Let Go

49: Aftermath

Harken's P.O.V.

As much as I wanted to think that I was there to save Aiden, I knew deep down that I wanted to save all of them, too.

Thomas meant a lot to me, whether I liked it or not. He was my only brother, and I had depended on him on multiple occasions where he never turned me down. To me, he was a steady rock, and I felt a sense of safety when I thought about Thomas being there for me. He picked me up from rainy streets and empty towns and tried his best to keep me sheltered. I started realizing how bratty I was to a certain extent. I may have been under a lot of pressure and under the influence of multiple drugs or drinks, but Thomas looked past that, always.

Raiden was Aiden’s brother and Thomas's husband, so he I couldn't not care for him either. He treated my brother with kindness and compassion, two things Thomas rarely got, and I was thankful for that.

I couldn't not care for their son either. Raiken, who was named after Raiden and me was a special little boy and I was proud of him.

And Ruby simply because she was Aiden's daughter.

I wasn’t the hero they wanted or deserved. I wasn’t a hero simply put. I was as selfish as it got. I just wanted the ragged peel-and-stick family I had created in my head. I wanted them back and I wanted to belong with them.

I didn’t expect such a small request would result in something so messy. I didn’t expect so much blood to be shed for wanting something so personal. I didn’t want this to happen. I didn't want the deaths or the sacrifices. But Blake gave us no other choice. He had them all kept in a house at the outskirts of Hilltown, where he resided temporarily with the most of his mafia.

Scarlet managed to get the kids to safety. She took them to the back where there was almost no gunfire happening and snuck them through a window. One of dad's car was waiting for her and escorted them back to the manor in Rivertown.

Thomas took a bullet in the arm. He shot the onr remaining bodyguard Blake had on him in the room where Raiden was kept, but Blake was fast and shot him. To Blake's misfortune, coke made your aim a little unsteady. I didn't know what happened after.

Aiden managed to save himself with the help of the cops and my dad.

I was going to be free, too, until something we didn’t expect happened.

I was the target of an unseen gun. I didn’t see the gun trained at me. I was busy with the man shooting me from the kitchen window. I kept my guard, until I momentarily left my right side vulnerable, thinking I was safe. The police officer that was by my right had been caught up with someone else.

But Aiden saw it happen. And he was brave, I had to admit. He was going to take the bullet for me. It made me feel like I meant to him as much as he meant to me, if only for a few seconds as it happened. He favoured my life over his. It made me think, believe, that he couldn’t live with me gone.

I couldn’t do it, either, Aiden. You meant more than life itself to me, and I wish I could’ve told you that during that very moment, as you jumped in midair to take my bullet. But it wasn’t yours to take. It didn’t have your name on it.

But it didn’t have mine either.

Someone else took the bullet for me. Someone I didn’t know had followed me here.

Jamie Martin.

Luckily, the chaos was dying down, and paramedics were able to tend to him. They lifted him up onto a gurney and slid him into an ambulance as I held back a sobbing Aiden.

I finally had him in my arms, but it was to calm him down over his dying boyfriend.

“Please tell me he’ll be okay,” He heaved against my chest. I tried my best not to fall apart. I wanted to keep him in my arms, but not like this. How was I supposed to help him when I was the one who needed help. But alas, I carried him to Demetri’s car and laid him in the back seat. I sat next to him and put his head on my lap. I gently stroke his hair as his sobbing died down.

“Demetri, take us to the Mother of Mercy hospital.” I instructed Demetri, who obliged.

Aiden’s sobbing halted. He clung to my shirt like a little baby would to their mother. He dry-heaved every now and then. “He’ll be okay,” I said, trying to reassure him.

“I hope so. He doesn’t deserve it,” And with that he started crying again.

It didn’t take us long to get to the hospital, and even less to find Jamie’s whereabouts. He was taken immediately into the ER and would be admitted into surgery. They didn’t tell us anything other than that.

After a few hours, Aiden found the ability to speak again. “I didn’t expect to see you there,”

“I wanted to help them get you back,”

“I didn’t even know you left the psych ward,” Aiden said and honestly, I didn’t know that he knew I was there. Then I remembered that he worked at Rivertown Hospital, and his blood ran
through my veins.

“There’s a lot that you don’t know,”

We were sitting on plastic chairs in the lobby of the operations room. A doctor was supposed to come out any minute now.

“I hate that this is how we reconcile,” he said. I couldn’t bear the small talk. I didn’t want to have small talk with Aiden. I wanted to hold him and kiss him and be near him. I wanted to feel him and smell him. Any other feeling I had for him was purely pretentious.

My phone rang and I took the call away from Aiden. I used it as an excuse to calm myself down.

It was my dad.

Blake was dead.

Thomas shot him point blank in the head.

A/N: Surprise chapter! Expect faster chapters now that I'm ending the story. There's only 3 left I believe unless I write a bit more in the conclusion. I feel like it can hold a lot more but I already added a lot to it.

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More soon x.