Born To Bleed - KTH FF (BOOK III)

-TWENTY THREE-

Moving the puzzle he'd been playing with, I expected her to take him back to the nursery, but instead she laid him on his stomach in the center of our bed. Resting her hand on his back as she lay beside him, I realized that she didn't have her wedding ring on. How long hadn't she had it on? It had to be since she came back, I couldn't remember seeing her wearing it.

"What happened to your ring?" I whispered from the edge of the bed, watching them both.

She didn't look up at me, instead she stared at Eunwoo as she answered. "My mother took it. I'm not sure what happened after that."

Mother?

Since when did she start calling that psychotic bitch mother? Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my phone and sent a quick text to Eunha. I knew what ring I wanted to her to have.

"They may not have it," Eunha texted back.

"Offer double...triple, I don't care. Money talks, Eunha."

Placing the phone on the bedside table, I crawled onto the bed, to the other side of Eunwoo. He sighed as I did, and his fist moved, as it tried to find a way into his mouth.

God, it felt good to rest in our bed again.

"Why do you believe my disappearance was your fault?" she asked as her eyes met mine over Eunwoo's head.

"Y/N—"

"Stop," she whispered. And because she had some sick supernatural control over me, I stopped. I couldn't face her, so instead, I chose instead to stare at Eunwoo.

"I hate it when you call me, Y/N rather than love," she said softly. "It hurts. It hurts when you pull away from me. Everything you said before, it hurt me. I hate you for saying them, and I hate myself for caring. I hate more than anything that I...that it's so hard for me to say how much I love you."

Damn it, woman.

Looking up, I was transfixed. I didn't know what to say.

"Why are you saying all of this?" This wasn't like her at all.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I feel comfortable. I finally have you both; this is all I really need. Plus I may have had three or four glasses of red wine."

"You've always had us, Y/N. I can't fathom why you don't know that." It's like she didn't get that she wasn't alone anymore.

"I had a dog once," she said, as she shifted onto her back. "His name was Rufus, which was ridiculous seeing as though he was all white and Rufus means red in Latin—"

Was she rambling? Did the Kim Y/N ever ramble?

"My father never let me out much. I didn't have friends, and Rufus was all I had. I told him everything and he was always there. One morning around Christmas time, I wanted to go ice skating and ran outside. Rufus ran ahead of me and just pounced on the ice." She paused, and her lips pressed together before they opened again. "He fell through and it was only because he was ahead of me that I didn't make it on to the ice. Hyunbin wasn't going to risk anyone's life for a mutt. Rufus finally made it out on his own after what felt like hours. He was shaking, and no matter how many blankets I put on him, or how much I tried to warm him up, he didn't get any better. Hyunbin wasn't going to pass up this moment to teach me another lesson. He brought us both outside and handed me a gun.