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T h e   H o l l o w s   I n
O U R  F R E E D O M
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A L E X I

I tugged my suitcase across the grass, walking up the sloped entrance to our new house. When I finally saw what was waiting for us behind the orchard, I halted, my mouth falling open.

"Are you taking us to your playboy mansion?" I called out to Elle, who overtook me amid my shook.

She didn't respond for a while and just kept on walking. "Calm down, Lexi, it's not that exciting!" She shouted over her shoulder.

Jace soon caught up to me and rose an eyebrow at me before we started walking again.

"I honestly didn't think her houses could get any bigger," I retorted to Jace as we approached the house.

Jace stifled a laugh, "You've only seen two, Lex," He responded, though looking slightly amazed at the size and design of the house himself.

The house was perfectly preened, crystal windows and what looked like a fresh layer of white paint adorning the outside walls. The driveway was big enough to hold maybe five cars, even though we only had two, and the path up to the house was cobblestone. As if that wasn't already enough, it had quite a few acres of private land, in fact before we mounted the hill, we had to unlock our very own silver-painted gate.

I felt like I was a planet away from my childhood, in which I had travelled between council flats, in need of both more money and better parents.

Jace and I met Elle by the black double doors, crafted with rose gold features, including a rose gold set of door handles and a rose gold doorbell and knocker. I wasn't into interior design but even I just pretty much died.

The others soon caught up to us, and I turned when I saw Kim wiping condensation off one of the windows and looking in.

"Hell." She said, intriguing me. When she caught me watching, she turned to wink at me. I frowned at her, laughing.

Elle finally unlocked the door, heading straight for the beeping alarm, entering the code from the papers she was holding before turning to smile at us.

"Welcome home." She said, gesturing for us to come in.

We all walked in, mouths and eyes wide as we discarded our shoes and coats. Elle soon disappeared down the hallway, which was when Sky appeared by my side suddenly.

Ever since finding out that her daughter was pregnant, Elle had been ignoring Sky—or choosing nicely not to speak to her. For someone who had tried so hard to get back in touch with her daughter, Elle was acting as if she wanted to give her up for adoption now.

I had spoken to her a few times, and I think I understood that she wasn't necessarily fuming, just slightly angry and slightly concerned. She wasn't ready to abandon Sky, but she had definitely made Sky feel as though she was.

I grabbed onto her hand, "Come on, let's go find some rooms." She smiled at me, adjusting her bag on her shoulder and picking up her suitcase.

I offered to carry her suitcase up the stairs, along with my own and a hefty backpack on my back but she quickly declined.

Reaching the top, I walked down the hall slowly. "My god," I whispered, peering at all the rooms.

"There's another flight, too." Sky said, making me turn around, spotting her pointing up at a set of white stairs.

I rose my eyebrows before dropping my bags and smiling at her, gesturing for her to follow me up the stairs. We walked up slowly, since the stairs spiralled, and I didn't fancy going on a trip to wavy land when I got a concussion.

When I reached the top I gasped, spinning around to Sky, wiggling my eyebrows at her. She frowned, slowly walking in deeper to the room.

"What?" She asked, looking around at the room as though she'd find the answer to her question printed on the cream walls.

Before I could even say anything, someone joined us. I turned to see Elle entering, glancing around the room, eyes actively avoiding Sky.

She cleared her throat. "I thought this could be your room," she said, eyes meeting Sky's momentarily. I smiled, turning to glance at Sky. "Not only for you and Jameson but... well, look at this," My eyes followed Elle as she slid a door open at the other side of the room. I had assumed that it was a very large walk-in wardrobe. It wasn't.

Instead, when Elle pulled across the door, she revealed a whole other room. Smaller than the main room, which was probably the size of my back garden growing up, it was the perfect size to accommodate a single person, a child, perhaps...

She stood away from the entrance awkwardly, letting Sky and I wander in slowly. Sky walked over to the window before pivoting around on her left foot and looking at the room as a whole.

"I thought that maybe it could be the nursery," Elle said, making my eyebrows shoot up. I glanced between Sky and Elle, feeling completely out of place.

I ignored it, though, grabbing Sky's hands and grinning down at her, "She gets a bed!" I exclaimed, making Sky shake her head, although laughing.

