Cane was well aware that he shouldn’t direct his anger at Iris, since he watched everything and knew Lou was the intruder, yet he couldn’t get rid of these intrusive thoughts in his mind.
He had not gotten any sleep for two days straight, a lot of things happened in that span of time, which drained him both emotionally and physically. In addition, when he was looking for a shred of peace that could, at least, calm him down for a bit, Iris brought up another problem for him to solve.
It was too much, he felt like he was reaching his limit.
"I didn’t meet him on purpose..." Iris said in a small voice, she was about to cry to prove her innocence. She was desperate to make him believe her, because she didn’t want Cane to look at her with those judgmental eyes as well.
Even though she had never mentioned it, not even to Hanna, it was so terrifying to be on the receiving end of those people’s judgment about her.
Cane gritted his teeth, but he didn’t say anything and this terrified Iris even more, because the last time she provoked him and made him angry, he hurt her. Would he do that again to her now? Even though he had apologized for that?
A tear escaped Iris’ eyes, despite her effort to fight it back. Mason always got even angrier whenever she cried. He would say how ugly she was and how useless a woman, who only knew how to cry, was. How useless she was...
"I am sorry... I am sorry..." she was afraid that Cane would hurt her. He could do that and if he decided to do it, no one would be able to stop him.
She shouldn’t have confronted him in the first place. She should have let him hug her silently every night. At the very least, in that way, he didn’t hurt her. She shouldn’t have tried to have a conversation about the unspoken things between them.
She shouldn’t have antagonized him when he already had too much on his shoulders to carry with a lot of troubles that were thrown his way.
The night became darker out there and snow started to fall again, making the temperature drop even colder.
Cane closed his eyes and leaned forward to rest his head on her shoulder. Her scent overwhelmed him and he could feel her body stiffen with his touch. She was afraid that he would hurt her and he understood that.
Iris thought Cane would start his assault. She closed her eyes, accepting her fate, but then she felt him move away from her and when she opened her eyes, Cane was gone, leaving her alone there.
Tears started to stream down her cheeks one by one, as small sobs escaped her lips. It was not clear whether it was because of relief or pain that she felt, as the sight of his retreating back looked very desolate. It stabbed her heart in a way that she didn’t think was possible to feel this hurt.
She was the one, who was in a predicament a few seconds ago, but why was she the one in agony to see him like this? There was this feeling that she couldn’t understand, where she felt his pain.
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