Chapter 93 Grief

Chapter 93 Grief


I didn't leave really leave the annex except for school. Didn't eat much. Didn't sleep much. I just lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling, the weight of everything pressing down on me. Tyler's face. The hospital room. The text that had changed everything.

Your fault.

I knew it wasn't. Not really. But knowing and feeling were two different things.

Ruby came the first day after school. She knocked softly, then harder, then pounded on the door. "Cal, open up." I didn't move. She stayed for an hour, talking through the wood, telling me about the memorial being planned, the juicy gossip she heard at school. I listened, but I didn't respond.

Romeo came after her too. He didn't knock, just sat outside the door, his back against the wood, and talked to me. "I know you're hurting," he said. "I know you blame yourself. But you need to eat. You need to sleep. You need to let someone in."

I pressed my hand to the door, feeling the warmth of him on the other side.

"I’m trying," I whispered.

"I know you are. You just have to try a little harder.” 

\-————————

Kai came on the third morning. It was a Saturday and I didn’t have to go to school. I had missed breakfast to sleep in. 

He didn't knock. Didn't ask permission. Just opened the door and walked in, his expression unreadable. I was still in bed, still in my clothes from the night before, my hair tangled, my eyes swollen.

"Get up," he said.

"No."

"Get up, Calliope."

"I said no."

He crossed the room and sat on the edge of my bed, close enough that I could see the exhaustion in his face. "I'm not leaving until you talk to me."

"Then you'll be here a long time."

"Fine."

He sat there, patient and still, while the minutes stretched into an hour. Finally, I couldn't take the silence.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I want to tell you something." He paused. "About my mother."

I looked at him, really looked, and saw something raw in his expression. Something he usually kept hidden. 

"She died when I was five," he said. "Sickness. There was nothing anyone could do. I watched her fade, day by day, until one morning she just... didn't wake up."

"Kai…” 

"My father was broken after it. He'd already lost his wife, and then he had to raise a son alone. He threw himself into his work, protecting the alpha, protecting the family. He didn't have time for grief. Didn't have time for me either.” 

I sat up slowly, my heart aching for him. "What happened to him?"

"He died protecting the alpha. You know… Romeo's mother." Kai's voice was flat, controlled. 

"Kai…” 

"I was just as young as Romeo, only a year older maybe. I watched him die. Watched him bleed out on the forest floor. And I couldn't do anything."

I reached out and touched his arm. "I'm so sorry."

He looked at me, really looked, and something in his expression shifted. "I blamed myself for years. I thought if I'd been older, faster, stronger… I could have saved him. But I couldn't. And I had to learn to live with that."

"How?"

"By remembering that he loved me. That he wanted me to survive. That he didn't die so I could spend the rest of my life feeling guilty." He paused. "Tyler's death wasn't your fault. But if you let it destroy you, you're letting them win."

I stared at him, the tears burning behind my eyes.

"How do you keep going?" I asked.

"Because the people I love need me to." He stood up. "Now get up. Get dressed. You've been hiding long enough."

\-——————————

I had to watch the twins that afternoon, so they were my salvation.

Mrs. Vanderbilt had asked me to watch them that afternoon, and I'd said yes without thinking. Maybe I needed the distraction. Maybe I needed to remember that there was still good in the world.

Emma and Ryan were building a block tower in the playroom when I arrived. Emma's castle was lopsided, about to collapse. Ryan's spaceship was a mess of mismatched colors.

"Calliope!" Emma shrieked, running toward me. "We're building a castle!"

"I see that."

Ryan held up his spaceship. "It's a rocket. It's going to the moon."

"That's amazing."

Emma tugged my hand. "Help us build!"

I sat on the floor, cross-legged, and helped them build. We made towers and turrets, a moat out of blue construction paper, a dragon out of green blocks.

"Calliope sad?" Emma asked, patting my cheek.

I blinked. "What? No. I'm not sad."

"Your eyes are sad," Ryan said, not looking up. "They're sad."

I forced a smile. "I'm okay, sweetheart. I’m not sad.” 

"You need a nap," Ryan said. "Naps fix everything."

I laughed heartily. "Maybe you're right."

We built for another hour. When the castle collapsed, Emma's fault, though she blamed Ryan, I helped them rebuild. When Ryan started to yawn, I read them a story. When Emma fell asleep on my lap, I tucked her into bed.

For a few hours, I forgot about everything. 

Everything was back to normal. 

\-————————-

As I walked back toward the annex, the cool evening air settling around me, I heard it.

Romeo's father's voice, sharp and angry, cutting through the silence like a blade.

"Romeo! Get back here!"

I froze mid-step, my heart lurching into my throat.

The main house was quiet. no other voices, no movement, but his voice was unmistakable. I'd never heard Mr. Vanderbilt raise his voice like this before. He was always silent, distant, a ghost in his own home, drifting through the halls without ever truly being present.

But now he was shouting. And he was shouting Romeo's name.

"Don't you walk away from me!"

I crept closer to the side of the house, keeping to the shadows, my pulse pounding in my ears. The back door was slightly ajar, warm light spilling through the crack. I could see into the kitchen.

Mr. Vanderbilt stood by the counter, his face flushed, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. His shoulders were rigid, his jaw tight with barely contained fury.

Romeo was across the room, his back to me, his body tense. I could see the set of his shoulders, the way his hands were shoved deep into his pockets.

"You think I don't know?" Mr. Vanderbilt's voice was shaking now, not with volume, but with something rawer. "You think I don't see what's happening?"