The Elevator

Murderer

"I'm sorry for your loss." I whispered with sincerity.

"Thank you." He replied. There was a crack in his voice. As much as I hated to acknowledge it, I could hear the heartbreak in his voice. It was the voice of a broken man, a grieving father.

"What happened to him?" I asked. It was such a personal question, one I wasn't even sure if I wanted to know the answer to. However, curiosity was growing me at an alarming rate. A part of me was being selfish, wanting to open the box to his pain.

"He was murdered by a roug- bad man." He replied.

A rouge is what he was going to say. He was doing remarkably well at keeping the secrets of the werewolf world. A rogue wolf was someone without a pack. We often discriminated against them because they didn't have a pack. Even, I once believed that they were bad, but I had to remember that despite losing my wolf, I was technically a rogue. However, I could tell that this rogue was a bad one, especially if he killed a child.

"Did you know the murderer?" The words escaped by lips before I could think.

"No, I didn't, but Leanne, she did." He darkly chuckled. His voice was raspy and strained as he replied.

My face contorted with confusion. What did he mean Leanne knew the rogue? A small glimmer in me expected nothing less from my sister. She was always associated with questionable characters. Unfortunately for the pack, I was the only one who knew about it. Leanne enjoyed the exhilarating feeling of danger, but I did not know she would put her pack, her family, at risk. There was a part of me that thought she was smart enough to keep herself safe.

"What do you mean? She knew the murderer?" I questioned. There was no way I could meet his eyes. I didn't want him to see my pain. I clenched my eyes close and titled my head back as I felt his restlessness because of my questions.

"I don't even know why I am telling you this- "Jacob replied.

"I told you, it's easier to talk to a stranger. It's therapy for the soul." A small smirk crossed my lips, knowing the real reason he was opening up was because he was my mate.

"He was her soulmate." He responded. His tone clipped as he snapped the words out of his lips.

His words didn't shock me, since Leanne's partner would match her passion and behavior. What did shock me was that her soulmate could kill her child. Her mate would know how much pain it would cause her. Losing a child was almost as bad as losing a mate. Surely he knew the damage he was causing.

"Her soulmate killed her child? How could someone be so cruel?" I whispered. No matter how much my mate and sister betrayed me, even though the thoughts tempted me to do the same, I would have never killed an infant.

"Cruel?" The words he said appeared to linger in his mouth like a wine he was savouring. "It's funny you say that it is cruel, but a part of me thinks it's Karma. There's a saying that we reap what we sow and that is exactly what happened to both of us. We didn't deserve happiness, but my son didn't deserve to die." He stated.

"That's very philosophical of you." I replied.

His eyebrows scrunched as my words registered in his ears. "I've had many years to think of the mistakes I have made, the lies that I believed. Being with Leanne was the biggest mistake of my life, but I can't regret my son. He was my saving grace in all my grave decisions, but I didn't deserve that relief. I didn't deserve that happiness. I destroyed the one person who meant everything to me." He sighed in pain.

I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. Part of me wanted to pull him into my arms and tell him everything would be okay, that everything happens for a reason, but a part of me knew that wasn't my job anymore. Although there may be an invisible thread that pulled us together, a bond that still lingered, we weren't mates but merely people who once knew each other. He didn't know me anymore. I was nothing but a stranger.

"Why did her soulmate kill your baby?" I asked.

"He despised him. He despised my son. Apparently, he hated me for taking away his soulmate. He wanted to hurt her like she hurt him. My son was the collateral damage to Leanne's mistakes." He huffed out. "My mistakes as well." Jacob muttered.

"What do you mean, she hurt him?" I pondered, wanting to know the actions of my she-devil sister.

"She betrayed their bond. They had been together for years, both cheating on each other, both finding comfort in others and then meeting behind everyone's back. They both betrayed their families. But when Leanne got pregnant, and it was my child, he saw that as the ultimate betrayal. As much as he despised the slut that she was, he couldn't bring himself to kill her." He chuckled darkly. "But he wanted to hurt her." His breaths were becoming laboured as he got lost in the memories, the tears were slowly slipping out of the corners of his eyes. I could tell whatever he was reliving in his mind was horrific.

"He planned an attack on our town, so while everyone was busy protecting their loved ones, Leanne was giving birth. When she birthed my son, he snatched him away. The people who were attacking retreated, and it was then that I felt this pain inside my soul. I ran to Leanne, who was crying hysterically. She was screaming so much I swear I could feel the walls shake. She was like a banshee." He stopped and took a deep breath. "It was then that I felt my son's pain. Although I never saw him, I knew he was dead. His decapitated body lay on the outskirts of town three days later, and the note found with him revealed the shocking truth behind his murder."

I never thought that after all the pain it had caused me, I would feel more broken, but the story of my nephew's brief life shattered me. My heart was already in pieces, but it was now dust. I always knew my sister's bad choices would catch up with her, but never did I think she would allow her own child to be harmed.

"The messed up thing was that I always thought Louise was the villain in my story." Those words he spoke were like daggers in my chest. "A part of me believed she would be the one to kill my child, knowing that she belonged to me, too." I choked down a sob, thinking about how could he even think I could kill an innocent person, a child. The pain that someone could think so little of me pained me even more. "I pushed her away, tormented her for things she didn't do. She left because of me. She left me alone. There was no note, nothing. No one realised she was gone until a week later. I ignored my wol- senses. Still, to this day, I don't even know if she is alive or dead and it's all my fault. I lost everything that should have been precious to me."

It was then that the cold and arrogant bastard I once knew sobbed like a child, his chest heaving up and down as he tried to catch his breath in between his cries. He was truly a broken man.

Edited 08/08/2023