Re: Twined Roads (AU, CC, Adult) A/N 3/22/15
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 1:21 pm
@ Eve: I’ll send Isabel to you whenever you’ve got a car problem. Lol.
That temperament of Maria will hit the roof in this chapter.
I didn’t know you were European and that you lived so close to me! Well… close, in American terms it isn’t that far away. We go by the way quit a lot to the Black Forest and that’s on the way to your hometown!
@ Sara: Yeah, this story took a whole other turn that the original. That strength in numbers will be very important in the future.
@ Carolyn: Max & Liz feel good together and they’re not afraid to show that to each other. They aren’t those teenagers anymore. They’re far in their twenties and they have some life experience to count on, even when it wasn’t always that good.
A/N: A new chapter as Easter present together with a beautiful Dreamer’s moment! Hope you’ll enjoy!
This chapter has references to first season’s ‘White Room’ and second season’s ‘Ask Not’ in it.
The song used is Nobody's wife from Anouk.
Chapter thirty-two
Lazily he tried feeding her a strawberry. His hand lingered before her mouth, even backing off a bit the moment she wanted to take a bite. The pretend pout made him repeat his banter a couple of times. His laughter warmed her heart but that didn’t stop her from teasing him back by poking her finger in his sides.
“Stop, stop!”
But Liz didn’t listen to his demand to cease fire. With a wicked smile on her face, she playfully went on with her attack. Forcing him to bring in the big guns.
Max really couldn’t stand being tickled and needed to restrain himself to keep from struggling wildly. But he didn’t want to give her that satisfaction either.
“Gotcha!” With one hand he grabbed her wrists and held her in place.
“Seems to me that the berries are all mine now.” Devilishly he winked at her while stuffing a large one in his mouth, just before her eyes.
Liz glared at the berry disappearing into his mouth, licking her lips in desire. Though her reaction wasn’t meant to be erotic, Max felt the atmosphere change within seconds. With brooding eyes he stared at her, taking every little detail of her face in. God, she was beautiful! She always had been. But back then she had been off limits. And now…
Their first kiss had only happened Thursday evening but after the drama this morning it seemed to be ages ago. Bewitched he forgot the world around him. Finally aware of his gaze, her eyes wandered in return and they connected with his in no time. The love he read in her expression finally awakened him. Softly he let his right hand roam around her face, his fingers leaving a light trail on her skin. And she let him, savoring his touch.
Her arms crept slowly around his neck. Heartwarmingly she smiled at him, encouraging him to go on. But when she met his eyes again, her heart crushed when she saw the broad palette of emotions. Love, affection, tenderness, surprise, doubt and despair. They alternated at such a high speed that she held her breath.
How could she have ever thought he was unable to communicate with others? That he should take communication classes? While in fact she could see his whole soul in his dark brown eyes? They were like deep pools reflecting every emotion he harbored inside. How had she been that blind? Or maybe he had never opened up to anybody else as he did right now, with her? And his vulnerability struck home.
On impulse she tightened her grip around his shoulders, pulling him into a warm embrace.
Her silent compassion took him by surprise and Max buried his face in the curve of her neck. Inhaling her sweet fragrance, a scent that was so typically Liz. Feeling things he had never felt before.
God, he could lie there forever!
When he felt her fidgeting under him to find a more comfortable position beneath his large frame, he knew he had to roll over. Relaxed he found a place next to her, his hands linked behind his head. Once in a while he opened his eyes. Just to see that Liz was still lying next to him. Making sure he wasn’t dreaming though logically he knew she was there. Hell, he even felt her snuggling against him.
When he had verified her presence for the umpteenth time, she couldn’t help but smile. “What is it, Max?”
Blissful he sighed: “Last week I made the best decision in ages.”
When he detected the scowl on her forehead, he explained himself immediately. “You know, telling you the truth.”
“Which I forced you to do,” Liz bantered.
“True,” he admitted with a smile, “but nevertheless, one of the best things that happened to me. I lost so much time being alone. We all did.”
“Why did you?” she questioned with interest.
He shrugged his shoulders. “We really didn’t know where we came from. But there was no doubt that we were different. When they found us we didn’t even speak English, we somehow communicated without words. But we weren’t stupid either. We saw it in every single thing in our lives, on television, in adult conversation, in the tourists visiting Roswell… People weren’t ready for us. You just have to glance at the boards in the Roswell Center. Mankind is afraid of everything that’s different. They even slice the aliens open in films.”
