Angels of Moirai (Book One)
Read Angels of Moirai (Book One) Online
Authors: Nicole Salmond
Angels of Moirai
BOOK ONE
Nicole Salmond
Copyright © 2015 Nicole Salmond
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author, except in brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews that are permitted.
This is a work of fiction. The names, character, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Cover design by Okay Creations
Edited by Frankie Sutton
Since man first walked the earth, the Angels of Moirai have watched over them. Born human, they are taught never to feel, never to become attached, and
never
to become emotionally compromised.
Eighteen-year-old, Lila Kingston, is haunted by dreams of a mysterious angel. Suddenly, the dramas of her broken family and the snobby, rich kids at her school, fail in comparison to the challenges she must face.
Hailing from the Angels of Moirai, James Taylor has been intrusted with the fate of lives from around the world for over a thousand years. His soul purpose is to ensure every mortal follows their designed path, but when Lila puts that very purpose at risk, he must make a choice, a choice that ultimately leads to devastating consequences of a love never meant to exist.
The choice was never easy, those kind of choices never are…
A huge thank you to my beautiful sisters, Chippy, Samwise, and Missy Moo, and let us not forget my lovely best friend, Jessi B, for their patience and awesome feedback. They have endured way too many annoying text messages, emails, Facebook messages, and any other way I could hassle them, to read and review this book. I appreciate every minute you gave me!
Shout out to Joe- the school teacher/brother-in-law from hell! Just kidding! You were an awesome help and I promise to name a character after you very soon…or not ;)
My beautiful Evelyn Lily and Harper Skye. I love you two girls dearly and swear you two are the cutest damn girls I’ve ever come across.
Thanks once again to my hubby who puts up with my weird questions and help to raise our little girls.
Lastly, to the awesome Frankie Sutton for editing my work to such a high standard, and Sarah, from Okay Creations for my gorgeous cover!
8… FOREVER IS A VERY LONG TIME
Twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six...
I sat at the bottom of the pool gripping onto a large stone that weighed me down, counting bitterly in my head. My eyes focused on the calm water surrounding me. I tried my hardest not to think about what had just occurred- the anger that I felt, and realizing the sadness deep within that pulled me down. I would never be who my parents wanted me to be, and no matter how hard I tried, I would
never
be loved by them.
I could feel my heart rate starting to quicken at the thought of them. I was losing control.
Forget about them. They are nothing. You don’t need them
, I told myself repeatedly as my body began to ache. The need for air was pushing me to my breaking point.
The crimsoned coloured cocktail dress that my mother had so happily bought as a “present” swam around me, reminding me that I was just another pawn piece in their game, and I was replaceable.
I give in.
I let go of the stone and pushed my feet hard into the bottom of the pool, projecting myself to the surface.
I gasped for air, my body craving the oxygen as it filled my lungs. I calmed myself by taking long, deep breaths, while moving my body to keep afloat.
I never wanted to see them again. I was done.
I should have seen right through their bullshit from the start. I had been naive once again. I thought that just maybe,
maybe
they weren’t the parents that I’d come to think of them as.
I should have seen the signs…
“Lila?” My mum spoke softly as she knocked lightly on my bedroom door.
I pulled my attention away from the horrible English assignment I was desperately trying to finish and looked over at her.
“I thought it might be a nice idea if you came to dinner with us.”
My eyes widened and I stared at her dazed. “Tonight?”
She graciously smiled and nodded in reply.
“Wh… What about Hayley?”
“Hayley has gone to a friend’s for the night.”
I wanted to go. When was I ever going to get the chance to go to dinner with my parents again? Never, I told myself. I’ll be graduating high school soon and moving on, and no doubt, my parents would be going back to London soon.
“Okay,” I agreed, smiling nervously at her.
“Great!” she exclaimed. “It’s a good thing you said yes, because I’ve already got you something to wear.”
She pushed her way through the doorway holding onto a garment bag and casually placed it on my bed.
