Shaking like a scared animal, I cleaned the last room of the house. The sour-smelling chemicals drenched my hands. I felt out of breath and dizzy with exhaustion. I was allergic to the brand Jacob bought, and, still, he bought it.

Was Cole right about me? Was I giving into someone who hadn’t been treating me right? Well, I knew deep down what the truth was. I wasn’t in love with Jacob. I was never in love with him.

I wanted out, but there was no escape. I didn’t have a college degree. I didn’t have any past jobs. All I had was Jacob’s controlling hand. If I left him, I wouldn’t be able to find any work.

Once the ideas started flowing, I couldn’t think about it anymore. It overwhelmed my whole body and mind. It felt like shackles were tightly screwed around my ankles, tightening me to the freshly cleaned floor.

“You’re finished,” Cole whispered with a sad smile.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Come take a walk with me. Please. I can take a day off of writing. I just want to see the old town again. No funny games, okay?” Cole said, eagerly.

I glanced at the clock that was positioned over his head. “Jacob gets home in three hours,” I said.

Cole smiled, and I couldn’t help but blush. I hadn’t seen him in such a long time, but it felt like he hadn’t aged at all. “We can be back in two hours,” Cole said.

Cole took my trembling hand into his. Near to us was a picture of Jacob and me on his work dresser, taken when we first met. I wasn’t smiling then, but I was smiling now.

Cole and I walked out into the sunlight. It was the first time in ages that I opened the door to so much beauty around me. The birds were singing in the trees, almost as if they were watching down on us.

“What a magical day,” Cole said. “The sky is gorgeous here.”

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and all of the surrounding plants were green and vibrant. “So, you miss this town?” I asked.

Cole bit his lip and squeezed my hand tighter. “I have missed you,” he said.

I laughed, letting the pleasure escape me. It was so lovely to be able to do something for myself for once. I felt like I really had a choice, but I didn’t know what I was falling into if anything. If Cole hadn’t left me those years ago, I might have had a different life.

But he did leave me, and I was forced into something terrible. “Yeah. Well, I’ve missed you too,” I admitted, looking away.

Our footsteps echoed off of the cobblestone bricks. We turned into an alleyway and paused for a moment. “You have?” Cole asked.

“Of course I have,” I said. “But I’m angry, Cole. I still don’t know why you left here.”

Cole’s eyes suddenly looked very heavy. He struggled to keep holding my hand, and eventually let go. He ran both of his palms over his face until he revealed his watering eyes.

“I felt so lost. So scared. You were stronger than me in so many ways,” Cole said. “I was an alpha who just wanted more with his omega, and I blew it. I left because my father was going to send me away.”

“Send you away?” I asked. “But you were only eighteen. That can’t be true.”

“Come on. I want to show you something,” Cole said.

Without saying a word, I walked with him through the back alleyways of our town. We circled around the shopping mall until we reached his old neighborhood. “What if someone sees us?” I suddenly asked.

“Then you’ll tell them I forced you to come here,” Cole said. “That, I needed some assistance with looking through my dad’s things. I won’t let Jacob touch you, Piper.”

I felt protected but worried. Sometimes, it felt like everyone was watching the streets from their windows, but it was hard to be sure. What I did know was that I wanted to help him get through his time of grieving.

“I trust you,” I said.

When we got to his house, I felt every emotion hit me. I didn’t break down this time, though. I let each wave ripple through me and out. I put my hand on that wooden door, running my fingers down to the metal handle.

“We had so many memories here,” I said.

Cole smiled and nodded his head. He slid his spare key inside the lock and pushed the door open. Inside, dust littered the air as the sunlight ran against it. I stepped into the old house, hearing the weight of our bodies wax against the wood flooring.

“I have too many memories here,” Cole said. “But every moment with you was special.”

Cole’s father was a functioning alcoholic on the outside, but once that door closed, he turned into a monster. I only experienced it a few times, but Cole showed up at my window once a week. His face would be bruised, or there would be fingerprints against his neck.

There was a room inside of Cole’s mind that he never let open. It was locked tightly, bolted down so that whatever was stored inside could never come out again. I knew that his good nature came from those experiences. He just wanted to make the world a better place.

The family photographs were still hung on those walls. Cole stood in between his dad, smiling as a young boy. In one picture, he was holding a baseball, and his front tooth was missing. “I’ve always loved this photo,” I said. “It’s so darling.”

