Ditched Cheating Alpha, I Led My Daughter to Life's Peak novel Chapter 271

I feel like shaking my head. No. I don't feel like I do. What is there to say? In front of all of these people, how should I tell them we're leaving them to die? Leaving their kids to die?

The tears in the mother's eyes dry up quickly. "It'll be your kids one day," she growls at me. "It'll be you and your kids. Have fun watching them die with you-"

"Get her out of here," Aiden says.

The woman flinches.

Carson looks at him from the corner of his eyes. "Are you sure?"

I freeze. "Aiden?" What is he planning on doing?

He doesn't say anything. Bri steps away from me. I reach for her, but she just gives me a reassuring look.

The mother fumbles for words. "I-I..."

Carson starts moving. At first I think he'll go after her, but it's my hand he grabs, pulling me away.

I furrow my brow. "What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna take you home. Come on." He keeps walking through the crowd of our pack, further and further away from Aiden and the others.

"But-"

He shakes his head. "Listen to me." He leans down so that it's just me he's talking to. Everyone else feels so far away. "Aiden's gonna start forcing them away, so we need to go."

I raise an eyebrow. "Really? Now?"

Carson nods, pulling me closer. I can't believe it. It's already over when it feels like nothing got done.

"I don't want you to get hurt," Carson says. "So please." He gestures towards the car. Something in his eyes tells me he's not asking.

But I can't just walk away. Will all of these people die? Is it my fault? Could I have pushed more, fought more...

Carson squeezes my hand leading me away. The refugees scream for me to come back, to deal with this, to help them, but even though everything in me is screaming to try harder, I just follow Carson. My hand's shaking in his.

He rubs it soothingly. "You're handling all of this so well, you know that?"

I don't feel like I am. I can't look at the faces of the people we're passing. They're risking their lives to keep me safe when I can't even speak for them.

"I'm serious." Carson tells me everything a person would want to hear in this moment. It makes me feel even worse, that he has to comfort me for failing him.

"I can't do it either," he says. "I always have to ask Aiden for help, even though it's my division."