Tragedy ✔️

Chapter Thirty Two

Chapter Thirty Two: The Truth Hurts
Sophia Crawford

I expel an audible, harsh breath; my fingers were touching my parted lips even after River has told me the entire story: about how Beck and his mother have been murdered by his father who has abused them all over the years, and how he’s sitting in prison right now, suffering the consequences of his nauseating actions and how he wants to see River now to make up for his heinous crimes.

I was unable to blink, not even when tears for River started to run down my cheeks. I was just looking at him and wondering how the hell he could have carried this big burden for so long without collapsing. There were times when I’ve caught him on the verge of breaking down, but he always picked himself up and continued on as if it never happened—no one even had a single clue.

My heart was bleeding for him.

And all the nasty and harsh things he has called me and has said to me in the past were all forgotten. I mean, how could I hate him when he did nothing but survive this entire time, walking the halls as if nothing has happened to him?

Being rude was a self-defence mechanism for him. That is how River coped.

“I started fighting at the barn about two years ago.” His voice was still cracked and his eyes were filled with unshed tears. “I had to release the anger, and the pain, and the grief, and I didn’t want to hit an innocent bystander, so I went someplace where people wanted to pick a fight, where people wanted to bleed.”

I was still holding his hand and rubbing circles across his palm to comfort him.

I couldn’t speak, so I just listened to him.

“And fighting has been my escape, until my father’s voice became too taunting and I almost killed my opponent in the ring by kicking him repeatedly while he was down.” River takes a shallow breath. “Myles actually had to pull me off him. If he didn’t, I think I would have killed the guy. It was never my intention for it to get that bad in the fighting ring. I’m not my father. I’m not a murderer.”

“You are not your father, River.”

River looks down, at the ground instead of at me. “I’ve said the shittiest things to you.” It’s then when I saw it, tears falling to the ground. “I used your past against you time and time again. I have called you names, made you feel shittier than you already did. Why are you still defending me?” He looks at me through tear-filled eyes. “You’re the last person who should comfort me right now.”

“You were in pain, River.”

“And so were you. I have added to that pain by being nasty toward you.”