She smirks, looking down, and nodding her head. “Okay.” She whispers, hesitant, but still agrees. “But I want to make it very clear why I’m agreeing. There are two reasons. At separate times, you’ve made two men, who are very important to me, very happy.” She pauses and I feel my eyes start to water up, looking over I see that hers are as well. “Two very stubborn men.” Her comment makes both of us start to laugh as tears threaten at the sides. “Who we could even say love you.”
“No…” I trail. “Ro doesn’t…”
“Okay.” She nods her head, patting my arms.
“Seriously, like we’re in this whole… whatever this is, but he’s not…” I can’t even say the words as she looks at me again,
Caroline sighs and she shakes her head. “Sadie, I’ve known him for a very long time. Like you know, him and I have a very complicated history. And even with him telling me constantly back then that he was in love with me, which I knew he wasn’t, he never once looked at me the way he looks at you. He’s never looked at anyone the way he looks at you.”
“Don’t tell him that.”
She laughs out loud as I say it and nods her head. “Iwould never think of it. Like I said I’ve known him for a long time.”
“Thank you.”
“Sadie,” She says to me through the tears in her eyes, “I went by shortly after you left. His eyes were all wide and I know he was wondering if I saw you leaving or not. I never said a word to him about it. But I had been over as soon as Ash left for Boise, to check on him, and the house was a wreck. I tried to clean it, but he yelled at me to stop.” I smile as I look down. “I assumed you cleaned it before you left. But when I got there that day he was in much better spirits. He was still sad, but it wasn’t the rage. I could see it on his face that he loved you. And when I asked him why he seemed to be in a better mood he told me it was really fucking complicated.”
I can’t stop my laughter as it erupts out of me. “That’s a fucking understatement.” She looks at me curiously for a moment and I sigh. “I was best friends with his daughter. There was a 25-year age gap.” Caroline laughs. I want to tell her the rest, I really do, but I don’t want to put her in that position, but maybe if I tell her, she can help break it to Ella.
The knocking on the door makes me panic, and look back at Caroline as we stand in the bathroom, looking at one another. “Sadie, open the damn door.” I hear Ro call out and Caroline smiles, looking over at me. Stepping over to the door, I unlock it, and before I can even get even start turning the handle the door is shoving me backwards.
“Did you tell her?” He asks as he pushes his way into the room without even looking to see that Caroline is there as well. I don’t need to ask him to know who he’s talking about.
“No.” I scrunch my nose as I look back over at him and he laughs, shaking his head. “Seriously, how am I supposed to tell her.” I pause, knowing that I was just getting ready to confess it to Caroline before he knocked on the door, it just manages to make it a little bit easier. “LikeHey Ella, it’s been 6 years, but I just wanted to let you know that you have a sibling… and I know that cause he’s my kid.”
Her gasp finally has him looking over and seeing her standing here. “What?” She asks, I can’t even look over at her.
“Shit, Care, I didn’t even realize that you were in here.”
“Yeah,” I let out an awkward laugh, causing him to drop whatever else he’s going to say to her. “That’s why I was there when you saw me leaving his house. I had finally gotten the courage to tell him. I was scared to death driving out there, because how would he take that. I mean shit, he was a man, who was almost 50, what would his reaction be?”
“What did he say?”
“I ended up seeing those fucking pamphlets and realized what was happening.”
“Oh shit.” She mumbles as I feel Ro reach over placing his hand on my back. “You didn’t tell him?”
Shaking my head, I look down and shrug. “How could I have put that on him? It’s not like he had a fucking choice in anything, and it would just be another thing for him to come to terms with before he died about life not being fucking fair for him.”
She just nods her head before she steps into me and pulls me to her, hugging me. “I’m sorry.” I can hear the emotions behind her voice. “The drugs.” She asks me and I nod my head.
“That’s not entirely true.” Ro whispers, “She won’t admit it, because she blames herself for everything,” He glares at me, “she ended up at the Marauders clubhouse, where they drugged her until she was addicted.”
“Are you fucking kidding me.” Care shouts. “After what—” Both Ro and I motion for her to keep it down. This time when she speaks her words are much quieter. “After what they fucking did to you? I can’t fucking believe them. Those fucking…” She trails and I’m not sure if she just can’t think of what to call them.
“Yeah…” My thoughts trails before I can add to it. Until I take a deep breath. “Yeah, I saw him a couple days ago for the first time. I’m working on getting him back.”
“Where is he?” She asks, glancing over at Ro so quickly that if I wasn’t paying attention, I would have missed it.
“He’s with her parents.” He answers for me, and she sighs with relief for a moment before he shakes his head. “It’s not ideal, or probably even good for him. I was with her mom for a total of 5 minutes and wanted to hit her.”
“Ro!” Care says in a shocked whisper to him, and he shrugs.
The door pushes open, and I hear, “This may the weirdest thing I’ve ever walked into.” Ash voice comes through before Ro pulls him in and shuts the door behind him. “What the fuck is going on in here? All I could hear was Caroline shout and then muffled whispers.” He doesn’t say it frustrated, but generally confused.
“Um…” I start hesitating until Care looks at me and shakes her head.
“Babe, do you remember when I told you not to ask questions that are going to make me have to lie to you?”
