Chapter 264: Inner Child
As a child, Emily had loved games. From hide and go seek, to egg hunts, and where’s Waldo? Those were the games that she had loved playing. Games with clues, and tips that she had to follow along the way if she wanted to get somewhere.
But as the years had gone by, and the general exhaustion that came with interrupted sleep every night had become harder and harder for her to ignore. Emily had slowly but surely stopped playing. Convincing herself that she was doing so because she was now an adult, and adults did not have time for childish things.
That had been a lie, of course. But it had been a lie that Emily had wholeheartedly believed because she’d had no other choice. She would give it to Derek though, the man had a knack for exposing hidden truths to her. Things that not even she knew about herself. Derek seemed to be able to find with ease.
For their first date, he had taken Emily to a fair, and she had proceeded to spend the afternoon playing. Something that she had not done in years, and it had felt absolutely wonderful. Now here Derek was, once again appealing to Emily’s playful nature. That side of her that she had kept carefully hidden for so long. ’Find the puzzle pieces and at the end of it, they will form a picture. There’s a surprise in it.’ That was the general gist
of what Derek had said when he had sent Emily on what she was now calling ’the puzzle piece hunt’. The first day Emily had found two corner pieces, and given that they did not fit together. All she had been able to do was just stare at them intently. Trying to figure out what bigger picture, the pieces of wood would form, once re-joined with the others. But she had not been able to figure anything out.
So she had gently placed them in the casing that Derek had also provided her with. Driven by curiosity to know exactly what the surprise was, Emily had searched Derek’s penthouse high and low, every chance that she had gotten after that. Looking for the other pieces, not giving up until she found them.
She had to hand it to him. The man not only had a knack for finding things that she enjoyed doing, but he was also very good at hiding things.
Emily had found puzzle pieces in lamps, in shoes, behind the bathroom door, under the rug on top of the fridge, and even inside a packet of condoms. With each puzzle piece found, and placed into the frame.
A picture began to take shape.