Walker: Surrender

Chapter 26

It was quiet, only the night creatures stirring with a couple crickets off in the distance singing their songs as Maddie sat out at the pasture Monday night, absentmindedly staring off into the distance. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t get those hurtful words August had said to her out of her mind. They played over and over and over… Her hand dangled down off her wheelchair’s armrest, her fingers finding Sasha’s head and she gently played with her dog's fur as she blankly gazed off into the night. 

She knew he had meant what he’d said. He had said every single word with the intent to hurt her, which he had succeeded at. She was cut, deeply. She had never wanted either Stella or August to feel like she was taking their father away from them, that had never been her intention. She knew her place. She knew she was only adopted. She wasn’t as special as either of them to Cordell. They were his blood children, they had to come before her. There’d been times when she’d prompted him to go spend time with them instead of with her. She’d tried, tried so hard not to interfere with their relationship with him and now… Now August had outright said he hated her and wished that Cordell hadn’t adopted her.

What could she do about that though?

She knew he was right.

Because of her cancer everyone had mollycoddled her, she was the first to admit that. She hadn’t asked for it though, in fact, she’d tried her utmost to be as independent as possible so that she wasn’t a burden upon them. She’d pushed them away most of the time when they'd wanted to help her because of her own pride and stubbornness. But yet… Here she was.

After that fight, she hadn’t spoken a word to August since. Every time he came near her she vacated the area as quickly as possible. She didn’t want to be near him, didn’t want to give him anything else to hate her for. He could have his father back. She didn’t want him anyway, not with how he’d been treating her and Stella after that incident. As far as she was concerned, Cordell and August were made for each other. Neither could see the faults in the other. 

What was she to do though?

How was she to fix this? 

‘Maddie-’ Abeline started softly as she slowly came up behind her, the girl looking back at her for a second before she returned her attention to Dakota grazing nearby. ‘I brought you dinner.’

‘I’m not hungry.’ Maddie said with a sigh. 

Sitting down on the mounting block beside Maddie’s wheelchair, Abeline placed the girl's dinner onto her lap. ‘You need to eat and I’m not leaving until you’ve eaten at least half of what is on that plate. It’s your favorite. How can you say no to spaghetti bolognese? I made it especially for you.’

After a moment she took a deep breath, picked up the fork on the plate and began gingerly nibbling away slowly at her meal.

‘You want to tell me what’s wrong?’ Abeline questioned after a short time had passed. ‘You haven’t been yourself the past couple days.’

‘August and I got into a fight Saturday night.’ Maddie finally admitted with another sigh, looking down at her plate. ‘Things were said… I said things, he said things…’ She stabbed a large chunk of cooked mince with her fork then glanced up at her, her eyes moist with unshed tears. ‘August hates me. He really, really, truly hates me.’

‘I’m sure that’s not true-’

‘It is.’ Her hands shook as she placed the plate down on the lower step of the mounting block so she didn’t spill her food on herself. ‘I-I never wanted things to be like this between us.’

Abeline placed her arm around the girl. ‘What happened?’ She questioned softly with concern as she began rubbing her arm, Maddie sitting with her head bowed as she bit at her lip. ‘Do you want to tell me about it?’