Page 80 of Fighting for Scarlett

Because she wasn’t good enough her grandparents hadn't loved her.

Because she wasn’t good enough, no one wanted to adopt her, and no foster family wanted to keep her.

Because she wasn’t even good enough for her twin brother to stay.

That was the moment she knew she had to stop looking to others for their validation. She had to be good enough for herself.

For years, she thought she had learned that lesson, but now, looking back at all the failed relationships and two engagements that had never gone through to marriage, Scarlett knew all she had been doing was lying to herself.

Still, she was trying so hard to get someone to love her.

Doubt was her constant friend. Worry that she might say or do something to make one of her teammates or someone from her Prey family turn on her was constant. She tried so hard to find love, but she kept looking in all the wrong places, that’s why she failed. You couldn’t force real love it just … was.

Maybe it was just time to accept that she was never going to be loved. Not the way she wanted to be. That sense of belonging that remained constantly out of reach was never going to happen for her.

She had to be enough for herself.

If she didn't learn that lesson, she was going to wind up losing herself.

There was no way she could keep going through the pain of convincing herself she was in love with a man, that they were the answer to all her prayers, that she was going to have forever with them.

It had to stop.

Now.

No more.

So, she huddled in her cell, wondering if this was going to be what the rest of her life looked like, trying to figure out how she could be enough for herself, and chewing on her nails because right now, there was too much stress piled on her shoulders to make herself stop.

When footsteps outside her cell caught her attention, she straightened.

She’d already been given breakfast, and although there was no clock, there was no way it could be lunchtime already.

Scarlett was even more surprised when instead of a meal being pushed through the slot, the door was unlocked and opened. A guard stood there, his expression unreadable, and she warred between hope that she was finally being let out, and fear that it was time. Time to be booked and processed, time to be sent off to join the rest of the prisoners.

Or worse, time to be shipped off to some hidden prison that housed traitors and terrorists.

“Let’s go, Ms. Madden,” the guard said.

There were no handcuffs in his hands, and she faltered slightly as she got to her feet, unsure what that meant. Too many hours of sitting curled up in the corner of the uncomfortable bed had left her muscles stiff, and she swayed a little as she walked uncertainly across her cell.

When the guard merely turned and started walking, Scarlett followed.

They walked back the way they’d come when she was brought in, stopping in a small interview room. It was empty, and when the guard left her in there she stayed where she was, frozen in the middle of the room, no idea what was going on.

It was that unknown that had her fear ramping up.

What was going to happen to her?

Was her life about to get better or a whole lot worse?

She was still standing right where she was when the door opened again. Only this time, it wasn’t a guard or a cop who walked through it. It was the lawyer Prey kept on retainer. She’d only met him once, but she’d liked Walter Gunnerman. He was an older man in his early fifties, quiet, calm, professional, and a steady presence.

Now he was here, and her hope soared.

Did this mean what she hoped it did?

“Walter?” she asked, taking an uncertain step toward him.

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