Heavy silence permeated the room, no one saying a word or even daring to breathe for what felt like hours.
"You’re not saying anything," Asher tried to hide the devastation in his voice and he knew without being told that he had done a bad job at it.
His dad wasn’t always bad, a little negligent maybe but he had a Mafia House to run so it was expected.
But it wasn’t until this moment did he realize that he had been holding on to some sort of hope.
A little drop of it, that Gage would tell him he was mistaken, and his mom’s death report had been a fluke.
"It’s a little more complicated than that," Gage muttered, rubbing a hand over his face.
When Asher said nothing to that, he cursed and rubbed his eyes again to hide them tearing up.
"I don’t want you to end up like Layla and I, that’s why you have to end this now." He said in a much stronger voice.
"You don’t tell me what to do," Asher said quietly, "Not when you don’t even care enough to give me an explanation."
Gage’s lips twitched, frustrated. He was no good with words, that was the reason his relationship with his only son had gotten this bad.
Asher was right. He deserved an explanation, about several things.
"Layla died because I couldn’t let her go," He started quietly, the audience in the room didn’t bother him.
Jael and Caspian also needed to hear this.
"I lived in delusion for a few years telling myself that she would be fine as long as she was safe in the mansion."
Gage seemed to age further with every word he spoke, decades of grief and guilt shining in his hazel-gold eyes.
"She disapproved of my lifestyle you know, that was why we went our separate ways at first. But that was what I thought..."
"She left because she was pregnant with you and she didn’t want you to be my heir. I should have let her go."
Asher’s look of bitterness didn’t change even with his father’s bittersweet story, "That doesn’t answer my question," He reminded, taking a menacing step forward.
"Fine." Gage’s voice turned cold. "I’d lock myself up and drink to avoid the madness that runs in our bloodline, and she came to me during one of those episodes..."
Gage trailed off now because there was nothing more to be said, being drunk and out of his mind was a terrible combination.
It had been years since then, and he finally found the courage to stop drinking.
But the one thing he would never know was if Layla had wandered to his room by accident or because she could hear that he was in pain.
And there was a third option that he hated to consider...
That she had done that to escape from him.
She knew all about the terrors of his bloodline, and no matter how many times she asked him to let her go, he couldn’t.
So she knew that doing that could possibly kill her, and she came right to him anyway.
Asher slowly sat on the ground, a very odd habit for him.
He had been really young when his mom died, barely three. He only remembered her being in a coma for a long time in the hospital before dying.
He couldn’t blame his father because he was exactly like him but he also would never be able to forgive him.
Caspian rose to his feet then, he already felt like he had overstepped a boundary by staying while Gage told Asher such a personal story.
But he couldn’t stay behind much longer in the face of such personal grief.
Jael shared a look with him, and they silently slipped out of the room.
"I went to the hospital," Asher started quietly, his back propped against a couch, long legs sprawled out.
"There’s no cure." Gage cut in before he could go on.
Asher whipped around, the embers in his eyes coming to life again.
"We belong to a powerful Mafia House, do you think no one cared to search for one?" Gage continued.
Asher grew silent at that, the doctor’s words coming back to him. He had said nothing about any irregularities that pointed to an explanation for why he lost control.
He had merely said that Caspian’s pheromones were... horror slowly sank in at the realization.
Ripping Caspian’s shoulder out hadn’t been because of his rut medications acting up.
"I should have told you this a long time ago. I’m sorry," Gage started, slowly sliding to join Asher on the ground. "I’m sorry."
Gage’s apology was too little too late, it did nothing for Asher.
"So what am I supposed to do?" He asked quietly, feeling completely lost.
What little hope he had, regardless of the risks it came with had been ruthlessly squashed.
"Let go of Caspian and further the bloodline," He replied, forearms resting on his bent knees.
Asher’s expression twisted into a venomous expression, "And why would I make my child go through this torture?"
Gage had nothing to say to that, the Knights were a powerful bloodline with a fatal flaw.
"I can’t tell you what to do." He shrugged, handing Asher’s words back to him.
Maybe grief made him soft because his father would never accept ending the bloodline. But it was probably for the best.
No one deserved to go through the trauma of knowing that they would be the one to kill the one they loved.
Gage slowly rose to his feet, his only son feeling so far away despite being right next to him.
He would never heal from Layla’s death so he had no comfort to offer Asher, slowly trudging out of the room.
Layla was definitely disappointed in him but this wasn’t the first time he had let Asher down, and he had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last.
He was responsible for teaching him early on that falling in love was not an option but all he had done after Layla died was drink and drink some more.
And even when he could pretend to be a functional adult, he still didn’t take up his responsibilities as his son’s father.