“ Those are some very tough questions, Em. ” Arlise’s voice softened as she studied the girl beside her. Em looked so small and yet so terribly grown in this moment—too young to be carrying fears like these, too old to be soothed with easy answers. Arlise folded her hands in her lap, trying to gather her thoughts. She couldn’t bring herself to treat this lightly. Not when Em clearly hadn’t.
“ Well… you see… ” She hesitated, because Em wasn’t asking anything Arlise hadn’t asked herself late at night. She had wondered the very same things—why Cait kept stepping in and out of Percy’s life, why she always seemed to leave cracks in him when she went.
“ I—I don’t know why Cait hurts Percy, ” she said at last, with an honesty she hoped wouldn’t sting too sharply. “ Truly, Em, I don’t understand it myself. ”
She drew in a slow breath, sorting through her memories, her observations, the whispered conversations she’d heard between others who thought she wasn’t listening. “ But… sometimes when someone is scared, or hurting in ways they don’t know how to talk about, it can make them hurt others. Even the people they love. Even when they never meant to. It isn’t fair, and it isn’t right, but it happens. ”
Arlise reached out, lightly brushing her fingers against Em’s knuckles in a silent reassurance.
“ And it worries me too, ” she whispered, because she would never lie and say it didn’t. “ I see it in him. That… dimming. That heaviness. It’s not easy to watch. And it’s even harder to help. ”
There was a tiny shake in her voice—barely there, but real. Percy mattered to her, deeply. Enough that the thought of losing him, even emotionally, frightened her more than she liked to admit.
“ All we can do is be here for him. Support him. Remind him he’s loved and needed and not alone. ” She looked toward the window for a moment, gathering her courage before adding, “ And maybe… gently guide him away from Cait, if she keeps hurting him like this. Aslan knows I’ve tried to find someone better for him. Someone who would hold him properly, and not let him slip through their fingers. ”
She shook her head, her long hair swaying softly with the movement.
“ As for your last question… ” Her voice went quiet, gentle as a sigh. “ I can’t give you a certain answer, Em. I wish I could. I wish I understood it better than you do. ”
Her eyes warmed, tender and earnest.
“ But I hope love is enough. Truly. I want it to be. And I believe—somewhere in me—that the right kind of love will be. ”
