Till Death Unites Us

Chapter 36

Ace's POV

I barely nod at Angela when she greets me. I stand there waiting for her to leave, but instead she smiles at me and says the most destructive thing after Eternity's recent words to me, "Oh, Ace, where is that nice pretty girl you brought with you?"

I feel like I had swallowed a million rocks, "She...she won't be coming around any time soon," Somehow, that sentence contains every bit of despair I feel. Angela smiles wistfully, "That's a shame." Don't I know it? I wait till she gets out before I sink into the bedside chair and let out a deep pained breath as it digs into my already exhausted muscles. My eyes are glued to my mother's unmoving form. Some days, I feel like I wanna shake her awake, because maybe then I wouldn't have to deal with this pressing guilt anymore. Maybe then, my mistake won't have such a terrible effect; my failure to protect her—both of them—all three of them—from him wouldn't haunt me every single day. But then, I'm scared of what she will think of me when she wakes up and finds out about everything I've done. How could she ever look at me again? If even Eternity, who has always seen the good in me, can't bear the sight of me anymore. What will my mother think when she finds out I have finally given in to my father's darkness? That I have accepted his blood money?

"You have always wanted me to quit playing around, find a girl and fall in love, and I never listened to you because I didn't want anyone else I care about involved with him. I couldn't have him hurting anyone else like he hurt Aria, mom. And you. And yet, he somehow managed to hurt the girl I fall in love with even before I even met her. How ironic is that?" The smile on my face is anything but happy. I fidget with the bandage wrapping my hand, the still tender skin stinging a bit. "I never wanted Eternity to find out this way. I tell myself that I was only searching for the right time to tell her, but I know that is a load of crap I say to make myself feel better. I am a coward, and I was scared because I knew she was going to be so disgusted with me she would leave me and never come back. And I thought I could keep her, shield her from all this, because maybe, just maybe, the luck that made me meet her would spare me a bit more. I could be happy and not have my moment of despair wreck everything I built with her." I finish bitterly, words feeling like venom on my tongue. I was a fool for thinking I could have happiness while my father—no, not father. Gene donor—is still alive. I'm staring at my mom's face, visualizing what she looks like with her eyes open and her lips turned up in a smile, worried that someday that image might slip away from me, when I hear a very quiet sigh.

I look over my shoulder to see if someone's is standing, finding no one, and then I feel a very faint grip on my hand, holding for a fraction of a second before it goes limp again. My hands are in my hair, my eyes studying her face for any sign of her earlier movement; nothing. I shoot up to my feet. Run to the door. "Angela! Call the doctor in here!"

The next minutes are a hazy blur as doctors and nurses crowd around her, monitor her heart, search for signs of her coming back. I'm gaping, my back pressed against the wall is the only thing holding me up, and I don't dare hope, don't dare allow myself a sliver of it till I know it won't be crushed down. My heart is racing in my chest, and next thing I know, the room is fading out, the voices and heart and I'm clearing my mind, taking deep breath, as my mother's hospital room fades and the setting of the new vision slowly replaces it.

I'm in the backyard of a house I don't recognize, watching as a guy with a familiar build sneaks in through the back door. He has a mask on, completely obscuring his face. My eyes follow his movement, darting around and searching for any sign that could help me figure out where I am. He reaches the kitchen, and starts looking around for something, his eyes finally settling on the microwave. He stumbles his way toward it, breathing heavily; his entire profile oozes anxiety. He eerily reminds me of myself the day I snuck into the Reeds' penthouse a whole lifetime ago. I start panicking when he moves the cursor on the microwave, setting it to 500 degrees. I may not be a housewife; my experience with the kitchen is pretty limited to instant stuff and scrambled eggs, but I have enough sense to know that setting that temperature when it is empty is a recipe for disaster. Realization hits me. He is going to blow up the house! I watch with disgust as the bastard runs out of the house, right when I glimpse a few letters scattered on the kitchen counter. I squint at the small letters, and I only have the time to read the name 'Evangeline Reed' before I am snapped away from it and following the criminal outside. Angel! I screwed up again and now Eternity is gonna lose the only mother figure she's ever had, all because I didn't stay away from her. Because I was too weak to walk away, and now she is gonna pay for my stupidity. They promised to kill anyone I tell; I should have know. As if I haven't hurt Eternity enough! Figuring I don't have much time left, I quickly put my panic aside and focus on the mailbox, thanking heavens that a watch is attached to it. 4/15/14, 10 p.m. Shit! That is tomorrow! I glance back at the guy who has now joined with three more people, all of them wearing dark hoodies and masks, completely covering their identity. What the fuck? Just how many people does it take to set a house on fire?! They nod at each other before each one pulls out a bottle and starts spilling it on the front porch. Gasoline?! Are you kidding me?! The bastard couldn't be satisfied with just the microwave blowing the house to tiny little pieces could he?! I am filled with a hatred like no other, an unrelenting fury urging me to spill that gas on him. One of them, a guy, takes out a lighter, moves a few steps back, and stares a bit wistfully at the house. They now no longer have their backs to me, and one of them reaches and rips her mask off, her blonde hair tumbling down and falling past her shoulders, her bright green eyes staring ahead emotionlessly.