The Recruit

Chapter 28

"Can I stay?" Pietro heard Lucy pleaded in his dream.

Pietro Lucius Octavius woke up with a start. He hadn't slept so well in so long. He looked to his side hoping to see Livia, but as he looked at the clock, he wasn't surprised seeing her gone. She probably went back to the base for training. He showered and went outside to the living room to see Jacob coming out of his office.

"Where did you come from my boy?" Jacob couldn't meet his eyes and went to the dining room to eat his food.

Is there something going on? Was it something he did? Did he saw Livia left and didn't like the fact she spent the night? Many thoughts raced through Pietro's mind.

Pietro said nothing until he saw the food. Pietro released a relief sigh, concluding that his son must be in a good mood. "You even made me breakfast. Any special occasions today?" Pietro smiled at his son.

"It wasn't me. It's Livia." Pietro stiffened.

"Papà , is there something you would like to tell me?" His son asked him expressionless.

"I... I'm sorry, I was thoughtless bringing her here. I..." Pietro fumbled through his words, a rare occasion to occur.

His son cut him off, "I don't care about that. You are an adult and you can do what adult does... dating and stuff. I wasn't talking about that." Pietro is in awe with his son's matureness but at the same time if it wasn't about that, then what did he mean.

"Papà , do we... I mean do you really know for sure mama died? Is she really dead?" Pietro was speechless, he didn't know where this conversation was heading and he didn't like it. Come to think of it, her face was crushed beyond recognition and he was too in pain to take a look of the corpse closely.

"I saw a female body in the morgue, just like your mamma's, but now I think about it I didn't see her face." Suddenly Jacob doesn't feel like eating anymore. He felt nauseated as realization pounded on his head. 

He didn't know what to say to his papà . Tears leaked off his eyes but tried his best to shake it off in front of his father. His poor father didn't know, it wasn't his fault. 

Jacob suddenly remembered her words from earlier, the mask that he found weird, and how her voice sometimes changes in the presence of his father. He wondered if she was friends with him only to get close to his father.

"No" The little boy told himself. 

"She already like me before she knew who my father is. She would... she promised if my father..." ever left me she would take me in.  Jake couldn't continue his words. She was crying earlier, was she planning on leaving him and his father? Jake thought to himself and he started to blame himself for coming back when he should have stayed and coaxed her to tell him the truth.

Jake's heart broke with remorse. He hadn't told her he loved her and he would like it if she was his mamma.

"I should get ready for school." He couldn't control his tears anymore and ran to his room.

Before Pietro could ask him what was wrong, his son took off crying. Then that was when he noticed the crumpled picture of him and Lucy taken in Germany in 2017.

Pietro went to his son's room and knocked. "What's wrong Jake? Is there something wrong? Did something happened with you and Livia?"

"Go away, you stupid vampire!" He shouted from inside his room. Pietro panicked. His son never behaved this way before. He entered the room, finding his son crying hard and trying to stifle it into the pillow.