Fighter {Completed}

Chapter Forty-Nine: Please, Leave {Ellie}

Chapter Forty-Nine: Please, Leave {Ellie}

The next four days pass in a blur. Insurance calls, graveside preparations, outrageous family members calling non-stop, and even allegations that I killed my own mother float about, the rumor of murder brought on by Margret herself, the she-devil in disguise.

Of course it's dismissed, but she continues spewing her accusations to the rest of the family, ones I don't talk to or care for anyways. Saint calls to tell me to block her and ignore it all, that he'd take care of it, and boy...did he...

For someone who claims to be Christian, she sure does a lot of judging, especially to those around me that I hold dear to my heart. I have cut myself off from my mother, including all contact and especially from her side of the family, who seems to all be just as bad. To all others my family has caused pain, I am deeply sorry and hope that you do not associate me with them.

"Wow, a bit dramatic, huh?" Scar grins, reading the small passage from Saint's Facebook over my shoulder. With a chuckle, I nod.

He is his mother's son, after all.

Thank god he only got the few good traits she had.

"Hungry?"

"Starving," Sebastian answers for me, lying across the couch and pulling Taylor down into his lap. She rolls her eyes, leaning into him.

"You just ate."

"So?"

"Pig," Scarlet accuses, throwing a couch pillow at him.

"Where's Asher? I text him but he hasn't answered," Sebastian says, tossing the pillow back to Scarlet. She sighs, sadness crossing her eyes.

"Working."

As I sit with the majority of my friends, a pizza on the way and a movie on the screen, I can't help but miss the one person I truly want to see right now. Cole's been working his ass off these last few days, in the gym from daylight until dark. It's strange not seeing him everyday, and even more strange to have unanswered text messages for longer than a few hours at a time.

Though missing him has my heart feeling like I'm slowly sinking, I still find a way to smile, feeling lighter than ever before.

That is, until a notification tone plays through my phone's speakers.

Keenan. It's gotta be Keenan.

Cole's in the gym for at least another hour or two.

"Let me guess... Fuckface?" Scarlet swears, an instant scowl on her face. I shrug as I make my way to the phone. I expect it to be the normal, like calling me fat or dogging my choice in men, but... my blood runs cold as pictures scroll across the screen.

They're not my pictures, oh no.

Instead, images of the hallway in front of Cole's apartment show, empty at first, gray and grainy, as if taken through a security camera lens. The next image is of a lone, blonde-haired female, one I easily recognize as Maddie. She stands in front of Cole's door, waiting. The next image is Cole himself, wrapping an arm around her waist as he unlocks his door.

The next is him lifting her off her feet, carrying her inside.

I look at the time stamp.

Oh.

It's dated from a few days ago, when Cole first got home from Los Angeles. He'd told me he came home early to surprise me but...

I check the call log on my phone, and the time's link up.