The Silvia Saga: Boxset

Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Harlan

I race up the stairs, taking them two at a time, needing to get to my mother to make sure she’s okay. When Dara told us earlier that we needed to get home because of her my heart sank. Something feels wrong. Walking into her bedroom, I know instantly that she’s not good, not by a long shot.

Jolie’s bawling her eyes out. The tears are falling onto our mother’s chest. One look at my mother and my heart is crushed. She seems so weak. Her skin is a sickly white, and her chest still rises and falls but only just. She’s barely holding on. I can’t lose her. Please, give us a miracle.

Blair and Oliver are close to Jolie and seem lost in thought, closely watching Mum. Declan’s in the corner with a faraway look in his eyes and our father’s clutching onto our mother’s hand with tears falling down his cheeks. Clary stands next to Declan looking pale and lost.

“Please stay with us. Anna!” Albert screams. It pains me, seeing my father like this. He’s so emotional—our mother means everything to him. Their bond’s like no other I’ve ever witnessed.

My family’s falling apart right in front of me, and what am I doing? I’m standing here, frozen to the spot, unsure of what to do while my mother lies here suffering. I feel Dara come up beside me; she wraps her arm around me, cuddling into my side. Placing my hand around her, I gently rub her shoulder. She quietly sobs, her tears soaking into my T-shirt.

I lower my eyes. I can’t see my mother like this. I want to see her as she usually is—a fit, healthy woman who’s full of life. This person here isn’t her.

The front door slams shut, then footsteps thud up the stairs. Two healers appear, one holding a vial in her hand. The liquid is a bright fluorescent green.

“It’s the cure, we’ve tried it on another affected and it worked,” she says, waving the vial. Jolie jumps up and snatches it from the healer’s hand. She frantically tries to find a needle; my eyes finally find my mother’s. She’s looking straight at me. A smile meets her lips as I see her take her final shaky breath. She mouths, Save Silvia.

A tear falls down my cheek. I nod, then her eyes close. Glancing around the room, I see I’m the only one who knows she’s gone. No, she can’t be gone. Jolie finds a needle and draws the cure into the needle.

She spins around; she looks at our mother, and she doesn’t want to give up. Tears fall down her cheeks, but she keeps going, inserting the cure into her arm. Our mother stays still. My heart hammers against my chest. Please come back, Mum, I scream inside my head. But as seconds turn into minutes and she still doesn’t move, my heart shatters into a million pieces.

Jolie screams. “Come back, Mum, please.”

The room falls silent. My father stands and silently walks out of the room, followed shortly after by Declan. Dara moves over to Jolie, offering her comfort. She pulls her into an embrace and they both fall apart. I stand, still unsure of what to do.

Is she really gone? Is this all a dream?

Letting out a curse, I storm out of the room. I can’t be here anymore. I need air.

My breathing comes in short bursts, and my heart beats rapidly. I run down the stairs and then head for the one place where I can let it all out. Running down another flight of stairs, I make it into the training room. Keeping my head down, I find the weights.

After an hour of throwing myself into this workout, I still need to keep going. I won’t stop until I can’t feel a thing. I want to be numb so the pain will fade away. My mother’s just been torn from me, and I don’t know how to react. So, I put everything into punishing myself with physical activity. I slam the weight against the rack with a loud clank. Sweat pours down my face, but I keep going. I run around the circuit then punish myself with push-ups.

If the healers had been five minutes earlier, our mother would still be with us. I scream to the empty room, cursing Silvia and whoever’s listening up there. It should have been me; my mother’s innocent in all of this. As are all the others who have died from this virus he caused. That motherfucking arsehole is responsible, and he needs to pay. Finishing my hundredth-and-something push-up, I jump to my feet. I need to find him and kill him right now.

Pushing open the training room door, I run into Declan who says something. But I ignore him, pushing past and heading to the stairs.

I’ve got one mission right now, and that’s killing James. No one will stand in my way.