A shiver ran down his spine. “We knew we had to hide ourselves. But it’s lonely when you can’t share your life, when you always have to tiptoe around people because you can’t reveal who you really are.”
“Not even with your parents?”
A restrained pain made his face grimace. The regret in his voice was explicit when he declined. “No.”
His eyes drifted away, looking for a point in the skyline which wasn’t even there. “Isabel hated us for that. That’s why she flipped the way she did. And truthfully? I can’t blame her.”
“There’s something to say about both of your stands.” She softly touched his hand. “You are you and she just thinks about it differently.” Liz cocked her head a bit. “Did you notice the same attitude with Tess?”
Max nodded.
“How do you feel about her? About what she said?”
He hesitated. “I’m not sure yet. Have to think it through first. And that’s another reason why I’m so glad I told you. Without you I would be brooding over it non-stop, wearing out the carpet under my feet.”
Liz couldn’t help but laugh out loud when she imagined his vivid metaphor.
“But instead of going nuts about every possible detail, there’s something I want to do first.”
With the ease of a wild puma he rolled over her and captured her mouth in one easy motion. His sudden display of his feelings took her off guard. But just for a nanosecond. She answered his kiss with an ease that kept surprising him. Her passion made his blood boil; unveiling feelings he never had discovered before. Like she kept ramming in doors to a place he had banished from his thoughts ages ago. The fire starting in his heart set him ablaze.
Between two kisses they both caught a breath. Bewitched they couldn’t help staring at each other, drowning in each other’s eyes. And those eyes twinkled as never before. Saying more than their owners ever could.
Eventually it was Liz who spoke up. Tenderly she let her fingers trail along the lines of his cheekbone. “Whoa! Where’s the man who wanted to take it step by step?”
Warmhearted he laughed out loud. “The other day he encountered a girl who said he needed to live a bit more.”
Liz’s “Smart girl!” was immediately silenced by an ardent kiss which made her forget the world around her.
Hungry for more their bodies collided in a play of fingers and kisses. Fingers crawled under clothing in a passionate quest to explore the other with insatiable greed. Their mouths followed those finger trails.
“Get a room!”
The yell called by a group of youngsters driving by in an open car, made them stop. The abrupt break made them look in each other’s eyes. Just for a second. And then the amusement took over, making them both burst out laughing after seeing the humor in the moment.
***
The last five minutes had been more than silent. The minute they had climbed in the van, Kyle had locked himself up in his own mind, steering on autopilot. A stern look on his face while grabbing the wheel with tight, white knuckles.
The silence creeped her out. Tess didn’t know Kyle that well but she did know that this wasn’t normal. The other occasions he had enjoyed small-talk. Joking around even seemed to be his second nature.
Before her adoption she couldn’t care less what anybody thought about her. Nasedo had taught her not to get wrapped up in what he had called ‘human crap’. She could still hear his toneless indoctrinating voice: “Emotions are a weakness. Humans are weak – which doesn’t bother me – and wasteful. Their brains are incredible machines they haven’t even begun to use. It's not really who you are. You’re not human. You’re engineered.”
With a short pull of her head she tried to shake the bad memories off. It had taken her years to see the beauty of emotions, the happy and the sad ones. Thanks to her mom, the kind-hearted Ellen Harding. Her heart warmed when she thought back to the way that woman had fought for her, no matter how many times she had rejected her. In all absurdity it had been a woman, one of those despicable humans according to Nasedo, who had given her a home. A warm place where she had been able to discover herself. A place where she had found a balance between her alien and human side.
And now that human side played up, crushing her heart in the process but at the same time making her feel alive too.
Kyle stopped his van in front of her hotel but she didn’t notice. Her attention was drawn solely to the man next to her. His hard profile made her worry.
“Kyle?”
“What?” he snapped, almost biting her head off.
Normally that would provoke an equal reaction out of her but now Tess just remained concerned. This wasn’t one of the quarrels with her brothers. So softly she said, “Are you ok?”
“What do you want me to say? That I’m happy? Thrilled from joy and excitement because I met some aliens? Well, I’m not.” He bit out again.
When she stayed quiet, his last straw broke. “Listen! This...this whole aliens-are-among-us thing...it is really screwing me up...endangering my home and family… making me question stuff...life, reality, my place in this universe...and you don't understand. You...you guys...you people turn our life upside down. I need a little clarity. I need a little peace of mind.”
