Chapter 34

Chapter 34
The hallway was lit warmly, the rich gentle orange lighting serving to mimic the ambiguous feeling in Aria’s stomach as she took robotic steps towards the living room.

To hear whether or not her grandfather planned to send her one and only light to Wotushong.

Aston pushed open the door to the living room, the man who had grinned and breathed against her face was nowhere to be found. He was radiating nothing, he was now like a massive blank wall, impossible to read.

Maybe this was how he climbed above Arthur, by being completely unflappable in his presence.

"You look well, Aria," Arthur said, not even looking her way. He sounded like a man admiring a painting he’d insured. "A little harsh on the dark circles, but well."

Aria smiled without her permission. He had clearly inspected her thoroughly before pretending to throw away his face. "Grandfather. I didn’t expect you."

"I missed my great-grandson," he said simply, his line of sight guiding Aria to look at the door that led to the rooms where a short maid, the only one she had seen living around, was already leading a blinking, stumbling Asher into the living room. The boy’s hair was a nest, his eyes bleary with sleep. 

Aria’s heart began to beat so loud she was certain everyone in the building could hear it.

"Asher, come. Tell your grandfather about your day."

Aria’s protective instincts flared, hot and sharp. She shot forward. "He’s exhausted, Grandfather. I can’t believe you had my son wok—“

"Nonsense. A Griffin is never too tired for family. Sit, boy”, Arthur didn't even look at her. He just held out his hand with his cane, his eyes fixed on Asher like a hawk watching a mouse.

The tension in the room was a physical weight, pressing Aria into her usual subservience. She felt her knees wanting to buckle, the old habit of obey, obey, obey screaming in her ears.

But she glanced at Asher’s pouted bottom lip as he waddled to his great grandfather and anger as loud as the one she felt when she set fire to the animals in that building ignited in her chest.

If she gave Arthur leeway now, then she was putting a leash on her son, the same leash that was put on her. 

She wanted Asher to grow up like a normal happy boy. She wanted him to come back from school excited to talk about dinosaurs. 

She didn’t want him to come back from Wotushong knowing how to kill a grown man at the ripe age of 5.

“I want my son back in his be—“

“He can sleep another time”, Arthur said, his first actual look at her throughout the night a harsh glare, the timbre of his old voice solid enough to echo off the walls, scaring the maid that brought him.

Aria also flinched.

“Tell me child, what did you do today?”, Arthur asked, not even bothering to soften his face or his voice. He was using the sheer power of his presence to press her son. To Asher’s credit, he only kept his pout, a normal boy would have burst into tears.

Her grandfather must have found out about what happened at the slave auction.

“Asher.”

Aria hadn’t even noticed that the man behind her had sat down.

Her baby turned on his heel and looked to Aston who had called him, and bolted sleepily towards Aston instead, falling short of the man on the couch and falling instead to the floor.

Before she could rush to prevent him from hitting the ground, Aston had expertly grabbed him and deposited him into his lap, one large hand spanning the entire width of the boy’s back. 

“I want to talk to him!”

“Mm. And he wants to be asleep, Arthur.”

Aria could barely breathe, the pressure both men were exerting on each other was instead felt by her. This was the first time in her life that she was meeting someone equally matched with Arthur enough to talk back to him. 

“Your presence is bothering my wife.”

Aria held back a nasty glare. How dare he put it on her to respond? Now Arthur was going to direct all his force on her.

It was such a bitch move. 

“Aria, would you say I’m bothering you?”, her grandfather directed his narrowed gaze at her. Her palms became sweaty and clammy and then she took in a deep breath. He was still her grandfather. No matter how scary he was.

“You bringing my son down is bothering me, grandfather”, she said, trying to keep her tone as amiable as possible.

One thing she knew about Arthur was that he was very good at getting disproportionately angry if he sensed even the slightest disrespectful tone.

“Pah! Youngsters these days. Bring me the child”, he said aggressively, standing up with his cane.

Aston didn’t even budge an inch.

“Grandfather, I enforce a very rigid bedtime in this household, and it’s time for Asher to be in bed”, Aria said, her voice as steeled as she could manage.

“It’s true, grandpaw”, a clear sleep-addled voice suddenly came in, wavering the awful mounting pressure in the room with just one statement. “But mommy, I wanna tell grandpaw what I did today.”

Aria held her breath imperceptibly. Oh no no her sweet baby. What happened to always listening to mommy? 

Arthur clearly already had suspicions on whether or not Asher had been a part of it, if he confirmed it, then he could definitely decide to take her baby to Wotushong, that he was ‘ready for it’.

“I'm listening, child, at least one person in this household knows how to treat guests.” Arthur lowered himself back on the sofa, much to Aria’s chagrin.

“You’re not a guest in daddy’s house, you’re my grandpaw!”, Asher grinned, all his tiny teeth glowing in Arthur’s direction like the man just told a funny joke. He then patted Aston’s hand like he wanted to walk back to Arthur.

Aria and Aston exchanged the briefest of looks, for the first time they were in tandem. It was a pity that the tandem was confusion.

Aston released him and watched, his expression unchanging. Aria decided to sit next to him, to present a united front and watch ‘their’ son.

Her son wasn’t stupid by any chance. He got all of her brilliance, regardless of his father. She was certain he knew what he was doing.

“I played spy today grandpaw”

FUCK!