“Have you stopped studying for a long time?” Patrick asked her. “I heard that you stopped studying when you were only 14, back when your mother hadn’t fallen ill.”
“Yes. But the reason I stopped studying didn’t have much to do with my mother’s illness. I’ve told you before about how a kid without a father is treated at school. I grew up under that kind of bullying. The school didn’t have everything I liked. I had no friends, no classmates to eat with, and no teachers who would favor me. So, I simply stopped going to school.”
“If you were in a different environment, would you want to continue studying?”
Emma fell silent. Florence’s family couldn’t afford the cost of her education, and with one parent addicted to drugs and the other to alcohol, she had no energy to go to school. Just getting enough money from her monthly job to keep the family from being evicted was a struggle, and it would be even better if there was some money left over for food. Yet, despite her fear of being bullied by her classmates, she still yearned to learn new things.
She yearned to go to college, to see the world beyond Blue Halo Pack.
“… I don’t know. If the school’s teachers and students were still relatively kind, I would still want to study. Studying is the only way for me to understand this world. Only studying can help me escape from my current predicament. I want to study. But I can’t. My home is here, I still have to pay rent, support myself, and repay the debts from buying drugs before.”
Patrick gently said to her, “You’re only sixteen, this isn’t something you should worry about. The only thing you should do is study and maintain a healthy body. Others will help you with the money issue.”
Emma frowned slightly. “Who can help me with that? It’s a huge sum of money.”
The debt from medications alone was close to fifty thousand US dollars, yet her monthly salary was only eighteen hundred US dollars. In the face of this debt, that amount of money was just a drop in the bucket. Who could help her with this?
“Come to Silver Moon Pack with Nelson. We will consider you as family. After you come, we are willing to help you with your study expenses.”
This invitation was undoubtedly a huge temptation for Emma. She needed a new environment to escape the pain brought by her mother’s death, and the person in front of her had just promised to allow her to continue studying.
“But I don’t want to leave Blue Halo Pack.”
Blue Halo Pack was her home, her hometown. After leaving here, she wouldn’t be able to find where she belonged.
Patrick patiently counseled her, “I understand the love people have for their hometown. But I’m not asking you to abandon Blue Halo Pack. You’re only sixteen right now, you can’t handle everything on your own. You have your living expenses, your rent, and your tuition. Living with Nelson, you don’t necessarily have to maintain a father-daughter relationship with him. You just need to let him make up for the unfair treatment you’ve received in the past.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re still a minor, so according to werewolf law, you have to live with the guardian. But when you become an adult, you can still decide to return to your hometown on your own, and no one can stop you. So during this brief time before you come of age, think of it as living in the sponsor’s house, dealing with an investor who expects a return, rather than a long-lost father. And the sponsor’s goal is just to gain peace of mind. Will this make you feel better?”
Compared to older adults, many of Patrick’s words resonated more with Emma. Indeed, Emma’s eyes had begun to waver.
“But I’m not ready to live in a new and unfamiliar place. And, won’t your mother have prejudice against me?” She didn’t hold much hope for her future stepmother. After all, in her impression, no one would look kindly on the child of a former partner.
“Don’t worry, this is Nelson’s responsibility. My mother will understand,” Patrick said gently.
Emma breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay. Thank you, Patrick. Can I call you that, or should I call you brother now?”
“You can call me by my name directly, Emma. In return, can I call you Emmie?”
Emma didn’t mind him calling her that, and she was even somewhat pleased. “As long as you like.”
“Aren’t you going back yet? Edward, your alpha, is looking for you.”
Emma shook her head gently.
“But I think you should attend her funeral,” Patrick said. “You were the person she loved most in this life. You should see her off.”
Emma didn’t reply.
Patrick thought she hadn’t heard him.
After a while, she said, “It’snot that I don’t want to see her off. It’s just that at this moment, I still haven’t fully accepted the fact that she’s gone.”
How long does it take for people to accept that they have gone from receiving to losing?
“I understand,” Patrick said. He understood that feeling, the shift from disbelief to heartbreak happens in a moment, when you realize that you have lost that person forever and can never get them back.
Emma looked at him in surprise, “How?”
“When I was fifteen, I lost my father. At a similar age to you now, I couldn’t accept it. I kept berating the people around me, not allowing them to emphasize the fact that my father had left.”
Emma didn’t know how to comfort him. Perhaps he, like her, didn’t need any comfort; they just needed to quietly digest this.
She reached out and quietly held Patrick’s hand. Patrick could feel it, but he didn’t pull away. He liked the warmth this hand brought him, it made him feel warm and peaceful.
He continued, “I was silent for a long time. I didn’t cry, but every day I was confused, just like you are now. They told me that I should take on the responsibilities of an alpha, but no one taught me how to do it. I was like a zombie, without thoughts and soul.”
“But you got through it,” Emma said.
“Yes,” Patrick replied. “I got through it. Now I’m by your side, and you will get through it too.”
Emma fell silent. She couldn’t promise that she could get through it like the alpha in front of her. She was just an ordinary girl.
Patrick tightened his grip on her hand, “Believe me, we can get through this together.”
Emma’s heart skipped a beat involuntarily, “I understand.”