“What do you think is wrong? There is a blizzard outside and I broke down and ended up in your house!”
It was going to be a long night.
CHAPTER 5
Ember
We satin silence since he’d asked me what was wrong, and if I wanted to talk about it. I knew I’d been a bitch to him, but what did he expect? He wasn’t there for me on the day of my brother’s funeral. I had vowed to never forgive him, and despite how caring he had been since I got here, I wasn’t going to let the past go.
He placed a bowl of soup in front of me, along with slices of bread at the centre of the table. I picked up a slice to find it still warm from the oven, just as my mum always did.
He had no right to try to make me feel better. All the men in my life except for my father had hurt me in some way. I was starting to realise that no man was worth my love.
“There you go. Eat it while it’s hot.”
I took a sip of the soup and almost started to cry. It tasted the same as Mum’s. I knew she had taught Elliott to cook when he was younger, but it seemed that Hunter had been paying attention as well.
I looked out the window to see the blizzard conditions outside. I would never have made it to my parents’ if I had walked, but it also meant there was no way I would be leaving this house anytime soon.
We ate in silence. It was worse than when Wayne had joined me for dinner on the rare occasions he was home. I should have seen the signs then. He had been pulling away from me for months. It was obvious what was happening now that I looked back on it, but at the time, I couldn’t see it.
Why did every man I loved abandon me?
I could feel the anger building inside as everything I had wanted to say to Wayne swirled around in my head. I couldn’t hold it back any longer. I had to let it out, and as Hunter was sitting there, I was going to ask the one question I had waited three years to get an answer for.
“Why didn’t you come to Elliott’s funeral?”
I knew he didn’t want to answer. He had never really given an answer to my parents. However, I was going to get one out of him now, no matter how much he tried to argue with me. I continued to look at him as he held his head down and placed his spoon in the bowl.
“Please don’t ask me that, Emmy.”
I hated that he was still calling me Emmy. He had no right to do that. Not anymore. And I wasn’t going to let him get away with not answering me.
“You don’t have the right to call me Emmy anymore, Hunter. Not since that day. And yes, youaregoing to give me an answer.”
He continued to look at his bowl, unable to meet my eyes. Why was it so difficult to explain why he didn’t come? He had practically distanced himself from the entire family, or so I had thought.
“Well, Hunter? I’m waiting.”
He looked up from the table and met my eyes. I held back the gasp as I saw tears forming in his eyes and the look of complete devastation within them.
“Please don’t make me go through it again.”
I almost caved before he said those words. He looked truly traumatised thinking about it. However, I remembered everything that I had felt that day and what had happened today and allowed it to build inside me.
I wanted to lash out at Wayne, but he wasn’t there. But I almost hated Hunter just as much, so I unleashed all my anger at him.
“You don’t want to go through it again? Well, let me remind you. I was there, Hunter. I was devastated that I had lost my brother. I needed someone by my side to hold me while I was breaking down. I needed the man I loved to be there with me. I. Needed. You! But you weren’t there. You walked out on us when we needed you the most. When we needed to understand why this had happened. You wouldn’t even give us that!”
I could see the pain building in him, but I didn’t care. I wanted him to suffer as I had been for all these years. I wanted him to feel the devastation I was feeling right now after everything.
“It wasn’t like that. I wanted to be there, but I couldn’t do it. I tried so hard, but just couldn’t bring myself to see you breaking down because of something I had done. It was my fault that he got killed, and I have to live with that every single day.”
The tears were constantly falling down his face now, but I was tired of him using the excuse that it was his fault.
“When are you going to stop using that as an excuse? You didn’t kill him. An enemy soldier did that. You didn’t fire the gun.”
“But I ordered him to join the other team. Don’t you get it? If I hadn’t given that order, then he would still be alive now.”
