EMP Catastrophe , Hamilton, Grace [phonics readers txt] 📗

escaped her. Matthew pulled her closer, wanting her to lean on him in every way that she could. “Please,” he whispered. “Tell me what’s wrong. I know it’s more than Jade.”

She let out a shaky breath. For a moment, Matthew feared she wouldn’t open up to him and that he had destroyed the shaky bridge he’d been building. Finally, she spoke.

“When Allison and I were on the road, we were attacked. I don’t know if these men wanted to assault us or worse, but they tried to split me up from Allison. I had my gun. I tried to reason with them, but in the end I had to stand my ground. I couldn’t let them do anything to Allison. I…I chose to aim it at the leader, and I shot him. I got him in the neck, and he bled out in front of us. I killed him, Matt. I murdered someone, too.” She looked up at him, terror painted on her face. It seemed as though she was hanging on his next words.

Matthew felt like he’d been hit with a sledgehammer. Kathleen’s confession rang in his ears. He imagined the scene: Kathleen’s desperation, Allison’s fear, the way they’d most likely been pushed to the limit. The sound of a gunshot. Blood on the ground. He also imagined what could have happened and suppressed a full-body shiver. The alternative was so much worse.

“I murdered someone,” Kathleen repeated. “I’m just as untrustworthy as Jade. So how can you trust me and not her? How can you look at me the same?”

“Oh, my love,” Matthew said in a rush and brought her fully into the circle of his arms. She clutched at him and he felt sobs wrack her body. He held her tight. “You should’ve told me,” he whispered into her hair. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was scared of what you would think,” Kathleen said, her voice muffled in his shoulder. “I was scared you wouldn’t love me anymore. So stupid, right? I thought that if I voted Jade out, I wouldn’t have to think about what I had done. That I could pretend it never happened. But then she stayed, and it was like she could handle everything so much better than I could. That she was stronger than me. I hated it. It felt like she was throwing her strength in my face. She was better at taking care of our family, taking care of the kids.”

“How could you think that?” Matthew asked, and pulled back so he could see her tear-stained face. “What you did was the strongest thing I’ve ever heard. You protected our daughter. You protected yourself. I’m so proud of you for doing everything you could to come back to me and save our family. I’d never think less of you because of what happened.”

Kathleen’s face softened with relief. “It sounded so awful when I said it to myself. I thought I would make it worse by speaking about it.”

“I wish you’d told me,” he said, brushing messy strands that had escaped from her braid behind her ear.

“I know. But Matthew, I thought you’d never forgive me. I thought you’d never trust me again.” Her voice cracked. “How can you trust me, then, and not Jade? We’re cut from the same cloth.”

“The situation was completely different,” Matthew said. “Jade wasn’t being threatened. She wasn’t protecting anyone but herself. That makes all the difference in the world.”

“It doesn’t,” Kathleen said. “I spoke to her about it. Matthew, if you want to forgive me, you have to forgive Jade. We have to make up to her what we did. Jade might not be family, but we made a mistake treating her like we did. We have to figure out a way to fix it.”

Matthew felt lost. His whole world had been upended, but at least now he could understand why Kathleen and Allison had been acting the way they did. Sorrow rushed through him about everything they had gone through. About the weight of the past that they all carried. About how the world had changed, and thus stripped them of the innocence and happiness they had once known. They could be happy now, but they were all scarred from their experiences. He just hoped they could recover from it, and do it together. They were family, after all. There was nothing more important.

He opened his mouth to say as much, when a high-pitched shriek cut through the morning light. He spun around to look for danger, but only saw the empty driveway and the sunlight outlining the pine trees in bright green.

“What was that?” he whispered.

“It’s Jade,” Kathleen said, gripped his hand hard enough to hurt. “It has to be.”

“We don’t know that,” Matthew said, and he wondered when the hits would stop coming. When the world would stop testing them. “It could be a trap. We have to be careful, Kathleen.”

The shriek came again. He could just barely make out the words calling for help.

“No one else is that close,” Kathleen said. “It’s her, Matt. We have to help her.” She started to walk down the driveway but Matthew hung back. Their arms were like a bridge between them. Kathleen squeezed his hand once before letting go and started running down the road. With a curse, Matthew followed, knowing he couldn’t let Kathleen handle this on her own. They were together in everything. He had to prove that he trusted her. That nothing had changed between them. That, maybe at the end of the day, they could be stronger because of it all.

At the end of the driveway, Matthew saw Jade come around the corner of the road. A hunched figure was draped over her. She had one arm wrapped around the figure’s waist while the other balanced him against her side. Whoever she was dragging appeared broken and struggled to stand. She staggered under his weight and called out to them, “Help me! This guy is hurt!”

Matthew recognized that slouching posture, but