Chapter 55

Holden hadn't regained consciousness yet. Flynn had suggested that we all head back with Grace, while he waited at the hospital with Emma who refused to even consider returning home.. I didn't want to head back either, but Sage was exhausted; and I found that while it hurt seeing her with Ryan, just looking at her filled a small part of the empty place in my heart.

"I'll carry her," I told Ryan, as we pulled up at the house, since Sage had fallen asleep in the car.

"I've got her," he protested, as he gathered Sage's sleeping body into his arms. He stumbled under her weight, and I couldn't keep myself from chuckling softly. He'd rather drop her than let me near her.

"She's too heavy for you," I reasoned. "It's not like I'm going to kidnap her. I'm just going to carry her inside and then she's yours for the rest of the night."

Ryan assessed me from head to toe. When he was convinced of the sincerity of my words he handed his girlfriend over to me.

I carried her bridal style into the house, while Grace held the door open for us. She gave me a sympathetic look; either because she knew I wouldn't get the love of my life, or because she pitied me for continuing to torment myself.

Ryan followed me into the bedroom and watched as I gently cushioned her head on the pillow and brushed my lips against her still brow.

"Don't push your luck." Ryan put a hand on my chest and pushed me away from her. He was good-looking, I decided, with his tendency towards messy hair and a lean body. He was muscular, but not in a way that suggested he worked out; it was more like the muscles were proof of puberty and they were just enough to make his limbs look less gangly and more powerful.

"I love her," I stated. I was hoping that she would wake up and hear me.

"She doesn't love you." Ryan rubbed his jaw. "Give it a rest. You should know when to call it quits."

"She does," I argued. "She loves me more than she loves you."

Ryan opened his mouth to say something, but no words escaped his lips. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but he stayed like that for quite a while; his mouth gaping open like a koi fish. Just when I thought he would say something, Sage awoke with a start. In one solid movement she was sitting upright, and her eyes wavered between me and Ryan.

"Kaden?" Her eyes shot to me, almost as if she had just seen me. Her voice was soft and barely audible.

"Yes." I bent down towards her, so that I could hear her more clearly.

"Can't you take a hint. Stay away from her," Ryan bellowed, placing his hand on my shoulder and pulling me backwards. He wasn't strong enough to really make any impact. The only reason that I staggered back was because of the raw fear in Sage's eyes; not for me, but for him. She knew I could ram him into the ground if I wished to do so. I hated that look in her eyes, and it hurt knowing I was the one who had put it there.

"Ryan, I really need to talk to Kaden," Sage said, wringing her hands in her lap, knowing there was no chance that he would agree and preparing herself to convince him.

"No." Ryan sounded like a stubborn child, who was told to leave so that the grown-ups could talk.

"It'll be quick, I promise," she pleaded.

"Don't beg him, Foxie." I wanted to see Ryan's reaction to my nickname for her, but his lips remained tight; he barely acknowledged the words I was saying. "If you're going to confess your love for me, best do in front of him. It would save you having to explain your feelings twice." I actually believed my own words, that telling her I loved her had done the trick and that she had finally caved.

"Please don't." She shook her head and a sob escaped her throat. Tears filled her eyes and I realised I had been too harsh.

"I need to speak to you about something else," she whispered and stood up so that she was between me and me and Ryan. She was facing him, and my face turned warm with jealousy. I averted my eyes when I saw her sweater had ridden halfway up her back, leaving the majority of her smooth back bare.

"He won't do anything to me." Sage angled her body so that she was facing me, as if she was waiting for me to confirm her words. I remained mute, since I knew whatever I said wouldn't matter to Ryan.

"What's so important that I can't stay here with you?" He splayed his open palm on her bare back, and I was taken aback when she gasped. That little gasp was the same sound she made when I kissed her; those gasps were mine, not his. I clenched and unclenched my fists, trying to get rid of some of the anger that was building up in my body.

She sloppily kissed his lips, before pushing him towards the door. "Please?" she asked. He yielded with a sigh. I knew the feeling. When she said that one simple word with so much feeling in her voice, it was impossible to say no to her.

She closed the door in his face and pressed her back against the door, before slowly sinking down and burying her head in her hands. She was hurting, and I couldn't help feeling that I was the cause of her pain. I shouldn't have made her feel like that. I shouldn't have made her feel like she had made the wrong decision. I should have supported her in whichever way she needed me. I had vowed to myself that I would respect her wishes, that I wouldn't kiss her if she didn't want me to. So why the hell was I wrecking her relationship with Ryan?

"Would you forgive me if I said I'm sorry?" I asked. I knelt down beside her.

"I'm not leaving Ryan for you." I was surprised that her voice wasn't shaky. She sounded so sure of herself.

"I know," I replied. "I'm an idiot for thinking you could ever love someone as flawed as me." I only realised after I had said it, that this comment might make her feel guilty.

"Kaden." She put her hands on either side of my face and gently caressed my cheek. "I did love you; not despite your flaws, but for your flaws." I didn't miss the past tense in her sentence, but the weight on my chest lightened as she said this. "But it's time to let me go," she finished with a solemn expression.

"I wish I could," I responded. I shuffled closer to her and rested my head in her lap. She didn't push me away, instead, she played with my hair. I was grateful that I couldn't see her expression. "What was it you wanted to talk about?" I enquired.

"I need your help with something," she gulped noisily. I lifted my face up to hers, close enough to kiss her, but I didn't dare do so.

"Okay," I replied, curiously. I was willing to do whatever it took to make up for what I had said to Ryan.

She reached into her pocket, and I heard a soft rustling as she tried to smooth out a crumpled ball of paper on her thigh. She handed me the paper and I realised that it was a page of a newspaper. The word missing glared back at me, in big bold letters, but that wasn't what caught my attention. Splat bang in the middle of the page was a picture of a woman, a woman I recognised.

"I found this in this morning's paper." Sage's forehead creased in worry. "Why would someone post an article that my mother is missing?"

Angela Foster was a striking woman... so striking that she barely looked like a human at all. She was too perfect with her defined jawline and cobalt blue eyes, it looked like the photograph was computer generated; but I had seen her before and I knew that this was how she actually looked.

I studied the article, while Sage gauged my reaction. The article contained an address but no phone number. I pointed to the address and gave Sage a questioning look.

"I thought it might have been her boyfriend who posted this," Sage explained. "But I don't recognise the address."

"We'll type the address into Google," I suggested. It wasn't the best idea, but I had no clue what else to do. I was just trying to be helpful, since Sage's forehead was covered in four straight lines that I didn't think were disappearing anytime soon.

"Why didn't you say anything sooner?" I enquired. It broke me to know that she had bottled this all up, even if it was for just a couple of hours. "I could have helped shoulder your burden." She had already been through so much, and it still wasn't over.

"I was going to," she said, "but then Holden fainted, and I was so worried about... what I had done to him, that..." Her sentence was full of nervous pauses; she couldn't even finish what she was trying to tell me.

"Let me deal with it," I offered, before taking both of her hands into mine. I rubbed the backs of her hands with my thumbs. She looked down at our hands, as a couple of drops of water fell onto them. "I promise to reunite you with her." Tears continued to rain down, as she turned one of my hands over in hers and gave me a chaste kiss on my palm.

"Thank you." She blinked rapidly, and I tried to ignore the way her long eyelashes fluttered appealingly.