The Seduction of Anna Ch. 05

Chapter 5 Reconciliation

Anna discovers the truth

(In the previous chapter, Anna discovered Adelina's dark side and was sickened by the level of depravity that she has been party to. She rescued the twins from a bizarre fetish during the story's climax, and now struggles with the fallout of her guilt.)

*

During the weeks that followed, I made sure I checked in on the twins at least once a week. The emotional damage that they incurred the past six months had affected them greatly, so I felt a responsibility to help them through the trauma. Sometimes when David was away for the weekend visiting his parents up north, I would have them over. The first couple visits we ended up naked in my bed where we cuddled and they would suckle at my breasts. I found this odd behavior considering the nature of their abuse, but I assumed it to be a reaction to what they had been through. I suspected that such an infant-like response was triggered by them seeing me as a protective mother-figure. Besides the nursing, nothing really sexual happened during these sessions, and I must admit the nurturing warmth of our bodies pressed together had a healing effect on all of us. As time went on, this kind of stuff started to feel weird and I knew we had to stop. I couldn't do much more for them, as I was no psychologist, and suggested to them that they seek professional help. They were reluctant, but I encouraged them to think about it. I wasn't even sure if the story about Adelina's affair with their father was true. I mean, I saw no evidence of it, and since most of Adelina's and my free time was spent on our female partners, I don't see when she had the opportunity. Besides, I am sure if it were true, she would have found a way to include him into our games. I decided the whole thing was a lie in order to keep control over the twins.

I don't know what happened to Adelina that night after we left her cuffed to the bed. I suppose the police arrived and assumed they were looking at the end of a sex game gone awry. Perhaps they smelled the weed and found her stash. Not sure if they busted her, I didn't see anything in the papers, but then again, I wasn't looking either. I'm sure that whatever happened to her, it was enough of a warning to leave us alone.

Slowly, I got the stories out of the twins about the underage girls that were involved. Names if they knew them, descriptions of what they looked like, where they lived...I collected as much information as I could in case something ever came out that could be tied back to Adelina. I needed the ammunition as insurance against her coming back for revenge. She was a cunning bitch, and I knew this might not be the end of it.

Then there was poor David. I was at a loss for how to account for how much I had betrayed him. He had no idea that any of this had been going on. I had created enough interference with my novel sex ideas, that he had no reason to believe that my focus lay anywhere other than with him. I had learned how to use sex to manipulate and deceive, it was a dangerous weapon, and I was done with it. There was no way I was remotely equipped to come clean about what I had done. At least not for now.

It was rather easy to find Maja, I just did an internet search and found her number on hitta.se. She was still living in the city, as I assumed she was, since I saw her that one day at Cafe Materia . After much agonizing about it, I finally found the courage to call her.

"Hello, this is Maja." It was the same voice of five years ago when I first called her about the apartment. I swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

"Hello Maja......" I responded.

"Yes...who's this?"

"Maja...this is Anna." There was a long pause. My stomach did somersaults. I shouldn't have fucking called.

"Anna? Anna Nyström?"

"Yes, it's me."

"Oh, hi Anna" her voice was cheerful.

"Hi, how are you? Hope I didn't catch you at a bad time."

"No, not really." She replied succinctly, putting the ball back in my court.

"Listen, Anna. Some things have happened to me this past year which made me think alot about us. I mean about what happened in the end."

"That's okay, Anna. That was some time ago. I suppose life happened to us after that and we grew up."

I felt instantly relieved.

"So, what are you doing now? Where are you working? Married? Attached?"

"I'm working as a graphic designer at an ad firm downtown. Not exactly what I want to do, but it is at least kind of related to what I studied." There was a quick laugh then she continued, "I have a live-in boyfriend, Peter, we met during my final last year in school. And you?"

So, we both now had live-in boyfriends. I guess Adelina was right, us Swedish girls are always so anxious to dive into serious relationships at a young age.

"Well, I work at a real estate company as a commercial analyst here in Gothenburg. It's okay. I travel a good bit, but it pays the bills. I live with my boyfriend, David, in Eriksberg. He works in finance at SKF."

