The Dividing Line: ABSOLUTION #COMPLETED (Book 3)

34 ѱ WHERE IS SHE (BWWM)

(Thursday, 08/08/2019 4:41 am)

"Cole... Cole..."

He lifted his head from his hands as he repeatedly blinked to banish the haze from his eyes. Praying she had finally made up her mind to come home, his heart leaped at the relief of having his soulmate right where she belonged. Yes, it was truly selfish of him to crave that she would come back to him, but Cole had concluded that his life meant nothing without his Angel.

Even though they were only apart for a very short period, his heart insisted any amount of time was too long.

How was it possible that this was his truth? Once, he believed absolutely that white people should never mix with any other race. He believed it so desperately that he was willing to kill those who opposed his beliefs.

Beliefs were strange things men bent to match their desires and will. But, even if these beliefs were one thousand percent wrong, Cole had finally lived long enough to witness how a man's thoughts corrupted to match his ideas were dangerous. So, likewise, insisting that people live a life of hate and violence against others wasn't just wrong. It was deadly.

Life experienced with Angel diminished the lies that Cole and others spent so much time sowing into the hearts and minds of the clan—starting with their babies. That was why their ideas became so profound and strongly grasped the minds of those who came behind them. They welded fear and lies into a double-edged sword to sear the minds of those who believed them and scare the hell out of those who did not.

The lies his uncle taught him were so strong that for decades, the man was able to brainwash even himself with lies that he insisted were, in fact, the truth. Cole would still be held as a mental captive of those beliefs if his folks hadn't exposed him to a reality previously foreign to his life and existence.

When his own took it upon themselves to end his life, all the lies he'd lived his entire life slammed him in the face most shockingly and horrifyingly conceivable. To learn that all the promises his uncle made regarding the bond white people shared were nothing more than a pack of skillfully constructed lies, his life never once felt the weight of that lack of truth until his people tried to take his life.

Bruce wasn't alone when he attempted to take Cole's life. They were all white men who came together to kill their brother for what? Money? Power? Bragging rights? In the end, the lie of white families standing shoulder to shoulder protecting their way of life for the white race was nothing more than a hot, stinky pile of horse shit. He never offended any of the men who came for his life. On the contrary, they showed their loyalty to the cause and the fortification of the white race by attempting to take the life of someone who never gave them a reason to do so. Their actions screamed just how unimportant his 'white life' was to other white men whose greed drove them to sacrifice a brother's blood whenever it was beneficial for them to do so.

When the sober truth revealed itself to him, he already had never experienced real love from any person other than his mother and maybe Jedidiah. Not one of the white women he carelessly ran through in the past could touch the vulnerable place in his heart reserved for real love. Because he had no evidence of real love, Cole had no understanding of the power of a broken heart. He always believed himself to be a brutal emotionless beast who thrived on the void he closely embraced in the center of his being.

To say he hadn't previously relished the adrenaline rush when someone cringed away from him in sheer terror would be a flat-out lie. In truth, as he picked up on the scent of fear seeping from their pores, Cole often escalated. At first, he wanted to scare them. But when they cowered away from him, like a junkie craving a fix, he got off on the rush of instilling fear in others every time his fist made contact with another person's flesh.