Quitter [ERIC/JAI]

10

I tapped on the door three times, noticing the sign on the front explaining who lives or lived in this apartment. The only two living there now were my father and Samuel, my brother. I just prayed my brother opened the door.

Stepping back a little, I held Callan softly. He was supporting me through this. He was the one who helped me to do this finally.

The door handle clicked and twisted toward the floor and the door opened a little bit. It sounded as though the person on the other side had to move to open the door then all was revealed.

The door opened.

There my dad was sat in a wheelchair.

A wheelchair.

"Can I help y-," He looked up at my face. "Cassia?" He practically choked when he saw me. "Come in." He invited.

"I'm really just here to see Sam." I inform and he sighs.

"Please, just come in. I'll get Sam and you can sit for a while. You look like you've been through the wars." He rolls away into the apartment in his wheelchair.

I strolled in behind and Callan came behind me, shutting the door. "Sit, sit, I'll go get him- he's probably working in his room." I nodded at my distant father.

Callan and I sat on one of the two sofas in the room.

"You didn't say he was in a wheelchair." Callan whispered lightly.

"I didn't even know." I furrow my eyebrows in confusion.

Moments later my father came back and went straight into the kitchen, I heard small steps coming downstairs and saw the first glimpse of my brother in two years.

As soon as he saw me, he dropped the book he was reading about being truthful and ran to me. I got up from my seat and hugged him tightly.

"Oh my god Cassia. I've missed you so damn much." He whispers while patting tge top of my head.

"I've missed you so much too." I replied.

"Wow um, what happened here?" He waved over my face.

"I grew up Sam. I became the real me." I inform and smile lightly. Sam sat down on the opposite sofa then, followed by me sitting back down.

"So, I guess you're out of leadership and all- being divergent." Sam suggests and I furrow my brows.

"How did you know?" I question him.

"I know things, Cass." He mentions and I just nod, knowing not to step in any further to what seemed complicated. It then made me think if Sam was divergent and if it ran in our families blood. Was my dad divergent?

"Sam. What happened to Dad?" I ask him yet another question.

"He took a bad fall one night, got knocked out and lost the circulation to both legs. They gave him to option to have them paralysed so he could walk on prosthetics but he refused. He also has a growing tumor that Erudite said is unfixable so- Dad is also slowly dying." Samuel sighs and sits back in his seat just as father came rolling in.

"Where's the boyfriend? The one who tried to knock me out like two years ago?" Father asks me.

I go all sheepish and Callan notices.

"He hurt her." Callan pauses. "He dragged her along as if he loved her but-" I cut Callan off there.

"He did love me." I murmur under my breath and everyone now looks at me. "And I know he still loves me. He has to protect himself from Jeanine. If Jeanine finds out I'm divergent she'll kill both me and Eric. That's why I shook my head to him at the top of the stairs when I left him- I needed him to have a sign that that enough was enough." I explain to my father, brother and best friend.

"Cass.." Callan starts but I shake my head.

"I think I'm done here." I stand and say my exiting words. I was done here. Tomorrow was the be my trail- alongside Four and Tris.

Tomorrow would be the day we told the truth- the fay where Jeanine couldn't slip through. But I knew that tomorrow would just bring me more heartache.

More pain.