Fated Mate

“What?” she whispered at him, the images still swimming in her head.

He raised his hands and cupped her face, rubbing her cheeks with his thumbs. “Lee, are you okay?” His voice was soft, shaky but level.

“It was so real. Like a movie, but, my family…” She stopped, she thought about what she was saying, and she couldn’t seriously be considering it.

“I’m so sorry.” Ash sounded miserable, what was he talking about? Someone touched her shoulder, and then turned her around. She starred at her father, his face looked pained.

“Honey, it was real. That’s how our family was murdered.” The last word came out like a pained whisper. All the images came flying back into her mind, hitting her with the reality that it had happened. She gasped then pulled away, walking backward as far as she could from the two.

“No, it can’t be. It’s my mind; it’s playing tricks on me again. Dr. Warren said they died in a fire, and that my mind was just trying to cope. My family wasn’t slaughtered, wolves don’t exist and the three of you couldn’t have been there, you would have been in your teen years!”

Joe and Billy stared at her, the heart wrenching truth written all over their faces, she turned back toward the door, Dave and Ash hadn’t even tried to dispute it.

It all sank in, tearing her into pieces as it slowly dawned on her, her nightmares were real they weren’t her mind on overdrive or some mechanism to try and cope with the death of her family, it had really happened. Her family had died in the most brutal way.

A scream escaped her mouth as she sank to the ground. Ann and Maria met her halfway and gently lowered her down on the floor. Their arms were wrapped tight around her. The pain was too much. She couldn’t stand it. She cried and screamed, trying to get it out of her system.

It felt like hours had passed before she finally went mute, but the pain was still there. Ann and Maria still had their arms around her. She was in a daze, playing and replaying the images in her head. Dave came and crouched down next to her, but he kept his arms to himself.

“Lee stop, you are torturing yourself!” Ash’s voice came from behind Dave. He was speaking through clenched teeth; he looked as pained as she felt. Her pain was his pain-he always said that to her. She tried to push the images out of her mind; she needed a clear head if she was to understand everything.

“Why did that happen?” Her voice was blunt, emotionless.

“Because I saw something I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry, they were all killed because of me.” His face looked so guilty, but it didn’t move her. All she emotions had been drained out. All she wanted was answers.

“What did you see?”

“Ash will explain that to you.” His face flashed from guilty to angry, her eyes flickered to Ash. His face was tight, his eyes unsteady. She looked back at her father. She asked him a question that she should have when he walked through the door. “Why did you leave me, especially after… after what happened?”

“I wanted to keep you safe, away from my new life. I didn’t want to lose you too.”

“You’re here, alive. What makes you think I would have been in any danger being with you?”

He stood up and walked away. “You would have, and I wasn’t willing to risk it, I didn’t want to lose the only family I had left.”

She stood up, breaking Ann’s and Maria’s hold on her. “What makes you think they wouldn’t have found me in whichever orphanage I was in and killed me?” She could feel the anger rise in her.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

He turned and faced her. “I made sure there wasn’t a chance of that happening!”

“No, they made sure there was no chance of that happening! They killed everyone in the room.” She nodded her head in the guys’ direction, they were standing together by the couch, she heard a gasp behind her but she ignored it. “Feed me another line!”

“There were more of them, those guys’ they killed weren’t the only ones. I didn’t want you to get caught in the middle. That’s why I moved you from New York to Florida.”

She felt like she had just been slapped in the face. The fury was boiling inside her. “You knew where I was and you didn’t come get me? You didn’t even care enough to come see me!” She took two steps closer to him.

“You’re wrong! I watched you every day of your life! I even kept tabs on you through your psychiatrist!” His voice was louder, but the fear remained in it.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” the words hissed out of her mouth in a whisper.

“I gave you money, an apartment, a car, you never lacked anything!”

“Of course, how dare I be so ungrateful!” she shouted at him, shocked by his statement, “Money, a home and a car were supposed to replace my family! They were supposed to make me get over being the last of the Jackson’s alive, is that what you are saying to me!” She was so angry she was shaking!

“My father was supposed to comfort me, protect me, instead you let me live with this remorse and guilt for thirteen years! I was a baby! You offloaded me on the state to be raised in orphanages, so you could go on living your life without the burden of a child.”

“No, it wasn’t like that. I loved you then, and I love you now!”

She went on, her body shaking in anger. “You loved me so much you let me live in torment for years. What better way is there for a father to express his love for his daughter but to abandon her!” Sarcasm dominated her voice, she was heaving, her shoulders tight, her hands clenched in fists.

Shock flashed in his face. “Your eyes…”