“Yeah.” I always did. The few days up to the day Kasey had disappeared, I took off. Every year without fail.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, the Hales aren’t coming again this year. I don’t think their hearts can take seeing the area year after year.”
Understandable, of course.
Those two had just a hard time as I did with the loss of Kasey. Just...they gave up hope that he was alive years ago while I kept searching. Always searching.
Life hadn’t been the same when the other part of me left. But hopefully things will fall into place now.
Ma didn’t push; she never did when she sensed I was holding something close to my chest. Instead, she gave my arm a gentle squeeze and turned back to the counter.
“I packed you a few things,” she said, already moving with that soft efficiency she perfected over a lifetime. “Figured you might want something warm tonight.”
She lifted a small basket that was lined with one of her faded floral towels and handed it over. The smell hit me immediately. Cinnamon, honey and that buttery sweetness she only made when she thought someone needed comfort.
I swallowed around the tightness in my throat.
“Thanks, Ma.” I took the basket carefully. It was still warm against my palms.
She brushed her hand over my cheek, like she used to do when I was a kid. The only difference was now; I was taller, and she nearly had to stand on her toes. “You look tired, sweetie. Go home. Eat something. And take a nap. And if you need to talk...you know where I’m at.”
I nodded, unable to trust my voice for a second.
She didn’t know how closerhomereally was to the reason I looked like this. Didn’t know that the boy she thought was gone forever was asleep in my guest room. Didn’t know that if she stepped outside and looked across the yard after dark, she may see him through the windows.
And she couldn’t know. Not yet.
“Let me know when you guys get back. I’ll worry.”
“Of course, honey. And if you change your mind about going, we’ll be at the usual campground.”
With one last hug, I stepped off the porch, basket in hand and crossed the yard back towards my house.
Chapter 26
Kasey
The rest of the day passed quietly. Uneventfully. And almost...normal. A kind of normal I didn’t recognize but one I could almost imagine getting used to if I let myself.
Evander wasn’t as talkative as he’d been earlier, and every time the silence stretched between us. It felt like I'd caused it, like my confusion, my hesitation, my inability to be who he thought I was had pushed him into that quiet.
Maybe I deserved it. Maybe the silence was the closest thing to punishment he was willing to give.
Maybe that was fair.
I hadn’t agreed with what he believed. I hadn’t given him the answers he wanted. I hadn’t been the boy in those pictures.
So of course he’d pull back. Of course, he’d go quiet.
And part of me kept whispering that I should be grateful it was only silence, and not something worse.
But another part of me, the part I didn’t know how to listen to, kept noticing that even in the quiet, he didn’t look angry. He didn’t look disappointed. He didn’t look like he wanted to hurt me.
He just looked.... thoughtful. But my mind twisted it anyways, shaping it into something I knew all too well.
Silence had never been something I knew well. It was something that I often found myself in. Sitting in my room, silence surrounded me as I waited for my next lesson. And most of the time, the lesson was to learn how to be obedient, to be the perfect little Omega for an Alpha. To present myself to bewantedanddesired.
And if a handler didn’t think I did a good enough job, then I’d get a punishment. Sometimes sharp words, other times whipping or torture in another building.
