| |
*
Malta, now
“OH. NO!” FLORIANA cried out as her heel broke. She had stretched out her body to grab her suitcase off the baggage carousel when she felt her ankle bending outwards and the heel cracking underneath. She knew from the beginning that wearing her leather zip-up high heels was a bad travelling outfit choice, but she thought that high heels would make her look more sophisticated and mature.
With trembling fingers, Floriana wiped a bead of sweat that broke out on her brow and brushed back her red curly hair. It was the first time she had been back in Malta since her first adventurous trip to the island country in the Mediterranean Sea. Two years had passed since her educational trip in Greece turned into an agonizing race across Europe. How could she know that the morning excursion to Cape Sounion would introduce her to a new reality and a family she never knew she had? How could she ever imagine that the handsome thirtysomething man she met at Cape Sounion was planning to abduct her? And how could she imagine that her own grandfather was the one who had ordered her abduction?
Puffing out a breath, she picked up her damaged sandal. She was an inexperienced art student when she first became acquainted with the Order of the Black Rose: and the family she didn’t know she had until then. And Eric. It was Eric who had abducted her with the help of his two partners and friends, Egon and Maite. Poor Egon, she thought as she brought to mind the face of the joyful young man and the tragic death he suffered. And Maite. She wished she’d had time to know her better and understand why she did what she did. Floriana was a naïve young girl when she got into that adventure; she was a grown-up woman when it all ended. She almost crossed the line to the other side when she got exposed to Bacterium-Z, a deadly virus her own father had created. If it wasn’t for Eric, she would have died there at the isolated ex-Nazi sanatorium in Germany. And she would never have had the chance to meet, for the first time in 18 years, the brother and the grandfather she never knew she had.
After she took off both her sandals, she straightened the yellowish-green floral romper she was wearing, grabbed her baggage handle, and crossed the baggage claim area barefoot. High heels or not, she wasn’t the girl she used to be, and she didn’t need to demonstrate that with her clothes.