Aiden’s head felt like it was about to split open. He didn’t know what to think anymore, didn’t know what he could trust or whom. He vibrated with the need to do something, to shout at Marcus and demand an explanation about the Valrais, to punch him for hiding such a secret when he’d known why Claudia had really died.
But he couldn’t do any of that. He had no idea what the right course of action was anymore, whether he shouldkeep digging, whether he should confront Marcus and demand the truth or forget it all and try to live a normal life like he should’ve done from the very start.
“Why are you here, Marcus?” Aiden settled on, somehow retaining enough clarity in his head to know that he needed to tread carefully. To test the waters and work out what Marcus was after without giving away what he’d found out with Sara’s help.
Sara, a girl no older than ten who was dead because of Claudia’s father.
With a subtle but sharp exhale, Aiden chased away that thought. He couldn’t let himself get emotional here or now.
Marcus slicked his short hair back, pushing the few longer locks to one side. He had the same platinum blond hue as Claudia, though a few strands of pure white were visible here and there. “I’m worried about you. I’d hoped time would heal you like it healed Laura and I, but this is… I don’t even know what to think anymore. You lied… No, youcommitted a crime, so you could talk to a sick man,” he said, his tone accusatory and stern.
Aiden saw through the pretense, read between the lines, now that he knew who the man across from him was. Marcus had been obsessed with Claudia. It had never quite made sense to Aiden how he and his wife had moved on so easily, but it did now. They knew the real reason she’d died. They were part of it.
Marcuswashere because of Darren Howe. But whynow?What had prompted him to come to Aiden right after he’d found out the truth? He hadn’t told anyone, and he doubted Darren had talked, or Marcus would’ve stormed the hideout by now.
Aiden fumbled with a stray thread along the seam of his pants. His throat felt dry. The person who’d forged his fake ID had assured him it would be untraceable, yet clearly that wasn’t the case and now he was headed right for jail if Marcus wanted him there.
“Are you going to turn me in?” Aiden blurted out. If he didn’t figure something out, this whole thing was going to come crumbling down just when he’d finally gotten the full picture.
“I don’t care about your fake ID, Aiden. Or that you’ve been spending your money on useless investigators instead of getting therapy. I’m worried about your mental health and what lies that…monstermight’ve been feeding you.”
Or the truths. Like how to find the hideout. That had to be why Marcus was here.
Aiden considered his next words carefully. He knew he had to give Marcus something, to confess that he had spoken to Darren about Claudia, but he needed to be smart about it. One optionwasto confess it all now in hopes Marcus would come clean and let Aiden walk away, but did he even want that? Maybe if Claudia had been alive, maybe then he could’ve looked the other way for her sake. But she wasn’t. She was gone and that made him a nobody who knew more than he was supposed to.
Marcus took a final puff from his cigar and extinguished it, placing it back into the box, which he then picked up. He stood up and approached Aiden, a fatherly smile on his face. Aiden offered one of his own, hoping it came across as sufficiently sad and tired.
“I know you are right, Marcus. I just… I needed to talk to Howe. I needed to ask him and see for myself. And he said… He said I had it allwrong. That Claudia was the onewho went after him. I’m so confused. Why would he claim that? Why—”
“Ah.” Marcus’ smile turned sympathetic, though Aiden didn’t miss the slight twitch in his jaw or the way his eyebrows bunched together for the quickest of heartbeats. “He did, didn’t he?” he agreed easily, squeezing Aiden’s arm. “It’s a game he likes to play. He did it during the proceedings, too. But I’m sure you already know you can’t believe any of it. Darren Howe is a psychopath, a manipulator. He’s good at picking out people’s weaknesses and praying on them. He knows we hurt and so he likes to poke deeper at those wounds.”
Marcus was good. Convincing. Perhaps if he’d visited Aiden before his trip to Mars and told him this… warned him that Darren might accuse Claudia, maybe then Aiden would’ve even believed him. He would’ve asked about the autopsy and Marcus would’ve lied about that too, but Aiden would’ve bought it, most likely. Then he would have heeded Marcus’ warning and forced himself to try once again to move on.
“We all miss her, Aiden. A day doesn’t go by where I don’t wish my daughter was still alive. That I could see her smile or talk to her. I wanted nothing more than to see her grow and realize her potential, to witness her surpass everything I ever achieved. And you two were…perfecttogether. But for your own sake, you need to let Claudia go.”
There it was, that hint of obsession, lurking in Marcus’ voice. Hiding behind his words, twinkling in his gaze. A father who’d moved on didn’t talk about his daughter that way.
Aiden wanted to jerk away from Marcus, to call him out on all the lies. But he held still, squeezing Marcus’ hand with his own. “I know. I just… I didn’t want to believeit. I wanted there to be a reason why she’d died. Some… explanation other than a sick mind.”
Marcus let go and studied Aiden’s face, causing chills to crawl all over him. “Anddidyou find one?”
Fear speared through Aiden, but he willed his face not to show it. He hugged himself and looked out the window, swallowing past the lump in his throat. “No, but if I spoke to him again—”
“Let it rest. You’ve done enough. You’ve gotten your answers. There is nothing more here for you to find.” Marcus headed out of the office, but paused at the door. “You are an intelligent man. Stay away from Darren Howe and don’t let him get under your skin just because he knows what buttons to push.”
Letting go and moving on were things Aiden had tried to do every day. But something had always prevented him from doing so. The wrongness of logic to her death had always been at the back of his mind. And now, for the first time since he’d lost her so abruptly, things finally made some sense even if he was forced to face these lies he’d not even known existed.
Aiden watched Marcus disappear around the corner, the parting words he’d been left with swirling in his head.
They weren’t a warning from a concerned man.
They were a threat.
Chapter 29
Darren was on hisway to the field when Marcus DuLaurent walked out of Aiden’s office. Ducking inside the medbay, Darren watched Aiden stand still and clutch the place above his elbow. Aiden did it whenever he was nervous, though Darren didn’t think he was aware of it. More importantly though:what was Marcus doing here now?The timing was awfully suspicious given the latest developments in Darren’s life, worrisome too until he caught a glimpse of Aiden’s dejected expression.
A rush of strange excitement coursed through him. It wasn’t because Aiden looked like he was suffering from both the worst headache he’d had and a mental breakdown; it was because if Aiden looked so torn, then that meant Darren still had a chance.
