Taken By The Bad Boy

43 That's A Promise

                +Liam's POV+

       I walk out as Raleigh's parents walk in with Randy, giving me weird looks but I ignore them and walk to the cafeteria where the rest of her family is. I notice Ethan eating next to Tillie and how his arm is wrapped around her shoulder and how she leans into him. Glad they are happy. Across from them is Aiden in between the twins. Didn't take him long to find some lady friends.

       "Hey, guys." I say as I walk over and Zoey and Zaya give me dirty looks but Tillie offers me a small smile, which shocks me. Aiden just nods to me and so does Ethan.

        "So Aiden, when do you want to get going?" I ask him as I pull up a chair to the end.

      "You're leaving?!" Ethan yells and I nod my head. Why wouldn't I? Aiden and I were here for a reason and finding Raleigh was just a coincidence.

        "Yeah, we have things that we have to do." Aiden mutters, seeming annoyed but I get it. He doesn't want to see Cassandra and why wouldn't he? She completely destroyed him.

"What's more important than staying with your family?!" Zoey yells at us, standing up.

"Protecting them!" Aiden yells back at her, also standing up.

"Fuck protection!"

"That's what she said." I hear Zaya mutter under her breath and snap my head to her.

"What did you just say?" I ask her, not believing what my ears heard.

      "She's been watching a lot of 'The Office', ignore her." Zoey explains with a sigh and a bit of annoyance. Ah; that explains it.

"Anyways, Aiden and I have to go. It was nice seeing all of you. Definitely like a breath of fresh air. Maybe our paths will cross once again." I say as I start getting up to walk away but someone grabs my arm and pulls me back into my seat.

"Neither of you idiots are going anywhere until you tell us what the hell is going on and what happened, where you're going, where you've been and what the hell happened?! Because all you've said is that you left to protect us and that you have to leave to protect us again! I am calling bullshit! So get talking before I shove this spoon down your throat!" Zoey yells at me, holding up her wooden spoon (something about saving the turtles). I sigh and look at Aiden; who nods his head. I know Randy will want to know and Raleigh doesn't know everything yet, but maybe someday she will.

"Well as you know Ria came ruined our lives and whatnot but Raleigh and I-" I start to explain but Ethan interrupts me.

"We already know what happened with all that, get to the part where you faked your death and started your life as Isaac."

"Alright, alright." I mutter before I take a deep breath and get ready. There's a lot that I haven't talked about and so I have to prepare myself emotionally and mentally for all the things that are about to come out of my mouth.

        "I left because I didn't have my life together, I thought leaving was the best choice. I knew I had to figure things out and work on myself before I could be with her and that's the only solution I saw to that. I had to walk away from everything to see who I was without everyone interfering. Was it selfish? Yes. Do I regret it? No because I learned who I was. I decided to do some soul searching and Aiden found me. He told me about the connections he had and I decided to take a leap of faith and go. But what neither of us realized is once you get in, you can't get out. We do the dirty work for them. Tha-thats why we are here in the first place." I whisper the last part, hoping no one hears me but I know by the way everyone is looking at me, they are holding onto every word I say.