There was no sympathy, for Will. Cornelia swore by it, but she had also sworn by Caleb; his silence, and the fact that he was nothing like himself created an obsession in her mind - not to have him, or any such ludicrousy, but that at least she'd do what she let him believe needn't be done. Will hadn't sat down, claiming that her back was sore while 'her' girls all tried not to mention the fact that none of them wanted to be here - more importantly that they didn't want Will to be here, in Cornelia's spacious sitting room. But Will was being 'framed'. "Is this some joke, because you can't admit that you're sorry? You want us all to feel sorry for you?"
"I didn't say framed, I said suspected. They think I did it!" It had almost felt good, to think that Will was finally asking them for something. For a moment it had felt like Will was Will when she'd been standing at the door. Then Cornelia had stopped looking through the glass, and had opened the door to be met by short, informative, but certainly in no way friendly sentences. "Did any police officers return to your houses?"
"Well..ehem.." Irma dropped her timidly raising hand along with the joke, as soon as Will's eyes had flashed to her aggressively.. Cornelia had let Caleb believe that Will didn't need help. He couldn't fix this, and it was in him and the way that everything had changed on the occasions she saw him, that Caleb couldn't face that. And she would love to say, that greed made her keep the true extent of Will from him, but greed was truly what made her ask him again and again to come back. She didn't know, if maybe he had a solution, but Cornelia implied reason for him to come because she didn't want to carry the weight any more. Will was damn heavier than she looked. But Irma still managed to mutter behind her hand, "..Well, he did come home.."
It didn't help, that Taranee's eyes lingered on her, but Cornelia knew when ignoring Will was not an option. "Look, I have an idea."
She'd never been good with greed, and if not Caleb, maybe Meridian would remind Will of her place.
...
Drake wasn't sure, when Aldarn being best friends with Caleb, had started meaning that Aldarn didn't get to know anything any more, but Caleb was more full of fear. Drake had known, that Caleb was in pain for what he'd done, but there it had been in the quivering strength as a boy held his confessions. Caleb only liked to tell Drake, because Drake was at least a sinner too. So some of the judgement was shared - that was the exact theory that Drake had had until he'd realized that Caleb just didn't seem to have anyone else to tell. It was tragedy greater than any story or book he'd read, that Caleb might just be strong enough to have learnt his lesson after all.
It was in the fact that Caleb was honestly just letting people see him, rather than holding back words of a nightmare which had tumbled one on top of the other, dishing out the reason that Caleb felt sick at the thought of living much longer, and then there had been the fact that he simply couldn't die though. He was scared of that as much as he was afraid of himself. But Drake glared at Aldarn's back, thinking that he might never have another moment to deliberate Caleb so thoroughly, because Caleb had left; his face littered in sadness that Aldarn seemed to be absolved of noticing. "He's really sad, Aldarn."
"I know. He stopped being himself, and started trying to impress her." And yet, after all the confessions in the world, Drake knew that Aldarn would always know Caleb better. "I think that's when he got confused maybe."