Easton |Complete|

[32] I love you

"Please don't hate me" Amara says softly as I sit my bag down on the large king-size bed. 

"I don't hate you, I don't hate any of you, I just wish I had of known the truth." 

"Can I ask you something?" she questions

"Sure." I shrug as I begin pulling my things from my bag

"If you had known about us from the beginning, would you have chosen to be our friend? Would you still have fallen in love with my brother?"

"No." I say truthfully "If I had of known about your family before I wouldn't have chosen to have you as my friends, and I would have never allowed myself to fall in love with your brother"

"Is this the end for the two of you?" 

"No." I shake my head "Because I'm already in love with him and I can't just turn that off, no matter who he is." 

There is a soft knock at the door and I turn to see Easton standing there. "May I come in?" 

"I was just leaving." Amara stands up and leaves the room 

"Is this your room?" I ask Easton 

"No." he shakes his head "This is the spare room, my room is right across the hall." 

"Good." I nod 

"Thank you for staying" 

"Why did everyone get told except me?" I sigh softly and look at the ground "Did you not trust me?" 

"I trust you, if I didn't I wouldn't be telling you right now, life in danger or not." He sighs and places his hand on my cheek forcing me to look at him. "I wanted to tell you, I wanted to tell you from the start but I allowed others to influence my decision and that was the first time I tried to push you away." He tucks my hair behind my ear

"It wasn't my idea to tell Angie and Damon either, that was on Charlie and Grandad, they wanted Angie to know the truth to allow us to pay for Claire's funeral, and to get them to stay in town, and Damon was hell-bent on getting revenge over her death that Grandad allowed him to join in the fight."

"And Caleb?"

"Caleb has always known about me, he and I weren't on the best of terms even before we were caught up in the fight for you."

"That's why he told me to stay away from you and told me you're not good for me." 

"He isn't wrong I suppose." He sighs "I'm sorry Aubrey if I could change who I am and what family I belong to I would just to keep you by my side, but I can't and I can't turn my back on my family." 

"I would never ask you to nor would I ever want you to do that." I take a deep breath and sit down on the edge of the bed. "My mother always taught me to take people for how they treat you. If they're kind to you, it shouldn't matter what anyone else has to say about them, you can only take people as they are to you." I look up at him from my spot "You and your family have always been kind to me, you've never given me a reason to think you're going to hurt me, and that's all I take you for." 

"What are you saying?" He asks as he sits down next to me 

"I don't hate you. Yes, I'm mad and I'm upset and It's going to take me a while before I can trust you again, but I don't hate you." 

"You're going to stay and let me protect you?" 

"I don't have much of a choice, but yes." I nod softly

He places his hand on top of mine and presses a kiss to my temple "I promise as soon as all of this is over everything will go back to normal." 

"Will it ever be normal again?"