His offensive rant made her blood boil and without thinking it through, she threw it all back in his face. “No, I don't understand. I'm a girl from another planet. The man I grew up with was an insane resentful Antarian who screwed me up for five years. Thank God I ran into the arms of the woman I call my mom now. But I’m still searching for who I am. There are only three other people like me in the world and I met them today. You're right, Kyle. What would I know about needing some peace of mind?”
Her face indicating the storm in her, Tess grabbed her belongings, slipped out of the car and slammed the door behind her. Leaving a completely taken aback Kyle in the van. In all his misery, doubts and fears he had never realized that she might be going through a lot of stuff too.
“Sorry.” Out of frustration he slammed his right hand against his steering wheel. Damn it!”
***
Snuggling deeper into his embrace, she inhaled his scent. His fragrance was like a perfume to her. Familiar, comforting, her Michael. Her and Emily’s. Closing her eyes she thought back to the first moment she had met Emily. And what the heart thinks, the mouth speaks. Surely when it’s about Maria. So like a waterfall she said what was on her mind. “I fell in love with her from day one. She was hardly a couple of hours old and she stole my heart the minute I saw her.”
Astonished by the – for him – out of the blue comment, he didn’t react immediately. But then he nodded in understanding. When Hannah had been born, he had felt exactly the same way. It just surprised him that she felt so warm about a child that wasn’t hers biologically. “Why did you want to adopt her? Or any child?” he specified.
Laying her head against shoulder, she went back in time. “Call me egoistical but I wanted a counterpart against the busy life I was living. I wanted a home, a real life. Everything was so hectic at the moment. After my first real hit, it all got so crazy.”
Gently he played with his fingers on her arm, leaving invisible traces behind. “Which was that?”
“Was what?”
She was so enjoying his touches that she couldn’t think straight anymore. Michael smiled before clarifying himself. “The hit.”
“Oh, I broke through with ‘Nobody’s Wife’.”
“Is that yours? Didn’t know that.” He smirked and mused out loud. “Nobody’s Wife, huh?”
“That’s right, mister!” Maria radiated. The title and lyrics had matched her life like no other song had before. But now, sitting here with Michael, that title seemed odd. So she cuddles her back into his warm arms.
After a couple of minutes chewing on the matter, he just spit out. “Did you meet Court?”
“Yeah, I did.” She nodded.
“And?”
“What: and?” Maria looked behind her to see his face. “Do you want to know what I thought about her?”
“No, no.”
She could hear his hesitation when he finally managed to get it out. “Did she drop my name?”
To her regret she had to decline. “No, sorry. The only thing she said was that the relationship had stranded a couple of weeks before she learned about the pregnancy. She hid it away, thinking that you wouldn’t agree to it. That it would ruin any chance of getting back to you.”
Michael buried his face in her neck. Muffled he whispered. “God, she was wrong. So wrong!”
Becoming part of a family had always been his biggest desire, like ever. Certainly when it turned out that they would never find a connection to their origins. In an effort to comfort him, she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him even closer to her body.
Softly she whispered in his ear. “You’ve got that second chance now. What a coincidence our roads twined. That you were there to save Emily. Maybe even saving yourself.”
“Yeah, right.”
He said it with so much cynicism that it made her eyebrows pull down in a frown. “Michael?”
When he didn’t answer her, Maria cocked her head and tried to make eye contact. But even before she could see his expression, she felt him stiffen, withdrawing into himself.
“You really don’t wanna know.” His spikes came up on autopilot. So he tried dismissing the matter, brushing her off verbally and even literally when he released himself from her embrace.
But that didn’t deter her. In one flowing movement Maria stood and approached him. The palm of her hand softly touched his shoulder. “Let me decide that.”
“You don’t.”
His empty voice gave her the creeps. She could just see him putting his walls back up as they spoke. She even felt it when his muscles tightened under her touch. Liz and Max had warned her about his legendary way of withdrawing from the world. Something she had bypassed the evening of his meltdown. The need to hide himself had simply disappeared after he had unintentionally shown her his soul. But now she witnessed his stone wall from the front row and although it was quite impressive, she didn’t want to cave for it.
Eventually he just threw it out. “I wasn’t there by accident. I had been following Emily already for a couple of days before that…”
“What?”
The image that some stranger from the shadows had been lurking after her daughter for days made her flesh creep. All of the sudden that thought changed everything for her. Feeling like she was stung by a bee, she let loose. There were so many thoughts screaming in her head that she did the first thing she could think about: she walked out.
