THE HEIR'S AGONY TRIAL BY FIRE

The confrontation

The room was heavy with silence, broken only by the uneven sound of Clara’s breathing. Aidan sat frozen in his chair, his mother’s words echoing in his head.

“He was taken from me.”

The raw pain in her voice twisted something deep inside him, but it also fed his determination.

“What do you mean, ‘taken’?” Aidan asked quietly, though his voice carried an edge.

Clara shook her head, her eyes distant, as though she were looking at a memory too painful to recall.

“You wouldn’t understand,” she murmured.

“Try me,” Aidan pressed, leaning forward.

Her gaze snapped to his, anger flickering to life. “I said you wouldn’t understand, Aidan! You’ve already dug up enough ghosts. Leave it alone!”

Aidan slammed his hand on the table, startling her. “No! You don’t get to shut me out, not after everything I’ve found! You owe me the truth, Mom. All of it!”

Clara’s lips trembled, but her expression hardened. “Owe you? I owe you? Do you have any idea what I went through to keep you safe? To give you a life away from their shadows?”

“Safe from what?” Aidan demanded. “From him? From his family? What did they do to you?”

Clara stood abruptly, pacing the room. “You think you’re ready for the truth, but you’re not. You’re still that stubborn boy who can’t leave well enough alone.”

“I’m not a boy anymore,” Aidan shot back. “And I can handle whatever it is you’re so afraid to tell me.”

Clara stopped, her back to him. Her shoulders sagged, and when she finally spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper.

“They didn’t just disapprove of us. They erased him. They made sure he couldn’t come back for me.”

Aidan’s stomach churned. “Erased? What does that even mean? Are you saying… they killed him?”

Clara turned to face him, tears streaming down her face. “I don’t know. They didn’t say it outright, but… he disappeared. No one would tell me anything. One day, he was there, promising me the world, and the next…” Her voice broke. “He was gone.”

Aidan’s heart ached for her, but it only made him more determined.

“Mom, you deserve answers. I deserve answers.”

Clara shook her head. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with, Aidan. The Cross family doesn’t just ruin lives—they destroy them.”

“Then why are you still afraid of them?” he challenged. “If they’re so powerful, why let me grow up here, where someone might recognize us? You could’ve left, started over somewhere far away.”

Her silence spoke volumes.

“You stayed here because you were hoping he’d come back,” Aidan realized, his voice softening. “You’ve been waiting all these years, haven’t you?”

Clara’s face crumpled, and she sank into the chair across from him. “I was young and foolish. I thought… maybe he’d find a way. That he’d come for me, for us. But he didn’t.”

Aidan reached out, placing a hand on hers. “Then let me find out what happened. For both of us.”

She pulled her hand away, shaking her head. “You don’t know what you’re asking for. If you dig too deep, they’ll come for you too.”

“Let them,” Aidan said fiercely. “I’m not afraid of them.”

The tension hung thick between them, and Aidan could see the war in her eyes—her love for him battling with her fear of what he might uncover.

“You remind me of him,” Clara said finally, her voice trembling. “Stubborn, reckless, always pushing when you shouldn’t.”

“Then let me finish what he couldn’t,” Aidan said. “I’m not backing down, Mom. Not this time.”

Clara sighed, defeat evident in her posture. “You won’t let this go, will you?”

“No,” Aidan said simply.

She stared at him for a long moment before nodding. “Fine. But if you’re going to do this, you need to know everything. And you need to be careful.”

The hours that followed were filled with revelations that left Aidan reeling.

Clara spoke of the first time she met William, the way he made her feel like she mattered in a world that often overlooked her. She described the kindness in his eyes, the way he spoke to her as though she were an equal.

But then came the darker memories—the threats from William’s father, the isolation she faced when the staff turned against her, and the suffocating fear of losing everything.

“They told me I was a mistake,” Clara said, her voice hollow. “That I didn’t belong in their world. And they made sure I believed it.”

Aidan’s fists clenched. “They had no right to treat you like that.”

Clara gave a bitter laugh. “Rights don’t matter when you’re up against people like them. They take what they want, and they destroy anything that gets in their way.”

By the time she finished, it was well past midnight. Aidan sat in silence, processing everything she had told him.

“I’m sorry,” Clara said quietly. “For keeping this from you. For not being stronger.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Aidan said, his voice soft. “You did what you thought was best.”

Clara reached across the table, her hand resting on his. “Just promise me you’ll be careful, Aidan. If you push them too far…”

“I will,” he said, though he wasn’t sure he believed it himself.

The next morning, Aidan returned to the search. Clara’s warnings weighed heavily on him, but they didn’t deter him. If anything, they fueled his determination.

He combed through old newspapers, scoured online archives, and even visited the local library, searching for any mention of William Cross’s disappearance.

It wasn’t until he stumbled upon an old article buried in the archives that he found his next lead—a cryptic mention of a private investigator who had once looked into the Cross family’s secrets.

The article didn’t name the investigator, but it hinted at a scandal that had been quietly buried.

“This is it,” Aidan muttered, jotting down the details.

He knew he was getting closer, but he also knew the risks were growing.

The chapter ends with Aidan receiving an anonymous message on his phone.

“If you value your life, stop digging.”