On The Border - Marry Him Or Die

62

Alex’s POV

I head back into the house and call for Mathew to meet me in the front yard.

When we stand out of earshot from the house I take a serious tone and fill him in on the entire thing, including my entire plan.

I watch his face turn from utter complete astonishment to an exploding rage.

“I can’t believe the length he would go to just for leadership! Now it all makes sense! Why your father appointed you as the next leader instead of him. But, how did Isaac know not to trust him? Why didn’t he take his precautions and invited him to your wedding despite his suspicions?”

“That’s the part I would do anything to ask him about” I said dryly.

“Don’t tell me you will forgive David, Alex?” he asked incredulously.

“He can never be forgiven Mathew. But whether his confession saved him from being killed along with his father, that I am not sure of. I’ll have to talk to Lucas and mom and see what they have to say about that” I said firmly.

“Why are you telling me first, shouldn’t Lucas be the one you tell?” he asked curiously.

“Because once Lucas finds out about David and everything else, he will completely flip out and demand do go slit his throat on the spot. I need someone to keep an eye on David at all times and keep him hidden until we come back”

“Wait…..I’m going with you Alex. I can’t leave you fully knowing that there will be a battle up on that mountain while I’m sitting here babysitting that asshole’s son! We’ll just leave the guards with him” he snaps.

I shake my head and give him a direct order “No, I need you here. You’re the only one I can trust to keep him locked in that house until the moment that truck passes our borders. Despite me believing his sincerity, I will not make the same mistake by trusting him again. I don’t want him to escape and have an opportunity to warn his father. If Stefan finds out he is being led into a trap, he will fall off the face of the earth and we’ll never be able to get him. I’m giving you the most important task Mathew. Killing a couple of bastards is nothing to us, it’s a piece of cake”

I give him a scrutinizing look and wait for his reply.

It takes him a few second before his face becomes resolved and he nods his head in agreement.

I pat his shoulder and let my face show my gratitude towards him for listening to me, despite him being my father’s age.

“Tell the guards to stand inside with you and none of you leaves his side until we come back” I said firmly then headed back into the house to break my family’s heart and drop a huge bomb on them.

I go inside and head into the dining room.

They were all gathered around the table waiting for me to start eating breakfast.

I take a deep breath and decide to let them eat in peace, as they most probably will not eat anything else the entire day after they find out.

Jenny was looking at me curiously, wondering what was going on in my head.

I sit next to her and give her a reassuring smile.

“Sara went to call David when he didn’t come down, but she said he wasn’t in his room” said mom warily.

“I sent him on a mission before today’s operation” I lied smoothly.

Lucas gives me a weird look, wondering why I didn’t send him instead.

I ignored his look and began scooping some eggs into my plate, even though I had no real appetite.

Each bite going down my throat, was like a poison burning its way inside my whole body.

“Something is off about you” Lucas says observingly.

I give him a hard look, mentally preparing myself to handle his reaction to learning the truth.

“You’re right. There are some things I found out about a couple of days ago, things that will…. Pretty much turn our lives upside down and I need you all to listen to me until I finish. Without interruption” I say my last sentence directly to Lucas.

“You mean when you disappeared the entire day, that’s when you discovered those things?” my mom asked tensely.

“Yes, you’re correct”

“And why the hell are we just finding out about them today? I thought we don’t hide secrets from each other… brother” asked Lucas in a tone of betrayal.

I purse my lips and say tightly “Because your reaction was going to screw the whole thing up before we even start”

He begins to respond to me in what probably was going to be another biting comment before my mom cut him off strictly “Lucas, it’s not the time for placing blame on each other. Let us hear him out… please”

There was a slight tremor in her voice that conveyed her worry and deep feeling that what I have to say was gravely serious.

He bit his lip, folded his hands against his chest, and looked at me expectantly.

I took a deep breath and dived through the same explaining process I just went through with Mathew outside.

Mom, April, Lucas, and even Sara who was listening in from the kitchen where she was cleaning stuff, all had the same expressions and reactions as Mathew did.

Well, except the reaction on Lucas’s face was about a hundred folds greater than them.

Jenny was quiet the entire time.

Much to my unexpected surprise, no one interrupted me at all until I was entirely finished.

