When her friend mentioned her mother's sickness, she couldn't suppress the sob that escaped from her lips. She hated thinking about it - her mother's sickness. Was it a coincidence that her brother had decided to tell her about it right when she was about to leave? She thought not. That day burned ever so clearly in her mind. The look of hope on her brother's features, then the disappointment when she told him she was leaving. She had truly abandoned, betrayed her family. She had been torn between being with her family, saving her mother and running off like a careless, love-struck princess with a friend. She had made the wrong decision.
"Yes it is," she protested, losing her energy to scream and squirm in his hold. Instead she squeezed her eyes shut, holding back the tears. Her cracking voice came out hoarse from a throat unbearably dry. "I didn't even help her. I could have saved her, but I didn't." He continued to stress that it wasn't her fault, even promising her that he would see her brother. How could he think that? Was it not obvious she was an absolute traitor to the Agatsuma lineage? Did he actually think it wasn't her fault? A sigh slithered from her lips as her body shuddered, pressing herself into his warm form. She didn't want him to leave. She wasn't ready to face the world. She felt like a different wolf - a failure, a monster. If she stepped out on her own, without him to guide her, she was scared everyone would judge her, knowing she had let her family down. "I don't know what to do, Riv," she confessed with a sniffle, avoiding his gaze. Her life was such a mess. Where was she to go? What was she to do? Was she to continue her life like nothing had ever happened?
