The Stoic And The Beast

The Lawyer

Alicia's POV

After I woke up the men from their nap and fed them I was visited by a detective who wanted to ask me some questions about my parents. He told me that the man who murdered them confessed and pled guilty. I was told that the man was someone who my father had carted off to jail on one of his bounty jobs. The man simply wanted payback for having to rot in jail for ten years. I was so angry at this man for doing what he had done. He took my whole family away from me all because of a vendetta. I couldn't believe my ears. Of course, I broke down again. Jake had to kick the detective out of the room.

Shortly after that someone came from the funeral home and handed me some pamphlets. I couldn't look at them. I couldn't decide what my parents would want. I needed to see their will first. So Luke called the police department to find out if the home was cleared for entry and it was since the guy had confessed. Jake immediately called and hired someone to do some kind of clean up of my childhood home. I don't know how my parents died exactly. Luke refused to tell me. But I would guess that if a clean up was needed then it was easy to figure it out. They suffered and it was probably messy.

I didn't want to think about it anymore. I couldn't. I just wanted to grieve for my mom and dad. I wanted to fulfill their final wishes and put this awful part of my life behind me. That means that it was very likely that I would sell the house. I can't imagine stepping foot in there, wondering which room they died in. Did they die together? Did they get to say goodbye? I will never know. Tyler offered to get my personal belongings. I couldn't think of anything that I wanted from the house besides photos, albums, home videos, my mom's laptop, which was her entire life basically. Tyler said he would also get my mom's address book so I could look through it and make some calls to people they might have been close to. It would also have important numbers like their lawyer. I needed that as well to get their last written will. Tyler and Jake left to go to the house. It was just me and Luke in the hospital room.

"How are you feeling sweetheart?" Luke asked.

"I dunno, kinda numb. I just want to forget this happened." I muttered.

I felt guilty for wishing to forget. His brows furrowed with concern as he looked at me but I noticed that since he got to the hospital his gaze would never meet my eye for very long.

"I know, I'm sorry. I wish there was more I could do to help you."

"You're doing plenty. Just being here is enough Luke. I couldn't ask for more. And thank you by the way... For going to the morgue for me. That must have been awful."

Luke was silent. He lost eye contact with me for the hundredth time today and looked away. It was a long time before he could look at me again. Whatever he saw must have been traumatic.

"Luke, why can't you look at me?" I asked in a whisper.

"I don't know if I should tell you." He muttered under his breath.

"You can't keep it bottled up inside. You need to talk about it. Even if it's about my parents. Talking about it will help you heal. I learned that from Anita. I felt better after I talked to her for a while. I even laughed a little bit." I grabbed his hand and squeezed it then gave him my bravest smile.

"Really? Did you just laugh? I've been so afraid you'd never laugh again."

He still couldn't look at me. He just shook his head and sighed.

"I did. At first, I thought there was something wrong with me. I mean what kind of person laughs the same day they find out both their parents are dead? But Anita said it was okay."