Chapter 116: Sadie: Grace And Restraint

SADIE

There are several answers I expect now that Matron can see I won’t let this go. Maybe she’ll admit there are records I was never shown. Maybe she’ll even blame the doctor who examined me or claim the orphanage had no way of knowing.

Instead, she glances at the hand I’ve planted on her desk, then lifts her eyes to mine. "What did we teach you about the way a woman speaks?"

I blink, the anger in my chest stalling beneath the shock. "What?"

"The first rule, Rhodes. Surely you remember it." Her voice remains cold and even. "A woman never needs to raise her voice. She speaks with grace and restraint, no matter how upset she may be. Sit properly and compose yourself. Your friends are watching." The faintest crease appears between her brows. "You’re embarrassing yourself, and me along with you. I never knew you to behave this way."

For several seconds, I can only hear the uneven pull of my own breath. I want to ask whether she missed the part about my wolf being suppressed from infancy, but I know she caught every word.

My lips tremble. So does the hand still pressed against her desk. I try to speak, but the first breath leaves me without a sound.

"Do you... do you think this is a joke?"

"What the fuck does any of that have to do with what she just told you?" Lola demands beside me. "You’ve got to be kidding."

Matron turns from me slowly, fixing her with a narrow look.

"No matter how many years have passed, every child raised here is expected to uphold the values we taught them. Returning to throw tantrums and behave in such an uncultured manner is not something I will tolerate in this office."

"You haven’t answered her question," Trey interrupts.

I pull my hand from the desk and trap it inside the other, pressing my fingers around it until my nails dig into my skin. It continues to shake anyway. So do my lips. Angry tears gather behind my eyes, blurring everything at the edges, but I refuse to let them fall in front of her.

"Sadie asked you a question," Trey continues. "Instead of answering, you went straight on the defensive. That doesn’t look good. Usually means there’s something you’d rather not explain."

Matron slowly shifts her attention to him.

"Does that rulebook of yours mention what a woman should do when someone asks her a direct question?" he asks. "Answer honestly, maybe? Treat it as though it matters?"

A frown pulls at her face.

"I never said it didn’t matter," she replies, releasing an irritated breath. "I have stated the facts several times. No information was hidden from Rhodes."

"Then let her see the records," Trey says. "There should be one for every child raised here. If hers says exactly what you’ve told her, she can read it and confirm that herself."

Matron’s nostrils flare, and her jaw moves like she’s grinding back whatever she wants to say.

I’m grateful Trey and Lola stepped in, although I’ve somehow been pushed out of a conversation about my life, my wolf, and what was done to both of us. They’re also the only reason Matron’s expensive tea is still sitting upright and her polished desk hasn’t been introduced to the floor.

How women should speak, my foot.

She knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s trying to pull me back into the place I occupied as a child, where she could silence me by making my behavior the problem. Too loud. Too difficult. Too unlike everyone else. There was always something wrong with me, and she always found a way to make it matter more than what I was trying to tell her.

Five years later, nothing about her has changed. She’s still just as wicked.

"If you insist." Matron rises and gives Trey a tight smile. "We don’t usually release these records without the proper procedures. But since you’ve approached the matter so maturely, I’m willing to make an exception."

The praise is meant for him, but the insult lands on me.

She heads toward the door behind her desk. I’m about to give her a response she can add to my list of uncultured behavior when Lola reaches across Walker and places her hand over mine.

"Don’t," she whispers. "She’s getting your file. Don’t let her distract you from that."

I nod, pressing my lips together. My eyes drift toward Trey, only to find him already watching me, and I quickly focus elsewhere.

Ten minutes drag by.

That’s enough time for me to wonder whether the room behind Matron’s office has another door and she’s slipped out of the building to avoid us. Maybe she’s halfway home by now, congratulating herself on escaping the uncultured woman demanding access to her own childhood.

The door finally opens.

She emerges with a folder, and I sit up immediately, my heart beginning to pound as she carries it toward the desk.

If she’s willing to show it to me, there might be nothing useful inside. I know that. Still, hope begins pushing through everything else. There could be a doctor’s name. My exact age when I arrived. One sentence that leads me somewhere beyond this place.

She drops the folder in front of me. It lands with a thud, sending a thin cloud of dust into the air.

I wave it away from my face while she holds out her arms, frowning at the powder on her sleeves.

"Would you look at that?" She gives a dry laugh. "But never mind. It isn’t important. This is your complete file. Everything we have from the day you arrived, your initial examination, doctors’ reports, school transcripts. Everything there is to know, and—"

The folder is in my hands before she finishes. It’s thinner than a sixteen-year file should be. I open it immediately, leaving the dust to settle across the desk as I separate the documents.

Some go to Trey, others to Walker and Lola. There are four of us. If something is hidden in these pages, one of us should find it.

The office falls quiet as everyone starts reading.

Five minutes pass. Then ten. After half an hour, we’ve examined every document and gone back through several, checking dates, names, and margins for anything we might have missed.

September 10, 2005. The day I was brought here. That much is recorded clearly.