Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Cade dropped me off, and I felt unsteady on my feet. I made it to the door and stopped when I saw Ryker, Keil, and Mary all sitting in the living room. There was an audible sigh as I entered. Ryker darted up to me and wrapped me in a hug.
“I was five minutes away from chasing after you.”
“I am fine. He didn’t hurt me,” physically, I thought, because I had been emotionally terrified. “I am tired, though, so If you don’t mind, I am just going to sleep.”
“Emma, what happened?” Keil asked, standing up.
“He confided in me, so we are closer, I guess. I can’t talk anymore about it,” I said, walking down the hallway. Ryker followed me, and I was startled a bit, so I tripped over the rug. He caught me in his arms.
“Em, you do not seem okay.”
“I just spent hours alone with Cade. How am I supposed to seem after that?” I asked, looking up at him as he lifted me up. I started to wonder what Cade knew about Ryker that I didn't know. Didn't he say that Ryker still kept secrets from me? What are they? Do I believe Cade?
“Fair enough, but why are you so weak?”
“I don’t know–shielding my soul, having to witness his memories?”
We reached my room, and I crawled into my bed—too tired, too exhausted to shower off the scent of Cade. “Ry, it was horrible. He is—” I didn't know what to say. I wanted to say that Cade was horrible, but it was a possibility that I didn't know at all what I thought I had known.
“Emma, don’t really go falling for the guy,” Ryker said walking around me and pulling my shoes off of my feet. I had not noticed that I was still wearing them.
“Hardly,” I said with disgust. “it's just, he seemed to have had a horrible childhood. I didn’t see much, but I don’t think he was treated well. That could be what led him on his current path now, you know?”
“I guess—however, he could have still chosen a different path. We all have choices. Some things, like our circumstances, while we cannot change as children, we always can as we grow older.”
I let his words sit there in the air and thought them over. I agreed, yet still pitied the little boy who was wrongfully beaten, day and night, for what reasons, I knew not. For the first time, I noticed that the beast of hate inside of me was half asleep, flickering in and out of her cage.