A weekend with the Alpha novel Chapter 55

Aaron was seated on the armchair, still, in the grey long sleeve, he wore last night. He looked less affected by everything that was going on. His mind seemed to have wandered off.

"That is bullshit!" Damor snapped, pacing around. He seemed pissed off at whatever was suggested by Ivan. "I say we attack. Draw the first blood. Show them why the Harts are not to be messed with."

"Who do we attack then? Because we do not know who was behind the attack and for all, we know it was an act by one who was out of control." Ivan, who also stood, spoke with much reasoning.

"If we treat this mild, they will take us as weak," he growled.

"I agree with you, Damor, but we do not even know who we are up against. As Ivan said, we can't afford to start a war we can't finish." Sesi spoke up in a calm tone. She sat opposite Aaron in the chair.

"Then we take them all," Damor answered with much confidence.

"That's foolish," Sesi argued.

He turned to her with his eyes flaring red. "Do not use that word on me. I am still older than you."

"Then show it in your words and action." She shot at him.

Damor wanted to speak but stopped himself and his head whipped around to Aaron who had sat without saying a thing and asked. "Are you going to stay silent all day?" at Damor's question, everyone's attention turned to Aaron.

He sighed, "I agree with Ivan that an attack without an aim is pointless."

Damor scoffed, not so happy with Aaron's response. "So do nothing?"

"Sometimes doing nothing is the best strategy. If there was more to the attack, then doing nothing would make the instigator of the attack return, and then we will be ready." He answered and took a moment to pause before saying.

"You shouldn't be up or here. You should be in your room, resting." Aaron spoke up, moving his gaze over to me and the eyes of the three others in the room turned to me at the door.

"Resting isn't helping me, is it? Besides, this is about me as it is about the rest of you, my son and I were the ones who got attacked. I'm the one who almost got killed by the poison the attacker injected into my veins, do not forget that." I said, stepping further into the study.

With no form of objection, they departed from the study, leaving it empty but for the both of us. I would have also taken my leave, but I couldn't bring myself to. I felt frozen on the spot by the truth of Aaron's condition and his outburst, and I stood still.

"You should leave," he spoke in a softer tone of voice and turned away from me.

I wish I could. I felt sad and angry and guilty. Sad because I didn't want to see him this way and guilty because if what Sesi said was the truth, then Aaron had little time and that means Zion would be fatherless in no time...

A week or two weeks ago, the very thought of Aaron disappearing from our lives would have given me so much joy I would have thrown a party, but now knowing what I know, I felt like a horrible person for everything. I was a horrible person.

I cheated him; I cheated him of the years he could have gotten to know his son. I knew he would have given anything to be a part of Zion's life.

"I can't," I said with a small voice. It was the truth, I couldn't bring myself to leave. My legs felt stuck.

He sighed and said nothing else.