It All Started With a Diary

talk

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"Love is not love until love's vulnerable." – Theodore Roethke
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Chapter 73
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Neither one of us moved. We didn't speak. The silence was deafening as it stretched on.

Finally, I made the first move. With a cautious figure, I turned toward Kade. His focus were on the letters, face blank and motionless. Shit.

"Kade," I started, stepping toward him. He didn't notice me. All of his attention was on his mother, who looked visibly distraught.

I blinked, and he was gone from his spot. His mother watched him as he approached, but instead, he went for the letters.

He grabbed one, his fingers shaking around the papers as he met his mothers' eyes. He didn't even look down at it once.

"What the," his voice was strained, his jaw ticking back and forth. "What in the fuck are you doing in my room?"

"I-I was cleaning and I saw them in your drawer." She stood, smoothing down her nightgown. Her eyes were glassy as she turned to face him. "Why didn't you tell me that your father was contacting you, Kade?" She reached for another one of the letters. There was a stack of them under her feet. "These letters...they're addressed back years."

Kade scoffed. "Because it was none of your business, just like I'm not. My shit in my room is not, either." He ripped one of the letters until it was no longer decipherable.

"You're in my house," she dared to say with a trembling voice. "Kade...we have to stop this. I know that I haven't been the best mother, alright? I know that and I have lived with it, but I'm tired, okay? I'm so tired of walking on eggshells—"

"The best?" Kade released a humorless laugh. "You're not even a goddamn mother, in general."

Her eyes glistened as she blinked hard. "Kade—" her hand went out to touch him, but he quickly rejected it.

Disgust smothered his expression. "Don't fucking touch me. Don't ever lay a fucking hand on me. You're the reason for it all. You're just too fucking selfish to realize it. You're the reason my brother is dead. You."

Susie was hanging on by a thread. I wanted to say something out of sympathy, but it wasn't my place. Maybe both of them needed to hear this. For now, I would observe, and only step in if it gets too far out of hand.

Her tiny fists clenched on either side of her. She shut her eyes, but when she opened them, they weren't full of sadness or regret. They were dependent on rage, fiery undeniable rage.

Her chest rose and fell before she managed to speak. "Don't you dare, Kade. I have spent years, years proving to myself that that is not true. For as long as I can remember, I have allowed you to disrespect and say all types of things to me because of the guilt, because of my actions but you have no idea. You. Have. No. Fucking. Idea."

Kade strode over to his mother until they were toe to toe. I glanced between the two cautiously.

It was strange to see Susie hold her ground against him, but neither of them were backing down right now. It could either be a good or bad thing. Either way, this was a long time coming.

Kade poked his finger into her chest, his skin shading with color. "Oh, shit, okay. So now you give a fuck? Now you care? Now you actually fight the hell back?" His voice was rising by the minute.