The Outcast Son-In-Law: Rise From Ashes

CHAPTER 5: THIS DAMN APOLOGY

He had lain on the bed since three in the morning and sleep had not come back.

His body felt fine, that was the strange part. No heaviness, no ache. The cuts from the hotel had closed on their own, leaving nothing behind but torn fabric and faint rust-colored stains on his shirt.

Only the shirt remembered what had happened.

He sat up when the sky outside turned fully gray and didn't bother trying anymore.

The bedroom door opened without a knock.

Aurelia walked straight in with Vivian right behind her, both of them already dressed and put together. Aurelia stopped at the foot of the bed and looked at him with the particular expression she reserved for things that were wasting her time.

"I told you yesterday. You need to apologize today. Why aren't you up yet?"

Alexander was sitting on the edge of the bed. His pajama top had come slightly open at the collar, and he hadn't fixed it.

Both of them were stunned.

Aurelia recovered first.

"What are you doing dressed like that? Who are you trying to impress? Go put something proper on before you come out."

She turned and pulled Vivian out of the room by the arm, her face carrying just a trace of color that hadn't been there before.

In the hallway, Vivian stood very still for a moment.

The man had been living in this house for three years washing dishes and running errands, and somehow nobody had noticed that underneath the ordinary clothes he looked like that.

Aurelia really had no idea what she had.

Vivian kept her face neutral and said, "Are you sure you want him to apologize? He didn't actually do anything wrong last night."

Aurelia rolled her eyes.

"Are you my best friend or his? He embarrassed me in front of my guest. He showed up in a waiter's uniform and spoke to Nah like that in front of everyone."

She crossed her arms.

"I know he's my husband but there is just no comparison between them. One of them is like a star. The other is like dust."

The bedroom door opened.

Alexander had overheard her words. His already broken heart felt impossible to mend. He stood in the doorway in clean clothes, face expressionless, eyes flat and cold.

The hallway went quiet.

Vivian watched his expression and saw nothing in it. Not anger, not sadness. Just a blank steadiness that was somehow harder to look at than either of those things.

His hand moved slightly, touching his side through the fabric of his shirt, right where the glass had torn through last night. The wound was already gone. Only he remembered it had ever been there.

Aurelia saw that he had heard. Her expression shifted, just a little uncomfortable, before she straightened.

Vivian stepped forward first.

"I heard you got hurt saving Aurelia last night. How are you feeling? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

Alexander looked at her. Even someone who barely knew him showed concern for his injuries, yet the person closest to him only cared about someone else.

"I'm fine. Thank you for your concern, ma'am."

"He wasn't really hurt," Aurelia said. "If he was, how is he standing there with no mark on him? He was pretending."

"I wasn't pretending," Alexander said.

"I don't want to hear it." She cut across him. "You always have an explanation for everything. Just stop."

He fell silent for a moment.

Then he said coldly, "You've been like this since yesterday, never believing anything I say, always interrupting me. If that's the case, let's go."

He walked out first, waiting for her to take him to apologize.

Vivian watched him go.

His injury couldn't have been fake. She had seen the blood on his sleeve at the hotel. Nah had mentioned it himself, and yet this morning there was nothing.

No bandage. No stiffness. Nothing at all.

She had heard things growing up. Her parents had mentioned once, carefully, that there were people in the city who were different. People who healed faster. Who left less of a mark than they should have.

She had always thought it was just a story.

She looked at the empty hallway where Alexander had just been standing.

Probably nothing, she told herself.

She followed Aurelia to the car.

Alexander moved toward the passenger seat out of habit.

"That seat is for Nah," Aurelia said, without looking at him. "It's always been his seat, since we were kids."

Vivian climbed into the back and patted the space beside her. Alexander got in without a word.

"They used to play house together when they were little," Vivian said lightly. "She was always the bride, he was always the groom. I was always their child."

She smiled at the memory. "I spent a lot of time being told to go to my room."

Nobody laughed. The car pulled out of the driveway.

Alexander looked out the window at the street moving past.

The weight in his chest had settled deep, the way heavy things do when they stop being temporary and start becoming permanent.

He had a feeling, quiet and certain, that from today something between them would start pulling apart in a way that couldn't be pushed back together.

They picked up Nah from his house.

Nah came out looking rested and easy, sliding into the front seat with the natural comfort of someone returning to a place that had always been his.

The café was on a clean, expensive street near the center of the city. Even the entrance had a quiet kind of authority about it. No loud signage. No crowds. Just a heavy glass door and a waitress standing outside who decided each person before they opened their mouth.

She looked at all four of them and made her decision fast. Her eyes landed on Alexander and stayed there.

"I'm sorry, sir. We're not currently hiring part-time staff."

The words dropped into the silence like a stone into still water.

Aurelia's expression changed. She was embarrassed to have brought him along.

"Honey, maybe we should just find somewhere else. It's all the same anyway."

"Excuse me waiter, he's our friend. How can you speak like that?" Nah stepped forward.

"Sir, this is my job. Even guests require VIP credentials to enter."

Behind them, the pavement was already filling. At least thirty people in a line that hadn't existed when they arrived.

Nah looked at Aurelia. "Should I call the owner? I know him personally. Otherwise, this line is going to get difficult."

He already had his phone in his hand. Aurelia nodded. Nah started to dial.

Alexander reached over calmly and pressed his hand down.

"Did I ever ask for your help?" he said.