I stood up and walked over to it, unzipping it slowly, unsure of what I would find. Inside was a beautiful crimsoned red cocktail dress. I held it up against my body. The shoulder straps were soft and delicate with tiny diamantes on them. It was shaped into a V-neck, and then softly fell from the chest to my knees. It was beautiful.
“Thanks,” I said softly, a little taken aback by the gesture.
My family was wealthy, and my parents enjoyed spending their money, but they rarely bought us things like this. They quite happily gave us money to buy clothes, but never went to the effort to buy them for us.
“We plan on leaving in an hour, if that’s enough time for you?”
I nodded silently.
“Great, I’ll leave you to it then,” she said before leaving.
I closed my eyes, held the dress tightly, and smiled.
Things were going to be different now, I told myself. All those years when it was just Hayley and me, our parents living on the other side of the world trying to make a living for themselves so they could give us everything we ever wanted, everything except the love we so desperately craved. Now they were finally going to change. We would get to live this life they had promised so long ago, one that involved them and us as a family.
“Lila,” I heard a familiar voice say.
I looked towards the pool’s edge to find Hayley, looking down at me with a face that meant she only had to guess that the night hadn’t gone well.
I swam towards her, climbing out when I reached the side of the pool.
Hayley grabbed a nearby towel and wrapped it around me.
“Hayls,” I sobbed.
“Don’t,” Hayley interjected. “I know you’re going to apologise, and you don’t need to.”
I knew she hated me holding my breath under water like that. I started doing it years ago just for fun, and then I found myself doing it whenever I was stressed or upset. I’d never do it to harm anything or myself, and I knew it was dangerous. It was just something I did and I couldn’t explain it. There was just something about being in the calm water, relying on nothing but your own body’s strength to get you through.
Hayley rubbed my back and asked in a gentle, soothing voice that pained my heart, “What happened?”
She shouldn’t have to live like this. I wanted things to be different, but after tonight, I knew that could never happen.
I closed my eyes and shook my head, remembering the events that had just unfolded…
An hour earlier, I was sitting on my bed staring at my bedside clock, watching the seconds tick by. I had been so excited and nervous about going to dinner with my parents that I had rushed to get ready like it was a race against time. Instead of going downstairs early when I was finished, I decided to wait it out in my room. I didn’t really know why I did it. I guess I was nervous… I was afraid I would scare off my parents or something ridiculous. Either way, I waited until it had been exactly one hour since my mum had left me earlier before I left my room.
When I made my way downstairs to see my mum and dad all dressed and ready to go. Mum was wearing a black strapless dress with her blonde hair pinned back in a tight bun. Dad was in a matching black suit that was tailored to fit him perfectly. I could have sworn he didn’t age. He still looked just as handsome as he did ten years ago.
“There you are,” my dad said as I walked down the stairs, careful not to trip in my high heels.
He reached forward and gave me a hug, commenting on how beautiful I looked. Mum followed suit, and we left the house shortly after.
We all climbed into the BMW, and I wasn’t the least bit surprised when I’d realised my parents had even organised a driver to take us to dinner, even though it turned out to be only a short ten minute drive to the restaurant.
I was a little surprised, however, when I entered the restaurant. It was the best restaurant and the most expensive in our area. I had only ever been here once before, and that was when I was ten. Our parents took Hayley and me here when they told us Dad had gotten this top marketing job.
They had told us it was a dream come true. With this job came the happiness and life fulfilment all of us could ever want. Oh, and the money. It came with lots of money, and at that time, we didn’t have much, so it sounded amazing, and it turned out to be anything but.
That dinner was the last happy memory I have of all of us together. Not long after my dad got the job, he was able to secure my mum one as well. Before we knew it, they were basically running the company. They were at the top of their game and earning the big bucks.
What started as a few short business trips away, turned into months of them being gone at a time, leaving us with a small army of round the clock nannies and housekeepers. By the time I was thirteen, I was able to count the number of weeks I’d seen my parents in one year, on one hand…
I stopped showing interest in their work after that. I couldn’t even be sure exactly what kind of work they did now.
