Undercover

6. Matters of the Heart

Ingrid was getting back to her normal routine, and while she never told me anything, I could swear that sometimes I heard her cry. Especially at night, when she thought everyone was asleep. It wasn't like in the movies when they cry themselves to sleep. I think it was more that at night she would have some kind of dream and it would remind her of it or something. I knew that she hated being in that kind of situation. But sometimes, there was nothing she could do.

When I couldn't take it anymore, I would get out of my room and go into hers. More often than not, I found her awake hugging a pillow to her chest. It broke my heart to see her like that, but it was something that only time could heal. There were no talks of boys or anything like that. When I went over though, all I ever did was hold her. Eventually she would sleep and then I would dose off too. By the time I woke up, Ingrid was already gone.

Cayden still had no idea of what was going on with her. Sometimes he asked me about it, but I couldn't really tell him. After all, it wasn't his problem to deal with. He couldn't do anything to help her feel better.

"Nat, are you sure she's okay?" he asked me, for what seemed like the five hundredth time.

"She's fine, Cayden. Even if she isn't, there's nothing you can do about it. You can't pretend like you can fix her problems. You can't fix her. The only one who can do that is her. And she's fine right now." I told him.

"How are you doing, Nat? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Cayden."

"Look, about the other day. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean it. I don't know why the hell those words came out of my mouth, but none of it is true. The reason I'm still here is because I need to help you and Ingrid. More you than Ingrid since she's already an adult, but you're still a child. And I'm doing all of this because of you. for you. I'm so sorry that I hurt you in the way that I did, but I swear that I didn't mean it. I didn't mean any of it."

"Don't worry about it, Cayden. It's fine. I understand."

"You do spend a lot of time with Nathan though."

I threw my pillow at him. "Talking about that...I'm going to go spend the rest of the day with him. So just call me if you need me or anything. Dinner has been made. It's in the fridge. And I've cleaned all around. I even cleaned under your bed and you know that not even Ingrid touches that place. I understand why now."

I gave him a kiss and then left towards next door. Neither of the cars was there so I just assumed that no one was home, but I knocked on the door just to confirm. There was no response. I guess I wasn't going to spend the rest of the day with Nathan. Cayden would laugh in my face and then throw another pillow at me. As I was about to leave, there was a car coming into the driveway. I knew it was Nathan. I walked over to him and gasped as soon as he had come out of the car.

"Nathan, what happened to your face? I mean, not that there's anything wrong with it or anything but there shouldn't be any bruises looking like that on your face on a regular basis."

He chuckled a little bit. "Don't worry about it, Nali. It's alright. It's not as bad as it seems."

"Not as bad as it seems? Your whole right side is basically one big, black bruise. How is that not as bad as it seems?"

I grabbed his arm and then walked straight towards his door. He needed to get that helped with something. I heard that putting raw meat on his face was good, but raw meat is never a good thing. That's the reason why food poisoning happens in the first place.

He unlocked the door and we came in. I sat him down on one of the stools that were in the kitchen. I went to get some ice and a towel to wrap the ice in so that I could place it on the bruise.