Ditched Cheating Alpha, I Led My Daughter to Life's Peak novel Chapter 58

"So you're sick?" I ask him.

He doesn't respond.

"Too much soda?" I say smugly.

I don't mean for him to take it the way he does. I mean it as a joke, but he gets up and leaves.

I follow him into the hall, turning off the lights on my way out. I don't know if I'm angry or worried. Upset or pissed off or just... I don't know. "Aiden," I realize. "I don't even know where the nurse is."

"What does it matter?" he says more than asks.

"Is that where you're going?"

He stops in his tracks. He glances at me over his shoulder. "I don't need a babysitter, and I don't need you. Leave me alone."

I turn around, abruptly. Away from him. "You know what, whatever. You wanna be alone, be alone. You want to be a crappy person, be a crappy person, but don't expect me to stay around and take it." I don't know where I'm going, but anywhere's better than this. I start walking. "Excuse me for giving a damn about whether or not you were dying. I won't feel guilty if someone finds you dead in the halls."

"I know you won't."

I just ignore him. I don't know what else to do.

When I'm a little further down the hall, he says, "Nice to know."

I look at him even though he's not looking at me. "Nice to know what? That I won't feel guilty?"

"No. How you treat liars," he says plainly.

I cock my head back. "Excuse me?" I stare at the back of his head.

He stops. He turns around and looks down at me like I'm the dirt beneath his feet. Then he keeps walking.

I sigh, clenching my fists. "If you have something to say Aiden, why don't you just say it?" Now I sound like Carson.

Aiden doesn't stop. "I don't want to make a habit of making a spectacle of myself."

I just stand there, stock still.

He nods, the first form of compassion he's ever offered me, and it isn't the time for it. It feels more like pity than anything. "You're a target. a weakness, and it's impossible to blame you for it," he scoffs. "You can't even help it. I see that now."

"You know I am trying," I say. Trying with what exactly, I'm not sure. But I am.

He shakes his head. "It's not enough. It'll never be enough," he speaks over me. "No amount of training or health measures will help you. In fact, they might kill you sooner." He looks into my eyes again, as if he's seeing me for the first time. Or the last.

I don't think he likes what he sees.

You probably want us to make romantic promises we could never keep, like we'll always be there to protect you. We'll never let anybody hurt you." He shakes his head, scoffing, like it's the most ridiculous notion he's ever heard. "Well the truth is, even if there's three of us, there will come a day when you're alone. I won't be there to protect you like last time. Carson won't be there. Axel won't be there, and something is going to try to kill you." His voice raises, not louder but that much more...

I take a step back.

He walks right up to me. "Your survival will be up to you, and right now you wouldn't stand a chance. It would kill you."

I'm not even breathing. There's something there. Something I can't read in him but that I feel. It wraps around my lungs and leaves me paralyzed in a cold sweat. Fear. I see fear in his eyes.