She opened the door and stepped into the bedroom she once shared with the man she hated the most. An ironic smile plastered on her lips.

As soon as she entered, Elsa smelled a faint and unique fragrance. She was familiar with the fragrance of this incense because she had made it herself. It was the same one she had made for Daisy Mitchell in the psych ward, which had helped her so much that she was now out with her mind fully healed.

It was also after her ‘rebirth’ that she discovered her sense of smell was sharper than that of ordinary people making it easier for her to blend fragrances accurately like her grandma, Amelia.

When she was bored with designing, she would study spices and incense to broaden her knowledge and creativity. Allan and she had worked together and tested the blends until they perfected the one that Daisy would use. But that was for people like Daisy who were suffering from depression, lack of sleep, or anything deemed psychological. Why would her room smell like this?

Elsa didn’t have an answer to that, nor did she want to think about it too much. Because then, she would think Jeremy bought her kit, and he was the last person she wanted to occupy her thoughts. She did not want to be the pretty dunce who blindly chased after love. That self was locked away, and the key was thrown.

Elsa opened her closet and was surprised to find neatly arranged dresses in front of her. All her clothes were there and looked clean and well taken care of.

She looked around the bedroom and saw that nothing had changed. Everything was just as she had left it. Even her vanity table had her makeup box on top, just the way she had left it.

Her bedding and curtains were the same, nothing had changed. Even after three years, one in prison and two away from here, her clothes and shoes were still there.

Elsa stood there silently for a moment. She stretched out her hands, gently placing them on the clothes she had worn before. She stroked them one by one, as if she was touching them for the first time again, back when she was still herself.

However, her former self’s body was covered in bloody ugly scars.

Touching them now, Elsa felt her hand ache. That Elsa had been hurt so much, she had almost been killed.

‘Jeremy, the hurt you’ve inflicted on me, no matter how you make up for it, you can’t heal those wounds. Saving me doesn’t change what you did. Another child won’t bring back the ones I lost. I still lost two children because of you. That is something you can never change, even if you apologize for the rest of your life. I will always remember that all life as well. That my husband killed my two children, cold-heartedly.’

Elsa took her hand back and started looking around the room for Braden. But he was still nowhere to be found. Including in her room .

She left her room feeling hopeless. The maid was right, the Little Master wasn’t in the rooms upstairs.

She was just about to head downstairs when something told her to try Braden’s room again. It had been checked before and the baby wasn’t there, but something told Elsa to try again.

Following that thought, she opened his bedroom door slowly. His bedroom was safari themed, filled with plush giraffes, antelopes, tigers, lions, and elephants.

It was painted blue and had a shelf full of toys - toy trains, cars, tracks, everything. The child was obviously showered with a lot of them.

Elsa made sure her steps were silent, just in case. If Braden was in here, he would be hiding so no one would see him, that was why he wasn’t found there. If she was silent, he wouldn’t know someone was coming in.

She tiptoed inside and closed the door behind her. At first, she didn’t hear anything.

But then, for a moment, she heard something like a silent and short sob.

She tucked her hair behind her ear and listened carefully. She held her breath as she concentrated on hearing.

And when she did, she heard a whimper, and then another, and another.

Elsa scanned the room, trying to locate the source. It took another sob for Elsa to realize it was coming from the bed area.

But the bed was well spread and empty. Could the sobs be coming from under the bed?

Elsa knelt on the floor on all fours and peeped under the bed. What she saw made her heart clench so painfully that she couldn’t breathe.

Little Braden was under the bed, hugging his legs and trembling hard as if he was freezing. He was crying so silently that one could barely hear him if they weren’t keen. His face was buried in his knees as he cried bitterly.

Elsa felt the pain in her lower abdomen hurt even more. Her heart felt like it was squeezed and folded into a fist.

Why did she feel so bad for this child?

She shouldn’t care about this child. She shouldn’t. But this was worse than how she felt when she saw Yuliana in pain.

This felt like a part of her was being wripped out of her. She felt like her womb was being stabbed with a knife of ice.

Using her instincts, she quietly slid under bed and laid on the floor next to the child.

Under the bed was a little dark, not as bright as the rest of the room. But Elsa could still clearly see Braden.

Braden hadn’t noticed Elsa still. His face was buried on his knees and he was so focused on crying, he didn’t sense Elsa near him. His eyes were tightly closed as he sobbed his little broken heart.

Elsa wanted to comfort him but she didn’t want to touch him. It would be abrupt for him and startle him because he thought he was alone at that moment.

So, she put her cheek on her arm that was laying on the floor and stared at him. She then said with a low calm voice, almost like a whisper, “Everyone is looking for you...”

Braden lifted his head and looked at the person in front of him. His lashes, eyes and cheeks stained with tears.

He had a booboo eye and a cry face, but didn’t say anything. He just looked down and continued crying. An act that made Elsa’s heart feel like it was bleeding.

****

The next chapter is one of my favorites I swear. It's so cute and has a security blanket... something I love so much..

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