A Thin Line Between Love & Hate (Love Conquers All series) ORIGINAL VERSION

Chapter 70: "Burden of Love"

"When you love someone - you'll sacrifice
you'd give it everything you got and you won't think twice
you'd risk it all - no matter what may come
when you love someone."

- When You Love Someone, BRYAN ADAMS

Staying here?

"What?" Elijah exclaimed, confused and...blown away. They couldn't leave Josh here. Their father was unpredictable—and dangerous. "What do you mean he's staying?"

Uriah looked at him then glanced at Brandon's dad who didn't appear surprised at all by Uriah's announcement. What was going on?

"Not just Josh," Uriah told him. "You, too. Go get your backpack."

"What?" Elijah blinked, his head spinning. "What're you talking about? We're leaving, remember?"

"Leaving home," Uriah said. "And you have. But this is as far as you're going."

Josh stared at Uriah in stunned silence, gripping Brandon Nichols' hand.

"What...what's going on, dad?" Brandon asked uncertainly. "How did you know they were coming here?"

Elijah's attention snapped to the younger boy then his father; Cooper Nichols knew they were leaving home tonight and coming here?

The man cleared his throat. "Dan Frampton called me and explained the situation as Uriah had relayed it to him. He said these boys needed a safe place to go and asked if I would be willing to take them in for now." His gaze warmed as he looked at Josh. "I said yes."

Dan?

Brandon seemed as bewildered. "Dan called you? But he's..." Brandon didn't finish, but Elijah understood his confusion; Dan Frampton was hardly gay-friendly. Recalling their conversation earlier that day in the barn, though, Elijah wasn't as shocked as he might have been before.

"You can't judge a book by its cover," Cooper Nicholas said softly to his son. "What people show us outwardly often masks who they truly are inside."

Elijah looked at his older brother; no truer words had ever been spoken.

Brandon nodded. "Yeah," he murmured. "I know." He squeezed Josh's hand as he, too, looked at Uriah. Beside Brandon, James had yet to speak as he stood tensely, as if waiting in fear for a bomb to drop. That fear infected Elijah as well.

"And...you?" Elijah asked Uriah. "You said Josh and I were staying. But you meant all three of us...right?"

Uriah stared at him a moment then averted his eyes. "No."

"What?" Elijah went stiff with tension. "What do you mean? Where are you going?"

Slowly rubbing his mouth, Uriah blinked and mumbled, "Back home."

For a surreal moment, Elijah's vocal cords froze up and he felt caught back up in the nightmare.

James came alive for the first time since they entered the house. "What...you can't go back?" Panic constricted his voice. "After what he did to you—he could kill you. You can't..." The boy swallowed hard as tears filled his eyes. The depth of his feelings for Uriah surfaced on his face. "Why would you go back?"

Josh was shaking, clutching Brandon. His tears formed fresh. "Uriah..." he choked. "No...James is right...how can you even think of going back? Why would you? We got away..." He swallowed unsteadily, and shook his head, tears draining down his face. "You can't go back. You have to stay with us. You have to. He...he told us not to come back."