169 Lily (5)

For a good minute, both Iris and Kyro were too stunned to react. Kyro had heard a few things about Gale's family over the years, but he'd never expected something like this. It was crazy even by Gale's standards, and that was saying a lot.

"What did they do?" Kyro asked.

There had to have been a trigger, something to bring this about. Usually, Gale was annoyed by his parents' stupid plots to test him, and he'd often threaten to leave them for real, but Kyro had always thought it was just a joke, not something he considered in reality.

His friend turned to him, a haunted look in his eyes. "Hell is too mild a word for what I lived through so my parents could turn me into the greatest businessman there ever was, and it messed me up. In more ways than one. You know how they never gave up on me, seeing me as their greatest creation, even if with a light flaw of rising up against them.

"The only reason I didn't cut ties with them was because of Lily. I didn't want them to force her through what I went. We had an agreement about it, but today, I came back unannounced, thinking to surprise the little girl. And you know what happened?"

His expression changed, and Kyro saw the old hatred in Gale's eyes. It burned with an unrelenting fury, and Gale jumped to his feet, starting to pace around the room. His steps were fast, but not enough to cause his breath to come in gasps. The way his chest rose, someone might think he had just run a short-distance race.

Then, he stopped and looked over at them with bloodshot eyes. "I didn't find Lily in her room. I visited all places, but she was nowhere. The servants didn't tell me anything, too scared of their masters, and so I wandered about until I reached my nightmares."

His voice broke then, and he looked away, gazing into the distance through the wall-length window. "She was in one of the rooms there. Tens of books around her as she sat at the desk with stiff fingers and blue lips. Under the piercing white light, she looked like a departed soul. And when she turned around… when she turned around…

"She couldn't even utter a word, so parched was her throat. And her eyes, they were puffy and red, almost impossible to see." Gale whirled around then, shooting Kyro a gaze full of murder. "I took her and left, destroying everything on my way. Those monster will never touch her again. I swear, if they even come close!"

"They won't see her again," Kyro agreed right away.

The story shook his soul, but he knew that this wasn't the time to ponder about the implications and what would come out of this. There would be problems in the future, thousands of them, because of this single action, yet not a part of him faulted Gale for what he did.

"Where is she now?" Iris asked softly, and he turned to her. Her eyes were dark, hooded, but he could see fury shining in their depths.

Gale trembled from anger as he tried to calm himself down, but his voice still held traces of intensity. "I left her in the car. She fell asleep while I called people on the way here."

"What are your plans?"

"I need to legally take her away from them," Gale instantly said. "But while I do that, I need someone to watch over her, and I can't trust any random person."

Kyro instantly shuffled through the people he knew. "Have you checked them?"

"Marge has work while Emily is out of the city for the next two weeks. That's why I came here."

Their eyes turned to Iris, and she nodded. "I'll do it. No child should ever be mistreated like that."

The instant she said that, Gale's face relaxed imperceptibly. He didn't say anything, but Kyro could see the relief he tried to hide. Gale straightened, and his eyes lit up with a new hope.

'Just how much does his sister mean to him?' In all their years of friendship, Kyro had heard her mentioned only once, and that was when Gale was totally drunk. At that time, he raised his drink in her name, wishing that she never got to see the real faces of their parents.

"Collect your things then," Kyro told Iris. "You'll stay at Gale's place while we take care of the other matters."

He didn't like this plan. At all. Not after what had almost happened, and in general it sounded awful, but he didn't have a good enough argument against it. Gale would never allow his sister to stay anywhere else than at his place, and for a good reason. His parents were fit to star in horror movies.

And it also explained some things about Gale. Kyro suddenly understood why Gale had always been so smart and seemed to know everything without even attending lectures. Kyro had been quite pissed off at the time how the other partied and pulled crazy stunts all the time yet was the top student, never getting anything but a perfect mark.

His distaste for authority and devil-may-care attitude also gained perspective. All of Kyro's knowledge about Gale was turned upside down.

Or maybe not. When he caught sight of Iris, her last words to him echoed in his ears. "You're not the same person now" she had said, and didn't that fit Gale as well? Although he might have grown up in the wrong place, Kyro knew the current him. Whatever he was in the past, it was in the past.

"Come," he told Gale, grabbing him by the shoulder. "We've got a lot of stuff to plan before tomorrow."

There was surprise in Gale's face. He seemed to have expected something else, more questions or a full on interrogation. It thus took him a moment to regain his footing and realize that he could keep his past to himself, all the important parts, anyway.

When Iris disappeared in her room to collect her few clothes, Gale came to his side. "Thanks," he murmured.

Kyro smiled slightly. Although Iris wasn't wrong in demanding an explanation, what Gale said was enough. His nightmares were his own to keep. "No questions, didn't we agree?"

Gale snorted, giving him a look that said he didn't miss how late these words came. They then waited for Iris together and left for downstairs once she came. There was a little girl and ten thousand problems waiting for them in the parking lot.