Chapter 15

Emily just looked at the man that she loved more than anything. She felt like she had been punched in the face and kicked in the gut at the same time. She thought that she knew everything about Mark but here he was telling her that he still had secrets and didn’t trust her enough to tell her. This and the situation with Kat were just too much for her to handle. She turned around and ran out, tears pouring down her face. She didn’t remember leaving the hospital. She didn’t know where she was driving, she was just driving. Eventually, she felt really tired so she checked into some cheap motel. That night she kept tossing and turning, her life going through her head.

Her parents were never pleased with her when she was younger for, she was never good enough for them or she was interfering with their lives. Sometimes they would leave her for days at a time, home alone, as they went to their various social events. They couldn’t even be bothered to hire a sitter for her or even to make sure that she had enough food. Then there was her first fiancé. Smart, funny, strong, and caring; Emily had loved him with every fiber of her being. Then just six weeks before they were to go back home and be married, he was killed by a sniper. There were all her friends that she had turned her back on when she got back home. They would always be trying to fix her up with some of their single friends. They didn’t care what had happened to her. Her parents were glad that her fiancé had been killed and they tried to fix her up with “proper men”. Then she had met Mark. A man that took her breath away and amazed her at every turn. He was loyal to a fault to those who he held dear. She did not doubt that he would die to protect her from harm. With him came his deeply disturbing daughter. She had a talent for getting into people’s heads and didn’t hesitate to use it. She was extremely smart, but unlike other brainiacs that Emily had met, Kat could hide it completely. To meet her, you would think that she was just a normal teen. Problem was that Kat was about as far from a normal teen as you could get. She was wise far beyond her years, she was smart, and she could be very cold toward other people. She did share some things with her dad. She cared deeply for the people that were close to her and she never lost her cool as showed when she calmly shot Adam as he was about to finish Mark off. She had snapped Emily out of her paralysis and that enabled her to stop Mark’s bleeding and keep him stable. Then Kat walked out on her at the police station.

The image that she couldn’t get out of her head though was her flying across the bed and landing on the floor. The look on Adam’s face couldn’t be described as human as he was about to kill Mark. Then the blood flowing out of his mouth as Kat calmly shot him from behind. Emily knew that if it hadn’t been for Kat, Mark would have been killed, and then she would have most likely have been brutally raped and killed. She knew that she owed Kat her life. Problem was, could Emily accept Mark and Kat keeping some secrets from her. She wished that her parents were closer to her. This defiantly wasn’t a question that she was comfortable asking Cindy.

The next morning, Emily didn’t feel any better. She checked out and continued to drive. Eventually, she ended up at the cemetery where Mark’s family was buried. Emily got out of her car and started walking. Eventually, she stopped, she was standing in front of the grave of Mark’s sister. Emily just stood there, for hours she stood there just looking at the stone. Eventually, an icy cold wind blew in. This surprised Emily for it had been a warm day. Through the wind, she thought that she could hear voices. The voices at first seemed to be arguing. Eventually, they turned to her and a man’s voice came through. This voice sent, even more, chills down Emily’s spine. It had been years since she had heard this voice.

“Hiya Blondie” That was how her first fiancé had always greeted her. “You think that you’re going to find the answers here, do you? Well, you won’t. Everyone who looks at you and Mark knows that you two are meant for each other. I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it myself but he loves you even more than I did and I loved you completely. Does he have secrets, of course, and yes, I know what they are. I won’t tell you what they are but I will tell you that you are much better off not knowing them for you would be having the worst nightmares imaginable for the rest of your life. He keeps these secrets from you not because he doesn’t trust you, he keeps them from you to protect you from his demons.”