Forty-Six

Kian

“Yeah well, there’s more,” I told her. “Mom was holding a letter. I had to pull it from her fingers to read it. It was a hand-delivered telegram from the council of elders, telling her that Dad had been killed in action — shot dead by hunters. My old man — my hero — gone. Just like that.” I snapped my fingers. “My life went downhill from there on in. Mrs. B passed away. I killed a man in the Cage, and as a result, they kicked me out of school. Goodbye, scholarship. Lucky for me, the Roughnecks had my back. The rest is history.”

This was me, letting my walls down to show her my vulnerable side, giving her the chance to cut and run while she still had a chance.

“So, then you came to live here,” Gia inquired. “This is going to sound like a stupid question, but do you still miss them?”

My lips curled into a wistful smile. “Sometimes. I guess their ending was poetic, in a fucked-up way. They couldn’t stand to be in the same room as one another for too long, and now they’re entombed to