105: Don’t argue.

105: Don’t argue.
Aife pov

The message came in after dinner, late enough that I already knew it wasn’t good when my father had a servant sent for me.

Father had it in his hand when I walked into the study and he didn’t wait for any longer than after I closed the door behind me to hold out the paper and wait until I was done reading it. 

Bane had made contact with a rogue scout. The informant claimed he could take him to Bastian and Bane was considering following the scout so he could close the distance sooner.

I read it twice before I set the paper on the desk since my hands were shaking too bad.

“When did this arrive?” I asked.

“An hour ago,” father said. “The night clerk had it for all that time before anyone thought to bring it upstairs.”

“An hour.” I repeated and looked at him. “Willow has been asking questions you already knew she was going to ask, and this sat downstairs.”

“It sat downstairs because a clerk has a job and it isn’t to deliver notes or reports, sweetheart,” he said as gently as he could, took the paper and laid it flat on the surface “Bane made contact. He’s considering the next move, but that’s not the same as Bane standing over Bastian’s body.”

“It’s close enough that she deserves to hear it from us instead of from a hallway.” I insisted, keeping my voice quiet just in case someone was trying to listen in.

Dad looked at me like I grew another head and set his hand on the table. “No.” 

I laughed, even though there was nothing funny about this situation. “That’s it? No?”

“That’s it.” He said and settled in his seat more comfortably, acting like our conversation was already almost over. “Willow stays contained. She had one panic attack in public, one morning of chasing answers through this house, and one conversation with me that already pushed her closer to the gate than I like. You don’t hand her this just to act surprised when she starts packing.”

“She’s not a child.” I insisted. 

“She’s my granddaughter, and she’s newly mated to a man who is in the area this note is dancing around.” He pointed out, pressing his pointer finger against the paper. “What’s written here is exactly what’ll make her more reckless and brave than ever. We’ve seen it before, but this time, the situation is far more dangerous than a couple of fights here and there.” 

Unable to stand still, I started pacing the length of the office floor. “We can’t turn this into a history lesson of what happened before.”

“I’m not trying to create a lesson, sweetheart, this is life, not school. However, even if it feels unfair to you, I admit I’m using history because someone has to. You would’ve done the same thing Willow will do once she hears about this. With her feeling the mate bond and Bane walking into the same mess where Ryker is, she will want to act.”

“Dad, keeping secrets from her isn’t the same thing as protecting her,” I tried to reason with him.

“In this case it is.” He insisted and tapped the paper again. “Bane is considering following a rogue. A rogue. The last time this family trusted a convenient offer from that direction, we paid for it. I’m not putting that sentence in Willow’s head tonight so she can decorate it with every worst-case picture she owns.”

I stopped pacing and turned to look at him. “She already has the pictures. Khan opened his mouth and you confirmed the direction. She sat in that chair and finished the thought for you. What you are protecting her from isn’t the idea, it’s the update.”

“The update is the part that makes her wave the castle without thinking.” 

“Or the part that makes her stay because she trusts us to stop lying by omission.” I said. 

The silence around us dragged out and I truly hated it. This was nothing but an unlucky repeat of the past - once, I already trusted Bane and kept Willow in the dark, which only caused more damage. If I stayed silent this time, she might start hating me and I wouldn’t blame her for it.

.“You think telling her is trust while I think telling her is a spark in a dry room.” Dad said, as always using pretty words to describe a disaster. 

“She’s already in the dry room,” I said after a long while. “We put her there when half the house answered her with - Khan is Khan.”

“Those answers kept her inside the walls, with us, safe and unharmed,” dad said. 

“Those answers made her feel like a problem to manage.” I snapped and the moment I heard my voice rise, I toned it down. “I watched her leave your office and go straight to Khan because she needed someone who wouldn’t treat her like a security risk. That should bother you.”

“It does bother me, but it doesn’t change the decision.”

I pulled the chair out and sat because standing was starting to feel like losing my mind. “Okag, so tell me what you decided without beating around the bush.”

“Willow won’t be told about the informant. We won’t let her know Band might follow him either. We can’t give her any ideas about the direction or timetables. She’ll stay here, distracted and busy with whatever Khan tosses her way. That way, she’s busy and sitting where we can see her.”

“Contained.” I muttered, for the first time since I met him, unable to meet his eyes.

“Yes.”

I shook my head. “You can lock a gate, but you can’t lock the part of her that already knows we’re choosing what she’s allowed to survive.”

“The gate,” dad repeated, “is my only responsibility for tonight. Truth is important, but not near as important as survival.”

I sighed and let my eyes find the piece of paper again. Bane’s wording wasn’t dramatic, rather clinical and boring, which only made the situation worse. 

My husband wasn’t one to waste words when he already decided he’ll chase the battle.

“He’s going,” I said after a long moment.

Dad didn’t pretend that he thought otherwise. “Most likely.”

“And you want his daughter to miss out on knowing a detail like that?” 

