Chapter 28

Aiden made it home just after eleven in the evening. He considered calling Nigel in the morning, but what if something had happened? What if Darren Howe had told someone who Aiden really was?

Nerves on edge, he flopped on his sofa with a groan and picked up the phone.

"Hi, boss," Nigel answered after the second beep, noise from the staff room audible in the background.

"Hey, Nigel. I just saw your calls… Is everything ok?" Aiden asked, turning the TV on. A documentary about Ancient Egyptian architecture was on.

"Yeah, just a few of the inmates getting too excited while playing soccer. Had to send Dave to the isolation chambers."

Aiden slumped in relief, exhaling slowly. He changed the channel, needing something to do with his free hand. "Did he break someone's nose again?"

"Nah. But he sprained Tad's shoulder. So I gave him six days. Which is what I was calling about—hope that's fine? Or should I keep him there for longer?"

Aiden frowned. Really? Five-plus missed calls for this? He tried to be annoyed, but he was just too tired for that. "Yes, it sounds like an adequate punishment."

"Cool. Other than that… I placed the order for the cleaning supplies and gave Lin your notes. He said he'll give you a call later in the week."

None of this seemed urgent either, but Aiden couldn't exactly point that out and hang up on Nigel, so he played along. "And the inspections?"

"Nothing out of order, other than the few things you'd noted down."

Which, of course, excluded the beam Aiden hadn't used the other night. Part of him regretted that, but another one was glad, because he had even more questions now and the only person who could answer them was Darren Howe.

"Great. Anything else?" Aiden said, his tone coming out a little clipped.

"Uh, nope. That's all."

"I'll see you in the morning, Nigel."

"Alright, boss. Don't come in too early."

Good point."Actually, I'm feeling a bit out of it. Tell Lardon to cover for me, I'll start at noon."

"Sure thing."

Aiden turned the TV off and went to his bedroom. He crawled out of his suit, tossing it on the floor. Next time he played detective on deserted asteroids, he wasn't going to do it in a suit. He hoped there would be no next time though as he didn't think he could take much more of this without growing addicted to his anxiety meds.

Snatching the bottle of water from his nightstand, he dragged his stiff body to the bathroom and settled in for a much-needed soak. Lemon-raspberry was his choice of salts this time, the refreshing zing of citrus ticking his nostrils pleasantly. However, he didn't let himself get too comfortable since he knew he would likely fall asleep and wouldn't wake up until the morning.

Once his body let out some of the tension, he drained the tub. He considered bleaching his hair as the copper color was starting to come back, but in the end, he couldn't be bothered. There wasn't much of a point anymore. He didn't need to shave either as the laser treatment he'd done before he'd started the Horizons' job had taken care of the few patches of facial hair he could grow, so he moved onto his supplements next. He came up short of them.

Had he run out already? But he'd just opened them last week.

Thinking he'd taken them with him on his trip, he returned to the bedroom and rummaged through his bag, grunting when he didn't find them. Where were they? Confused, he went to the bathroom again and moved everything from the second shelf to the counter, thinking he might have placed the package with iron-rich pills inside one of the other supplements. That wasn't the case either.

He was about to slam the cabinet's door shut and punch the sink counter when he saw the pills staring at him from the third shelf, next to the supplies of salts and shower gels. This wasn't where he normally kept them.

"Why the fuck are you there?" he grumbled, snatching them and knocking off a few of the salt sachets.

Shit. He really needed a break. From this, from everything. He was struggling to keep focused. He forgot things. Even just thinking was becoming hard. He hadn't slept properly in more than a week and the adrenaline and caffeine in his system were the only reasons he could even still stand. He really thought he'd handled things relatively well, but since Darren's confession two nights ago, he'd been mostly out of it. Hell, he didn't even remember how he'd gotten here from the spaceport. Taxi? Public transport? Had he walked?

Whatever, it didn't matter. He still had unfinished business with Darren and everything else could wait until he took care of that.

Aiden dried himself off after taking the supplements and two sleeping pills, and then he passed out as soon as he slipped under the covers.

Starting the workday at noon was a little strange. Unfortunately, the extra hours of sleep had done little for Aiden's body and mind, leaving him just as tired and irritated. He was struggling to keep it together, his nerves even more on edge as the elevator reached the prison's floor. He passed the checkpoint, greeting the guards there, and entered the staff room. Lardon was sitting at the table nursing a coffee instead of waiting for Aiden in the warden's office.

