The flat tone of Dylan's voice was a dead giveaway that my fear was indeed true.

The conversation between him and Aimee didn't even last for up to a minute, and the only detail I managed to grab from it was that he was at Howdryn hospital. Of course, as soon as the call ended, I had Tony drive Aimee and me there.

Neither of us spoke to one another throughout the duration of the journey. Aimee had her eyes closed as she muttered to herself, clutching her fists tightly together as she did so. My insides felt like ice, and my hands refused to stop shaking.

Although we hadn't let Tony know about the exact nature of the situation, he drove faster than he usually did, weaving through cars with expert ease. Therefore, the journey only lasted for about fifteen minutes.

It didn't take us long to find Dylan. He was waiting near the front desk with his siblings and cousin, who were all asleep, seated beside him.

To be frank, he looked terrible.

His usually styled hair was all over the place, the eye bags under his eyes were larger than usual, and his clothes were rumpled.

When his eyes, which looked reddish at that moment, landed on Aimee they brightened a bit, but they darkened once they landed on me. After carefully dislodging himself from Hailey, his sister, he marched over to Aimee and me.

"What are you doing-"

"Your mother, how is she? Any news yet?"

He hissed, "None of your goddamn business." Briefly, he fixed his glare on Aimee. "When I told you my location, I assumed you were coming alone."

Before Aimee could respond, I spat, "Well I'm fucking here, so you might as well put away any childish grudge you have with me and just let me know what the fuck is going on!"

"I don't have to tell you jack-"

"D- Dylan? I- Is everything o- okay?"

Hailey's voice broke through our argument, stealing our attention.

Instantly, Dylan's expression softened. "Everything is fine, Hails. You'll be leaving soon, okay?"

Her face brightened. "D- does th- that mean mummy is c- coming with us?"

"Well-"

Dylan's voice caught in his throat, but the silence didn't last long before Aimee said, "Well she'd need to rest here for a while, but she'd be fine before you even know it."

Hailey's face fell a little, but she nodded. "O- okay."

"But in the meantime, why don't you continue telling me about your friends at school? You weren't able to finish before I had to leave your house last week, remember?"

"S- sure!"

"Great!" Prior to heading off to claim the spot beside Hailey, Aimee looked back at Dylan and I. "Why don't you boys give us girls some privacy and continue your conversation outside?

I nodded. "Alright."

"Fine with me as well. I'll be back soon Hails, alright?"

"Al-alright."

Turning back to me, Dylan said, "C'mon Smith, let's go talk."

Despite the smile on his face, his eyes were iron-hard.
. . .

The smile melted off the second the front doors of the hospital closed behind us. Before he could speak, however, I quickly snapped, "I'm not going anywhere, so save your breath."

"Yes, you fucking are! What are you even doing here? I sure as hell didn't invite you!"

"How presumptuous of you to think that I'm here for you." I barked a laugh. "I promise, if you ever happen to land in a hospital bed you wouldn't find me anywhere near. But now that it's your mum that's in one and not you, can you please put away your grudge and just tell me what the fuck happened?"

Dylan's lips remained tightly pressed together for what felt like an eternity. Just when I was about to add more to the words I'd let out, his shoulders sagged. "I'm not exactly sure myself. All I know is that I got home yesterday and found Liden crying in a corner of the kitchen, not too far from where-"

He sucked in a ragged breath, and for a moment, just a brief one, his eyes seemed to water.

That brief change only occurred to me several hours later though, because my mind had been occupied with something else when it actually happened.

"W- wait, Liden was there when it happened?"

"Yeah, he was the only person home. He told me he heard the sound of breaking glass, and then found her... her body like that when he got into the kitchen."

"Oh. He's... how is he?"

"Huh? He's fine. Well, as fine as any of the rest of us can be in this fucked up situation, but he's not physically hurt."

"Oh, that's... good."

For someone so young to have to see something like that...

A chill ran over my spine as certain memories began to bubble up from the depths of my mind.

"As if this situation isn't already shitty enough, we'd have to deal with the medical bill as well." Scoffing, Dylan glared up at the sky. "Yeah, thanks a lot big guy!"

"She doesn't have health insurance?"

"No. No doubt the bill will be over a hundred grand, so only Lord knows where we'd get the money to pay it."

Without hesitation, I said, "I'll cover it, so don't worry."

Immediately those words slipped past my lips, Dylan stiffened. Backing away from me, he snarled, "No. Fuck no! This isn't any of your business, you don't owe me any favors-"

"For fucks sake, what'd it take to get the fact that I'm not doing this because of you into your head? Maybe you don't know, but I happen to still give a fuck about your mum, regardless of what happened between you and me!"

Dylan's jaw tightened in response to my words. Stepping closer to him, I hissed, "Let's look at the facts of this situation: you're going to need money for the medical bills. Now, you can either allow me to help, or you can continue racking your brain for another miraculous way you can gather the money. The choice is yours."

Although he continued glaring at me silently, I could see the internal battle that was waging inside of him. Thus, I knew it would only be a matter of time before he caved in.

Sure enough, he soon looked away from me and spat out, "Fine. But since you want to help so much, let my siblings stay over at your place for a while. I don't want them to have to..."

Although his voice trailed off, I think I have a general idea of what he meant. After all, I highly doubt he'd been able to clean the blood stains off the floor of their house then.

Grimly, I nodded. "Alright."
. . .

