Walker: Surrender

Chapter 23

It's me.
Hi.
Yes, it's October 🤦‍♀️.
No, I didn't mean to go so long without updating.
Life has been crazy.
Again.
My horse tore her chest open last month and then my dog had an infected cyst and I'm still trying to get through my studies.

Anyway, here's another chapter and I'm sorry for the delay.

Hopefully I'll be able to start uploading again regularly in a couple months or so.

~~~~~

Chapter 23

Maddie stared up at the ceiling, too many thoughts whirling around in her mind to be able to sleep. So much had happened in just one day… Rolling back over she looked at her alarm clock, the red neon lights telling her it was nearing four in the morning. She’d been awake all night. She hadn’t been able to get a single wink of sleep.

With everything that had transpired the night before, the bombshell of Rose being her half sister hardly seemed important right now. That would have to wait. What needed to happen first was somehow helping Stella. Cordell hadn’t let her get a word in when they had arrived home, he’d sent both her and August to bed and told them not to come back out of their rooms until morning. She’d tried though, she’d tried twice to tell him that it hadn’t been Stella who had thrown the party but he just hadn’t listened to her.

And it didn’t seem like August would be taking responsibility for his actions anytime soon. 

She was angry with him.

No, not angry.

Furious.

He had terrified her in the truck when he’d gone to hit her. She’d really thought he was going to hit her and if Sasha hadn’t intervened, she knew he would have. Thinking about Sasha, she looked down at her dog curled up on her bed beside her on the floor. Sasha slept peacefully, blissfully unaware of the torment Maddie’s mind was putting her through. If she was honest with herself, Sasha’s response to August had taken her by surprise. She’d never shown any sign of aggression before. She was always such a happy, sweet dog. 

What about her now though?

Yes, she’d been protecting her but a service dog wasn’t allowed to be aggressive.

If August told Cordell what had happened, would he make her get rid of her?

She hoped not.

Besides, if he did, she at least hoped that her father would have the sense to ask why. 

Rolling back over, she cuddled her teddy bear tightly in her arm, the movement prompting Bubbles to begin purring again from the foot of the bed. August had really frightened her. There’d been something in his eyes that reminded her of how Bruce was when he used to get drunk and he’d dish her out a beating. She’d honestly been petrified of him. This August wasn’t the kind, sweet August that she’d known for almost two years. This August was turning into something she didn’t like.

Why though?

What had she done to him to deserve him treating her this way?

Try as she might to come up with an answer to that question, she couldn’t.

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Maddie sat by herself at the island bench in the kitchen, quietly eating her breakfast later that morning. Sometime between four and six she apparently had been able to catch some sleep because she hadn’t heard her grandparents leave. The house was quiet, except for the sounds of Sasha snoring softly beside her wheelchair and as she ate another mouthful of her cereal, she checked her phone again.