Chapter 52: Knoa meets grandparents
The servants they passed would bow at them, sporting curious glances they dared not to express in front of Athan, but Knox spotted them. As he was getting dragged out of the mansion, he suddenly had a thought, ’Athan’s fiancée? I’m receiving help from him...who?’
They reached his car parked in the parking lot of the house. Athan almost ripped the door out as he opened it too forcefully. Knox obediently stepped in and sat quietly in the passenger seat, reminding himself to wear the seatbelt quickly.
Once Athan was settled in, he started the engine and drove the car out of the premises, but after they reached the next corner and turned, Athan slowed down until he stopped under a pine tree planted inside the gates and protruding its branches on the deserted street.
Silence reigned over them for quite a while. It was Knox who first opened the conversation, and bravely asked his half-brother what had been bothering him since last night, "I heard you fought with Azrael yesterday, so suddenly. Why did he visit? No, why did you attack him just because he insulted me? Did you...learn something?"
Athan gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. He looked up and puffed out an air to calm himself, then he began, "I punched him, hurled him to the wall, and even dared to bash his head with my foot. He was a f*cking bastard that doesn’t deserve to be respected, so why..." Athan swallowed and looked at Knox sideways, "Why did that as*hole’s face remind me of Knoa when I looked at him?!"
Knox flinched. Athan opened the window on his side and exhaled loudly. His voice was full of disbelief, anger, and constraint. Without turning his head to look at Knox, he grimly asked, "Did he force himself to you? That’s before we met you, so if you filed a complaint now, I swear I’ll support you and—
"It was my fault, Athan," Knox interrupted. Athan froze at those words. He slowly turned to Knox, and the latter continued, "It was because of me. I deceived him, put myself in danger, that’s why..."
He took advantage of Athan’s silence and shared everything about him before they met his family. Minute after minute of his story-telling, Athan’s expression went paler and paler, albeit sad and regretful.
At the end of the story, he found himself crying in Athan’s arms. Steve and his father might have already known about his parents’ fate and all the things he suffered after that, but he couldn’t show his vulnerable side to them.
All the misery and pain he kept to himself from his younger days, he poured them all to Athan.
"I’m keeping Knoa’s existence from him. I’m sure he’ll take him away from me if he finds out," Knox mumbled between his sobs after a while. He pushed Athan away and wiped his face, "And I’ll convince him to withdraw his—