Remnant Of The Gods

Chapter 5

Tony put his head in his hands, "This is all so screwed up. I am sorry," he said, finally looking me in the face. "Lisa and I, we have something good you know, and I didn't want to hurt your mother anymore. I am so sorry things ended the way they did but I was just trying to do the right thing. We all have to move on sweetie and I never meant to leave you just-"

"Just Mum right? You only meant to leave her?" I didn't mean to sound do bitter but it was the truth. If he hadn't have left she might still be here. Maybe. "Why?"

Tony heaved out a sigh and looked at me, his gaze hardening as he seemed to make up his mind about something. Maybe now I will know the truth. His gaze flickered constantly between the papers and my face as he began to tell me everything.

"Mary came from such a torn family that all she ever wanted from me, from you and from everyone around her was the illusion of one happy family. Someone to love her and her alone and someone that she could love back. You loved her and she loved you. I, on the other hand, was the remaining figure head that she needed for stability in her life and the one constant she could rely on financially. She used me and she never once loved me even close to the affection that she had for you. I was trapped, Alexis. I fell out of love with her and... And I will always be sorry for that" Tony said sincerely and looked down again.

I breathed out slowly. "I... I guess you just make a good target for me to take out my anger Tony. I didn't know what it had cost you even before you left. Mom never-" I stopped, trying to gather my thoughts to help him. "She never really hated you, I think she just hated..." herself. I couldn't finish.

"I am here anytime you need me." he looked up at me hopefully with just a hint of pride and asked "Did you... Did you want to come home with me? I know that's not what was discussed but we could talk to Simon so you can go wherever you want."

I couldn't imagine anything worse and I had to stop myself from pulling a face after our understanding. We may have made up, but I still don't trust his new partner Lisa. My lip still curled involuntarily when I heard or even thought of her name.

"I'm sorry but I can't Tony. Maybe I could visit?" I almost never called him Dad anymore and as painful as visiting him was, I wasn't about to cut him out of my life. I was angry with him from something he had no control over and seeing him again made me want to catch up in... a while.

He nodded, probably not expecting me to even grace him with an answer with the way I have been acting towards him lately, and walked around the table to me, a silent plea in his eyes. I rose and we hugged, he gripped me tighter than he had ever done before and shuddered as he let out his breath. I heard a whisper of sound coming from the door as he left.

"Love you Lexie."

I sat and waited for everything that Tony had told me to sink in as I felt mortified at the way I had ever acted towards him. He was suffering with Mary almost as much as she suffered without him. I heard a soft knocking on the open door and saw Simon lean in, poking his head into the conference room and he gave me an encouraging smile.

"She wasn't who I thought she was," I whispered quietly to him and Simon looked at me, cocking his head to the side. "I always thought that Tony was the evil one, she never said so but... I mean, we took down the photos of him. Hell, we even came close to burning them at one point. We erased him from our lives but, in reality, he was never a part of them." I stared at the table in horror of what Tony had to go through every day, part of a family of two, having to be moved over when a small girl came into the picture, no longer loved... No longer wanted... "She only loved one thing and she pushed Tony away as soon as she got it."

It was then that the second epiphany since Mary's death hit. I was well and truly the reason for Tony and Mary leaving each other. I was chosen by Mary specifically to do so. She was so obsessed with having the perfect family that she couldn't see she had one with Tony, they didn't need anyone else.

"Did yer wan ter do some'ing this af'ernoon?" Simon asked interrupting my thoughts as we headed back out to the foyer, and I shuddered, thinking he would suggest another movie marathon. He had tried to make me watch a marathon almost every day of the week, running through his collection while we wasted time before this meeting. It gave me some hope though, maybe he meant for us to stay at my house a little longer?

"No," I sighed, there was no way he would allow Sandra to stay at the orphanage by herself. In fact I was surprised he had let her stay by herself for this long. "I just want to go home."I thought back to the pictures and the attachment I held for the home I had known with Mary and couldn't muster the same warmth it held for me before. "I want to go back to the home."

I shuffled after him, keeping my head bowed again feeling more tired than anything else. The promise of a comforting bed sounded more tempting then a prince loaded with cash to take me to his castle. Though, thinking about it now, I had the cash and the castle and I had Simon... I looked up at him and debated. I could never see Simon as a prince to come save me, more like the big burly dragon to smite any prince that came to win my affections. My mouth twitched towards a smile for the first time in a long time at that thought.

I saw Tony walking towards a car ahead of us and noticed Lisa leaning against the silver car, wringing her hands nervously. When Tony came into view, she relaxed and smiled but looked almost torn. Her eyes flickered towards me as Tony spoke to her and she gave me an indecipherable look. They got into the car while Tony continued to talk and Lisa kept her eyes on mine. Lisa gave me a small and timid smile and mouthed a word as Tony relaxed in the seat next to him. Thank you.

Seeing Simon move out of the corner of my eye I quickly ducked as he moved to flick my arm in the middle of the solicitor's foyer. Simon flicked the air instead of my arm which made my mouth twitch again towards a smile and moving to and all out grin at his look of disbelief at being outwitted. We walked out of the building and just when I thought it was safe, he cocked his leg up to hit me on the butt, stunning me at its familiarity as more memories flooded me. I couldn't work past the warring emotions of sadness at leaving my home and filling the emotion void of happiness by moving back to the orphanage and reliving these memories everyday.

Right as I was about to maneuver to try and trip Simon up, a shiver ran down my spine and I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. It was a moving shadow, bounding across the buildings racing towards- me? I couldn't tell. I looked up at the street and the sky to try and match the shadow but I knew that it was the same thing that I had seen in the cemetery. Whatever it was. As I focussed in on it I could make out the small red eyes at the front of the shape. My movement to trip Simon while I was distracted halted Simon and he looked in the same direction that I was. I started to get excited then, perhaps he had seen it too as he had stopped walking. When I took in his expression of panic though, time slowed.

I followed Simon's gaze back out to the road where two vehicles screeched on their brakes, seconds too late as they collided with each other. The first car had left the car park only to be hit on the side by a large truck with neither driver seeing it until it was too late. After only a moment the screeching stopped and now the small car was almost underneath the front of the large truck. I looked at the car closest to us and felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as Simon rushed past me.

A few more people rushed past me to help with the accident as I stood frozen, looking at the small crumpled pile of silver that remained under the truck.