Eli!!!, – why isn’t my toilet washed and why are you still holding that damn key. Selva asked, walking into the kitchen and snatching the key from his hands.
“Didn’t you play when you were little?” Now you are actually acting dramas and creating scenarios in your head?”
“I am so sorry, the toilet totally slipped my mind, – I just thought you would be hungry, so I decided to prepare lunch now. I also wanted Elara to have something to eat when she gets home, – please can I have the key back.” Eli responded, dropping the bowl he had just sieved down, stretching his hands to retrieve his key from Selva’s hands.
“Don’t you dare touch me with those filthy hands, and I need you to stay 5 meters away from me. – Hope you watched those hands properly before thinking of touching our meal. Selva spoke, taking further steps away from Eli.
“That key really shouldn’t be in your hands, Mrs Morreau.” Eli said, his voice cold making Selva to flinch in fear involuntarily. “It’s too disgusting, and a proper lady shouldn’t be holding on to garbage like that. When I am done here, I will dispose of the key properly, away from your lovely eyes.” Eli continued, his tone going back to its usual submissive and obedient self.
“Yes, Yes, you are definitely right, — for once, I can agree with you on something.” Selva responded, her normal cocky and arrogant face shining as she threw the key on the ground.
“Hope you don’t mind that I threw it on the ground, but you should know your dirty self, shouldn’t come close to my esteemed self.” Selva added.
“Too bad your daughter loves coming in contact with me.” Eli muttered under his breath as he went down on his knees to pick the key Selva had just thrown.
Selva stared smugly at Eli’s bent head, when she heard the words Eli had spoken.
“What did you say?”
Eli froze, not daring to repeat what he had just said, it hadn’t been his intention for Selva to hear him, so when she had asked him to repeat his statement ,he froze, thinking of a lie he could come up with that would pacify her. He knew if he were to repeat what he had said, Selva would find something to complain about to Elara, and that was going to break Elara’s heart, something he didn’t want to see happening.
“I thought so, I knew there was no way in your right senses, you would be able to talk to me from below. Selva spoke, pleased that Eli did not have the courage to repeat his words.
Seeing no further way to bully Eli, she stomped her feet and left the kitchen in anger, not forgetting to remind him about the toilet he still had to wash.
Eli stared at Selva’s retreating figure, breathing out in relief, he brought out the key he had placed in his pocket, hoping and wishing that it would lead it out of this miserable life as he stared at it, but he immediately moved the thought out of his mind, who was he kidding, he had been poor and an orphan for the most part of his life, why did he think a key and a letter was going to suddenly change his life.
“Where are you going?” Selva turned her head from the series she was watching to face Eli that was about stepping out the house.
“Going to look for some manual jobs, I can take on. I don’t feel comfortable sitting around while Elara isn’t around.” Eli, responded, saying half the truth, he really didn’t want to be home doing nothing while Elara was probably out, discussing business ideas with her grandma, but he wasn’t going to look for manual jobs, he was planning to go to his fosters homes and see if he could find any information about the key that sat in his pocket. He had tried it on all his belongings that he had brought with him, also on the household materials and appliances while Selva hadn’t been paying attention, but it didn’t seem to fit.
“Are you done with the meal you were to prepare?” Selva asked, not willing to let Eli out of her sight.
“Yes Selva.” Eli responded, already unbolting the door.
“Did you remember to wash my toilet?” Selva asked again, turning her attention back to her Tv.
“Yes,--- I would be back late incase Elara asks for me when she comes home.” Eli responded, leaving immediately before Selva could think of more tasks to give him.
Eli’s first stop was the home he had been moved to in his teenage years, but after thorough search and hostile reception from his foster parents and siblings, he decided to leave.
Not having much hope, he decides to pay the parents he thought were his birth parents all his life of growing up, till he had turned sixteen a visit.
“Eli!!!. – we didn’t think we would see you again.” Evelyn Hart, Eli’s foster Mom, squealed from the doorway as she stared at Eli, trying hard to conceal her shock as she stared at the son she thought she had lost forever.
“Come in, – come in.” “Why are you breathing so much?” Evelyn asked, ushering Eli in.
Eli had also answered the surname Hart, till he found out that Evelyn and Franklin Hart were not his real parents, so he had decided to stick with his own surname, not after some interrogations from him.
“Where have you been , where did you run off to?, – don’t you know you made mommy worry” Evelyn inquired, looking at Eli as she checked his body for injuries.
“I couldn’t accept the fact that I was an orphan, so I had gone in search for my real parents, somehow I ended up in an orphanage, and I got adopted again, I am sorry for making you worry, but I just couldn’t gather enough courage to face you people after I had run away and I thought it would be best if I didn’t come back.” Eli replied, looking at the one woman that hadn’t treated him cruelly as tears pulled in his eyes.
“Eli…, you would always be my son, and this home is always open to you, – your father isn’t home now, but I am certain he would be excited to see you again.” Evelyn responded, pulling him in for a hug, she didn’t question why he had shown up today after all these years, she was merely happy to see him.
“Would you mind if I stayed for a while?” Eli asked, stepping fully into the house, the floorboard squeaking under his feet. His mind raced as he thought of how he would tell his Mom that he was married and that he was here because of a key he had picked on the road.
