Chasing the Omega Book 3

“Alice?”

Silence.

The classroom is in complete and utter silence.

You could hear a pin drop.

That’s how quiet it is.

The silence lingers in the air, thick and heavy, like a blanket. It hangs in the air like the suspended moment before something falls on the floor, while you wait for the impact.

The silence is the most terrifying part.

There’s nothing worse than that feeling of having to imagine what comes after the silence, that feeling of wondering what to say in this kind of situation.

A situation I never thought I’d be in. Until now.

Everyone in the room, including Mr. Edmund, knows what kind of effect this man has on me, yet here he stands, with a look of happiness on his face.

I can’t stop looking at the man in front of me.

He looks as though he’d just won something.

What it is, I didn’t know.

The longer he stares at me, the more I want to shout at him and tell him to leave, but something stops me from doing it, because I can’t stop repeating the word that had come out of his mouth.

Alice.

He’d called me by that name. My name. The name I was given the day I was born.

A name my mother had probably discussed and chosen, with the man who stands in front of me. The man who left me and my mother, with no explanation why.

He’d left no note, no letter, and not even an email to my mother. He left her when I was just a newborn, and he left my mother to raise me all on her own.

What kind of father would leave his wife and child?

He ruined my childhood by not being there for me and my mother. He should’ve been with his family, but instead fell for another woman who already had a child of her own.

A son. My father brought up somebody else’s son who is now lying in my arms, covered in blood.

“Is it really you?” He studies me slowly with his eyes.

I rise to my feet to try to get a good look at him. It’s hard to see what he looks like, but I know without a doubt that he’s my father.

Knowing this is him brings a bitter taste to my mouth.

I would never call him father, not to his face. He didn’t deserve to be acknowledged as anything other than by his given name.

Mark.

He takes one step toward me, causing me to take a step backward. I won’t allow him to come anywhere near me.

He’s had eighteen years to form a relationship with me, yet he made no effort to reach out. Not once.

“It is you!” He sighs as if he’s relieved and smiles brightly.

Why is he happy to see me after being absent my whole life?

He leans closer to take a good look at me, and then shakes his head.

“I can’t believe it’s you. You have no idea how happy I am to see you.”

I can’t make out if he is lying or not.

After being away for a long time, had he learned to become a liar?

I look down at Max, who’s gazing straight in front of him. I follow his line of sight—he’s staring either at Mark or Mr. Edmund.

I wonder what Max is thinking. I understand how he’s feeling. We are in the same situation—neither of us knows what to do.

Tonight, Max found out who his real father was, and I found mine, but unlike Max, I wasn’t the child of a murderer. No, I was only fatherless.

While Mark looks at me in fascination, Mr. Edmund looks at Max with a smile. I glance over at Max to see a look of disgust on his face. If I were Max, I’d have the exact same expression.

If I’d just found out that my father’s the one who has been murdering innocent people in town, I would feel disgusted too.

I don’t blame Max for my father’s actions. It’s not Max’s fault he was brought up by somebody else’s father. It was my father’s choice to leave me and my mother, and he did.

I don’t think I can ever forgive him for that.

“Alice?” I look at Mark to see him gazing at me pleadingly, but I have nothing to say to him.

It was a mistake to come here.

“Why won’t you talk to me?” he asks softly.

I tilt my head to the side and stare numbly at him.

Why did he expect me to talk to him, when I didn’t even know him?

To me, he is a stranger, and a person I don’t want to be around.

The sooner I get out of the room, the better, but the sound of someone laughing brings us all to attention.

Including me.

“I think she’s in shock to see her father for the first time in years,” Mr. Edmund says with a sinister smile.

“Why are you smiling like that?” Mark looks over at the teacher, who is adjusting his clothing after being shoved by Max earlier.

“I’ve always wondered how you’d meet your daughter, Mark,” Mr. Edmund chuckled. “And this wasn’t what I imagined. No, this is much better.”

“I dread to think what you imagined.”

I wish he’d stop calling me his daughter.