"Sounds like you're doing great."

"Well, kind of. Can we meet sometime? I would like to catch up with you in person."

There was brief silence then she continued in a voice heavy with concern, "Sure, let me know when and where. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I just need to talk." I was pretty far from fine, but her willingness to meet me was a huge lift.

We decided to meet at Röda Sten near Klippen. Lunch. Twelve o'clock this coming Saturday. You sure you're alright? I'm sure, really. How about you? I'm fine. Great. Looking forward to seeing you. Me too. See you then.

Just as I saw her that one day at Materia when I was with Adelina, she was sporting a new haircut, much shorter than before, which diminished her bohemian image and made her look more...grown up, maybe? I suppose we both have come a long way since then. We each ordered a cinnamon roll and a coffee, then took a seat in the large dining area which also doubled as an art gallery. Hung along the high stone walls, was a series of small black and white paintings rendered to look like old photographs. We looked at a few of them but neither one of us made any comment. Our conversation started off awkward and clunky, but then as we became more relaxed we caught each other up on what we've been doing the past few years. She graduated with a fine art degree in painting, rented a studio space with a group of other artists while working full time in the advertising business. She wasn't too fond of selling her soul to the patronage of commercialism, but she had come to realize making it as a full time artist was a remote possibility. I told her how I met David in my marketing class during my final year at the university, then how we moved in together and settled into domestic life. There was an uncomfortable silence signalling the end of the perfunctory formalities, and it was now time to open up the topic of what we really came here to talk about--Spain.

I took one last sip of my coffee for courage then began, "Look, Maja, I want to apologize for what happened in Spain."

"There's no need to apologize." Her voice was compassionate, her eyes genuine.

"But I want to. The way I responded to you was juvenile and childish."

"My god, I slapped you, I wish I could have taken that back."

"You know, I was genuinely attracted to you. I felt there was something between us. And when you rejected me, it really hurt. I felt so stupid."

"I know, I felt bad afterwards. I overreacted."

"Then why didn't you reach out to me? You could have gotten a hold of me somehow. I was still a student at the university."

"I was too embarrassed."

"I guess we were just two immature brats who got in over their heads," I reasoned.

"Perhaps," she smiled.

"Listen, there's one thing I need to know."

"Sure, what is it?" she asked.

"I need to know if you ever thought that we could be lovers?"

"Maybe. Anna, listen, I was just as confused as you were at that time. I mean, at that time in my life I was hanging out in a circle of people whose eccentricities fed off of each other. We were all creative types living in a bubble where we thought we owned the universe. Some of my female friends were having relationships with other women just because they thought it was cool and trendy. Maybe I had my tease on, too. I don't know. But in the end, I realized I was not into women. Looking back, I realize how silly I was. Look, I'm sorry, I really am."

I sat back and took a deep breath. "Thank you for being honest with me. That is what I needed." I reached across the table and took her hand. Her eyes were like two wet pools. We stared at each for a moment, both of us fighting back tears.

"So what about you? What made you contact me now, is there someone...?" she tapered off assuming I knew where she was going.

"It's complicated. I'm not quite ready to talk about it now, but I needed to talk to you today and clear the air."

"I'm glad you did. I thought about you alot over the years, but I didn't dare contact you. I thought you hated me."

"Well, I actually thought I loved you at one point, but that's water under the bridge."

She broke eye contact with me and looked around the room, a gesture I took to mean that she had sufficiently atoned for her sins and it was time to move on. I looked down at her empty coffee cup and crumb-speckled plate. "Shall we go?" I asked.

"Sure."

As soon as we stepped outside, I looked out at the harbor and watched the pale-blue water ripple in the wind. I contemplated asking her if she wanted to walk a bit, but changed my mind. "Well, thanks for meeting me today, it meant alot."

"You're welcome. It was nice to see you again." Before we went our separate ways, she extended her hand out to me and finished with, "Friends?"

"Friends," I replied, taking her hand. In a way I wished she hadn't said it. It was what Adelina said to me the first night we met after our little altercation at the tram stop.

I shuddered at the irony.