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“Will you meet my parents before we head back home?” I pressed.
Surprise washed over him, and I had a feeling that had less to do with me asking him to meet my parents and more to do with the fact that I was telling him I wanted to go home. “Of course, I will.”
With that, Kane and I got up from the floor just as a couple of officers walked into the room. For the next several hours, which was much longer than I had hoped everything was going to take, Kane was by my side as I answered questions and explained all that I could about what happened to Ivan Moreno.
He was still by my side when we exited the house I’d spent the last eight years of my life and saw my parents standing beside my sister. As soon as Kane and I began making our approach to them, they looked our way. I couldn’t help but notice the strange looks that had washed over their faces, even if I couldn’t read what was in them. Of course, that might have been because there wasn’t a single emotion they were experiencing.
The moment we were close, I could feel the awkward tension between us. My eyes slid to my sister.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
She nodded. “Thank you for what you did for me.”
I would have done it again in a heartbeat for her.
I shifted my attention to my parents. Tears had welled in my mother’s eyes. “Ellery,” she rasped.
“Mom,” I whispered before turning my focus to my father. His attention was directed all on Kane.
At that point, I decided it was best to make introductions.
“Mom, Dad, this is my boyfriend, Kane Ramsey. Kane, this is my dad, Vernon, and my mother, Carla,” I said. “And of course, you already met my sister, Ainsley.”
Kane immediately extended his hand to my father. “It’s nice to meet you, sir.”
My father hesitated for a brief moment before he reached for Kane’s hand. “Likewise. Ainsley told us what you did in there.”
Kane didn’t respond beyond letting go of my father’s hand.
My father wasn’t done. “You put yourself in front of a bullet for her,” he stated, telling us all something we already knew. When he spoke again, I could hear the strain in his voice. “Thank you for doing for her now what I should have done for her a long time ago.”
My belly twisted as my dad’s eyes came to mine. “I never should have allowed you to do what you did all those years ago.”
It was clear this had taken its toll on him, and I didn’t want him feeling any worse about it all than he already did. “It was my choice.”
“You were just a kid,” he argued. “I don’t care that you were nineteen. I shouldn’t have allowed it. There’s no amount of money that was worth your happiness, and I’m sorry I walked you down the aisle to that monster.”
Tears had started spilling down my cheeks just as my mother chimed in. “There isn’t a day that has gone by that we haven’t thought about all the sacrifices you made for this family. The guilt we feel for all that you’ve endured is tremendous. We’re so sorry, Ellery.”
Unable to stop myself, I moved forward and hugged her. My mother’s arms came around me and held on to me tightly.
For all they’d done wrong, I still didn’t doubt the love my parents had for me. I knew that what happened then had broken their hearts as much as it did mine. Maybe they should have done more to protect me at that time, but there was nothing we could do to change it now. It ultimately led me to Kane.
After a few moments, I felt my dad’s hand on the middle of my back. My mother loosened her hold on me, and he didn’t hesitate to take her spot. There was something desperate about the way he held on to me, like he was trying to communicate to me just how sorry he was.
I didn’t doubt the agony he was in for one second, and I had a feeling that no matter what I said to him, he was always going to feel the massive weight of guilt and responsibility for what I went through.
We had all made our choices and had to suffer the consequences of those choices. And it was that thought that had me eventually stepping back from my father and saying, “Well, Kane and I are going to go.”
“Go?” my mom repeated. “Go where?”
I looked over at Kane, saw the love and adoration in his face, and felt something warm move through me. Not taking my eyes off of him, I answered, “Home.”
“But—”
That was all my mom got out before my dad said, “It’s okay, Carla. She needs to do this. Let her go. At least this time we don’t have to be so worried.”
Begrudgingly, I tore my gaze away from Kane, looked over at my father, and offered a smile.
