Page 16 of Kian's Devotio
It hurt. And she didn’t understand why he was being that way. It didn’t make sense.
She was so in love with him. Even though she knew they were both much too young.
He was two years older than her, but she wanted him to see her. To love her too.
She could see their family one day, and she wanted it.
And it broke her heart that her best friend stopped being her best friend.
That he could so easily just move on and not want to see her or talk to her anymore.
Not be the man she thought he truly was.
When he asked her to prom at the last minute, she was grateful but was wary of it.
She hadn’t been asked and neither had Emery. Which made Emery madder than a hornet.
She had gone and yelled at both Kian and Reid, but neither of the brothers had backed down, and the boys at their school were too scared of them anyway to ask either of them to the dance.
Kian had suggested he take them both, and she desperately wanted to go.
Until they had gotten there. And Kian had clammed up again.
He barely talked to her and she hated it. She was good and done with him and his nonsense.
When he had kissed her? It was her first kiss. And then he had ruined it by telling her it was a mistake.
She had been so embarrassed and all the times her mom had told her that she was nothing to them, that she was just being used and that she wasn’t important broke her heart.
She just wanted to go home and that was that. When he left to find Emery, she walked away.
Needing the space from him and to put her heart firmly behind a wall of ice that would not be penetrated by him ever again.
She took off her small heels and held her dress up as she walked. And she cried the entire way home.
When she went inside, Lenora was there. She was drunk and her eyes narrowed.
“So, my slut daughter who whores herself out to that family to get what she wants has come crawling home again. All dressed up and ready to go nowhere. Just like I knew you would.”
Karalee didn’t say anything to her mom, the years of her mom’s anger and her fists coming to the forefront.
She pushed past her mom and went to her room, and Lenora followed. “What? Nothing to say? It's because I’m right. They don’t want you. No one does. I certainly never have. You have been a stone around my neck from the start and I can’t wait for the day I never see you again. It won’t come soon enough.”
Karalee held in a flinch and kept her back to her mom.
A knock sounded on the front door and Karalee shut her eyes, knowing exactly who it was.
She hurried to answer it and Emery was there, pissed as hell. “Come on K. You can’t stay here.”
Karalee shook her head, “This is my home Em. I have to stay. I need to. Just for tonight. Okay?”
Emery shook her head back, “No. You can’t. I don’t like it. You are upset and I don’t like it. At all.”
Karalee shook her head again and sensed Kian on the porch. She refused to look at him and then shut the door on them both.
Lenora scowled at her, “You are such a whore. Just like your mom. I saw that boy out there. You want him don’t you? Well men like that don’t want whores like you. He is so far out of your league it isn’t funny. Keep your legs shut. I don’t need another baby around here ever again.”
Karalee walked to her room and shut the door. And then pushed a chair in front of it.
