Chapter 330: 2-3

“I actually wanted to talk to you about Kayla… about her being your mate,” he stopped walking his blue eyes, I saw it again, that edge Marlon spoke of. “What about my mate?” he eyed me and I felt like Ben had grown four feet in two seconds. I took a step back, sitting on the warm sand, making this as non-confrontational as possible, “Chelsea told me that she had lots of scars that you saw?” Ben blinked nodding slowly, sitting next to me, his face focused on me while I looked between him and the soft calm morning waves. “Yeah… she has them all over her hand and her arm,” he showed me where on his own body, “Did… did Chelsea tell you how she got them? Did she get into a car accident?” I don’t think I’ll ever forget the moment where I crushed the hope he had in his eyes right then, his young mind… I shook my head. “Oh…” he said looking down, fisting the sand, then letting it fall, “So how did she get them then?” “I want to tell you, but Ben before I do that, I need you to know that if you want to talk to someone about this, I am here to listen to you okay? You are learning something very private and it’s not something that Kayla would like for you to tell other people… do you understand?” He squinted his eyes, “I – I think so, it’s private so I shouldn’t tell anyone because, it’s not my business to tell?” I could see him trying to work it out in his head, his blue eyes, “Does that mean Kayla doesn’t know I’m going to know?” her followed right up his eye brows scrunched together and I could see that we had hit a bump already. “Well… Kayla might not feel prepared to talk about it, so you shouldn’t bring it up unless she does,” I answered carefully. “Okay,” he nodded, “how did she get all those scars? Her mom and dad aren’t doing that to her right? Chelsea wouldn’t let her get hurt here on the island…” he said the last part more to himself than anything. “No, her mom and dad aren’t doing that to her, and you’re right, Chelsea wouldn’t let them continue to hurt her if they were.” He mumbled something as he glanced away. “Do you remember meeting Rainy?” he nodded, “Well when she was your age someone bad took her, and he hid her away where no one could find her…” his eyes widened. “Is the bad person gone? Did Chelsea and Gabriel and Lux get them?” This oddly surprised me; I wondered whether or not they were his sense of authority because we were on the island? Or if from now on Ben would see the law only as what his sister and Gabriel said was the law. “The man who took her is gone yes, but Kayla’s mom, she was locked away for ten years Ben. While she was locked away, she gave birth to her children,” I paused letting the information settle. “So, Kayla was locked away too?” he asked his head dipping down, eyes wide, hand a few inches from the sand. He seemed frozen, but his head snapped to mine waiting for an answer, “Yes, she was locked away too,” I glanced at his hand shaking as it just dropped to the sand, neither moving to grab sand or do more than make a tight fist. “She doesn’t know a lot of things,” he mumbled. “That’s right… but she’s learning… she isn’t used to people being nice to her-” “They locked her away and were mean to her?” I nodded, “Yes… she was hurt in many different ways Ben and she is still learning to be around others,” I said but his face scrunched together. “But she seems fine when it’s girls,” my own eyes widened before I cleared my face, he noted that. “So she is afraid of me?” he asked sadly. “She isn’t afraid of you, she just is making sure-” “That I won’t hurt her, she was asking a lot about doing things wrong…” he said and I was a bit confused. “What do you mean?” Ben clicked his tongue, “well, she asked what would happen if she didn’t stop the ball from entering, she was afraid of doing something wrong, my stomach was turning.” He said confused.