Chapter 83: A Father’s Sin
"Do you have any idea how risky her abilities can be?" Aiden growled, barely keeping his voice low so as to not scare Lily. "One wrong move. That’s all it would take for her to lose that arm or worse."
"Sir, I can explain—"
"I didn’t ask for an explanation," Aiden interrupted him, holding out the injector.
A sudden clang brought Aiden’s attention back to Lily. The little one was there and doing anything violent before a child was a big no-no for Aiden.
"Dexter, take her out for a bit."
As if given a way out of the mess, Dexter moved toward the little girl, who was crouched near the far wall, happily hammering nothing in particular.
Honestly, he was afraid of messing things up. Aiden clearly liked the girl a lot. He would never want to harm her, even accidentally.
"Come on, little miss," he said, extending a hand. "Let’s go outside and play."
Lily looked up and frowned upon seeing an unknown face. She was playing just fine in the workshop, why would she go out with a stranger?
The next second, she got up and ran towards Aiden, hugging his leg.
"Big brother... this uncle is teasing me!" Lily cooed.
"Uncle!?"
Dexter might not have a physique like Aiden, but between the two, even a blind man would know who is younger. So why did Aiden become a big brother, and he became an uncle?
As if sensing his thoughts, Lily peeked out and stuck her tongue out at Dexter.
For a moment, Aiden’s rage subsided as he patted her head.
[No after effects of using an artefact found. Host, she’s fine other than her right hand being a bit numb. It should be fixed by itself in an hour or two.]
Hm... She is fine. Did you think James would be standing if she wasn’t?
[...]
"Go out with the uncle for a bit," Aiden said, still caressing her head. "Your dad and I have something important to talk about."
All colors disappeared from James’s face as soon as he said that. He wasn’t a fool and understood why Aiden was sending her out.
At that moment, he wanted to grab Aiden’s other leg and beg for mercy, but before he could, Aiden’s glare made him freeze to the spot.
"Lily doesn’t want to leave!" she said, pouting and crossing her arms.
"Not even for gummies?"
"...Lily will play outside. Come skinny uncle, Lily will show you a game!"
Just like that, Lily took Dexter’s hand and let herself be led out. Jewell wanted to follow suit, but Aiden stopped him as the doors closed.
As soon as the door closed, so did Aiden’s smile and the little hope of mercy James had.
"Do you know what I find most offensive about what you did?" Aiden asked, looking at the injector.
"Aiden... I w-wasn’t trying to—"
"It’s not that you disregarded my words. But the fact that you didn’t even notice Lily wasn’t using her right hand all this time."
James gulped his saliva down, not daring to argue.
"Alisha told me why she married you," Aiden continued. "At first, I liked that about you. You wanted a good life for your daughter, so you did what you could. But now that I think about it, you didn’t do it for her at all, did you?"
"I-I don’t know what you’re talking about..."
Alisha was a fool, but Aiden wasn’t. If he just wanted a mother for Lily, James could have asked countless women for help. Then why did he approach someone who was clearly out of his league?
The answer was simple.
It was never about Lily having a bad biological mother. In his leisure time, Aiden had asked the little one about her, and she had nothing bad to say about her mother.
If someone was neglected and tormented since birth, they wouldn’t have such a nonchalant reaction to their abuser being brought up. They would either freeze up or get angry about it.
Aiden would have let it go and forgotten about James’s obvious lies to get into Alisha’s pants. However, he still didn’t stop using Lily as a tool. A tool to try and get back together with Alisha. A tool to gain importance in the building.
"Jewell," Aiden said without looking at him. "You should find something to occupy your eyes for the next few minutes."
As if granted amnesty, the doctor immediately turned his back to face the most uninteresting wall. For someone who spent a year in the slums, his survival instincts were naturally good.
"L-Lily wanted to h-help!" James yelled, seeing how no one was on his side.
"Of course she did," Aiden scoffed. "She’s young, and you’re her father. Of course, she would help you because she trusts you. You could hand her a lit fuse and tell her it was a sparkler, and she’d hold it with both hands and smile at you. That’s how innocent she is."
Aiden continued, "She has no idea what her artefact does to her body when she uses it. Neither do you, but I do. That’s why I told you not to make her use it, you dumbfuck."
James jerked back when Aiden raised his hand, but the blow he expected never came. Instead, Aiden patted his cheek and smiled.
"You wanted to prove yourself, that’s why you used Lily, right?"
James nodded like his life depended on it.
"Good, then I’ll ensure you do just that."
Saying so, he pressed the injector to James’s neck and pulled the trigger. James’s hand flew up instinctively, slapping over the stinging spot.
The burn set in almost immediately. James could feel the agent move through his veins, but something was off. His veins turned black instantly. It hadn’t happened in Dexter’s case.
"What d-did you—"
James couldn’t even complete the words before he fell to his knees, clawing at his neck. As if losing interest in him, Aiden turned to Jewell.
"Here you go," Aiden said, brushing nonexistent dirt off his pants. "You want a test subject, he’s all yours."
With a wave of his hands, Aiden dropped a dozen injectors on the table.
"Inject him as many times as you like," he said, staring at James’s crumbling form. "I wouldn’t care even if he died. After all, it would be for the sake of everyone else."
He smiled, patting James’s cheek one last time, "Isn’t this everything you wanted, James? To become a great benefactor and win Alisha’s heart? Here is your chance. Make sure you live through it, got it?"