Page 76 of Wicked Heirs

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for coming at you. I’m sorry for blaming you. I’m sorry for it all.”

She stared at me for several moments, likely trying to weigh up whether I was telling the truth, or if this was some strategy to ease her into a false sense of security.

“That’s a good start,” she finally said.

“Yeah?”

“Yes.” She sighed and then softened a little, telling me, “I know what it’s like to lose one parent, so I can’t even imagine how horrific it was to lose both for you.”

“Thank you,” I responded past the lump in my throat as she brought that up.

“But it can’t excuse everything. Not what you do now, not how you treat people, and not how you treat yourself. There needs to come a point where you don’t continue to fall back on all that pain and grief, where you continue on in life as the one left behind, and actually start to embrace it.”

I stared at her in awe for several moments.

“If there’s anything that all this shit has taught me, the way I reacted and treated you since you enrolled here, it’s that Idoneed to move forward and let it go.”

“Let the pain go, but not their memories.”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling. “Exactly.”

She smiled back at me, but it was only for a moment, before she told me, “I’m gonna head out.”

As she went to brush past me, I stepped into her path.

“Wait.”

She raised an eyebrow and tensed.

I quickly held up my hand, trying to indicate that I meant her no harm.

I wasn’t surprised she’d jumped to that right off the bat, though. It was instinctive at this point, at least for now still. We’d only just formed a truce, it would take time to get used to that on both sides.

“I just wanted to say thank you.”

She cocked an eyebrow.

“For trying to save them… for trying to save my parents.”

“I didn’t, though. I failed.”

“Because of that motherfucker, Constantine. Not through anything you did or didn’t do. The fact that you tried and the risk you took doing so means a fuck of a lot.”

“I don’t like anyone suffering. I did what anyone would have done.”

“I get that about you, but, believe me, not just anyone would’ve risked themselves like that for others. It takes a special kind of being to react in that way.”

She nodded. “I appreciate you saying that.”

I smiled, bittersweet.

“I’ll see you around?” I asked.

“We’re on the same campus, in a lot of the same classes, it’s a pretty surefire thing.”

I hadn’t meant it that way, but I also didn’t have the right to ask for anything else beyond her starting to forgive me and accept my truce.

At least, not yet.

---