"Warden Kesley, good afternoon!" the man jumped up from the chair and greeted him.

Aiden narrowed his eyes. "Good afternoon, Lardon. I expected to find you in my office. Didn't Nigel relay my message?"

"He did, he did. I spent most of the morning uploading the logs like you asked, so that's mostly taken care of."

"Most of the morning?" Aiden echoed back, starting the coffee machine.

Since he'd slept in, he planned to stop by PI Deverson's office after work. He also needed to call Rick, but that could wait until the evening.

"Yeah, warden. Some guy showed up. Sent me away saying he'll wait for you in your office…"

Some guy?"Did he say who he was?"

"Nah, but he had one of those golden access cards, so he must've been dispatched centrally. Didn't strike me as someone who was here for an inspection, though." Lardon shrugged, then mimicked straightening a necktie. "Suit looked too expensive."

Aiden offered a polite smile. He grabbed his cup of coffee, thanked Lardon, and headed to his office. The gates to the cellblock were down and he could hear excited yells from the field, a giveaway that most of the inmates were currently outside. He found the door to his office open, so he knocked lightly and just walked in.

"Good after—" He froze, his heart hammering wild as he took in the man sat in his chair, who did indeed wear a ridiculously expensive suit.

"Hello, Aiden. It's been a while," Marcus DuLaurent said, looking up from the folder with documents he was holding.

He placed it on the desk carefully and smiled, though it didn't reach his icy blue eyes. They were a different color than Claudia's amber-gold, but they had the same shape, slightly upturned and hooded. His regal nose and the curve of his brow were also things Claudia had inherited, but the rest she'd taken from her mother.

Aiden winced internally at the use of his first name but didn't correct Marcus. Didn't dare to, his entire body already on high alert. Why was Claudia's father here? Why now? Aiden had been so careful… his fake ID should've made it impossible for anyone to track him down. The ‘real' Aiden was back on Earth, living in a small cottage in the middle of nowhere.

"Marcus… What are you doing here?"

Marcus reclined back into the chair and pointed at the couch. When Aiden sat down, he steepled his fingers together and said, "I found out you'd left Mars a while back. Moved back to Earth?" He opened his cigar box and lit one, offering it to Aiden. Upon Aiden's refusal, he went ahead and took a puff. "I really thought you'd decided to finally move on. To let Claudia rest in peace. Aiden Kesley."

Aiden flinched, cold shivers running down his spine. His breathing hitched. He opened his mouth, ready with an excuse, but Marcus lifted one hand, silencing him.

"You used a fake ID to get a job you should've never been given. Why? Why go to such lengths?" He took another puff, frowned. "It pains me to see you like this. So obsessed with… chasing after a deranged man because you… What? You believe he can give you closure? Is that it? You've always thought there was more to Claudia's death, I am well aware of that, but the truth is that there never was. I've told you that many times. I understand not trusting the authorities or the police for whatever reason, but I am her father, for fuck's sake. Do you think I didn't want this man dead as much as you did?"

Aiden's head felt like it was about to split open. He didn't know what to think anymore, didn't know what he could trust or whom. He vibrated with the need to do something, to shout at Marcus and demand an explanation about the Valrais, to punch him for hiding such a secret when he'd known why Claudia had really died.

But he couldn't do any of that. He had no idea what the right course of action was anymore, whether he should keep digging, whether he should confront Marcus and demand the truth or forget it all and try to live a normal life like he should've done from the very start.

"Why are you here, Marcus?" Aiden settled on, somehow retaining enough clarity in his head to know that he needed to tread carefully. To test the waters and work out what Marcus was after without giving away what he'd found out with Sara's help.

Sara, a girl no older than ten who was dead because of Claudia's father.

With a subtle but sharp exhale, Aiden chased away that thought. He couldn't let himself get emotional here or now.

Marcus slicked his short hair back, pushing the few longer locks to one side. He had the same platinum blond hue as Claudia, though a few strands of pure white were visible here and there. "I'm worried about you. I'd hoped time would heal you like it healed Laura and I, but this is… I don't even know what to think anymore. You lied… No, you committed a crime, so you could talk to a sick man," he said, his tone accusatory and stern.

