Hidden Behind the Veil (Complete)

Chapter 25

-Thought eid vacations would give me more than enough time to write, but it didn't turn out the way I thought it would. :3 

Chris knocked pollitely on Arthur's office door.

"Come in Chris." He could easily recognize the way Chris knocked the door after all these years of staying together.

Chris walked in rather formally. He was a butler, but after Arthur, he was the highest authority in the house. Their close relations were undoubtedly no secret.

"Please, sit." Arthur gestured towards the sofa-seat where Alex had sat just yesterday.

Chris sat down without a word and adjusted his bow-tie.

"I understand that Alex now knows the reality." Other servants couldn't dare start a conversation with their master, but Chris was just not another servant. Arthur sighed.

"Yes... he knows everything now. I told him."

"This was bound to happen Arthur. We couldn't hide it from him for long. He is 17, he ought to know now."

"Yeah," Arthur stood up and faced towards the window behind his office chair, staring at the scene outside. "but I was hoping that he wouldn't have to take it this way." He lit a pipe for himself.

"He did look disturbed last night. I didn't expect him to leave the mansion."

"It's hard for the kid, Chris. It would have been hard for anyone. I wonder if..." Arthur looked down at his well-polished shoes before turning around and facing Chris. "I wonder if we took the wrong decision 17 years ago."

"No, Arthur. We did not take the wrong decision." Chris noticed Arthur's watery eyes and decided to continue forth. "We both were and are well-wishers for Alex. He might not understand that yet...but he will, some day."

"I wish that I do not die without seeing that 'some day'." He exhaled smoke from his thick lips. "You know I've admired you and your hard work, Chris. This... this is not a master asking his servant...no. No. This," Arthur looked up. His eyes were wide open now. "is a father asking another father."

"Ask me."

"We both lost our own sons and wives." His voice was almost a whisper now, as if he barely had the courage to speak. "Then how do you manage to go about life while I am battling with my inner-self day in and day-out?" A thick tear raced down his cheek and was caught by a handkerchief.

"We are all battling with ourselves. Me, you, everyone. We're in a state of constant war with our own souls. And the day this war ends," Chris took a deep breath. "Is the day we die, my friend. And I am yet to win my war as well."

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Alex had thought that the summer vacations would be a great opportunity to just sit back and relax, but that did not go the way he had intended. The reality of his existence was eating him up.

They say that time heals everything, but that was not the case as time just seemed to deepen his cuts. How could time heal him when the realization that he had been fooled for exactly all this time was the reason of his sorrow.

He sat in the dim and dark shed that belonged to Chris, his real father. All day long, he'd sit on the bed, facing the door and gazing blankly. Thoughts whirled up in his mind. How could his own family give him away like that?

Of course Arthur had come down and asked him to return to his mansion.

"I get it that you would want to stay with your father. But you can always have your room. I can get Chris a room as well, but I doubt he'd take it. Offered him years ago. He still wishes to stay in the old shed where his wife died." He had said.

"Thanks, but I am fine over here. I am fine where I belong."

Alex had vowed never to return in that mansion. Edward came next morning, completely ignoring Alex's small shed as he passed by. Alex wondered if this was the reason his father wanted him to live up in that mansion. Nobody seemed to care if you were poor.

Alex stepped in the doorway of his shed and shouted at Ed's back who was walking up the gravel driveway towards the lawn.

"ED!"

He turned around and gave a skeptical look to Alex.

"What in the name of uncle Steve's cheesy pizzas are you doing'ere?"

It took him some time to explain everything to him after he had brought Edward to the shed. When, at last he was done with the story, Edward looked too dumbfound to say anything. After some time of gazing open-mouthed, he asked.

"You all-rayi?"

"Yeah..." Alex sighed. "I think I should tell Violet...just when everything seems to come into focus, another mystery unfolds and my life blurs once again."

"Listen...what'cha need is some zombie-behind whoopin'. Let's go up ta'yur room an' play some-"

"I am not going back to the mansion...never."

"WHAT? YOU'RE...YOU'RE STAYING HERE?" he gestured with his hands spread about, indicating the dusty old shed.

"This is where I belong Ed. This is where I was meant to be."

Edward sat there for an hour to keep Alex company. Life wasn't much when you just had a few paces' length to live in. But eventually he had to leave. He stood up and fist-bumped with Alex.

"See'ya soon mate. Stay strong."

"Yeah."

Edward left the shed. One thing remained same in the mansion as well as the shed; loneliness followed Alex wherever he went. He just sat there, gazing once again towards the door, with no idea about Chris shouting outside.

"Luna! What are you doing here?" A girl in housekeeper clothes had been lingering close to the shed.

"Uh nothing!" Her baby face was red and she was fumbling with her fingers.

"Shouldn't you be inside the kitchen."

"Yes, yes I should be. Only...uh... that the....the gardener wanted me to check on...on this tree here. Said it's been wilting."

Chris looked at the tree for a moment.

"So are you done with your tree-checking?"

"Yes. Yes I am." She turned around and began walking hastily towards the mansion.

Why would the gardener ask her to check on the tree? He could have done that tomorrow when he came.

He thought about it for some time before dismissing it. What harm could it do?

-Your take on Chris and Arthur's decision and Alex's reaction? 

Tentative date for next update: 19th September, 2016.