His Dangerous Ways✔️

Chap. 37 Phone Calls Home

River's POV

Tonight's the night. The night I'm supposed to get my Caterina back. The night I am going to get my Caterina back. My heart skipped a beat at the very thought.

I finished tying my tie as I stared myself down in the mirror. I'd changed, both mentally and physically. I'd visually become more hardened. The light had disappeared from my eyes and had been replaced with a soulless blackness. Cat could get it back though. I'd lost a considerable amount of weight considering how I hadn't eaten much since Caterina was taken. My mind was constantly racing and 99% of my thoughts consisted of thoughts of her while the other 1% consisted of fantasies of how I was going to kill everyone in that forsaken place.

I glanced at my phone. I had four hours left. I quickly finished off my tie before I pressed my phone app and dialed. If anything happened to me, they needed to know how much I love them.

I only had to wait two rings before I was greeted by a happy, young voice. "River!" Brooklyn cheered, obviously happy to hear from me.

I smiled. "Hey bud, how are you?"

"Good. Blake broke my action figure yesterday-"

"-I did not!" Blake's voice called from the background and I could imagine Brooklyn sticking out his tongue at his twin brother.

"He totally did, but where have you been? You were supposed to visit us forever ago! We miss you."

"Yeah," Blake chimed in from the background.

"I miss you guys too. Way more than you can imagine," I sighed. I didn't want to leave them. Lord, please don't make me leave them. Or her. I blinked away my tears that were forming. "Hey man, put me on speaker so I can talk to your brother too."

After a few moments, Blake shouted, "Hi Riverdale!" I pulled the phone away from my ear and chuckled.

"Hello, Blaketon," I greeted, using his full name, which he hated me using as much as I hated my full name being used, but I made an exception for them. And my Caterina.

"Where have you been? We miss you! Our parent teacher conferences are coming up and you're supposed to come!"

"Yeah! We want Mrs. Kim to meet our cool brother!" Brooklyn added.

I felt a pang of guilt in my chest, but I swallowed it down. "I'll...I'll try to make it, but if I can't, Maria will take you and I honestly think she's pretty cool."

"She did flip a pancake three times in the air this morning," Blake mused then sighed. "But we miss you, River. When are you coming home?"

"Soon, I promise," I softly said as I will my silent falling tears to stop, but they were to persistent.

"Good," Brooklyn said. "Where's Cat? I wanna talk to her! She's pretty!"

I chuckled though pain filled my chest. Not only was I possibly lying about myself but now I have to lie about her...it broke my heart.

"She, uh, can't talk right now. She's taking care of something."

"Are you taking care of her?" Brooklyn sternly asked.

"Of course I am." I totally let her down.

"Good," Blake said. "Tell her we said hi and give her a hug."

"I definitely will, but I need to tell you guys something before I leave. I...I love you two so much that it kills me not to be there with you. I want to see you two grow up and find the first love of your lives. I want to be there when life pushes you down and be the hand that helps you back up. I want to be the shoulder you cry on and the one you vent to when it feels like life isn't fair. I want to watch you graduate and proudly tell the world that you two are my brothers. I want to watch you change the world, because I know that you will. I want you to live a life a million times better than mine, and do it right. I want to watch you get married and have kids. I just want to be with you two. And it hurts when I'm not. I know I'm rambling but...I just want you two to know how much I love you, okay?" My voice slightly broke at the end, but I quickly cleared my throat in an effort to cover it up. I can't let them hear me break. I refuse to.