Chapter 49

An hour had passed by now, and Xander had managed to put Hailey to sleep. She spent most of the night crying, he spent most of the night consoling her.

He wanted to cry as well, but breaking down at such a crucial moment wasn’t negotiable. He was the man now and he had to act like it. Hailey had gone through enough, he needed to be able to support her.

She slept on one of the beds in the room while he sat on the floor, laying his back on the wall with the gun on his lap. He managed to get her to eat some bread and drink water before she went to bed.

To confirm the worst he went back to the room they left their father and took a peek. As he thought, he was gone. He laid there, on his back arms crossed and facing upwards. He looked peaceful, Xander’s breath began to shake once again but he stopped himself and made his way back to the room with Hailey.

So much was going through his mind that night, but one odd thing that kept happening was the footsteps that regularly came to the front o