Where The Ice Gives Way (Charlotte and Blake) novel Chapter 221

11:07 Thu, Jul 23 TJO

Where The Ice Gives Way

Chapter 221 I Was Worrying Anyway

Charlie

I know that look in Charlotte’s eye.

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It is the same one she used to get when Dad raised his voice. The one she wore when the bills came in, and the fridge was empty.

The look she used when she was deciding whether to fight, hide, or make me laugh in the hope that I wouldn’t notice how much

she was carrying on her shoulders.

I call her out on it playfully because I want her to know that I see it. That I see her. But I also do not want to add more weight.

just want her to let me bear some of it with her.

That’s all I have ever wanted.

I know my sister well enough to know when she is considering an escape. Her eyes flick back to mine, and she rolls them like I am

being dramatic. I am being dramatic, but that doesn’t make me wrong.

There were so many days when we argued like this. Silently. Hidden under smiles and small jokes. It’s always been a push and pull

with her. Town after town, I watched her pile while constantly taking things off my plate.

more onto basi

When she got her first job at fourteen, I argued with her for days.

for

She didn’t need to do that. She should have been focusing on school. I told her I would get a job too, and we could halve her hours

and still keep the lights on. She argued back that if I had a job, I couldn’t practise hockey, and if I could not practise hockey, neither

of us was going to make anything more out of ourselves than a checkout job or a janitor’s cupboard.

She told me one of us had to make something of ourselves so we could both have a better future, and I was already good at hockey.

So I agreed, but I hated myself for it every single day.

I hated myself when I watched her come home late, her eyes tired and her feet sore. I hated myself when she got up early and

pretended she wasn’t exhausted. I hated every meal I watched her skip just so she could put more food on my plate, and I hated

myself as I pushed my body to its limit on the ice or the asphalt, with whatever stick I could manage to find.

I hated that I had to keep going, had to keep trying, had to keep waiting for the day I could give something back to her.

We don’t even need that dream now in the same way we did back then. Not with Blake’s family, with Gareth and Mara, and a pack.

that seems ready to open every door we spent years trying to kick down, And somehow that makes me feel worse, because all of her

suffering alone feels like it was for nothing now.

I could have helped her more then. I know I could have. I was there. I was in the same house, breathing the same cold air, listening

to the same slammed cupboards and the same empty promises. I knew Dad was bad. I knew we were poor. I knew Charlotte was

tired. But we were fighting two different wars then, two different wars for the same goal of freedom. A freedom that we have now.

Once breakfast is finished, everyone starts moving. Mara clears plates, John offers to help, Theo follows Emily with his eyes as if she

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11:07 Thu, Jul 23 TdO

Chapter 221 I Was Worrying Anyway

might vanish between the table and the sink, and Blake leans back in his chair with a mug in his hands, watching Charlotte the way he always does now. Like he sees every breath she takes.

I should be grateful for that. I am grateful for that. But there is always a sharp little piece of me that hates that someone else knows

how to protect her better than I do now.

Charlotte tries to slip past me with her cup in hand, and I catch her wrist gently. “Nope.”

She looks down at my hand, then back at me. “I was going to help Mara.”

“Mara has a whole kitchen army.”

“I am part of the kitchen army.”

“Sorry, sis, you are part of my interrogation now.”

Blake shifts beside her, and I see the question in his eyes before he even opens his mouth, but Charlotte gives him the smallest

shake of her head, and he stays where he is.

I don’t have anything against him. I like Blake more than I

to do for us. But this is mine. Ours. Charlotte and me.

pected to. He has done more for my sister than most people ever tried

I lead her out of the kitchen and into the front sitting room, where we can have a bit of privacy. She sits on the edge of the couch,

I

holding her cup like it might protect her from me and my worrie

things I want to say, and none of them feels right.

Charlotte watches me carefully. “Charlie.”

Stein front of her quietly for a second. There are a hundred

That is all it takes. I drag a hand through my hair and sit in the chair across from her. “How bad was it?”

She looks down at her tea, avoiding any sort of eye contact. “Munroe?”

“No, Lotty. The weather.” I deadpan.

She gives me a look, and I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees. “Yes, Munroe.”

“It was pretty bad,” she says quietly.

I nod, because I already knew that. I knew it before she even came home looking like she hadn’t slept for a week. It’s not like Mara

wasn’t kept up to date by Gareth every day.

“You sent me one text, Lotty”, I say.

“I didn’t want you worrying.”

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