Imagine Us

Chapter 22: My Sunshine

I couldn't help but furrow my eyebrows at him and smile a little. "Are you sleepy, Caiden?"

He took a big gulp of air and straightened himself up fast. "Nope. I'm awake as fuuuck."

"Mhmm." Totally.

He sighed and folded his arms. "Marcus was a dick...a fucking joke."

"What happened? I softly asked.

"My mother died when I was four of uterus cancer."

I froze. "That's terrible. I'm so sorry."

He stared into space. "What mattered is that she didn't really suffer. It was quick. After that, I guess you could say Marcus didn't take her death very well - he didn't accept it. It drove him mad."

"But he had you." I looked at him with sad eyes.

He looked at me and returned the expression. "An infant son is a pretty poor substitute for a lover." I sighed sadly. It's tragic that he thinks that. He looked away again. "He became abusive and an alcoholic." Marcus?! These were the origins of a multi-millionaire? "So, yeah, it was just him and I for three whole years. He got worse of course until I was seven and I remember he um, he got so angry one night, he threw about five beer bottles at me. He missed since he was so drunk but they all hit the wall behind me and they all shattered onto me, every piece cutting me anyway." He scoffs as if he saw this memory as disgusting rather than disheartening. "I ran away like a coward."

I gasped. "You were seven."

He leaned forward. "I should have beat the fuck out of him." He said through gritted teeth. Strange enough, I completely understood where he was coming from. "I should have killed him."

I leaned forward and looked at him while he stared into space. I spoke quietly. "You would have regretted it."

"I regret not doing anything. I regret not taking revenge. He lived the best life he could possibly have." I could see he was getting angrier the more he talked about.

I sighed. "Hey, Caiden." I gently placed my hand on his shoulder. He looked at me and sighed, calming down a little. "From my perspective, it all makes sense now."

I removed my hand.

He scoffs. "What do you mean?"

"Karma's a real thing. I even wondered myself if Marcus did anything to deserve something like that." He looked at me, confused. "Call me superstitious but I think if someone does something bad, it doesn't necessarily mean they get the consequences directly. It can fall onto their loved ones which in my opinion, is so much worse." Caiden and I maintained our eye contact. "His mother suffered from uterus cancer for five long years." Caiden looked away. "That's why I said it all started to make sense from my perspective. Now I'm not saying that that should make you happy because it's terrible for everyone but I'm saying that sometimes, justice needs to be done by someone greater than yourself and you need to know that someone does know how you feel and that they know it wasn't fair for you."

...

I began to cry.

I didn't really know why but I just couldn't help it.

He looked at me. "Why are you crying?"

I looked down. "I don't know. I'm just so sorry."

This was really embarrassing but I had no idea what to do and I couldn't help it.

Next thing I knew, I was softly pulled by an arm who let me rest my head on his shoulder. His arm wrapped around me like a heavy blanket. It was so comforting and it felt so strange. I've never felt this before in my life.