What did they mean? I knew who I was, didn't I? I was Rosalia Mallory, a girl left on the doorstep of our town's foster agency to find a new home. From there I went through three homes before at the age of 16 instead of having to live in the group h...
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Rosalia's POV: After that initial argument with Hunter, I don't really do a lot in the way of communicating with people. Those who hadn't been in the immediate vicinity to hear it chalked it up to nervousness about possible attacks from one of our many enemies but those who had been around knowing the real reason. The real reason is that I was hurt. Hurt by the one person who swore they would never do that to me.
Hours pass in that numb haze before I even think about moving. About moving on. The thought hurts my heart but I have to convince myself that's what must be done to move past that. Never to love, I could never do that because even if Hunter wasn't mine I knew I'd never find solace in the arms of another for as long as we were both alive. And even after that little one, Artemis intones mournfully, her voice sad. Even if he was to die you still wouldn't be able to truly move on. Not when you've found your mate. She sounds tired and sad - a lot like how I was feeling - and the thought of never being able to truly move on saddens me further. "Hey," Ash's quiet voice startles me and I snap out of my trance to look over in his direction. "You ok?" A teary laugh escapes me and he gives me an I'm sorry gesture. "Sorry, dumb question." He stops, looking at me once. "You ok though, seriously?"
"My mate just broke my heart," I reply in a steady tone that somehow successfully hides my tears. "How do you think I'm doing?" Any level of sass, sarcasm or rudeness that could have been implied with those words is drowned out by the empty, hopeless tone in my voice and I hear his sigh. "But I'll work with her - them - if it makes him happy." I close my eyes and feel a solitary tear drip down my cheeks, my heart breaking further as the reality of our ongoing argument - since before Ash and I was taken around six months ago - surfaces in my mind and I can't deny it any longer. "I'll work with the girl who finally succeeded in breaking us apart." A dry, humourless shadow of a laugh sounds in the room and it takes me a second to realise that it's come from me. Ash gives me a concerned look. "I guess this makes your mother's job easier though," More tears, "since we can't even be in the same room without angry words. I guess we..." My throat catches as I realise the possible veracity of my next, though currently unspoken, words. "I guess we broke up." The words are hard to vocalise, like trying to speak around a mouthful of broken glass or shards of ice. "We...we broke up. Just like she wanted."
Now Ash's worried expression morphs into one of confusion and bewilderment. "Are you sure that's what just happened?" He asks gently, approaching the subject the way a person would a frightened animal, cautiously and slowly so as not to make the animal bolt. "Are you sure you broke up?" His words aren't meant with malice but the implication of what could have happened still slams into me like a dull axe, cleaving what remains of my heart clean in two. "Rose?" I blink back more tears to see that he's looking at me with a sort of expectation and I sigh, unsure as to how to answer a question that although I was the one to broach it in the first place I have no way of answering. No way of knowing for sure. "Rose, are you sure that's what happened between you because I was there as well and I didn't get that signal. From either of you."
