002

~~ ARIA ~~

“You dare show your face here after what you did?” Alec thunders, making Thorne scoff.

I look at Thorne, expecting him to say something related to their fallout, so I can finally try to understand what made their friendship end.

“Fuck you, Alec. I don’t care what you think, and I believe you know why I am here. So, where is it?” Thorne barks.

The tension in the air spikes by a thousandfold.

I still don’t understand what happened that made Alec and Thorne’s firm friendship go down the drain, and even made them wage war against each other.

“Where is what?” I ask with creased brows.

“Stay out of this, Aria,” Alec angrily snaps at me, making me huff in annoyance.

Mrs Hale holds my hand and draws me closer to herself, then she tells me something that makes me frown.

“He has been coming here for a few weeks, enraged and asking Alec to give him what he stole from him,” she whispers to me, making my frown deepen.

“And what did Alec steal from him?” I whisper back.

“Alec refuses to tell me. But I’m sure it’s not money. We have enough of that. I think it’s something very valuable to Thorne and his pack. Aria, I’m scared this might aggravate the war,” Mrs Hale whispers back.

My heart hammers in my chest because now that I am back in the pack, I don’t want to live in an environment where anyone can die at any time.

So I turn to Alec. “Alec, what did you take from Thorne?” I demand to know.

Alec glares at me, probably about to yell at me for butting into their conversation again, but then he does something that makes my brows furrow.

He smirks and then looks at Thorne, who looks like he is going to pounce on Alec at any second.

“Why don’t you ask Thorne to tell you what he claims I stole from him?” Alec tells me,

But his eyes are locked on Thorne.

Thorne’s eyes fall on me again, softening a bit. And I hate the way my heart still skips whenever I look at him.

I shove the feeling aside because this issue is more paramount.

“Thorne, what did Alec steal from you?” I ask him.

Thorne opens his mouth to answer me, but hesitates. That is when I know there is more to this than meets the eye.

Because tell me why Thorne is accusing Alec of stealing, but can’t say what it is that Alec took from him?

“He…” Thorne trails off and continues. “Your brother knows what he took from me, and I want it back, else, he won’t like what I’ll do.”

“This thing Alec took from you, is that why you are at war with him and our pack?” I ask Thorne.

“No, it isn’t. And for the record, I have never attacked your pack, Aria. All I have done is defend my pack from your brother’s attacks,” Thorne says with the most sincere look I have ever seen.

Trying to piece everything together and figure out what Alec took from Thorne, and what causes the war between our packs, makes me a bit dizzy.

What the hell is all this?

“You claim I stole something from you, and you can’t say what it is?” Alec chuckles coldly.

Thorne’s palms ball into a fist, and his jaw locks.

Anyone can tell he is restraining himself from doing something rash.

“You’re doing this on purpose because you know I can’t say what it is. But I promise you, Alec Stone, you will come to me, and on your knees you will beg me to collect it back from you,” Thorne says with a deadly look on his face.

Before Alec or I can say anything, he turns around and storms away.

I sigh deeply and look at Alec with narrowed eyes, but he ignores me and walks into the house.

This is definitely an unexpected welcome scene, but I am more worried about Alec’s safety.

I want to chase after Alec, but my conversation with him can wait.

There is something I have been looking forward to doing.

“Mrs Hale, please, can you take me to where my mom was buried?” I ask her.

She looks at me with sadness and pity flashing in her eyes as she nods.

☘️☘️☘️

My mom is buried beside my Dad, just like I thought.

My heart clenches painfully in my chest as I look at her gravestone.

If I had known that my mom would die of heart failure, I would have been by her side all night that day.

That is something I never want to remember, because it was on that day my mom died, and the same day Alec shipped me off to the human world.

It was on that fateful day at the banquet five years ago when I left the banquet hall to receive the cool breeze outside.

Thorne is outside at that moment, too.

One thing led to another, and things got pretty heated between him and me. But just when he was leaning in to kiss me, that was when Alec dashed out of the banquet hall.

The thing is, on that day, I didn’t leave the banquet hall because I really wanted a cool breeze.

I went outside because I saw Thorne leave too. At that time, my whole life was about Thorne Xandros.

I wanted so much for him to see me as a woman.

If I weren’t too busy with my obsession for him and being with him at that moment, I would have stayed by my mom’s side all through the banquet, and at least gotten to say goodbye to her.

I blink, shoving the thoughts away. After all, the past should remain in the past.

So I focus on the present.

“I’m back, Mom. I know you won’t like the war going on between Thorne and Alec. You used to call them both your son and care for them equally. That is why I’m going to try my best to stop it,” I smile, fighting back tears as I drop the flowers on her grave.

I walk to my Dad’s grave and drop the second batch of flowers there.

“I’ve always wanted to know who killed you, Dad, and now that I’m a mature woman, I promise. I will avenge your death,” I say to my Dad’s grave, hoping that somehow he can hear me.

These are the things Alec should have prioritized, not his fight with Thorne.

So I turn to Mrs Hale. “We can go now.”

She nods as we leave the cemetery. On our way back home, Mrs Hale briefs me about everything going on.

However, from everything she tells me, she claims not to know the real reason why Thorne and Alec are fighting.

Or does she know and doesn’t want to tell me?