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“I said how bad?” My tone leaves Marco with no choice but to answer the question immediately.
“They are making contingency plans.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“For a funeral, just in case. I’m sorry. You need to get back here as fast as possible.”
“Understood. I’ll fly home immediately.”
I end the call. The realization hits me like a ton of bricks. He could die. In fact, the staff is actively preparing for it. How is that even possible?
“Alex?”
I realize I’m still holding Bella’s hand. I look at her.
“What’s going on?”
I can’t speak. My uncle can’t die. He just can’t. I lead her back to the house. The steps seem like an impossibly tall mountain, so I just sit down on them.
“I have to go back to Solvaria.”
“Okay… When?”
“Right now.”
I don’t want to look at her. I don’t want my uncle to be dying. I don’t want to have to leave a person who could be exactly what I’m looking for. And I need more time to bring back the person I was sent here to find.
“What’s wrong?”
I just shake my head. “My uncle. He’s taken ill again. They’re preparing for the worst outcome.”
She grabs both my hands. “Oh, Alex. I’m so sorry.”
She tugs at my wrist, but I refuse to move. She wraps her arm around me and lays her head on my shoulder. I put my hand up and gently cup her face. No one can fix this, but having Bella here with me still feels better than being alone.
“Can I get you anything?”
I shake my head. She gets up and goes into the house anyway. She brings back a plate with two cookies on it.
“Thanks.” I take the plate from her and take a bite of a cookie. They’re delicious. She sits down next to me and hugs me again. I stare at the cookies, which summon a memory I’ve rarely thought of in the last twenty years. Maybe longer.
I’ve always shut people out when I’ve felt grief. I barely talked to anyone for months when my father died. I had my uncle and my mother, along with my cousins. But I’ve always felt alone.
When my uncle took me in as one of his own so I would have company, even then, I hid from everyone. Dinnertime came and went. I hid behind a tapestry. My plan was to stay there.
Hours later, I thought I was still there. Instead, the King was tucking me into bed. He patted me on the head. “We were frightened, Alex. Please don’t worry us like that again.”
“I’m sorry. I won’t.”
“It’s okay to mourn. I’m mourning the loss of my brother, too. As is the country. But please don’t shut yourself out of the world. People love you. It will hurt for a while, but it will be okay. We all recover from losses and become stronger after. I promise.”
He pointed to a plate on the nightstand. There were two cookies on it.
“You missed dinner.”
I found out years later they had brought in soldiers to search the grounds for me. The King had given strict orders that if I was found unharmed, he would retrieve me himself.
My uncle has done so much for me. He’s been a father in my life even longer than my dad was at this point. I don’t want him to go to his grave with a heart filled with regret. I want him to have his happiness, so he can depart this world with love in his heart.
