Mr. Layton never woke up?

  Anna’s stomach twisted at the thought. How was any of this fair? Her grief suddenly felt selfish in the larger tragedy unfolding around her.

  “I need some time,” she whispered, pushing back from the desk. “I think I’m going to go up to my old room.”

  Her dad stood up too. “Of course. You go ahead. I will bring your luggage up in a moment.”

  “Thank you,” Anna said as she stumbled out of the office and made her way up the staircase.

  Anna’s childhood bedroom had changed little since she’d left for college and then later med school. Her father had kept it intact, like a museum of her youth. The same pale blue walls, the same white furniture, and the same bulletin board covered with faded photos. So many of them featured Michael—at prom, at graduation, on a ski trip to Aspen, and both of them dressed up for Halloween. He was Han Solo, and she was Leia.

  She felt her heart breaking all over again as she looked at them. Finally, Anna had to turn away. Somehow she found her way to her bed. She lay down and curled up tight around one of her lace-white pillows and allowed herself to have a good cry. Eventually, she cried herself into a fitful sleep.