We followed the waitress to our table, but as we approached, my hope for a family dinner, one that could be the start of something new for all of us, instantly disappeared. I was left with the harsh realisation of what this dinner really was.
“Jack,” my dad said as he approached the middle-aged man dressed in a black fitted suit, just as smartly as my dad was.
“Sarah, Peter, happy to see you again,” the man said before shaking my mum and dad’s hands.
“This is my daughter, Lila,” Dad said as he pulled me to his side.
“Nice to meet you,” Jack replied, then motioned towards the young guy next to him. “This is my son, Michael.”
I clenched my teeth together and tried to stay calm as I shook their hands. I could not believe my parents had done this. This wasn’t a family dinner. This was a business arrangement.
“What a great little place you’ve chosen, Sarah,” Jack commented as we all took a seat at the table.
“Thank you,” my mum replied. “I thought it would be a great backdrop for the start of a great partnership.”
“I hope so,” Jack replied.
After the introductions were over, we all took our time looking through the menu. I sat quietly as my parents and Jack talked about the stock market and their predictions, before a waiter came over and took our order.
It was the kind of restaurant that didn’t have prices next to the menu. You only had to guess the dishes were going to cost a fortune. None of them seemed to care though, not in the slightest, even when they ordered a bottle of wine.
“Is that the finest one you have?”
“Yes, sir,” the young man replied to Jack, “but I should mention that it is one thousand dollars for the bottle.”
My dad waved it off. “Send two then!”
They all started laughing at this. I, on the other hand, rolled my eyes. I had noticed over time, as my parents became richer and richer that it became almost like a game with other rich people. Who could have the biggest house, the most expensive cars? They liked to outdo each other all the time. It was the most ridiculous thing I’ve had to witness.
When the waiter returned with the wine, I waved away the gesture to have a glass, but my mum insisted I have one, and again, I declined.
The waiter then began taking down our meal requests and when he got to me, I couldn’t help but order something off the menu that I knew would annoy my parents.
“Steak burger and chips please,” I requested, handing my menu to the waiter.
“I… Uh,” the waiter stuttered.
My mum’s eyes narrowed at me and she quickly said, “She’ll have the honey and goat cheese salad.”
The waiter nodded his head and left.
Jack took the moment, yet again, to play the bragging game of who has more money. “Jocelyn, my youngest daughter, has decided that she wants her sixteenth birthday party to be jungle themed. So we are in the process of trying to hire out the zoo for the night. The legalities involved are horrendous, and with over five hundred guests on the invite list, it’s becoming a bit of a nightmare, but if that’s what she wants, that’s what she’ll get.”
“Well, they only turn sixteen once, don’t they?” My mother replied.
“Yes, but at this rate, it would be cheaper and far less complicated to fly fifty of her closest friends to Paris for her birthday instead. That’s an idea I’m still trying to convince her to agree to.”
I rolled my eyes at the ridiculous words coming out of his mouth.
“What about you, Lila? What did you do for your sixteenth birthday?” Jack asked.
“We wanted her to have a party,” my mother interjected, “but she didn’t want all the fuss.”
“I’m not really into birthdays,” I replied sharply. Birthdays were meant to be celebrated with your family and friends, a time to celebrate your life and the life you’re going to live. Since my parents couldn’t even wish me happy birthday in person, and I vaguely felt like they resented my existence, I preferred not to celebrate it.
I stared out at the window, trying not to listen to their conversation any longer. The way they spoke about the world and the money they happily spent on stupid things. They acted as though they were better than everyone else was, and it made me sick to the stomach. I couldn’t be happier when the meals came, anything to make it more difficult for them to speak to me.
“So, Lila,” Michael casually said, “how’s school treating you?”
“Just splendid,” I said, barely hiding my sarcasm.
“You must be getting excited now,” Jack chimed in, “because there are only a few more weeks until school finishes.”
“Yep.”
“Sarah tells me you’re top of your class.”
I nearly choked on the piece of lettuce in my mouth. My mother had never shown interest in my grades before, so I was surprised she was even aware at how I’d been doing.