Chapter 311: Memories bring back Memories
Kayden
"I don’t want you to be here!"
I heard Rhys shout angrily at whosoever was standing at the front door. The aggression in his voice made me freeze in the middle of the hallway. I stood there wondering what could possibly be happening, who was at the door, and why it was taking so long for him to return to the living room. Out of pure curiosity, I decided to walk over and check for myself.
My eyes widened the exact second I rounded the corner and saw who was standing on our doorstep.
Linda.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I demanded, my voice instantly dropping into a harsh tone as I moved closer, stepping up to stand just behind Rhys’s protective frame.
"She was just leaving," Rhys responded immediately, his broad shoulders shifting as he completely blocked her line of sight to me. "There is absolutely no reason for her to be here," he stated firmly.
A deep, bitter frown formed on my face as I looked past Rhys at Linda’s shaking figure. She looked smaller than I remembered, her hands clutching her designer purse so tightly her knuckles were white. I knew deep down that she wasn’t here because of me. She must have finally missed her dear, precious son and came to drag him back home, because why else would she ever grace my doorstep?
"Please leave, Linda," I told her, crossing my arms over my chest to hide the slight trembling in my fingers. "There is no reason for you to be here. And if you are here to see Raymond, you should know he doesn’t want to see your face at all."
Linda heaved a deep, ragged sigh, and then she shook her head slowly. "I am not here for Raymond, Kayden. I came entirely for you," she responded immediately.
I clenched my fists tightly at my sides, my nails biting into my palms as the memories of our very last encounter came rushing back into my mind. I remembered exactly how she had treated me, how she spoke to me, and how she had purposely made me feel so insecure about myself and my place in this world.
"Is everything alright out here?" Raymond’s voice suddenly sounded behind us.
He walked down the hallway, but the moment he reached the foyer and saw who was standing past the threshold, he let out a loud gasp of pure shock. "Mother? What the hell are you doing here? If you are here for me, then you should know right now that I am not going anywhere with you no matter what you do. I am going to remain right here and be with my brothers."
Linda looked at Raymond, a flash of pain crossing her face, but she quickly looked back at me. "I am not here because of you, Raymond. I came here solely because of Kayden."
"Not happening," Rhys cut her off immediately, his alpha presence flaring slightly as he took a half-step forward. "There is no way in hell I am letting you be alone with him, so whatever twisted games you have in your head right now, you can drop them immediately," he warned.
"But... I came because I want to see him, and it’s concerning his father," Linda pleaded, her voice cracking as she stepped closer to the screen door.
My eyes widened at the sudden mention of my father. I felt my entire body stiffen, the blood freezing in my veins as the word echoed in the quiet hallway.
What the hell is happening now? Why the hell was she calling me regarding that man? Just what the hell did she want from me after all this time?
"Please, Rhys," Linda whispered, looking at him with tears pooling in her eyes. "Kelvin is probably not going to make it through the night. The doctors said his organs are failing, and the absolute last thing he asked for was to see Kayden one last time."
My heart jumped violently against my ribs at her words.
He might not make it through the night.
The sentence repeated in my head, dragging up a dark, suffocating sea of memories. I remembered all those agonizing nights from my childhood, those horrific moments when I would lay awake in my bed, bruised and bleeding, praying and wishing with everything inside me that my father would just drop dead so the pain would stop.
Every single night he hit me, I wished for this exact moment.
Now that it was finally happening, I should have been ecstatic. I should have been jumping for joy because, after all, the monstrous man I hated more than anything in this world was finally going to die. But I didn’t feel happy at all. Instead, all I could feel was the pain he had made me go through, the violent memories of his hands on me, and the deep, heavy weight of how he had made me feel completely inferior and worthless all my life.
Just thinking about the terror of my past made a sudden, sickening wave of bile rise rapidly in my throat. I wanted to throw up so badly. Unable to keep the sickness down, I spun on my heel, entirely ignoring their shouting voices behind me as I rushed toward the hallway washroom.
I slammed the door open, fell to my knees in front of the toilet, and threw everything out of my stomach.
My chest heaving violently as the raw panic and shock tore through my system. I retched until my stomach was completely empty, the physical sickness matching the utter chaos spinning inside my head.
Slowly, I pulled myself up and stumbled over to the sink. I turned on the cold water, rinsing my mouth out before splashing the freezing liquid directly over my face. As I turned off the sink and stared at myself in the mirror, I noticed that my face had turned entirely red, my eyes bloodshot and wide with a lingering terror.