Ch 13: The call

Rika felt equally baffled and amused when she heard Charon's serious voice.

A burst of laughter, a clear sign of her indecisiveness, escaped Rika's lips, leaving Charon looking utterly perplexed.

"Stop laughing! It is a severe accusation I am making against your family. You may not think this is abuse because the person in question is family! But the other person is still an alpha, right? You can die if you are not careful."

Rika slowly calmed down and stopped laughing.

Maybe Charon's words were valid. What happened to Rika could be considered abuse in its way.

But Rika could not bring herself to think of it that way. 

Seeing how Rika had nothing more to add or say about her issues, Charon made an educated guess that she did not want to talk about her home situation.

The older beta had no choice but to back off.

After all, it was standard for most parents to prioritise the stability of an alpha or omega child at home over a beta one. That was just how the world had evolved.

"Can you get up now? Does any other part except your ankle hurt?"

Rika looked at Charon's worried expression with a resigned look.

"No! Nothing else hurts. I do not understand how I managed to twist my ankle when the part that took the beating was my back."

The human body worked in mysterious ways, and Rika refused to question it. Charon did not reply but helped Rika get up and warped her foot.

Getting ready was a hassle since Rika only had limited mobility, but she managed to make it work.

The real problem came when it was time to leave.

Both the landlady and Charon assured Sui that she could stay there for as long as she wanted. 

However, Rika knew she needed to head home.

Mark could be detained for one night, but Rika doubted that even her mother could keep Mark under her influence for two nights.

Public transport was not Rika's preferred mode of transport, but it reliably got her from one position to another.

Rika finally turned on her phone (she did not remember turning it off last night), and it seemed to be going off urgently.

Over a dozen calls and messages were received from Mark and Emily, and even a couple from her mother and Suzie.

But the one that made Rika flinch was a single message from Damian.

'Pick up Emily's call.'

"Of fuck! I cannot believe Damian texted me! He never calls me first! Do I call him back? Ugh, I have a bad feeling about this."

Rika's heart beat a mile per minute while she looked down at her phone.

She was still debating what to do when her phone rang. Emily's name flashed on her screen, and Rika let out a small shriek. 

Not many people were on the morning bus, but those there gave Rika a weird look. 

Some might have also scooted away from her, but Rika was unsure. Her focus was solely on the phone in her hand and the ringing tone it produced.

Emily's call ended before Rika could pick it up. But her phone started ringing seconds later.

"Aren't you going to pick up the call? The person calling you seems to be hurrying to contact you."

Someone finally asked Rika this question, and she realised she needed to pick up the phone.

It was only a short drive to the station, so Rika decided to hold that call until she reached there and found an empty place.

Ultimately, Rika decided to find a hotel and rent it for a few hours.

The front desk lady looked at Rika strangely when she said she needed a room for a few hours, but she relented when Rika paid for a nightly stay.

When Rika's feet touched the floor of her room, her phone fell silent. It was her turn to call back.

"Come on! It will be fine. Emily has only called me ten times until now. I am sure she will understand why I could not call her back all this time."

Rika prepped herself while clutching her phone.

But just as she was about to press call, another call came, and Rika picked it up because of her reflexes.

"So, you finally decided to pick up the phone when Damian called, but you did not pick up the phone when I called? It makes me feel annoyed."

Emily's voice was flat when she spoke to Rika. 

She was clearly with Damian right now, which meant the phone was on loud-speaker. 

Whatever Rika was going to say would be heard by them both.

"T-That is not what I meant to do, Emily. I just found a place to pick up the incoming call. It's just a coincidence that it was Damian's call. I would have picked up this call regardless of who called."

Rika tried to assure Emily, but she felt tongue-tied.

She could imagine Emily's tense face as she tried to hold herself back from yelling at Rika. It would also be deserved since it was Rika's fault this time.

"You would have picked up regardless of the caller? I feel so flattered. Now, where the heck are you? We went to pick you up at your home yesterday, but your brother said you were out. We went there again, only to find that you were not there. So! Where are you? We'll come and pick you up."

Emily did not ask Rika; she demanded that Rika tell her where she was.

It was always like this with her; unfortunately, Rika knew it was better to comply with Emily than to let her do things her way.

She did not want Emily's people looking for her throughout the country.

"Emily, calm down. I am returning home. I will be back by the evening, so there's no need to worry."

Rika assured Emily, hoping that Emily would calm down and let Rika's heart rest.

"I am as calm as possible given the situation, Rika. You do not know how hard I have to hold myself back from coming after you and stopping Damian simultaneously. Why did you not give us a heads-up beforehand? What was so important that you had to leave so abruptly?"

In Rika's defence, it had not been an abrupt trip she decided to take suddenly.

She had planned her university trip to be this weak almost a year ago.

Of course, telling this to Emily was a death sentence for her.

"It was…just some work. That reminds me of how work is going for you. Did you decide where you want to apply for higher education? What about Damian? I'm sure he's having difficulty fending off all the scholarship offers he keeps getting."

Rika carefully navigated the conversation away from herself.

"Tsk, don't remind me. I have to fight off so many hands because Damian is uninterested and won't say 'no.' I am sure that those people are still stalking us. Wait, I see a shadow from the corner of my eyes. Damian, did you see that as well?"

Emily put the phone down, and her voice sounded muffled.

Rika had a vague idea of what was going on the other side of the phone, but it was not a world Rika wanted to be associated with regularly.

When Emily returned to the phone, she sounded annoyed, and there were a lot of loud noises.

Then came the sound of something breaking, and Rika knew that a fight had broken out.

Emily quickly pulled the phone back up to confirm what Rika suspected.

"Sorry, I will need to drop the phone now. It looks like the people following us were opponents who wanted to take us down, not our admirers. Damian has already jumped into the fight, and I'll join him. I'll see you in the evening."

Emily promised before she dropped the phone. It made Rika sigh in relief, knowing she could take her time.

Despite Emily saying they would 'meet in the evening,' neither she nor Damian would attend.

As much as Rika did not want to know Damian and Emily's sexual desires, she had been made aware of them throughout her friendship with the pair. And one of those desires included them getting excited after a fight.

"Tsk, stupid Alphas and their stupid sexual needs. They will be all over each other tomorrow. I should message Emily to meet outside. Otherwise, Suzie might get sick because of too many pheromones."

Rika sighed as she dropped her phone.

A feeling of loneliness stuck with her suddenly, but she managed to shake it off.

There was no point in feeling sad for herself. Sui would have a good chance of finding someone once she was in the academy and away from her family.

"That's right! I already made a friend I got along with other than Emily and Damian. That is more than what I had in the past. I should count myself lucky. Now, I only need to keep this up, and I can gain a lot of friends who like me for who I am and not because I am from the Goodwill family's middle child."