Your greatest mistake

Chapter 17

I feel like a robot. I am at Victor's side day and night. Ever since the attack things have gotten crazy around here and Victor won't let me out of his sight. I work myself to exhaustion, effectively drowning out the world.

I could not stomach going to Loralie's funeral. I hid like a coward. I am a coward. Zac, Adam and Lyncon said it was a massive funeral, very beautiful, but I know there was no love in it.

Victor was mad as hell I didn't go but I know his whole lecture was only because I never gave him the chance to parade me as his poor widowed son-in-law.

I never realised how weak I was until I lost the only real thing I ever had. I work until I drop and unlike Adam and the aunty, I can't help but be in the room we slept together in. I return every day, tricking myself into believing she is still with me.

There's a wrap on my door at 5am and I answer already dressed. Sleep is not my friend nowadays. Michael stands ready to escort me like always. He doesn't tell me what is going on. He doesn't say a word. The moment he sees me ready he turn's and I follow.

It's been this way for a while. The haze that surrounds me is thick and unyielding, and ever since the attack there has been far more movement, with people coming in trying to knock Victor down.

We are at an apartment block that has just been vacated since Victor took it over, from the protesters outside to the angry evictees it has been hell securing the area for demolition.

The process is quite simple: implode the building into its own footprint. It is the general way to demolish massive buildings such as this and the safest.

One of the men from the blaster crew has come back to us to tell us that the detonations have been compromised again.

In times like these there is one man that jumps to mind to help the situation and I know it's going to bite me later. I'm dialing his number before I know it.

"Zac, somethings come up. I need your help."

"That's nice. I haven't heard from you since before Loralie's funeral."

"Look, I don't want any shit. Can you help or not?"

"For you to call me, it must be important so I wont tell you to go fuck yourself, but I will put a condition down that you at the very least give Adam a call. He's not doing well and you are his best friend or at least you're supposed to be. I know you have had a great loss but so has he. Get drunk together, get into a fight. I don't care, just do it together."

"He doesn't want to see me. You and I both know the one thing everyone is thinking but not saying is that Trinity's death is most likely my fault. If I didn't run off with Loralie she might still be alive."

"No one thinks that. You were gone for months and nothing happened."

"You really don't know how these people work and, in a way, I am grateful. I'll give everything I have to keep you as far from this as I can."

"We make our own choices Alex. If Adam wants to see you let him. He wants to punch you in the face... you decide if you let him. With us it's always been that way. We might not be able to control what goes on out there, but we can between the four of us."

"I won't make any promises, but I will think about it, and if you can't come out that's fine too."

I hear the phone go quiet for a moment, then, "I'll be there in twenty."

The line goes dead. That went easier than I thought, but I know he won't stop at that. Zac is well-known for his brains and determination as well as his insane intuition which I desperately need right now.