Oliver walks to his desk and picks up his bag, saying, “Let’s just say that I didn’t expect a dead body in the picture.”

Mark glances at the body across the room, then looks back at Mr. Edmund. “Who is that, and why is she dead?”

Mr. Edmund shrugs and looks at his watch. “That’s for you to know at another time. Right now, you need to think of a way to get your daughter to talk to you.”

Just as Mr. Edmund reaches the door, a voice halts his movements.

“Don’t think that you’re my father, because you’re not.”

Max slowly rises to his feet, his body slowly healing from the fight between him and Silver.

Mr. Edmund turns to look at Max with the same smile. “Whether you like it or not, I am your father. I made you, and now that I know who you are, I can’t stop thinking about making up for lost time.”

Max points at Mr. Edmund. “I don’t want anything to do with you, because what you’ve done makes me sick. Those people were innocent, and deep down you know that.”

Mr. Edmund merely shrugged. “You’re right. They were innocent, but I got what I wanted. Come and find me when you want father and son bonding time.”

“I’ve got nothing to say to you.” Max snarls. “Stay away from me.”

Mr. Edmund smirked. “Or what, son?”

Max growled. “Or I’ll kill you, father or not.”

Mr. Edmund took one long look at Max, grinned, then left.

The classroom is silent again, but this time, the silence makes me uncomfortable. Now that Mr. Edmund is gone, it feels like I am the only person in the room with Mark, and it makes me want to bolt.

“Are you Mark Smith, Alice’s father?” a soft voice asks.

My body recoils from that one word coming from Kellan’s mouth.

“Yes, I am Alice’s father.”

Kellan stands next to me, his fingers brushing lightly against mine.

“My name’s Kellan. My father was the one that called you.”

“The cop?”

“Yes.”

Mark nods his head. “Your father said he wanted to talk to me about something, but he didn’t say what.”

From the corner of my eye, I can see Kellan looking at me.

Why is he watching me?

“What’s going on?” Mark asks.

Another pause.

Kellan clears his throat. “Mr. Smith, you were called because the police want to talk to you about something that happened a couple of days ago.”

Mark frowns. “Why would I be involved in something that happened a couple of days ago? I haven’t lived in this town for years, so what has it got to do with me?”

Kellan doesn’t answer him right away. Instead, he takes a deep breath then exhales. “You were called in for questioning because of Alice’s mother—”

Before he can finish, I grab his hand, turn my face to his, and meet his eyes. I gesture with my head, and he nods his understanding.

I look back at Mark to see him looking between the two of us in confusion.

I release my hold on Kellan’s hand and approach the man that should’ve been part of my life.

His eyes widen at every step I take, but I take no notice of it.

This was the only time I’d let myself be this close to him. He’ll never stand this close to me ever again.

The moment I stand in front of him, I take in his appearance. His face is drained, his eyes expressionless. His salt-and-pepper hair is cut neatly to frame his face.

His face has the same structure as my own, and his eyes are a deeper color than mine, but it’s his nose that convinces me. We have the exact same nose. I truly am his daughter.

“You’re so beautiful, Alice.”

Hearing him say that felt like I’d been punched in the gut.

He reaches up with his hand, but the moment he sees me looking at it, he drops it immediately.

“Why won’t you talk to me?”

I continue to ignore him and carry on studying him.

Mark looks behind me. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She’s had a rough time these last couple of days,” Kellan answers.

Mark looks back at me with worry in his eyes. “Why? What happened?”

He doesn’t have any idea what I’ve been through these last couple of weeks, and he will never know.

He doesn’t deserve to know what happened to her. It’s his fault she was taken from this world. I’ll consider this as his punishment for not being there to save her.

Without another word, I take one last look at him, take a step back, and leave the classroom.

On my way out, I look around the room to see that Kellan hasn’t moved. Max is leaning on a desk. What leaves me bewildered is seeing Bane and Ryder standing over Silver’s body, their faces expressionless.

I shake off the uneasy feeling growing inside of me, and I don’t look back again.