Aiden saw through the pretense, read between the lines, now that he knew who the man across from him was. Marcus had been obsessed with Claudia. It had never quite made sense to Aiden how he and his wife had moved on so easily, but it did now. They knew the real reason she'd died. They were part of it.

Marcus was here because of Darren Howe. But why now? What had prompted him to come to Aiden right after he'd found out the truth? He hadn't told anyone, and he doubted Darren had talked, or Marcus would've stormed the hideout by now.

Aiden fumbled with a stray thread along the seam of his pants. His throat felt dry. The person who'd forged his fake ID had assured him it would be untraceable, yet clearly that wasn't the case and now he was headed right for jail if Marcus wanted him there.

"Are you going to turn me in?" Aiden blurted out. If he didn't figure something out, this whole thing was going to come crumbling down just when he'd finally gotten the full picture.

"I don't care about your fake ID, Aiden. Or that you've been spending your money on useless investigators instead of getting therapy. I'm worried about your mental health and what lies that… monster might've been feeding you."

Or the truths. Like how to find the hideout. That had to be why Marcus was here.

Aiden considered his next words carefully. He knew he had to give Marcus something, to confess that he had spoken to Darren about Claudia, but he needed to be smart about it. One option was to confess it all now in hopes Marcus would come clean and let Aiden walk away, but did he even want that? Maybe if Claudia had been alive, maybe then he could've looked the other way for her sake. But she wasn't. She was gone and that made him a nobody who knew more than he was supposed to.

Marcus took a final puff from his cigar and extinguished it, placing it back into the box, which he then picked up. He stood up and approached Aiden, a fatherly smile on his face. Aiden offered one of his own, hoping it came across as sufficiently sad and tired.

"I know you are right, Marcus. I just… I needed to talk to Howe. I needed to ask him and see for myself. And he said… He said I had it all wrong. That Claudia was the one who went after him. I'm so confused. Why would he claim that? Why—"

"Ah." Marcus' smile turned sympathetic, though Aiden didn't miss the slight twitch in his jaw or the way his eyebrows bunched together for the quickest of heartbeats. "He did, didn't he?" he agreed easily, squeezing Aiden's arm. "It's a game he likes to play. He did it during the proceedings, too. But I'm sure you already know you can't believe any of it. Darren Howe is a psychopath, a manipulator. He's good at picking out people's weaknesses and praying on them. He knows we hurt and so he likes to poke deeper at those wounds."

Marcus was good. Convincing. Perhaps if he'd visited Aiden before his trip to Mars and told him this… warned him that Darren might accuse Claudia, maybe then Aiden would've even believed him. He would've asked about the autopsy and Marcus would've lied about that too, but Aiden would've bought it, most likely. Then he would have heeded Marcus' warning and forced himself to try once again to move on.

"We all miss her, Aiden. A day doesn't go by where I don't wish my daughter was still alive. That I could see her smile or talk to her. I wanted nothing more than to see her grow and realize her potential, to witness her surpass everything I ever achieved. And you two were… perfect together. But for your own sake, you need to let Claudia go."

There it was, that hint of obsession, lurking in Marcus' voice. Hiding behind his words, twinkling in his gaze. A father who'd moved on didn't talk about his daughter that way.

Aiden wanted to jerk away from Marcus, to call him out on all the lies. But he held still, squeezing Marcus' hand with his own. "I know. I just… I didn't want to believe it. I wanted there to be a reason why she'd died. Some… explanation other than a sick mind."

Marcus let go and studied Aiden's face, causing chills to crawl all over him. "And did you find one?"

Fear speared through Aiden, but he willed his face not to show it. He hugged himself and looked out the window, swallowing past the lump in his throat. "No, but if I spoke to him again—"

"Let it rest. You've done enough. You've gotten your answers. There is nothing more here for you to find." Marcus headed out of the office, but paused at the door. "You are an intelligent man. Stay away from Darren Howe and don't let him get under your skin just because he knows what buttons to push."

Letting go and moving on were things Aiden had tried to do every day. But something had always prevented him from doing so. The wrongness of logic to her death had always been at the back of his mind. And now, for the first time since he'd lost her so abruptly, things finally made some sense even if he was forced to face these lies he'd not even known existed.

Aiden watched Marcus disappear around the corner, the parting words he'd been left with swirling in his head.

They weren't a warning from a concerned man.

They were a threat.