The Switch

EPILOGUE

© IWuv_Stories a.k.a Richa Tripathi 2013. All Rights Reserved.

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“You start duty tomorrow” Robby Chrysler walked into the boy’s room and reminded him.

“I know” Luke replied.

The Head of The Committee looked like he had a few unpleasant thoughts running through his mind, and was hesitant in expressing them.

He collected his courage and poured out the question.

“Did you speak to them at the meeting?”

Luke looked at him as if the man had just asked whether he’d deciphered dolphin tongue.

“What sort of question is that supposed to be?” the boy, who had recently dyed his hair blond, got back to setting it right in the mirror.

“A hopeful one” Chrysler sighed.

“She’s dead to me” Luke put the comb back down and moved toward his bed, where a suitcase lay wide open, with half his things packed in them.

“You could try” Chrysler suggested, praying it would do him some good.

“No. I promised to kill her the next time we met”

It wasn’t the things Luke said that were hurting the old man; but rather the calm with which he said those words: almost as if killing Sirens no longer bothered him.

Robby felt he was more at fault.

“I’m sorry I never told you” he sighed.

“It doesn’t matter” Luke replied, without any hint of emotion.

The lingering silence that came made the young man realize that he was hurting the man who had raised him, and given him a respectful position in the world by making him his heir.

The least he could do was be a little less bitter.

Besides, he understood why Chrysler had done the things he had. He understood why Sharon had to be brought back and most important, he understood the pain the old man had felt as well.

Pain acted as a mould, and it shaped the thoughts and behaviour of people in just the right manner.

He sighed, and turned around:

“It’s ok, Chrysler” despite the drastic changes in his personality, Luke still wasn’t ready to address him as ‘dad’. “This sushi’s used to secrecy”

“I didn’t intend it to be this way for you” the chairman sounded unconvinced that it was okay.

“What way?” Luke asked “Look at me, old man” he rolled his eyes and turned to his sides “I’m perfectly fine, okay?”

Chrysler could see past the fronts Luke was putting up, but knowing how hard it truly was to be able to fortify pain, he didn’t try to push them down.

Instead, he forced a smile and said “all right”

Luke was relieved that Chrysler wasn’t going to turn into an emotional mess. If he were to be honest with himself, he missed the clowning around the old man used to do.

That felt like eons ago.

Luke shook the thought away, remembering what Derek had worked so hard to make him understand:

Living in the past was only going to slow him down. He had to look forward, and fix his future. He couldn’t afford to allow the past to bring him down—there were things that the White twins needed to take care of.