Michael didn’t even look at her. As a frozen statue he remained in place, his head bowed over his crossed arms.
That temperament of Maria will hit the roof in this chapter.
I didn’t know you were European and that you lived so close to me! Well… close, in American terms it isn’t that far away. We go by the way quit a lot to the Black Forest and that’s on the way to your hometown!
@ Sara: Yeah, this story took a whole other turn that the original. That strength in numbers will be very important in the future.
@ Carolyn: Max & Liz feel good together and they’re not afraid to show that to each other. They aren’t those teenagers anymore. They’re far in their twenties and they have some life experience to count on, even when it wasn’t always that good.
A/N: A new chapter as Easter present together with a beautiful Dreamer’s moment! Hope you’ll enjoy!
This chapter has references to first season’s ‘White Room’ and second season’s ‘Ask Not’ in it.
The song used is Nobody's wife from Anouk.
Chapter thirty-two
Lazily he tried feeding her a strawberry. His hand lingered before her mouth, even backing off a bit the moment she wanted to take a bite. The pretend pout made him repeat his banter a couple of times. His laughter warmed her heart but that didn’t stop her from teasing him back by poking her finger in his sides.
“Stop, stop!”
But Liz didn’t listen to his demand to cease fire. With a wicked smile on her face, she playfully went on with her attack. Forcing him to bring in the big guns.
Max really couldn’t stand being tickled and needed to restrain himself to keep from struggling wildly. But he didn’t want to give her that satisfaction either.
“Gotcha!” With one hand he grabbed her wrists and held her in place.
“Seems to me that the berries are all mine now.” Devilishly he winked at her while stuffing a large one in his mouth, just before her eyes.
Liz glared at the berry disappearing into his mouth, licking her lips in desire. Though her reaction wasn’t meant to be erotic, Max felt the atmosphere change within seconds. With brooding eyes he stared at her, taking every little detail of her face in. God, she was beautiful! She always had been. But back then she had been off limits. And now…
Their first kiss had only happened Thursday evening but after the drama this morning it seemed to be ages ago. Bewitched he forgot the world around him. Finally aware of his gaze, her eyes wandered in return and they connected with his in no time. The love he read in her expression finally awakened him. Softly he let his right hand roam around her face, his fingers leaving a light trail on her skin. And she let him, savoring his touch.
Her arms crept slowly around his neck. Heartwarmingly she smiled at him, encouraging him to go on. But when she met his eyes again, her heart crushed when she saw the broad palette of emotions. Love, affection, tenderness, surprise, doubt and despair. They alternated at such a high speed that she held her breath.
How could she have ever thought he was unable to communicate with others? That he should take communication classes? While in fact she could see his whole soul in his dark brown eyes? They were like deep pools reflecting every emotion he harbored inside. How had she been that blind? Or maybe he had never opened up to anybody else as he did right now, with her? And his vulnerability struck home.
On impulse she tightened her grip around his shoulders, pulling him into a warm embrace.
Her silent compassion took him by surprise and Max buried his face in the curve of her neck. Inhaling her sweet fragrance, a scent that was so typically Liz. Feeling things he had never felt before.
God, he could lie there forever!
When he felt her fidgeting under him to find a more comfortable position beneath his large frame, he knew he had to roll over. Relaxed he found a place next to her, his hands linked behind his head. Once in a while he opened his eyes. Just to see that Liz was still lying next to him. Making sure he wasn’t dreaming though logically he knew she was there. Hell, he even felt her snuggling against him.
When he had verified her presence for the umpteenth time, she couldn’t help but smile. “What is it, Max?”
Blissful he sighed: “Last week I made the best decision in ages.”
When he detected the scowl on her forehead, he explained himself immediately. “You know, telling you the truth.”
“Which I forced you to do,” Liz bantered.
“True,” he admitted with a smile, “but nevertheless, one of the best things that happened to me. I lost so much time being alone. We all did.”
“Why did you?” she questioned with interest.
He shrugged his shoulders. “We really didn’t know where we came from. But there was no doubt that we were different. When they found us we didn’t even speak English, we somehow communicated without words. But we weren’t stupid either. We saw it in every single thing in our lives, on television, in adult conversation, in the tourists visiting Roswell… People weren’t ready for us. You just have to glance at the boards in the Roswell Center. Mankind is afraid of everything that’s different. They even slice the aliens open in films.”
A shiver ran down his spine. “We knew we had to hide ourselves. But it’s lonely when you can’t share your life, when you always have to tiptoe around people because you can’t reveal who you really are.”