Cole shrugged, but he took the frame into his hand anyway. Something drove him to stare at himself for a long time. “I hated playing baseball,” he said, smirking. “I was so terrible at it.”

He carefully placed the photograph back on the wall and kept walking. I walked with him, watching his every move, seeing how every nook and cranny affected his soul. A house could be everything to some people, and once that was officially gone, it could change them forever.

Cole only had the one father that recently passed. He never knew what happened to his omega side of the family, but he was sure that it was his fault somehow. At least, that’s what Cole would always tell people. Now that the only father he knew had passed, he’d probably never know how it happened.

Cole led me into his dad’s study. It felt dark and cold. Books littered the tables. “It’s like he was obsessively researching,” Cole said, hands in the air. “But why? What else did he need to know?”

The books were old science books, information on alphas and omegas. They were philosophical blunderings, preaching the reasons why betas were the answer to civilization’s problems. The betas could find a scientific way to have children, and thus, no more child-rearing deaths would occur. Infant mortality would be a thing of the past.

“A lot of betas looked up to him,” I said, shrugging. “And I really mean a lot.”

“Maybe in this town,” Cole said. “But elsewhere? Hell no.”

I trembled slightly because I was so used to thinking in such different ways. If Jacob even caught me talking about this subject, I’d hear about it for a month.

Cole opened a drawer and dug through some files. He tossed them over his head, scattering the papers everywhere. “Meaningless dribble,” Cole whispered. “I’m not saying they shouldn’t have children if they want to. I just don’t get why it’s wrong for us to have them.”

Finally, after reaching the fourth drawer of his father’s desk, he pulled out a single sheet of paper. Cole handed it to me. “There it is. Read it and tell me that I’m lying to you about leaving,” Cole said.

“Application for Enrollment,” I whispered, confused. “Okay, so he wanted you to go to college?” But then, I looked further into the detail. “Four-year mandatory military schooling?”

“And when I would finish my classes, I’d have to join the military,” Cole said, hand on his stomach. “It makes me sick to think about. I would never force my child to do that.”

I dropped the application, stepping on his father’s signature. I ran and threw my arms around Cole’s chest. “I’m so sorry, Cole,” I whispered. “I didn’t know you were going through any of that. You never told me.”

Cole leaned his head into my shoulder. I felt his breath curl around my ear. “I didn’t tell anyone. I left about a month later,” Cole said. “I just had this feeling, you know? I knew he would send me away. He was just waiting for the right time. He never loved me. I was his burden to bear.”

“Part of him did,” I said. “But he was a man full of all the wrong ideas, full of sadness and anger.”

I thought about myself at that moment. It could be so easy to get swept away by the people around you, by the teachings you were told were real, and by what society expected from you. Cole coming here was a scary thing because it opened up the door to so many possibilities. I didn’t want to end up like his father, but it was starting to seem like I might.

“Yeah, I guess,” Cole muttered. “Anyway, I don’t want anything from this house. I just came here to show you the truth. Now you know.”

I frowned and shot my head toward the doorway to the hall that Cole walked through. When I followed him, I saw that he was already walking toward the front door. The big folder of his father’s papers was in hand. “Wait,” I said. “Your room.”

Cole merely shrugged and kept walking. I glanced at the blue door to his room. “Who cares? It’s just a room,” he said.

But it wasn’t just a room. It wasn’t to me, anyway. And I knew that something inside of Cole yearned to see the inside once again. He just couldn’t face it, and it tore me to pieces to see him walk back out into the light without giving a proper goodbye.

I ran outside and called out to him. He turned around, pink in the face and nearly crying. “I wasn’t even written into his will. Did you know that?” Cole asked.

“What?” I paused to catch my breath.

“My dad. He didn’t write me into the will. He didn’t think to give me anything,” Cole said, hurt. “I don’t care about wealth or any of that shit. I’ve built my own life, but the idea that my father wasn’t thinking about me on his last days makes me feel more insignificant than anything in the entire universe.”

“Cole, I’m—”

“Screw that house,” Cole said, angrily. But he quickly caught his temper and sighed. “I’m sorry. Let’s get you back home. Jacob will be off work in thirty minutes.”

We walked home, but we didn’t hold hands after that moment.