Alexys

Chapter 3

Barbara Carson

When I transferred to work at the local hospital of Eastwood. No one told me that I was working as a receptionist. Cayden was right. There was a car accident that happened yesterday after midnight. Gilbert Walker died.

The man doesn't even live here. The only connection that he has with Eastwood is that his wife used to live here. She used to have a family here, a 'not so loving' husband and two kids. When she got divorced, she left her kids to live with their abusive father. Two years after the parents' divorce the older brother ran away. And a year after that the daughter died in accident. Poor girl was trapped in a fire. 

Tragic.

"Everyone is saying that Benjamin Taryn is behind it all" I overhear a woman whisper to the other receptionist.

"Of course, he is. The man stole his wife from him. Don't you know what happened to his family after the divorce."

"But why wound he wait thirteen years to kill him?" the woman asked as the receptionist hushed her.

An hour or so passed. A woman comes in, the sound of her cries is heartbreaking. It gave me satisfaction. "I want to see my husband. Please!" she starts yelling.

"Ma'am please calm yourself you'll get the chance to see him when the doctor says so. The cops are still investigating." The nurse calmly tells her as she helps her sit in one of the chairs just in front of me.

Helen Hardy Walker is sitting right in front of me. My mother is sitting right in front of me. The one who had abandoned me.

I walk to her squeezing a bottle of water in my hand. "Here, take this." I say as I give it to her. She doesn't even look at me. Now I'm standing before her as a stranger, my heart pounding in my chest. She didn't change a bit. I thought that the weight of the years would change her appearance and I wouldn't recognize her if she walked past me. But she's still the same as when she left us years ago.

My heart aches and I feel angrier. How could she live happily ever after with her husband while I was suffering with father. She knew what he was capable of. Yet she left us with him and didn't even think about saving us.

I walked away and I wondered if she would recognize me if she just looked at my face. I know how risky it is to be here around her. But I agreed to take the risk the moment I said I was ready to come back and live in Eastwood. I could meet father at any minute. He could recognize me. In fact, anyone who knew Alexys's face would recognize me. But I guess for them Alexys is just a ghost now.

For the next couple hours, I watch my mother as she has the most heartbreaking mental breakdown in front of me in that same chair. And I can't help it but feel satisfaction knowing I was the reason behind Gilbert's death. I mean accident. And I know that she will blame her ex-husband for her lover's death. How ironic.

It's finally the lunch break. A part of me didn't want to leave. I wanted to see her be miserable. I could watch her like this for hours. "Hey, let's go and get some lunch. Since it's your first day here I'll take you to a restaurant not so far from here." Paige, the other receptionist said.

"Uh, no I think I'll skip lunch today. You can go I'll take care of it here." I mumbled.

"Come on." she sighed "Don't be silly, Vanessa would take care of it here while we're gone. Come on we only have one hour let's go." she said as she tried to grab my hand, but I stopped her.

"I don't really like people touching me." I faked a smile. I could tell that she wouldn't leave me alone. "Fine I'll come with you to the restaurant that you're talking about."

The restaurant was like a ten minutes' walk. It looked warm and inviting, with soft lighting casting a gentle glow on the furniture. There was gentle music playing in the background. It wasn't a fancy establishment, but rather a humble and pretty cool place.

"Do you know the woman that you were staring at the entire morning." Paige said, catching me off guard. "Wait of course you don't! You just moved here." she continued. "That woman is Benjamin Taryn ex-wife." she whispered. "He's kind of a dangerous man who's involved in a lot of illegal stuff. Look, I don't want to scare you because you just moved here and you don't know what's going on around, but Eastwood is not very safe. No one here goes to the cops if something happens. Because at the end of the day The Royal Serpents will take care of it. I know that the name sounds so weird, but a lot of girls and fangirling over them because they're a bunch of bikers. You don't see them often because they work in secret. We never got to see their faces. We don't even know if they live in Eastwood, but I believe that they are also dangerous since they are involved themselves in some illegal shit. Some people say that they work with Benjamin, but nobody really knows what is actually going on." she carried on trying to keep her voice low.

Of course, father was still doing God knows what with God knows who. And of course, people were still scared of him. I've always wanted to know what he was capable of until I saw it happen in front of my eyes. I saw how cruel he was. At that moment I wondered if he was even human. He's a monster. If he's done that to his own blood, to his own daughter. I don't know what he's capable of doing to other people. I can't even imagine what he would do to other people.

"But the only thing that I'm sure of is that family is cursed. His wife left him. His son went to God knows where. And his daughter died in a fire." My chest tightened, and my breath became shallow as she continued talking about my family.

Thank God the waitress came in bringing us the pasta that we ordered. Paige thanks her but then calls her again "Can you tell the Chef to bring us his famous soup, please. My friend is new here. I want her to try it." Paige turned to me "They have such a fast service. You should see how crowded it gets in the holidays." she said looking around then she suddenly looked at me "Oh I forgot to tell you how hot the chef here is. Look I don't know what exactly his work is. I know that he cooks, and he owns the place." He whispered as if he was going to hear her.

I try to stop myself from rolling my eyes at her and I act as if I'm searching for something in my purse just so that she could stop talking for a fucking second. "Oh, here he comes" she decides to bless me with her annoying voice yet again.

"Hey, I hope you enjoy the pasta. Unfortunately, the soup that you ordered is not on the menu today." the manager said with a sincere tone.

Wait, I know that voice. I raise my head from my purse to finally look at the 'hot owner'. And my eyes lock with his eyes. My neighbor's eyes. Daniel's eyes.

He also looks surprised, but he plays it off. "Hello again, Barbara." he said, smirking.