Rae of Sunshine (Light in the Dark 1)

And I believed him.

***

“Do you really have to go back?” Lauren cried, hugging her daughter goodbye.

I stood by Cade’s Jeep, feeling like an awkward bystander. Our four day break had been anything but a break. The secrets revealed between Cade and I had been enough to rid me of all energy. And while his mom was nice enough, his dad gave me the creeps, even more so after I saw him hit his own son. The man was just…odd. Even now, he wasn’t present to say goodbye to his kids…and yet, I could see him lurking by the front windows. Watching. Always watching.

“Mom,” Cade groaned, “let her go, we need to leave.”

Lauren released her daughter and leveled her son with a glare. “The University is only thirty minutes away. It’s just silly to leave before you’ve even eaten breakfast.”

Cade looked at me and I saw his eyes flick to the window where his father lurked like a ghost. “I think it’s time for us to leave, don’t you?” He asked his mom.

She sighed, seeming to know what he was talking about.

Could she know that her husband hit her son and let it happen? My God.

She hugged Cade, stretching up on her toes to reach his shoulders. “I love you.”

“Love you too, mom.” He closed his eyes, squeezing her tight.

I turned away and climbed in the vehicle. Thea was already seated in the back.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to get back to campus…man, I never thought I’d say that.” Thea laughed and I heard her rummaging through her purse. A moment later I could hear her chewing on gum. I wondered if Thea knew about her dad hitting Cade. I got the impression that she didn’t. But watching their mom, and the way she now kept looking over her shoulder at the house, she knew. Yep, she definitely knew.

I couldn’t help thinking of a fifteen year old Cade, dealing with the grief of losing his little brother, and having his father smack him around.

And now he was twenty-two and it was still happening.

It was awful—but sadly, stuff like this happened all the time. People either didn’t notice or looked the other way.

I began to think of how painful the last year of my life had been and how Cade had been dealing with this for seven years. I suddenly felt selfish for how I had dealt with things. Yes, what I did was wrong, there was no denying that and I knew it would always haunt me. But there were other people out there suffering, it wasn’t just me. I’d overlooked everyone else’s pain, because I’d selfishly believed that my pain was greater than others—as if suffering was some kind of competition to be won.

Cade slipped into the vehicle and reached over to squeeze my knee. I couldn’t help the small smile that graced my lips in response.

“Ready?” He asked, glancing back at Thea.

“Yep,” she nodded.

“Let’s get out of here,” he sighed, and his words were heavy with meaning.

He looked at the house one last time, and then backed out of the driveway.

Instead of going straight to the dorms the three of us stopped at the diner for breakfast.

Cade sat beside me, his hand resting on my leg where Thea couldn’t see. I felt like this weekend had changed something. There were no more secrets between us. It felt good having him know. I’d thought once he knew he would hate me, or look at me like everyone else did—with disgust and pity—but he didn’t. Cade never ceased to amaze me.

I knew I still had a long way to go until I was healed and ready to truly move on with my life, but I felt like with Cade’s help I was going to get there. It didn’t seem like this insurmountable feat anymore.

Thea stretched out in the booth and looked over at the two of us. She seemed to be trying to figure out exactly what was going on. I knew once we were alone in our dorm I would end up assaulted with a billion questions—none of which I’d have any answers for. I was clueless as to exactly what Cade and I were to each other, and that was fine. I didn’t see the point in rushing things.

Cade looked down at his phone and then at us. “Hey, I got a text from Jace. He’s playing a bar tonight. You want to go?” He looked at me when he asked the question.

“Sure. Sounds good.” I smiled. It was better than staying in the dorm all evening—which was funny since when I arrived on campus my plan had been to lie low all year. So much for that.

“I’m in,” Thea shrugged, taking a sip of water.

The waitress brought our food and my stomach rumbled. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was.