Chasing His Betrayed Luna novel Chapter 36

AURELIA

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My daughter wailed out loud, failing to hide her feelings like she would have done on any other day. Seeing Katie like that broke me even more. My heart tightened as I forgot how to breathe and soon enough, Kyle broke into tears as well.

“Shush, babies. Shush.” I said amidst tears. I crouched to the level, pulling Kyle and a muddy Katie into my arms. “Enough of the tears, babies.”

Kyle spoke up, his voice shaky and muffled, “Yo-you and Katie s-st-tarted it.”

Katie countered, pulling away from my hug and wiping her muddy face, “Mom s-started it. I came in and s-saw her c-crying in Auntie Hazel’s a-arms.”

My heart tightened even more as I watched them both argue about me instead of telling me what the hell happened to Katie. Her lower lip was busted for crying out loud. I cried bitterly, realizing how bad of a mother I’ve been these past few days.

What has gotten into me!

Hazel came to my rescue when she asked, sniffing back her own share of tears, “What happened to you, Katie? You don’t look good, baby.”

“Nothing happened, Auntie Hazel–” Katie began, clearly lying.

“Do not lie to me, Katie Anne,” I yelled, cutting my daughter off, wiping my face clean with the he of my shirt. “You’ll tell me what happened without holding a single detail back. Do I make myself clear?”

Katie looked into my eyes, her lips quavering while her nose flared in anger. She was angry? Sweet heavens!

“It’s all because of the stupid mask, mom!” She revealed, her voice tight with anger.

My brows furrowed, “What do you mean? Did you swim through a muddy lake to get the mask?” I shifted my gaze to Kyle’s mask to figure out how it had anything to do with Katie’s state but there was nothing different about the mask. It wasn’t wet, or muddy.

“C’mon, mom. The mask isn’t even the problem.” Katie voiced, contradicting herself as tears trickled down her muddy cheeks.

Perhaps I should have let her freshen up before having this discussion but that didn’t occur to me as my daughter shifted the blame from the mask to me.

“Katie–” I was this close to pleading with her.

But Kyle announced, “Katie got into a fight with a bigger kid because he tried to take off my mask, Mama. Please don’t be mad at her. She just didn’t want me to take the mask off like you instructed.”

“Oh, goddess.” I cried, falling on my butt as my legs gave out.

It was a good thing that I was already crouching before this happened but that fact didn’t lessen the painful pressure on my heart when realization hit me.

I told Kyle to keep the mask on at all times and to make sure he doesn't take it off, my little girl had to fight someone who had to be not just bigger but stronger than her. It was clear from her busted lip and the scratches on her arm.