Burned (Hate at First Flight #2) ✔️

44. Making Him Faint with An Almost Kiss

I didn't do that because he should've known already how sad and tragic his story was. Of course people would feel sorry for what had happened to him. What I was curious about was, how parents could do what they did to their son?

"They did nothing wrong to me."

A simple enough sentence and I couldn't help feeling that he believed those words. Or at least he had to believe those words. Those words were what he'd been telling himself over the past twelve years.

Words his mother had somewhat insinuated before she passed. That it was just a slight disagreement adult had.

Whatever the disagreement was, in my mind, and I'm pretty sure everyone would believe this, their disagreement had negatively affected their son.

"Your father cared too much for his company. It might not be more than both of you, but it was a close second that your mother felt like she had to compete with his love for his work," my words might have sounded a bit too rash and brusque, but I just felt like Douglas deserved to hear this. "And your mom. I'm sorry Douglas for speaking ill of your mom. I'm sure she was a great mom and all that, but she didn't do a great job towards the end."

"You don't understand anything, Krystal!" His tone was curt, hard as a diamond and dark. But it didn't faze me. I expected some level of animosity from him. Heck if he hadn't been somewhat hurt by my words, I would've thought he didn't care about his mom.

"I understand as much as anyone can to say this. Your mother did the wrong thing going out like that. She shouldn't have done it, knowing you could walk in any second and seen her. She shouldn't have let her only child see that. It's traumatic enough for a grown adult, how much more could it have been for an eleven year old?"

I spotted a tear fall and slowly made its way down his face. "I wasn't her only child," his voice was low, low enough that I almost didn't catch it.

"What are you talking about? You don't have a-"

"She was pregnant," he began, before casting his eyes away from mine, his mouth trembling a moment before he straightened his face, "when she died."

The words were like thunder on a clear sky. Shocking.

My first reaction was to say that I was sorry, that I didn't know.

But before I could even fathom an ounce of hesitation, I was up and had my arms around him.

Douglas didn't hug me back. In fact, he was too stunned to hug me back.

We stayed like that for a short while as we slowly became comfortable again.

"I blame her too sometimes," Douglas said after awhile. "I blame both of them. I blame both of them for the brother or sister I never got because of their decisions. I blame them for the lost moments I could never have with her.  I blame them for making me live through that. But there are times, I truly believe what I said. That they did nothing wrong to me. They made their own decisions. Everyone is inclined to their own. Sometimes it might affect others, but you can't help but do then anyway, knowing its the best for you. I think my dad knew his job was affecting mom in a bad way, but he did it anyway. He thought he'd succeed first then be with her, after the success. He thought he'd have enough time to be there for her. But of course he was wrong. Mom thought that she'd rather not be there at all than have to live second best to a business. She didn't care how it would affect everyone, her passing. She made her own decision for her own benefit. I don't hold them accountable for that."

I slowly rubbed his back in a comforting manner, trying to relieve the pain of the past twelve years even though that wouldn't never be truly done.