Latest Chapter
One hundred and eighty - five
For a moment—Eli didn’t move. It also took a moment for his brain to process thoughts and his body to react.Lyra was close again.Too close.Closer than before.There was something different in the air now—not just tension, not just control.Something unstable. Unpredictable.Her breath brushed lightly against his skin, her gaze locked onto his like she was searching for something deeper this time. Not just a reaction from Eli. Confirmation.And still— Eli didn’t move.But his mind—His mind wasn't sleeping anymore instead it was catching up… Fast.Too fast.The pieces didn’t align.They refused to.Siblings.The word still sat there, heavy, wrong—And yet— Her actions didn’t match it.Didn’t even come close.And that— That was the fracture.The split second where something inside him shifted.Because her very action held little to know truth about what she had said.And for an instance something passed through Eli's mind again.This wasn’t about family. This was something else.So
One hundred and eighty - four
Aurelius?”Eli’s voice came out steady, but there was something quieter beneath it—something sharper. Not disbelief.Recognition.He shifted slightly, pushing himself more upright despite the resistance in his limbs. The dull ache at the side of his head pulsed once in protest, but he ignored it.His gaze didn’t leave her.“...Aurelius?” he repeated, slower this time.Lyra’s smile didn’t falter.“If that’s the part you’re stuck on,” she said lightly, “then yes.”A small pause.“Aurelius.”Eli watched her for a second longer.Then—unexpectedly—He smiled.It's wasn't a wide smile. Nor was it amused.It was just…. there.Faint. Controlled. Almost thoughtful.“…That’s interesting.”Lyra’s eyes flickered, just slightly.Eli tilted his head a fraction, studying her like he was looking at something that didn’t quite fit into place.“Why,” he continued calmly, “would you want to take on the name of a man who isn’t your father?”The question landed cleanly.No hesitation. No softness.Just pr
One hundred and eighty - three
The next few days didn’t follow a pattern.They didn’t need to.For once, Eli wasn’t measuring time in outcomes or deadlines, wasn’t splitting hours into things that mattered and things that didn’t. He wasn’t chasing anything, wasn’t running through possibilities in the background of every quiet moment.He was just… there.Moving through the day as it came.And somehow—That was enough.It started small, almost unnoticeable at first. Then, without him realizing it, it stopped being small at all.By the second day, he was standing at the edge of Uetliberg Mountain, the city stretching wide and steady beneath them, buildings layered into the distance like something carefully placed rather than something chaotic.Carlos stood beside him with the kind of satisfaction that suggested he’d personally arranged the entire view.“Tell me this isn’t worth waking up early for,” he said, hands on his hips.Eli didn’t answer immediately. The air felt different up there—clean in a way that didn’t re
One hundred and eighty - two
The morning didn’t arrive loudly.It didn’t demand attention or pull him awake with urgency.It just… came.Soft light filtered through the curtains, stretching slowly across the room like it had all the time in the world.Eli noticed it before he even opened his eyes.Not consciously.Just—somewhere in that quiet space between sleep and awareness.There was no tension in his chest.No immediate list forming in his head.No instinct to reach for his phone.And that alone—Felt unfamiliar.His eyes opened gradually.The ceiling came into view.Still. Unchanging.But for once, he didn’t stare at it like it held answers he needed to find.He just looked.Then blinked.And breathed.Slow. Even. Unrushed.It took him a few seconds to realize what felt different.Not the room. Not the light.Him.There was no weight pressing against his thoughts.No urgency clawing at the edges of his mind.Just… space.Eli shifted slightly, pushing himself up into a sitting position.The quiet remained.It
One hundred and eighty - one
The room didn’t change.Not immediately.Not in any obvious way.The same dim light stretched across the floor. The same quiet pressed gently against the walls. The same untouched food sat where it had been for hours, forgotten.But something—Subtle. Shifted.Eli stood by the window, his hands in his pockets, his gaze unfocused as it rested somewhere beyond the glass.Zurich moved.Cars passed.People walked.Lights flickered on and off in distant buildings.Everything carried on.Everything except him.For once, he wasn’t reading reports.Wasn’t analyzing.Wasn’t trying to force pieces together that refused to fit.He was just… there.Still.The sound of the door opening broke the silence.It was soft. Unhurried.Eli didn’t turn right away.A small part of him already assumed who it was.Selene.Back again.Either she had forgotten something—Or she wasn’t done trying to convince him.He exhaled quietly, already preparing a response he wasn’t sure he believed himself.“…You’re persi
One hundred and eighty
Days passed.Not quickly.Not slowly.Just… heavily.Each one blending into the next in a way that made it hard to tell where one ended and another began.Zurich remained calm.Peaceful.Unbothered.The lake shimmered the same way every evening.The streets stayed clean.The people moved on with their lives.And somewhere in the middle of all that—Eli felt like he was standing still.The first report came two days after he contacted Bruno.Eli was in his room when his phone buzzed.A message.Short.Direct.Match #1 — Female, 34. No behavioral or biometric alignment. Too old.Eli stared at the screen for a second.Then locked his phone.That was it.No frustration.No reaction.Just… another dead end.The second report came later that night.Match #2 — Female, 19. Facial structure similarity 62%. Dismissed. Too young.Eli leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling.Too old.Too young.Not her.Not her.Not her.By the third day, the reports started coming in faster.Bruno had s
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