“Not even with your parents?”
A restrained pain made his face grimace. The regret in his voice was explicit when he declined. “No.”
His eyes drifted away, looking for a point in the skyline which wasn’t even there. “Isabel hated us for that. That’s why she flipped the way she did. And truthfully? I can’t blame her.”
“There’s something to say about both of your stands.” She softly touched his hand. “You are you and she just thinks about it differently.” Liz cocked her head a bit. “Did you notice the same attitude with Tess?”
Max nodded.
“How do you feel about her? About what she said?”
He hesitated. “I’m not sure yet. Have to think it through first. And that’s another reason why I’m so glad I told you. Without you I would be brooding over it non-stop, wearing out the carpet under my feet.”
Liz couldn’t help but laugh out loud when she imagined his vivid metaphor.
“But instead of going nuts about every possible detail, there’s something I want to do first.”
With the ease of a wild puma he rolled over her and captured her mouth in one easy motion. His sudden display of his feelings took her off guard. But just for a nanosecond. She answered his kiss with an ease that kept surprising him. Her passion made his blood boil; unveiling feelings he never had discovered before. Like she kept ramming in doors to a place he had banished from his thoughts ages ago. The fire starting in his heart set him ablaze.
Between two kisses they both caught a breath. Bewitched they couldn’t help staring at each other, drowning in each other’s eyes. And those eyes twinkled as never before. Saying more than their owners ever could.
Eventually it was Liz who spoke up. Tenderly she let her fingers trail along the lines of his cheekbone. “Whoa! Where’s the man who wanted to take it step by step?”
Warmhearted he laughed out loud. “The other day he encountered a girl who said he needed to live a bit more.”
Liz’s “Smart girl!” was immediately silenced by an ardent kiss which made her forget the world around her.
Hungry for more their bodies collided in a play of fingers and kisses. Fingers crawled under clothing in a passionate quest to explore the other with insatiable greed. Their mouths followed those finger trails.
“Get a room!”
The yell called by a group of youngsters driving by in an open car, made them stop. The abrupt break made them look in each other’s eyes. Just for a second. And then the amusement took over, making them both burst out laughing after seeing the humor in the moment.
***
The last five minutes had been more than silent. The minute they had climbed in the van, Kyle had locked himself up in his own mind, steering on autopilot. A stern look on his face while grabbing the wheel with tight, white knuckles.
The silence creeped her out. Tess didn’t know Kyle that well but she did know that this wasn’t normal. The other occasions he had enjoyed small-talk. Joking around even seemed to be his second nature.
Before her adoption she couldn’t care less what anybody thought about her. Nasedo had taught her not to get wrapped up in what he had called ‘human crap’. She could still hear his toneless indoctrinating voice: “Emotions are a weakness. Humans are weak – which doesn’t bother me – and wasteful. Their brains are incredible machines they haven’t even begun to use. It's not really who you are. You’re not human. You’re engineered.”
With a short pull of her head she tried to shake the bad memories off. It had taken her years to see the beauty of emotions, the happy and the sad ones. Thanks to her mom, the kind-hearted Ellen Harding. Her heart warmed when she thought back to the way that woman had fought for her, no matter how many times she had rejected her. In all absurdity it had been a woman, one of those despicable humans according to Nasedo, who had given her a home. A warm place where she had been able to discover herself. A place where she had found a balance between her alien and human side.
And now that human side played up, crushing her heart in the process but at the same time making her feel alive too.
Kyle stopped his van in front of her hotel but she didn’t notice. Her attention was drawn solely to the man next to her. His hard profile made her worry.
“Kyle?”
“What?” he snapped, almost biting her head off.
Normally that would provoke an equal reaction out of her but now Tess just remained concerned. This wasn’t one of the quarrels with her brothers. So softly she said, “Are you ok?”
“What do you want me to say? That I’m happy? Thrilled from joy and excitement because I met some aliens? Well, I’m not.” He bit out again.
When she stayed quiet, his last straw broke. “Listen! This...this whole aliens-are-among-us thing...it is really screwing me up...endangering my home and family… making me question stuff...life, reality, my place in this universe...and you don't understand. You...you guys...you people turn our life upside down. I need a little clarity. I need a little peace of mind.”