A deadly silence filled the place where no one even dared to breathe out, you could literally hear a pin drop all the way from the living room.

April was the first one to break the silence when she put her hand on her mouth to stifle the uncontrollable fierce sob that was wrecking her entire body.

My heart hurt so much at that sight and sound.

Before I could go and reach for her, Jenny raced from her chair and went over to hug her against her body as she stood up next to where she was sitting, her tears falling down silently with April.

I looked at my mom and saw silent tears streaming down her face too as she looks absently at the table.

Lucas was really worrying me the most though.

He was deadly quiet. While his face said it all, his calm demeanor was not reflecting the true sense of rage and betrayal his face did.

I stayed quiet though, waiting for him to snap out of it and show me the real Lucas I’m used to.

“Where is he now?” he finally said through clenched teeth.

I didn’t need to inquire about who he was talking about.

I knew my answer would tip him over the edge, but I couldn’t tell him the truth “He’s locked up” I said calmly.

He gave me a fierce look and said shakily “I asked where”

“I’ll tell you once we are done handling Lord Z’s men”

“I will get to decide what happens to him. Uncle Stefan is all yours but David…… that son of a bitch is mine” he said darkly.

I didn’t like his dark tone at all, nor the glint in his eyes.

But I didn’t want to assert my leadership position and deny him that request.

“I wanted all of us to decide what we will do with him. You, me, and mom. But if you don’t care about our opinions and they carry no value to you…. Then by all means, he’s all yours to deal with however you see fit, I will not interfere in the slightest. Just keep in mind everything he did and didn’t do, don’t let your anger and rage blind you and cloud your decision from seeing the entire picture instead of focusing on the part that matters to you” I said calmly.

He narrows his eyes at me and spits out “Why do I get the sense that you feel like we should set him free without doing anything to make him pay, if I didn’t ask to be in charge?”

“I didn’t say that Lucas. All I’m saying is decisions cannot be made when you’re too emotional to think straight. He didn’t need to put his neck on the line and betray his own father; the closest one in his life and probably the only one in it, the one he has known and lived with for the past twenty one years, to save us his cousins who he barely lived and got to know for the first time two weeks ago. He knows it will absolutely get him killed along with his father too, yet he did it anyway. If I didn’t uncover uncle Stefan’s evilness and he stayed quiet, we would have been walking into our own funeral in a few hours, and he would be right here handling his father’s work right alongside him and gaining so much power. When you put those two options in front of you and think about it, what the hell does he gain from choosing the option that will get him killed or worse, tortured to death like what you, me; and I’m sure him, already considered and thought about?” I reasoned with him.

I could sense that my words started to break through his blindness and he began to clear the clouds of hatred that were obscuring his view of the entire situation.

My mom breaks her silence for the first time “Your brother is right Lucas. David….. He was living under his father’s wing and influence all this time, he didn’t know any other way than to follow behind him. But had he been more involved with us before this went down; had he truly met and sat with your father and gotten to know how great he was, he would have never agreed to go along with Stefan’s…..schemes” she said tightly.

“I can’t believe I’m the only one who doesn’t believe he deserves our damn sympathies! Call me heartless or cruel, I don’t really care, but he’s not a freaking kid that couldn’t distinguish right from wrong! He’s a full grown ass man and he already made his bed, now he gets to sleep in it the way I see fit” he snarled emotionally.

I knew he would eventually snap out of control, so I let him get it all out without arguing back anymore. I’ve already said all that was needed to be said.

“He’s all yours, but after we deal with the men on the border and establish contact with Stefan” I said determinedly.

I started using his name alone without ‘Uncle’ because he no longer deserved the right to be associated with us or respected through that association.

“I can’t stop you from doing that risky plan or going straight into a war zone. You’re the leader of this clan and this family Alex. I trust with my whole heart that your plan would never be executed, if there was a slight chance that it will put both of you and your clan’s lives in jeopardy. I believe it in my soul that you will all come back without a scratch. I’m so lucky and proud to have you both as my children” mom said powerfully.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it now. My mom is the strongest person I have ever known and I will most probably never know anyone as strong as her.

She became our solid ground, our anchor, our source of strength that connects and binds us together after my father.

And we are the ones who are so damn lucky to have her as our mother.