Chapter 228: 228-His Toxic Family
Clementine:
"Where did the ringleaders leave in the middle of the night?" Haiden asked me. It was the first thing he asked after I told him the whole saga of what happened that night and how I had to stay behind at the academy instead of being sent somewhere to get away from all the stress.
"I don’t know. I just know they left, so I’m not even sure if they know I was caught using a phone booth," I explained, fixing my dress.
He had gotten me a baby pink dress with pink bows. Could he get me anything more feminine? I loved it, but I didn’t think I could carry it.
Besides, I hated when my figure was so defined in a dress. Yet, whenever I looked at myself in the mirror, I liked it.
"Okay, leave it alone," he complained as he slapped my hand away from my hair.
He made me wear little bows on both sides of my hair, just twisting the strands a bit and leaving the rest open. Those bows looked really cute. The ribbons looked cute too.
"I’m so sorry. Why are they so cruel? How could they leave you behind? I refuse to believe they had no idea it would cause you stress, because their whole reason for sending us on a vacation was to help us with our stress," Haiden explained, upset about the fact that they sent everyone away, and kept me here.
"Yeah, and then they kind of played themselves because I got to hear so much," I mumbled, anxiously waiting for his reaction about the other important stuff.
"I don’t know. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that they’ve been watching us in the north," Haiden stated almost instantly, letting me know he also picked up this specific thing from what I had heard.
"But how will we ever explain it to anyone?" he wondered. I shrugged because, honestly, even I had no clue.
"All I know is that, Haiden, something really bad is going on. Why the heck did they confiscate Bodhi’s diary when they said all their belongings had been sent back home?" I complained.
"They could always make up an excuse that he lost his mind and whatever he wrote about the academy would ruin its reputation," Haiden countered.
Sure, he wasn’t wrong either. But still, there was so much happening around us. And then the fact that the ringleaders wanted us dead.
"I’m honestly just so worried because next time we go into the north, I’ll have it in the back of my mind that these ringleaders might be waiting for us to die," he murmured, making me agree with him.
"So after finding all that, can we do anything at all?" I questioned, watching him shrug.
"Only once we get to be with the others," he replied.
"There was one more thing they said that I found extremely weird," I spoke softly, glancing at him. I didn’t want to put anyone on blast, but that one thing had been living in my mind rent-free.
"What is it?" he asked.
I began to crack my knuckles.
"Tell me, don’t hide it from me," he insisted once he noticed I had been anxiously rubbing my palms.
"Haiden it is. I don’t know how to tell you," I shut up, clenching my jaw because I didn’t want him to bombard the other two with questions.
"If you don’t trust me, fine," he said, and I took a deep breath.
There was a part of me that wanted to tell him about Yorick and Ian, the way the ringleaders were talking about the two. However, I bit my tongue and decided to stay quiet for now. I knew how things could escalate if the information went into the wrong hands.
It’s not that I didn’t trust Haiden. I knew he was our squadmate, and I had never seen him do anything that wasn’t in our squad’s favor.
But sometimes an aggressive person can spill secrets, or, in order to help, they do things that turn out to be more damaging than helpful.
"It’s just that now that I’ve told the headmaster about you, I have a feeling the news will reach your pack soon. And that girl Fauna, I don’t know how she’ll react." I instantly changed the subject.
However, I noticed him staring at me, almost calling me out for it, before he nodded. I guessed he realized he couldn’t force me. Maybe.
"Anyway, we have to go out. They must be waiting for us," Haiden uttered tiredly.
The way he talked about his family was always so exhausting. I mean, they weren’t really his family though. It was cruel of Patrick to take his father’s spot, act like he was nominated to be the alpha, and then kick the alpha’s biological heir out and send him to the academy.
I don’t know how he managed to do it. How did he make his father sign those papers? I had no clue, but I could say I smelled something foul.
Even Haiden admitted he was skeptical, but then his stepmother was also in prison for the murder of his father, I heard.
I remember Haiden mentioning that his father had kind of accused him of not being able to protect his mother and sister, which was wrong of him to do to a child.
"Okay, let’s go," I stated, getting up from the bed.
However, I noticed he was staring at me a little too hard.
"Stop," I complained, and he looked away.
"What? I wasn’t looking," he excused, scratching the back of his neck sneakily and awkwardly.
But as soon as we opened the door, we found Fauna leaning over with her ear pressed hard against the doorframe. She instantly pulled back and grunted.
"I just came over to ask you guys to come join us," she uttered hesitantly, stealing glances after getting caught eavesdropping.
I was pretty sure she couldn’t hear anything because we were speaking very softly.
"Don’t do that again," Haiden hissed at her, and she pouted.
She was so annoying, honestly. He was clearly telling her he wasn’t interested, but she didn’t care and kept chasing after him.
We both walked together to the dining area, which had a beautiful view. The river was running underneath the floor, and it was so pretty. It was an open dining area with a little roof on top and just a floor beneath us.
We sat together, and this time I noticed the girl Mariana had finally put her phone down.
"So, you two caught up, I can tell. But did you tell her that we’ve planned Mariana’s wedding to Troy’s elder brother?"
The minute Patrick said that, I almost choked on my saliva. This was the last thing I wanted to deal with here.