To my surprise, the journey to my house was almost as silent as the one to the hospital had been. The atmosphere remained somber, despite all of Aimee's attempts to strike up a conversation with Dylan's relatives (she eventually gave up once she realized that she wasn't going to get anything more than the brief responses they had been giving her).

It was only when we had arrived at my house that I heard Jeffery say, "Um excuse me, but are we going to eat once we get inside?"

Ian, his brother, grumbled, "Of course that's what you'd ask."

"Hey, I'm asking for all of us!"

Before Ian could reply, Aimee quickly interjected, "And there's no problem with you asking that. I'm sure you'd be allowed to eat when you get inside, right Angelo?"

I nodded.

Jeffery sighed. "Oh, that's good. We haven't eaten much today."

"Really? Well then, I'm sure Angelo would arrange a big dinner for you!"

I barely managed to stop myself from snapping at Aimee. It's a good thing I did because I later realized that the irritation that had been bubbling up inside me then was not directly because of Aimee's words. It was more because of the fact that I couldn't understand how she could manage to put on such a calm mask in the type of situation we were in.

Truthfully, I envied her for that.

After we had walked into the house, we were greeted by Pierre, who agreed to start making more food as soon as Aimee explained the necessary parts of the situation to him. I led them all into the living room after that.

With a smile on her face, Aimee clapped her hands together. "So, as you all know, you're going to be staying here-"

"Is- is this where we'd be staying if mum dies?"

Ian's face contorted into an expression of rage the instant he heard that. "You just shut up, Liden! She's not going to die, so shut up!"

Liden's eyes widened. "I was just asking-"

"I said shut up!"

Ian followed up his words with a violent shove, sending Liden sprawling to the ground.

Hailey rushed to Liden's side, shrieking, "Ian, leave him alone!"

"No, why should I? This is all his fault! Ever since he started staying with us, bad things have been happening!"

Jabbing his finger at Liden, he yelled, "Oh and by the way, she's not your mum. You killed your real mum, remember?"

"Ian!"

Ian turned to Jeffrey. "What? It's the truth!"

Meanwhile, Liden's eyebrows tilted upwards. The second I saw his eyes start to water, I knew what was coming next.

It started out as a snivel. A few seconds later, he was full out wailing.

Wrinkling his nose, Ian sneered, "Oh please, stop acting like a bab-"

"Okay, how about we check out the bedrooms you'll be staying in, hmm? Angelo, could you please lead us there?"

In spite of how calm she sounded, I could see the panic in Aimee's eyes when she looked at me, urging me to play along.

Yet, even if I wanted to, I couldn't. It was like the events of the day had overloaded my mind's mainframe, disabling even a function as easy as speaking from my capabilities.

Luckily, I heard Tony say as he walked in, "Don't worry, I'd show them to the spare rooms."

"Th- thank you."

They both led the kids out of the room- Aimee picking up a still sobbing Liden and holding onto one of Hailey's hands, Tony ushering out the twins.

Before she left, Aimee shot me a concerned look, but I quickly averted my gaze as soon as I noticed that stare.

At that point, it was like I was at war with myself. With every passing thought, my emotions clashed with each other, shaking the foundations of the prison I kept them in. The effects of their ravaging were even evident on my physical being, as my hand and legs were shaking so badly that I had to hold onto the couch before me for support.

"Hey, I heard shouting. What's going- Angelo? Is everything okay?"

My initial instinct was to recoil away when I felt Annie lay one of her hands on my shoulder. To set my face in a calm mask and declare that I was fine.

But honestly, I was tired of lying.

"Hey, Angelo-"

"It's Dylan's mum." My lips trembled as I met her eyes. "She- she was shot, so now she's in the hospital and-"

My voice broke then, prompting her to wrap her arms around me and pull me close. "Shhh, it's okay, you can get through this. Just... breathe."

I did as she said, taking in the aphrodisiac-like scent of oranges emanating off her. Soon enough, I could feel my heartbeat begin to slow down, imitating the rate at which my emotions clashed with each other.

When I was fairly certain that I could speak without my voice cracking, I extracted myself from her embrace, wiping away the traces of water that had begun appearing in my eyes.

After taking several more deep breaths, I croaked, "I'm going to have to set aside at least a hundred grand so that I can pay her hospital bill."

A frown came over her face. "Why would you do that?"

"They can't afford to pay it themselves."

"Ah, I see. But still... a hundred grand is a lot of money, and that's just a rough estimate of what you'd be paying."

I shrugged. "I have way more than that in my account. Besides, " A dry laugh left my lips, "It's not like that amount would leave us anywhere near 'strapped for cash'."

"Maybe, but don't you think you could save that money for something more important-"

"What could be more important than the life of someone I care about? Look, I'm paying the bill, end of story." I furrowed my brow. "Why are you so against me helping out anyways?"

Annie's eyes wandered away from mine as if they had suddenly spotted something interesting on the carpet.

When she didn't reply for a long while, I had initially assumed the conversation had ended, so I began heading to the dining in order to grab a glass of water.

However, I didn't make it far before a realization struck me - I recognized the look on Annie's face. It was one that I had only seen on few occasions, an example of such having happened a few months prior to that, when she had tearfully confessed her regret for sending me to a mental institution.

A look of guilt.

I felt sick to my stomach as I let out the words that rushed to the forefront of my mind not much later after the realization.

"You-you were the one who shot her, weren't you?"
. . .

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