Page 56 of Fighting for Ella

Could she do that?

Stay there a month and give it an honest try at making things work?

It sounded like a lifetime, but in reality it was only thirty days. In the scheme of things it wasn't that big an ask, especially if she knew she had an out at the end, a safe place to go where she could still do what she loved with the people she loved. Picking up her entire life and moving it across the country would be hard, especially leaving behind her family, but it wasn't like she’d never see them again and it would be nice to have a fresh start.

“One month, then if I want to leave I can?” she confirmed.

“One month,” Fox agreed. “But I hope you can give us a real chance, Ella. We want to make this up to you, show you that we know how badly we messed up, and that it won't happen again. No excuses, but I think the stress of the last month has worn us all down and we just snapped in the worst possible way.”

“You deserve better than that,” Night spoke up.

“You deserved the benefit of the doubt,” Chaos added.

“We know you, know you're not the kind of person who would ever betray the people you care about,” Spider said.

“If nothing else, we should have known the only reason you would sneak the Reactivator out of here was because you’d been threatened,” King told her.

Everyone was keeping a respectful distance, giving her space. In the end, the first person to approach her was Shark. Of all the former SEALs who now ran this office, Shark was by far the scariest of them. At least he had been. Before she met him, before he met his now wife Claire and fell in love, Shark had gotten his nickname because of the blank look behind his dark eyes. She hadn't known that man, but even now, with as madly in love with his wife as he was, with his twin four-year-olddaughters having him wrapped around their cute little fingers, she still saw glimpses of who he had been before.

Now he stood before her, his expression serious. “Human beings make mistakes, Ella. Not to downplay us not believing in you like we should have. It was a mistake, a big one. I know a little something about making mistakes. I made a huge one walking away from my woman.” Shark glanced over his shoulder to where Claire stood smiling at him, each of her hands holding one of their twin daughters. “I’m thankful every day that she was able to forgive my stupidity and build a life with me.”

“Your life is here, Ella,” Cassie said, rushing forward. “Please give us this chance.”

“I know it’s unfair to ask so much of you when you're hurting,” Lucy added, also stepping forward. “But we’re a team?—”

“A family,” Scarlett inserted, coming to join them.

“And we’ve all been through so much,” Lucy continued. “I know how much I need you guys, and I know deep down you need us, too, even though we hurt you and you're angry with us.”

One thing her mom had always taught her was not to hold onto grudges. Even when someone legitimately did something to hurt you, maybe even on purpose with the express intention of causing you pain, when you clung to those feelings it was like consuming acid that would slowly eat away at you.

Over the years, Ella had tried to follow that advice. If people hurt her, she always made sure she forgave, never held onto things, and never let them fester. This was the first time she’d ever had to work at it though.

Nothing this big had ever happened to her before and it was throwing her through a loop.

Still, everyone was being honest, acknowledging that they messed up, asking for an opportunity to make things right, and itfelt like if she didn't give it then she would be letting them down like they’d let them down.

Worse, it felt like she would be letting herself down.

The last thing she wanted was to be consumed by anger, especially not when she already had so much to deal with.

When she looked at herself in the mirror, she wanted to like the person she saw looking back at her. After all, in life the most important relationship you had was with yourself, because you were stuck with yourself every second of every day from the moment you were born until you took your final breath.

If she wanted to be able to find peace, find her footing again, and move forward, she had to find a way to move past her hurt and feelings of betrayal.

Especially given that the mole was still out there and standing together with the people she considered family at her back they had a better chance of finding them and eliminating them once and for all.

Because if they couldn’t then she could lose everything, including her life.

February 9th

8:28 P.M.

For some reason,it felt weird walking up to Ella’s front door tonight.

It was late, much later than he’d told her he’d be there, but according to Luis, who had gotten a text from Cassie, Ella’s attempt to hand in her resignation had wound up backfiring on her. Everyone had gathered, her whole Prey family, andannounced their determination to earn back her trust and show her that she was family, and they didn't want to lose her.

Even though Luis had invited him to attend the Prey party Miguel had declined.

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