Chapter 36 Too bad
LUCAS
It felt good to be here —with them
Being right here with these two felt like home again, and I was really a fool for staying hung up over Zora's disappearance and ever wanting to disappear out of their lives.
There was so much satisfaction in watching them eat happily, bicker at almost nothing, and then make up again in about ten seconds.
“So kiddos, how's school been for you guys?” I asked, my hands supporting my chin as I stared at them.
Tyler scoffed, slurping his can of juice while Leah started to pick at her food. Something was wrong.
“What happened? Tell me. Did anything happen to you both at school?” I urged, worry creasing my eyebrows.
Leah's hands dropped to the table along with the long face she pulled, causing me to worry even more.
“Tyler was suspended because of me” she said softly, sounding guilty.
My gaze drifted to Tyler, silently asking for an explanation. The kid pushed back his plate in annoyance and stared up at me in a manner that didn't resemble a kid's look at all.
“That brat called my sister an orphan just because he didn't see our mom drop us off at school for weeks. I told him to stop, but he wouldn't, so I had a fight, and then, I was suspended” he explained, the anger evident in his voice. “I'm not going back there, and so is Leah. We're going to find my mom wherever she is and make him eat his words. All of them!”
I stared at his little chest, heaving angrily, too stunned to utter another word. The kid had enough anger for us both. The only emotion tugging my heart was disappointment. Not so surprisingly, it was the only emotion I was familiar with recently.
“Well little man , it's a good thing you'd both not be going back there anymore. How about we start another search for a school you like?” I suggested, attempting to make them cheer up.
They were kids, after all. And now more than ever, they needed friends — anything to distract themselves from this phase of tragedy.
“I don't want to go to school unless mummy takes us” Leah said, sobbing softly already.
Just as my hands stretched across the table to pat her shoulders, Tyler beat me to it, his hands rested on her shoulders as he gently consoled her.
This was... new. Apparently, the only side I'd seen to them was their childlike side, not this.
First off, the absence of a father made them independent to an extent. And while they were also forced to live without their mother, I'd been chickening out and being nothing more than a freaking coward.
“Okay let's do it this way then”, I proposed, watching their eyes gleam with hope. “I promise, no, I vow to take you to school each day and bring you back home”.
The noises from Leah stopped, but it also did nothing to procure any response from them.
“You don't believe my mummy would come back, do you?” Tyler's soft but accusing voice rang into my ears, causing me to clench my jaws harder than I normally did.
“Your mother would want you both to be in school”, I replied under their scrutinizing gaze.
“Did you look for her at all”, he asked, the familiar look of disappointment clouding his eyes.
My heart thumped harder, making me tightly grip my thighs to stop myself from bursting in the way I wanted to.
“If she was alive, I'd know”. I answered using the same reply I'd given Courtney.
“What kind of husband does that make you then?”
I slammed my hands on the table.
“Enough!” Leah's face turned white as she clinged to her brother for safety. “I don't owe you or her anything! She fucking left me on the altar, so you should ask her what kind of mother she is to leave her soon-to-be husband and two fucking kids if, and I mean if you ever see her”.
I slammed the door shut once I'd entered, throwing my keys on the other side of my living room and finally let out an angry growl.
Today was fucked up. I'd fucked up everything. For me. For them.
Leah had cried nonstop on the way back home while Tyler only kept a poker face until we arrived at the doorstep.
“My mom's lucky she didn't get to marry a douche like you”, he'd said, the tight lines across his face disappearing right after and slammed the door in my face.
I deserved it anyways.
But heaven knows I was only trying to save them from their unrealistic imaginations.
Zora was dead by now. There was no way she could still be alive if she was still in the hands of those people.
Especially the dangerous looking man in silk black. He clearly came for her life.
How could nobody see what I saw? Especially Courtney.
I knew she'd been frantically searching and asking question infact but hadn't gotten any answers till now. That was enough to give up already, so why wasn't she?
Except there was already something she knew and was certain of. Something that kept her hopes up.
I turned back around to the door, deciding to head back to her apartment but considering the state in which I left the kids, I'd be lucky if she gave me a listening ear in the first place.
Fuck! I had to do this on my own.
I placed a call to one of my investigators and told him he had to help me find someone, giving his description off the memory in my head
I got his location within an hour, so I cornered him in the restaurant where he was eating.
“Who are you and how did you find me?”
“You weren't exactly hard to find”
We both stared intensely at each other from across the table in a private booth, trying to figure ourselves out. To save us the stress, I decided to come upfront.
“I'm looking for Zora, and you know where she is” I said, sounding more certain than I truly was.
He squinted in confusion, shaking his head in denial. “You'd have to be a bit more specific with the details, whoever you are.
I inched forward, releasing a cold chuckle. “You know exactly who I'm talking about. After all, someone else has already asked you about two nights ago, I think?"
A flash of surprise ran through his eyes, but he quickly covered it up with a chuckle. “So you've been following me, then"
I remained silent, growing impatient with every second we both wasted.
If truly there was any slight chance that Zora was still alive, then I needed to find her and get her back.
“Just like I told your little friend, it's thirty-six million for that piece of information”, he continued, after noticing the iciness in my gaze.
It was now my turn to chuckle, this time. “How can I be so sure you know exactly who you're talking about?” I asked further.
He lifted his chin pride fully, making me arc an eyebrow. “Becahse I know exactly who her abductor is”.
This was it.
“Tell me” I growled, unable to control my breath. So she'd really been alive this time? Courtney wasn't lying, and the kids, they were — “Tell me!”
He only smiled.
My fingers curled around his neck. He desperately fought to loosen them off him, but too bad, I was just as desperate.
After a few more minutes of letting him struggle for air, I finally let go abruptly but pinned his fingers to the table, ready to break them when necessary, “Where is she!?” My voice croaked.
He greedily sucked in air, and just when he opened his mouth to talk, I observed something funny.
This bastard was casting a spell.
Fucking amateur!
Without warning, I clawed him right at his throat,
He stopped, gagged at me in fright, and choked on his own blood.
“You're one of them” he exclaimed in horror. “A werewolf."
"And you are a witch." I replied.
His eyes widened, "No, I-"
He collapsed and stopped breathing.
Guess I'll have to find out some other way then.
Too bad.