“I want his daughter alive in the morning.” He repeated and crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair. “Aife, sweetheart, I understand the instinct. You want to walk down the hall, sit on her bed and tell her the truth because you think it’s how you show love. Sometimes it is, but not tonight.”

“She asked me directly if Bane was going the same way as Ryker, dad. I dodged every question and at one point, I started avoiding my own daughter just so I wouldn’t have to answer the questions. Now, I have something closer to an answer and you want me to dodge her again.”

“Yes.”

“In that case, you should be the one who looks her in the eye tomorrow when she realizes the house knew and chose to lie.” I said, mirroring his position by crossing my arms too.

Dad almost glared at me, which was surprising because he had never done it before. “It’s not a lie. What we have on our hands is an unfinished report and we don’t run our family on those.”

“You ran this family on unfinished reports the second you told her the trails were near each other and then stopped talking.” I snarled, slapping a hand on his desk. 

My words hit home, I saw it in his eyes, but dad didn’t give me the satisfaction of admitting it. “What do you think she does with this note?” He asked and grabbed the paper to wave it around like some flag. “In your version - tell me how she’ll react to the news. Think of her as the only daughter, not a newly marked woman with two of the people she loves most heading straight into danger. What does she do?”

I wanted to find words to soften my answer, but I couldn’t find any, so I just answered with the truth. “She asks to leave. Maybe, she goes to Zion and asks for a car, or even tries to get a message to Ryker herself.”

“Yes.” Dad agreed, looking a little smug about himself.

I couldn’t let him have the victory as easily, so I added, “if we tell her no now, she looks for another way.”

Dad nodded, drumming his fingers against the desk. “Now repeat all of that again and tell me why I should help her start.”

I pressed my thumb against the edge of the desk. “Because if she hears it from a guard or Khan after he wanders past the wrong door, we lose the only advantage we have left, which is that she still comes to us first.”

“She came to me already,” dad reminded me. “And I used that to tell her enough to stop the hunt through the castle. But I didn’t tell her everything, remember? I said only enough to get her off the hook she built for herself. This note is more than a conversation - it might shatter every boundary she built around herself.”

“This note is her father walking into a rogue’s invitation.” I reminded him sharply.

“And her mate is already standing in the town that invitation was built around.” Dad said, adding a piece of information that took my breath so suddenly I almost forgot how to breathe. “If I put both of those sentences in her hands tonight, I’m not informing her - I’m daring her.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “She’s going to find out, if not tonight, she still eventually will. Bane might miss a check-in, which will make her suspicious. Or, there’s always a chance Ryker sends something and it ends up in her hands. You’re not protecting the truth, dad, you’re ripping it away from Willow.”

“I’m choosing the safest option we have.”

“And I won’t lie to her face.” I insisted. 

“In that case, don’t start the conversation,” dad grumbled and slipped the note into the drawer of his desk, immediately locking it shut. “If she asks, you tell her there is movement but no confirmation, that’s all. If she pushes, you send her to me. I’ll be the villain in the room, I’m getting used to the job.”

“That’s awfully convenient.” I said and rolled my eyes at him. 

“It’s the job,” he repeated with a shrug before the first smile ever since I arrived spread across his lips. “You want to be her mother, so be her mother. Sit with her, let Khan make a fool of himself and keep her safe. What you don’t do is hand her a map.”

I couldn’t sit around doing nothing anymore, so I stood up and looked down at my father. “She’s my daughter,” I said. “If this goes wrong and she finds out I knew Bane was following a rogue into a possible trap, she won’t forgive me.”

For a split second, dad looked much more aged than he actually was. He didn’t bother standing up to argue more on the same level and rather added, “make sure this doesn’t get out, simple as that.” 

I really hated how calm and collected dad sounded, but even more than that, I hated that I knew he was right. Willow had her father’s temper, once she made a decision, she wasn’t one to back down. Which, in turn, meant that if she had a chance to help anyone, she absolutely would. 

“I’m telling her at least something,” I eventually grumbled and turned my head to look outside through the window. “I won’t give her a note or mention the rogue. What I’ll say is that I made a contact and everyone’s moving ahead. Willow can have that much information so don’t argue.” 

“No.”

“I said don’t argue, dad, I’m not asking for permission from you.”

“Aife, don’t test me on this. I’ll put a watch on her door before I let you turn everything into a dumpster fire. We have plenty of problems on our hands, adding another one is unnecessary.”

His words still echoed in the office before silence took over again. I thought about his words, letting them replay in my mind, but still couldn’t understand why he thought this was fair. 

“You would confine her,” I told him, keeping his gaze like we were trying to burn each other alive. 

Dad didn’t answer, he didn’t even try to defend himself as I spun on my heel and walked out of his little kingdom. As soon as I pushed the door open, I gasped as I collided with another body. Willow looked up at me, eyes brimming with tears as she whispered, “I’m imprisoned now?”