She looked behind me, eyes meeting her mother's. "Thank you," she hesitantly said to Elle, and I turned to see Elle do something I really didn't expect from her. She held out her arms, widespread as if prompting an embrace, which Sky accepted instantly.

I looked around the room awkwardly, feeling as though I was perhaps more out of place than I originally thought. After waiting to see if the pair would break out of their embrace to give me the time of day, I quickly left, starting for the stairs. I can imagine their surprise when their episode of Long Lost Family ends and they find that I've disappeared.

I reached the bottom of the stairs, grinning at my ninja skills, spotting Jace and Jameson loitering around confusedly, peeking in doors and exchanging glances. In that moment, they really did look like brothers. Distant brothers, but it was still progress.

They both looked up when they heard me and Jace grabbed my bags, handing them out to me.

I accepted them, eyes on Jameson as I gestured up the stairs. "Your girlfriend and mother-in-law are upstairs—congratulations on the pregnancy, big man." I slapped him on the shoulder before leading Jace down another corridor, as if I had been down here before.

"So where's our room?" He asked, having left Jameson in the hallway.

"I have no idea," I said, rounding the corner, heading Jace laugh as I spotted one single door at the end of the hallway.

"This is it," I whispered before breaking out into a jog, reaching the room in milliseconds.

I threw the door open, finding a room just as big, maybe bigger, than Sky and Jameson's. I threw my backpack on the bed, eyes trained on our view outside our wall-wide window, dressed in velvet curtains. I breezed past everything else and went straight to the sliding doors, pushing them open to reveal one massive en-suite with two of everything. The next sliding door led to one huge walk-in wardrobe. I heard Jace enter, profanities falling from his lips as he saw the room.

I grinned at him, "Literally. Welcome to our flat," I joked, outstretching my arms as if to present the room to him.

"This is good," He said.

"A fresh start," I added, smiling as looked up at the ceiling, spotting a crystal chandelier.

I gazed up at Jace, the light behind his head, making him almost appear as a celestial body, as though he had come down from heaven. He had. It was in that moment, when I wanted to kiss him, that he leaned down and pressed his lips against mine, pulling my body against his.

I guess I had always wondered if he could ever love me as much as I loved him. Sometimes there were hints of it and it made me feel more certain that he did feel the same way about me. But I guess it was like what Elle said, how do you bond two people without throwing one of them into the ocean or coming at one of them with a very fast car?

I can't believe I'm actually thinking about Elle right now—quoting Elle right now. So I stopped thinking about her and fell into Jace once more, increasing the intensity of the kiss.

"Wow, I missed a lot,"

I frowned, recognising the voice but not knowing where from. I broke away from Jace, still holding onto him, and turned around to see who had interrupted us.

"What the hell?" I rose my voice, attempting to lunge at her. Jace held me back and so we just stared at her, open-mouthed.

And we were staring at Amelia Brown. Mel. The girl who had trapped Jameson with her lies and sweet-talk to turn his attention away from Sky when she needed him the most. She almost got her killed. Once Sky was returned safe and sound, Mel then sought out to make Sky's life hell, which was the main reason she got sent behind bars. I guess the bars weren't strong enough.

She smiled, "I don't want any fights, I just came back for my girlfriend,"

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AN I

OOP

who do y'all think is her girlfriend ??

soz for my silence, I've been busy at uni #oops

but I'm back and I'm editing and I'm writing so

-it good

FABULOUS SONGS

Songs that played when I was writing this chapter (in order):
Cosmic Love - Florence + The Machine
Slip Away - Gabrielle Aplin
Speechless - Glades
Cola - Lana Del Rey
I Have Questions - Camila Cabello
Walls - Elle Watson
My God - Rae Morris
Go Your Own Way - Lissie
Secrets and Lies - Ruelle
Blue Moon - Kendal Johansson
JOY - Ellie Goulding
Dance To This - Troye Sivan
Half Light - BANNERS
Long & Lost - Florence + The Machine

END OF FABULOUS SONGS

Date written:
27/07/18
28/07/18

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Next update: Friday
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CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE SPOILER:

Who is Amelia Brown's girlfriend?

And is she the only reason that Mel has returned?