"Aiden, don’t you think this is too much?" Nate growled as he walked into the office with a scowl on his face.
"No." His answer ca sharp and quick with a finality that Nate did not like one bit.
Nate exhaled slowly, frustration tightening his features as he turned towards Serena. "And you? You think this punishnt fits too? The one that Adam has chosen for her?"
"It doesn’t matter what I think, Nate," Serena replied without looking up, her voice calm and detached as she continued to eat with her utmost attention to the food, "It’s not up to ."
But Nate wasn’t about to let it go that easily. "Oh, don’t try to take that road with ," he snapped. "Since when have you ever believed in minding your own business when sothing is clearly wrong? You do feel it’s a fitting punishnt - I can see it. You just won’t say it out loud. And I don’t get it... why?"
He paused, gathered himself and leaned forward, his voice dipping into sothing closer to pleading. "Serena... I know she hurt you. She wronged you in ways that none of us can truly grasp - in the worst, most unforgivable ways. But this..." he glanced over at Aiden, then back at Serena. "This feels like vengeance, not punishnt.. Can you not... let this go? Does she need to be pushed into the death well?"
"It’s not about punishnt, Nate." This ti Aiden spoke quietly and sighed. He leaned back slightly, his eyes clouded with sothing unreadable. "It’s about understanding consequence."
Aiden paused for a mont before continuing. "Ella has always been... vulnerable. Not weak, not stupid - but soft in the ways that matter most. She leads with her heart, always has. And it was okay in the past until it started coming in the way of basic judgent. Her first instinct is emotion, and her last decision is almost always the sa. That’s why she never saw Charles for who he really was and beca a tool for him to use against . That’s why she didn’t question Sidney’s motives when she first handed Serena over to him, that first ti."
He looked at Serena for a mont, sothing unspoken passing between them, then turned back to Nate. "Yes. She regretted it — briefly. When Serena vanished, she broke, but then... she moved on. Like she always does. Even if our father was the one pulling strings, she still made the choices. And every ti, she forgets that her actions ripple outward. That her vulnerability has a cost, not just to her, but to the people around her."
His tone sharpened then, a steel edge beneath the quiet. "She cannot afford to keep living like that -not anymore. Because one day, soone’s going to use her softness to destroy everything we’ve built. To get to . To get to Serena. To get to any of us."
He fell silent for a beat, then added, "She needs to learn. And she needs to learn it the hard way."
Aiden looked down at his hands for a mont, as if weighing sothing, then continued." Right now, she thinks I hate her. She’s convinced of it and thinks that I am right. But how long until she sees it unjust because Serena and returned and did not die? Just because she survived doesn’r reduce her sin. And so when she finds out the truth - when she realizes that I was the one who threw her into this den of wolves - she’ll break in a new way. She’ll have a choice to make then. Either she understands why... or she lets herself drown in anger and betrayal and keep repeating her mistakes."
"And whatever she chooses..." he paused, "she’ll finally see the cost of blind trust. Of letting herself be used. That’s the only way she’ll stop being a liability - to herself and to the rest of us."
Nate sighed, the weight of the situation pressing into his shoulders as he ran a hand down his face. He didn’t like it — not one bit — but he could finally see what was turning in Aiden’s mind. The bitter practicality. The lesson wrapped in cruelty. It made sense. And yet...
"That doesn’t an I have to like it," he muttered, almost to himself.
"She’ll be alright," Aiden said softly, not with comfort but conviction. "Dale Brown is the one watching over her."
Nate let out a short, humorless laugh. "Oh, great. That’s supposed to reassure ?" He shook his head, but despite the sarcasm, there was no real bite to it. He still looked uneasy, but his trust in Aiden — in the man he knew his brother to be — was stronger than the doubt gnawing at his gut.
"I trust you," he said finally. "Even if I don’t always understand you."
Aiden gave a small nod, as if acknowledging both the complint and the warning tucked inside it.
Nate was just about to agree, to finally set his misgivings aside and step into Aiden’s line — when Aiden’s voice ca again, calm and deliberate.
"And since you’re here for Ella," Aiden said with a slight tilt of his head, "you can play the devil’s advocate."
Nate froze. His brows furrowed. "What the hell does that an?"
Aiden’s smile was slow and maddening. "Exactly what it sounds like."
Nate’s eyes narrowed. "You want to stand against you? In front of her?"
"You ca for her," Aiden replied, utterly composed. "So play your part. Defend her. Question for her. Tell her that she is being wronged and that she should not get into this mission. You can support her and that she should begin a life elsewhere... And I was wrong to push her into this."
"You—You cold-hearted bastard," he swore, taking a step back. "You really are rciless!"
Aiden’s smirk didn’t falter. "She won’t learn otherwise."
"And I’m supposed to just act like I hate you now?"
"You won’t have to act too hard," Aiden said dryly. "Haven’t you always pretended that very well."
Serena laughed at that while Nate glared and walked out of the room, with the sa scowl on his face which he had when he entered.
Reviews
All reviews (0)