The Edge of Honour

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Morgan's POV:

I lay awake throughout the night, Olivia had explained the majority of what had happened to me and my mind had promptly began to create its own version of those events. My brain managed to generate a realistic series of thoughts based on the murder of two innocent people at his hands. My mind was filled with the gruesome images as I lay awake. When sleep finally won its inner battle with my mind, I fell into an unsettled sleep; the silence of my room seemed to be filled with the screams and shouts of those who had suffered. There was no escaping what he had done and he had done it because of me.

I took a deep breath as I descended the final steps and entered the reception. It had been cleaned thoroughly during the night and was once ore gleaming. The only giveaway that something so tragic had happened there were the people. A few wore thick white bandages to cover the wounds that he had inflicted on them; many chose to look only at the ground, their eyes glistened with tears as they stared down at the tiled surface.

Jet stood behind the desk, I had rang him in the middle of the night asking him to arrange this moment for me and as usual, he was going to keep his promise.

"Are you sure you want to do this Morgan?" he asked. "You don't have to." He searched my face for any signs that I was nervous or scared about it.

"Yes," I replied. I was adamant that I would finally get the answers that I needed. I had waited so many years for them; it was now or never.

Without another word, Jet began to walk down a series of steps- they were old and cracked, the edges of each step were flaking away and moss grew inside each crevasse between them. Jet punched a series of numbers and letters into a keypad and the door in front of us swung open with a light groan due to its rusted hinges.

I followed him down the dark passageway and tried my hardest to keep calm. I walked past the muscled security guards who lined either side of the tunnel. Their guns glistened in the dim light which the overhanging lights emitted; their faces looked pale and sunken, they were visibly shaken by the night's events. I wondered if these people blamed me for the deaths of their colleagues. It would never have happened without me- it was as if I had perpetrated the act.

I was no longer concentrating on where we were going, my mind was whirling- filled with its own thoughts.

I had dreamed of this day for my entire life, but never expected it to happen in these circumstances. This man was my flesh and blood and likewise I was his. In my imagination he would come to my house and together we would weep openly as he apologised profusely to me for abandoning me. He would then sweep me up into his arms as he introduced me to his wife- a princess from an exotic country. He told me about his many exploits- he had fought in devastating wars and told me of the constant struggle that he had felt as he searched for me each day,  he would always claim that he had never been able to live happily without me.

However, none of this was true. That was my dream, my fantasy, but this is my reality! He had known where I was, he knew that I had been alone and that I had nothing, but he didn't care about me for a single second. Not until he discovered that I had powers that is.

"Princess!" he exclaimed, standing up, his handcuffs clicking off each other as he tried to open his hands into an embrace. "I can't even hug my own daughter," he laughed bitterly, raising his cuffed hands to Jet. Jet shook his head in response. He was the closest thing that I had ever had to a father. Jet was the only male that I had ever met who truly cared about my well-being.

"Zac, I think you should be quite and just listen to what Morgan has to say and answer her truthfully. She deserves at least that from you. After that, the rest is up to her," Jet announced, stepping back slightly to give us some privacy, but never leaving my side in case I needed him.

"Like you care about her, you only want her powers, the same as me. She is nothing without them," he spat viciously. I had already known that they were the only reason that he had come searching for me, but hearing those words directly from his mouth broke my heart and shattered any remnants of hope I may have had of forging a relationship with him.

I was numb, why had I decided to meet him? Jet looked furiously at my father as if he were about to launch an assault against him, but he fought the urge. I had a feeling that Zac would not have been so lucky had I not been in the cell with him. It physically hurt to think of the man before me as my father, he had just openly admitted that I was nothing to him without the slightest hint of remorse. Nothing had or could ever hurt me as much as his words had managed to.

"Do you want to leave Morgan?" Jet asked. I shook my head firmly, I knew that once I left this cell, I would never see Zac anymore, I could not bear to go through it all over again. He had done the damage, it was now a matter of getting the answers that I required.

"Why do my powers matter to you?" I asked, knowing that they were the only important thing to him.

"Do you know how much money I could make if I made contact with a single television channel. I could make millions from that one simple phone call. I could even sell you to a scientific research company and watch the money roll in as they complete test after test on you," he said, grinning at the thought. The only good thing he could see in me was the possibility of making money. I suddenly felt extremely grateful that I had never had anything to do with him.

"Then, why did you have to shoot those innocent people if you know where I was?" I forced the images which were beginning to envelope my brain to the back of my mind. I knew that my dreams would be filled with them later in the night. My life would never be the same.

"I knew that you were in this building with the CIA, but those stupid people refused to tell me exactly where. I thought that they would realise that I was serious after I shot the first person, but sadly for them they continued to refuse and suffered as a result!" he laughed as scenes similar to the ones in my head flashed into his mind. To him, the bitter and violent reality of his actions were a joke, a laughing matter.

"Even if you had found me, I would never have gone with you," I replied bitterly.

"You wouldn't have had a choice Morgan, these people are nothing to you, whether or not you like it, I am your only family so your opinion wouldn't matter!" Zac didn't even try to mask the enjoyment that he was getting from crushing me with each comment that he made.

"Luckily for Morgan, she has every right to make her own decisions since you have abandoned her. We have the court order to prove it and we would never leave her go with someone like you," Jet answered, his eyes burning with a deep hatred for Zac.

I turned around, not wanting to look at the man seated on the cold metal framed bed before me. It was my life from now on and I never had to worry about him. Only when I turned around did I notice that there were two security guards standing close behind me, their eyes burned with the same undiluted ferocity as Jets did and they stared in disbelief at the unremorseful man in front of them.

Only at that moment did I realise that nobody blamed me for what had happened and that there was nothing that I could have done to prevent it. I was as much of a victim of it as they were.

Without another word, I turned my head in the direction of the steel barred door and Jet silently followed behind me as we exited the cell. I had said everything that I needed to and I never wanted to see his face again.

I heard the lock click into place and the footsteps of the two guards as they returned to their position at either side of the door. Jet wrapped a protective arm around my shoulder as my emotions flooded out from me.