Page 52 of Entangled
We sat in silence for a moment, and I could tell a million questions were going through her head in the way she rolled her lips together, unsure if she wanted to ask them.
“Just ask,” I encouraged her.
“What happened to Jude and Lilah? And your father?”
“My father died before he even hit the floor,” I replied, a stone dropping in my gut just admitting it out loud. “As for Lilah and Jude…”
I was afraid to admit what I’d done and planned to do out loud, but I had no reason to lie.
“I killed Lilah when you got shot,” I said. “As for Jude, well his punishment will be coming soon now that you’re awake.”
I half-expected her face to contort in disgust, but to my surprise she didn’t bat an eye. She almost looked…content.
“That doesn’t bother you?” I asked curiously.
“You forget that I grew up surrounded by murder and a world full of blood,” she basically laughed in my face. “If anyone deserved it, it was them. Where’s Jude now?”
“Waiting for me in an unknown location,” I chuckled, already antsy to get my hands on him.
“Kade?” She asked softly.
“Yeah?”
“Will you promise that you’ll stay with me until they let me go home?”
“Okay done, but why?” I blurted.
“Because I want to be there when you take care of Jude,” she practically growled.
There was a pause before she began speaking again.
“The first time he hit me it was over something so silly and I told myself he was just having a bad day at the office. He promised never to do it again, and I foolishly believed him.
“But it kept happening again, and again and again. Until eventually I couldn’t go out into the public eye because my bruises were taking so long to heal. Every time he hit me, he slowly took a piece of my soul away, until I felt like I had nothing left. I have protected the tiny last part of myself because I won’t be able to live with myself if that’s gone too.”
She stopped again and I knew there was nothing I could say in that moment that would even scratch the surface of healing what’s been broken inside of her. Anything I saw won’t do justice to how I feel inside, and how protective I feel over that last bit of her soul.
“I don’t want to be afraid anymore. I want to take my fate in my own hands, once and for all. I want to choose my own destiny,” Soren wiped the stray tear that had left her eye, and a stony resolve slid into place.
That’s my girl.
I knew how hard it must have been for her to open up to me about the trauma of her past, and I vowed in that moment to make sure her future was ingrained with peace.
23
SOREN
It wascrazy how fast time can fly when you don’t even realize it.
It had only felt like I had been asleep for the night, and right before I opened my eyes I thought I’d wake up and be in my own bed, lying next to Kade with his arms around me. That was until I heard the beeping of the heart monitor, and the smell of antiseptic, and realized I was all alone under the sheets.
But in reality, I wasn’t alone. Kade hadn’t left my side the entire time I’d been here, if the cot by my bed and facial hair that had grown was any indication. I woke up with my hand in Kade’s, and my chest lighter than it had been in a long time, all things considered.
I was lucky to be alive from what I could gather. The bullet had missed any major organs, but the blood loss was what almost took me out.
I remember not so long ago when I didn’t fear death at all. The Reaper could have been on my doorstep and I gladly would have taken his hand and let him lead me away from this life.
But now I have Kade. I had a future I was actually looking forward to, and one that I didn’t have to fear.
