Chapter 5
630 Parole
John reached out, brushing his hand with the air between us, aiming for my forehead.
I stepped back quickly. “I’m fine. Really.”
But the second I dropped my gaze, I understood. The worry in his eyes wasn’t for me—it was for her. For Susan.
“It’s still early,” I said, forcing steadiness into my voice. “We can still make it to the Bonding Sanctuary.”
I turned on my heel, walked back into the bedroom, tucked my medicine away, and yanked the bond agreement from the drawer. With a flick of my wrist, I threw it in front of him like it was nothing.
“You wanted to break the mate bond, didn’t you? Fine. I agree. Let’s go now.”
His face drained of color, his eyes widening with something between pain and helplessness. “Mary…” His voice cracked. “I don’t know what your parents expected when they took me in, but I swear, I love you. Please—don’t leave me.”
He closed the distance, grabbing my hand. His palm was hot, desperate.
“I just”, his throat worked as he tried to form the words. “I just think Susan is so… pitiful. Especially after you send her away. She was so young. She had nothing, no one. I don’t want to lose you. She only needs care. That’s all.”
I laughed. Sharp, broken, ugly. A sound that scraped out of my throat until it didn’t sound like me at all.
And then the pain came, crashing in waves, dragging tears down my cheeks faster than I could wipe them away.
But I couldn’t stop. The whole thing was absurd. No—worse. It was grotesque.
“So… my parents were wrong, is that it?” My chest heaved as I spoke. “Wrong for helping people their whole lives? Wrong for lifting others when they were falling? Wrong for supporting you when you had nothing? Was it wrong of them to sponsor Susan’s studies abroad, to give her the life she has now?”
“Hah…” My laugh broke again, trembling on the edge of hysteria. “Then yes. I was wrong. My whole life—everything I believed in—it’s all been one big mistake.”
John’s face twisted, his expression darkening as though my words were knives. “Mary, stop. Don’t do this. You’re not yourself. What do you even want from me?”
He dragged in a breath, his tone sharp, almost accusing. “Are your parents still pulling strings from behind the grave? Is that what this is? Them controlling you even now?”
He lowered his voice, raw and pleading. “I don’t want to lose you. But she… she really needs me. Please, don’t leave.”
I closed my eyes. The tears slid silently, hot trails down my face. It wasn’t that I didn’t have words left. It was that none of them mattered.
I didn’t want him to know the truth. He didn’t deserve it.
The knock at the door jolted me from the suffocating silence.
When I opened it, Patricia—my mother’s oldest friend—stood there. Her eyes were swollen red, her whole-body trembling as she wrapped me in a hug that nearly broke me in half.
“Mary…” Her voice cracked with grief. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve come sooner. I’m too late…”
Her sobs choked her words. “Your parents gave so much, did so much good in this world. How could they… how could they die so suddenly?”
The air in the room turned heavy, thick enough to drown me.
And behind me, John’s voice broke through, shaky, disbelieving. “You’re saying… who died?”
- Scrittore
