LANDING BACK INTO HERSELF
876 Words
Flight: New York → Geneva
Duration: 7h 08m
Aircraft: Reed Airlines G650ER
The cabin was quiet. No chatter. Just the low hum of the engines and the soft glow over the sleeping pods.
Elaina leaned her seat back, one hand resting on her stomach.
_Everything will be okay, little ones._
She watched the map on the screen. A thin white line cut across the Atlantic. New York shrinking behind her. Geneva creeping closer.
She was going home.
The flight attendant passed by quietly. “We’ll be landing in Geneva in 20 minutes, Ms. Reed. Weather’s clear.”
Elaina nodded. “Thank you.”
When the wheels touched the tarmac, it wasn’t just landing in Switzerland.
It was landing back into herself.
.........................
The private terminal was empty except for one figure leaning against a black SUV.
Cassian Reed.
Her brother looked exactly the same as the last video call: tall, sharp jaw, dark hair cut too short. He pushed off the car the second he saw her and crossed the tarmac in three long strides.
“You’re early,” he said, pulling her into a careful hug.
“Plane was fast,” Elaina muttered, breathing him in. Cedar and her father’s cologne. “You didn’t have to come.”
“I wasn’t letting you walk off a seven-hour flight alone, Ella.” He pulled back, eyes scanning her face. “You look like hell.”
“Thanks. You’re charming as always,” she said, rolling her eyes.
Cassian opened the back door for her. “Mom and Dad are at the house. They said if they waited at the airport they’d either interrogate you in front of customs or cry on the tarmac. Both bad options.”
Elaina managed a small laugh. “Smart of them.”
---
The SUV climbed through the hills above Geneva. Seven minutes in, Lake Geneva came into view — flat and steel-gray under the morning sky. The whole city stretched below.
The Reed estate sat higher, tucked into the forested ridge behind the vineyards.
Three stories of pale stone. Ivy climbing the west wall.
Exactly the same as the day she’d left for New York.
The car stopped under the portico.
The front doors flew open before Cassian could cut the engine.
Genevieve Reed was there first, in a cream sweater, eyes red-rimmed but smiling. Behind her, Adrian Reed stood straight-backed, hands clenched at his sides.
“Elaina.”
Her mother didn’t wait. She was in her arms, warm and familiar, smelling like jasmine and rain.
“You’re finally home,” Genevieve whispered. “You actually came home, my baby girl.”
Adrian stepped forward, resting a hand on Elaina’s shoulder.
“Welcome back, princess.”
Cassian hung back, watching.
The marble foyer was silent except for Elaina’s breathing.
She was home.
---
*Flashback – Lake Geneva, 16 Years Ago*
Eight-year-old Elaina in a white dress, building sandcastles by the shore.
A splash.
She turned. An eleven-year-old boy had fallen off the Reed boathouse dock. His head kept disappearing under the water.
Elaina kicked off her shoes and dove in.
The water was freezing. It stole her breath.
She dragged him to the shallow end until he finally breathed again.
He stared at her like she was a ghost. “You… you saved me.”
Elaina shivered, teeth chattering. She pulled the gold heart necklace from her neck and snapped it in half.
“Take this,” she said, pressing one half into his cold palm. “Don’t lose it.”
The boy frowned. “Why?”
“Because I like you. You’re handsome,” she said, serious as only an eight-year-old could be. “When we’re grown up, you have to come find me. And marry me.”
She wiped water from her face and grinned. “I’m Ella. Don’t forget me.”
He held the broken heart like his life depends on it . “Damian. I won’t forget you, Ella.”
She never told him her last name.
Cassian’s voice came from the shore. “Ella! Come back!”
“Remember your promise!” she shouted as he dragged her away.
Three years ago they met again. She learned he’d lost his memory and his parents had died in an accident on their way back to New York. She didn’t reveal her identity to him, hoping one day he would love her. But she was wrong.
End of Flashback
---
Elaina pulled back from her mother and looked up at the staircase. At the portrait of her grandparents on the wall. At the life she’d walked away from to be ordinary.
Sixteen years ago, she’d given a drowning boy half her heart and told him to come find her.
Three years ago, she’d gone to New York to become his wife and save his company from the shadows.
Now she was back. Pregnant with his children. Wearing the wedding ring he’d given her under a different name.
And he still didn’t know she was Ella.
“Let’s get you inside,” Adrian said quietly. “You look exhausted.”
The doors closed behind her with a solid _thud_ that echoed through the marble foyer.
She was home.
And Damian was about to find out what that meant.
- Writer
