I Don't Deserve Love: Alternate Ending

Chapter 63: Auntie's POV

"Still nothing," I said out loud with a sigh as I slipped my phone back into my pocket. I had been hoping that Opal would text me some pictures during the day, but this morning she seemed so tired that I didn't want to force her to take pictures if she didn't want to.

I pushed the vacuum over the carpet absently as I thought back to how closed off Opal had seemed this morning. My heart ached for her last night when Aaron pulled a complete douche move and tried to tell me that she should go back to him if I couldn't raise her properly. Anger had rushed through me and I had actually been a little surprised at how defensive I was during our argument. I knew that Opal was Aaron's daughter... but for the past eight months that she had lived here I had watched her blossom into a confident and caring young woman. The thought of her being snatched away from me caused me physical pain.

A crashing knock ripped me from my train of thought and I turned toward the door with a frown. The knock didn't let up though so I quickly made my way over and opened it. Shock and confusion washed over me as Castiel practically fell into the apartment. His breathing was labored as if he had just run here, and when he looked up his steel grey eyes looked panicked.

"Is Opal here?" he gasped out. 

A strange sensation of the floor being ripped out from under my feet gripped me and I shook my head, trying to reorient myself and remain calm.

"N-no, she's not. I thought she was with you..." I said, and I could hear the shake in my voice. Castiel straightened and I was shocked when his gaze turned hard as he glared down at me.

"Did you know?" he snarled angrily and I blinked in confusion.

"Know...?" I repeated. 

His eyes softened slightly and then hardened again. He took a step closer to me and even though he cut an intimidating figure I couldn't help but feel like if I reached out and touched him he would shatter.

"Did you know that Opal's dad hit her?"

Time seemed to stop. Castiel's question repeated over and over in my mind and the feeling of the floor dropping out from under me intensified.

"Aaron? Hit Opal? That's absurd. No father could..."

My voice sounded far away as my mind traveled back to the first time I met my precious niece. I had noticed a bruise on her arm and when I hugged her she flinched away from me like she had never been hugged before and didn't know what to do. Then my mind jumped to when she had called and asked if she could live with me.

I can't live with one without the other. I can't... She hadn't said she didn't want to choose. She had said she COULDN'T live without...

"Did... did Opal say..." 

My voice was shaking like crazy as I tried to process everything that had ever seemed a little off about Opal. Castiel shook his head and a brief moment of relief flooded through me until his expression darkened.

"I wanted to ask her to be my girlfriend, but she said she couldn't date anyone," Castiel explained with a growl in his voice and I blinked in shock. "I kept bugging her and asking why she wouldn't date anyone and she said it was because 'he' would hurt me."

Castiel met my eyes steadily with his dark ones and my throat clenched painfully, cutting off any attempt I could have made to speak. Silence stretched between us and a cold breeze blew in from the semi-opened door behind Castiel.

"Unless you know of another 'he' in Opal's life, I can only assume that it's her dad. And if she was so convinced that his threat was serious that she would run away from me instead of telling me what she is hiding, then it seems obvious that she has first-hand experience of being hurt by him."