Page 116 of Wrecked
I take a deep breath and blow it out. “Katie…”
“No…please…please don’t lie to me anymore. Don’t I at least deserve that?”
“You deserve the world, Katie.”
“Everything but your love, I guess.” The pain in those words is palpable.
“You have my love, Katie. Just…” I sigh, frustrated with myself. How did we get here?
“It was your father, wasn’t it?” The mention of him causes her shoulders to tense.
“What about my father, Katie?” Is she going to be honest with me? Will she tell me that he was extorting her? It’s not fair to expect her honesty, but I still want it. I want to tell her she will be ok. That she is safe now.
“What did he threaten you with?” Her eyes tell a sad story I know all too well.
“I’m protecting your family.”
“My family…or her?” There is no anger, only sadness.
“It started out her. Then Emmy, when I wouldn’t comply. Now… you too,” I admit.
“From the beginning? The beginning of us?” Her eyes fill, and she swats at them, trying to hide her tears from me.
“Yes,” I answer honestly. She sucks in a breath, the pain in her eyes is unbearable.
“She’ll never hurt me,” she vows, but even I can see the doubt in her expression.
“She loves me too, Katie.” I don’t want to hurt her. I just want to get the truth out.
“She told me she doesn’t,” she nearly pleads, as if begging for it to be true.
“She’s going on this trip, Katie,” I state as if that’s the only answer she needs.
Tears stream down her face, and she no longer attempts to hide the symptoms of her pain. She looks down at her lap as silent sobs rack her small frame.
“She’ll never hurt me,” she repeats, barely a whisper. She looks up and tilts her head curiously, her eyes swollen. “Did you ever love me?” The last bit of hope is evident in her tone.
“Yes. Katie…I love you so, so much…”
“You’re just not in love with me,” she states, steeling herself for the truth. I shake my head, and she lets out a heartbreaking cry. “She…she won’t betray me,” she says with less conviction this time. She needs to believe there is still someone in this world she can trust. Someone who won’t let her down.
My sweet Katie has been hurt and broken by everyone she was supposed to trust. Everyone but Ellie. She doesn’t deserve this pain. I never deserved her. And now, she is going to lose the only person she thinks she has left.
Her sister.
She rises from the couch and walks back to her bedroom, gently closing the door behind her. She doesn’t cancel the trip. She doesn’tcancel the wedding. She needs the truth. This is how she is going to get it. She needs to know if she is truly alone in this world. It guts me that she believes that. I will always take care of her. Just not the way she needs.
Selfishly, I am glad she is challenging the loyalty of her sister. I need this trip to happen. I need the time alone with Ellie, time she won’t grant me if she can avoid it.
The next morning, she dropped Ellie and I off at the airport without a word, without a hug, without a goodbye.
My eyes fill thinking of the pain I put Katie through. It should be enough to hate me, but that girl’s heart is far too big for that. Do I think she moved on? I pray more than anything that she will find a love like me and Ellie have.
“I don’t know, Pip. But I hope so. I hope she found an amazing man that is loving her the way she deserves. The way I was never able to.”
“She’ll find it. I know she will.”
I help Ellie up and we move over to our mock tables. She looks down at the wooden tabletop where I etched in “forever starts here,” with a two-carat diamond ring sitting inside the ‘O’ of forever.