His offensive rant made her blood boil and without thinking it through, she threw it all back in his face. “No, I don't understand. I'm a girl from another planet. The man I grew up with was an insane resentful Antarian who screwed me up for five years. Thank God I ran into the arms of the woman I call my mom now. But I’m still searching for who I am. There are only three other people like me in the world and I met them today. You're right, Kyle. What would I know about needing some peace of mind?”
Her face indicating the storm in her, Tess grabbed her belongings, slipped out of the car and slammed the door behind her. Leaving a completely taken aback Kyle in the van. In all his misery, doubts and fears he had never realized that she might be going through a lot of stuff too.
“Sorry.” Out of frustration he slammed his right hand against his steering wheel. Damn it!”
***
Snuggling deeper into his embrace, she inhaled his scent. His fragrance was like a perfume to her. Familiar, comforting, her Michael. Her and Emily’s. Closing her eyes she thought back to the first moment she had met Emily. And what the heart thinks, the mouth speaks. Surely when it’s about Maria. So like a waterfall she said what was on her mind. “I fell in love with her from day one. She was hardly a couple of hours old and she stole my heart the minute I saw her.”
Astonished by the – for him – out of the blue comment, he didn’t react immediately. But then he nodded in understanding. When Hannah had been born, he had felt exactly the same way. It just surprised him that she felt so warm about a child that wasn’t hers biologically. “Why did you want to adopt her? Or any child?” he specified.
Laying her head against shoulder, she went back in time. “Call me egoistical but I wanted a counterpart against the busy life I was living. I wanted a home, a real life. Everything was so hectic at the moment. After my first real hit, it all got so crazy.”
Gently he played with his fingers on her arm, leaving invisible traces behind. “Which was that?”
“Was what?”
She was so enjoying his touches that she couldn’t think straight anymore. Michael smiled before clarifying himself. “The hit.”
“Oh, I broke through with ‘Nobody’s Wife’.”
“Is that yours? Didn’t know that.” He smirked and mused out loud. “Nobody’s Wife, huh?”
“That’s right, mister!” Maria radiated. The title and lyrics had matched her life like no other song had before. But now, sitting here with Michael, that title seemed odd. So she cuddles her back into his warm arms.
After a couple of minutes chewing on the matter, he just spit out. “Did you meet Court?”
“Yeah, I did.” She nodded.
“And?”
“What: and?” Maria looked behind her to see his face. “Do you want to know what I thought about her?”
“No, no.”
She could hear his hesitation when he finally managed to get it out. “Did she drop my name?”
To her regret she had to decline. “No, sorry. The only thing she said was that the relationship had stranded a couple of weeks before she learned about the pregnancy. She hid it away, thinking that you wouldn’t agree to it. That it would ruin any chance of getting back to you.”
Michael buried his face in her neck. Muffled he whispered. “God, she was wrong. So wrong!”
Becoming part of a family had always been his biggest desire, like ever. Certainly when it turned out that they would never find a connection to their origins. In an effort to comfort him, she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him even closer to her body.
Softly she whispered in his ear. “You’ve got that second chance now. What a coincidence our roads twined. That you were there to save Emily. Maybe even saving yourself.”
“Yeah, right.”
He said it with so much cynicism that it made her eyebrows pull down in a frown. “Michael?”
When he didn’t answer her, Maria cocked her head and tried to make eye contact. But even before she could see his expression, she felt him stiffen, withdrawing into himself.
“You really don’t wanna know.” His spikes came up on autopilot. So he tried dismissing the matter, brushing her off verbally and even literally when he released himself from her embrace.
But that didn’t deter her. In one flowing movement Maria stood and approached him. The palm of her hand softly touched his shoulder. “Let me decide that.”
“You don’t.”
His empty voice gave her the creeps. She could just see him putting his walls back up as they spoke. She even felt it when his muscles tightened under her touch. Liz and Max had warned her about his legendary way of withdrawing from the world. Something she had bypassed the evening of his meltdown. The need to hide himself had simply disappeared after he had unintentionally shown her his soul. But now she witnessed his stone wall from the front row and although it was quite impressive, she didn’t want to cave for it.
Eventually he just threw it out. “I wasn’t there by accident. I had been following Emily already for a couple of days before that…”
“What?”
The image that some stranger from the shadows had been lurking after her daughter for days made her flesh creep. All of the sudden that thought changed everything for her. Feeling like she was stung by a bee, she let loose. There were so many thoughts screaming in her head that she did the first thing she could think about: she walked out.
Michael didn’t even look at her. As a frozen statue he remained in place, his head bowed over his crossed arms.