Chapter Eleven #2
Aiden didn’t mind the strangers in his home.
They always looked upon his brother with respect and a fleck of fear.
They gave him gifts, and they gave his parents money, and he knew even then that money made their lives easy.
Any video game, clothes, toys, anything he ever wanted—they had the means to buy it.
His father stepped out for business one night, and his mother played cards with him and his brother.
His brother, winning, finally left the game to run to the restroom.
As his mother teased at the fact that she was going to win now that Hui Ye had no choice but to drop out, the sound of drums hammered into his ears.
Aiden remembered an indescribable pain bursting from his leg, and his mother’s body pressed hard against his.
He cried out at the pounding noise and the heaviness of her against him, and he tried to crawl out, but his mother grasped his hand and only pulled him more firmly under her body.
Her fingers turned white from gripping his wrist, and she refused him one inch of movement.
Then, just as quickly as the sounds came, they stopped. The sounds of a car screeched away, and his brother’s watery calls echoed in his ears. He tried to call back, but his voice didn’t come out, and he tried to climb out, but his mother’s grip remained locked.
He tried to push her off, but she wouldn’t budge. He asked her politely then screamed at her to move, but she wouldn’t.
His brain registered the searing pain in his leg, and he began to cry and beg his brother to help him because his mother wouldn’t.
Only then did he realize how strange his mother felt.
Her chest didn’t beat with sounds he fell asleep on.
Her eyes didn’t blink. The hand that grasped his tightly didn’t move even as he pinched it.
Time stretched on forever before his father returned with a cry of agony.
His mother was finally lifted off of him, and Aiden remembered his confusion as his father howled and hugged his mother to his chest. His brother, who had stayed safely hidden away in the bathroom, scrambled to the living room with a gasp and a cry. He took Aiden into his arms, sobbing.
His father grew distant, and his brother looked after him.
The killers believed his mother had tricked this other family—the Chen family—whose relationship was always contentious with the Hui.
They thought she had lied, and they decided to return the favor by luring his father away to attack the home.
“You need to learn to protect yourself,” his brother decided. “Do the sounds scare you? Does this scare you?”
He handed a gun to Aiden.
Aiden wasn’t scared of the weapon. The sounds made him flinch because of their ferocity, but eventually, he grew used to it. The weapon felt weird against his skin, but eventually, he grew used to it. He learned to aim, he learned to react, and he learned that the gun was unavoidable.
But he became scared of his mother.
He was scared of the way her face turned grey.
He was scared remembering her hands refusing to let his go.
He was scared of the weight against his body, the eyes that didn’t blink, and the gasps that whispered in his ears when she was pelted with bullets.
The mere mention of his mother made his body collapse in fear, and his brother watched with sad eyes, patted his back, and reminded him to breathe.
He didn’t want to hear her name. He didn’t want to see her photographs.
He didn’t even want to remember her.
His brother purged her presence in their home.
He pulled out all the photographs with their mom smiling and burned them in the fireplace.
His father came home screaming at Hui Ye, but the second they mentioned his mother’s name, Aiden found himself wailing for help and gasping for air.
He saw in his father’s eyes a realization.
After that night, his father discarded all the furniture she bought, wiping her influence from everything in their lives.
His father smoked harder, drank more, and began bringing home various women.
One night, he bought home a woman both Aiden and his brother believed to be temporary, and in a matter of days, married her.
Alongside her came her children, and his father grew more distant.
Like his brother, his father never mentioned Aiden's mother again.
Even as he lay dying in bed, his father did not speak her name. He faded into a husk of a man.
Is this how the entire Hui family dies? Aiden wondered. His mother murdered by the Chen family. His father murdered by grief. His brother murdered by the traitor.
Aiden’s stomach lurched at the very thought.
No. He closed his eyes. Absolutely not. He focused on the pain pulsing through his body. He dug into the betrayal he felt toward his stepmother. He milked every sense of fury inside his bones. I’m not going to die.
Brendan told him he could do whatever he wanted to do. His brother said he would give him whatever he wished for. But I can’t just depend on them like that. Aiden’s hands clenched against his back.
He couldn’t give up. Not when the photographs provided all the evidence he needed to confirm the truth felt in his heart—his stepmother betrayed Infinite to the government and killed his brother.
He needed to buy time past Yang’s interrogation. Something or someone would waltz into this prison for him to use to make his escape. Once he escaped from the chains holding him down, Aiden knew what to do.
Infinite was already breaking apart at the seams. The secrets each interrogator held close to their chests and the different cultures of each family proved that to him. The foundation that once held the group together had been lost to time. The group lacked a heart and a focused brain.
Good. Aiden’s heart eased as satisfaction flowed through his body. Let them tear each other apart. I’ll make sure to help with that.