Chapter 12 - "We're done."

"Kane Keen."

They had all reconvened in Dante and Nate's bedroom, since none of them were willing to unchain Lucius.

The series of emotions he went through were frightening, but valid, considering the fact that his daughter had died a couple hours ago was settling into a brain that kept fighting against it. All of them had cried, had hugged one another, had cried again, had cursed or punched walls, but they had all stayed at Dante and Nate's home the entire night.

When Charles had finished sharing his story, Bronsted decided to stay upstairs with him while Nate returned downstairs and listened to Cesar's findings. Then, they all grouped together in the bedroom when Nate shared all Charles' had revealed. From the vile act they all committed against Natalia, from the threats from Kane, from the reason behind the sunglasses theft and the drug theft, and in detail, what happened tonight at that night club.

"I'm going to find him," Lucius hissed, nodding his head as his bloodshot eyes widened. "I'll torture him so fucking slow for months until he begs me to kill him."

"I know a lot about his father, Thomas," Cesar stated, folding his arms. "Thomas infiltrated the Mariahs for me, and was my most loyal trooper at some point in time. He hasn't been apart of my troop for over a decade though, but that explains why he still has one of my guns."

"I don't think any of you should be focused on revenge right now." Jules hadn't spoken much the whole night, but now, staring at the gloomy faces of his family, he wanted them to settle in their grief first before trying to avenge her. "This only happened today; you need to grieve her first and let time heal you a bit before focusing on killing Kane."

"I can't do that." He knew Lucius was going to refuse, shaking his head as his hands quivered against the restraints he tried to break out of countless times already. "I failed as a father and I can't sit around and do nothing while my daughter had a bullet lodged in her fucking skull."

"You wouldn't be doing nothing," Jake mumbled, his voice coiling as he wiped the tears that had again leaked across his cheeks. After a sniffle, he said, "You'd be there for our family, Lu. Asher and Sarah are going to be devastated when they hear this; they need us."

Lucius' eyes turned to Jake, and in an instant, he burst into tears again.

All he could think about was the family hangouts they would often have, Lucius and Jake taking Sarah and Natalia to get their nails done while they went to an arcade nearby with Asher. Even the performances at school from Natalia who had started taking gymnastics, and her entire family was always there to cheer her on, even Lucius wailing the first time he saw her perform, and multiple parents heard him whimper, "She's growing up too fast"—she was six years old.

These memories that had once been comforting to remember, were now tainted with the new one of his daughter lying on the table, covered by a sheet, and the fact that he would never form new ones like that again.

Another silence fell, neither of them staring at each other and the quiet was terribly heavy with gloom that they could feel it as though it was another being looming around them. None of them had been able to process what happened tonight, and none of them could think with a clear mind to decide on what to do next.

It was Cesar that broke the silence.

"I'm...s-so-sor-ry-ry...sorry..."

When a few eyes turned towards him, they realized that Cesar had tears leaking profusely across his cheeks, his hand covering his eyes, and he was shaking uncontrollably to the point that his other hand held onto the wall.

He had kept his composure this entire time, but now, he was losing it.

"It's all m-m-my-my f-f-fault..."

"It's not your fault, Cee," Dante spoke in a gravelly tone, reaching for Cesar and wrapping his arms around him. Since Cesar was shorter than all of them, he buried his face into Dante's chest, quietly sobbing as his hands gripped the back of Dante's shirt for dear life. "You shouldn't bear that weight Cesar, it really wasn't your fault."

"It was Charles' fault."

Immediately when that was said, Nate's narrowed eyes twisted to Lucius who still had tears in his eyes. But that wasn't the only thing Lucius said, as he continued, "Your kid knew about all of this and didn't say a word."

Nate exhaled sharply through his nose.

He knew this was going to come up, and he was ready to protect Charles at all cost. At the same time though, he didn't want to get into an argument with any of them, hence why he shook his head and kept his voice soft and calm as he said, "Look, we're all not thinking straight, and I think we're just tired and trying to find someone to blame—"

"I blame him too." Jake stormed to his feet, standing beside Lucius' bed. He wiped the tears on his cheeks and growled, "He knew our daughter went through one of the most vile acts and he didn't say a word."

"I better not even see a glimpse of him ever again or else, I'm definitely going to kill him," Lucius threatened, the shackles around his wrists clanking as he tried to get out of them again.

Nate folded his arms. "I don't think anyone should be blamed but Natalia—"

"Don't you fucking dare say that." Nate was taken aback when Jake walked towards him, his shoulders broadening and pointing a finger towards Nate's face. "After all she had been through, of course she wouldn't want these videos online and would've tried to make it go away all on her own. That doesn't mean she deserved to fucking die!"

"Alright," Jules attempted to intervene, "maybe we shouldn't—"

"I never said that!" Nate retorted, unfolding his arms. He had no intention in arguing with them, but his emotions were high as well. "All I'm saying is that, if you want to find someone to blame, it's not going to fucking be my son."

Lucius roared, "He had my daughter killed!"

"He protected your daughter, Lucius!" Nate shrieked, unable to keep his composure when they were going after his son as though he was the evil one in this situation. "He's the one that took care of her after that night, and he asked her to tell us and she said no."

"If he really wanted to protect her, he wouldn't have waited in his room for her to come back from a night club owned by Kane," Jake argued back, shaking his head. "He would've told us the moment she left like a real fucking friend would have done!"

"Jake," Jules stepped forward, putting his hand against Jake's chest, "please, stop—"

Nate threw his arms in the air. "And a real friend wouldn't have asked Charles to help her steal ten kilograms worth of fucking drugs!"

"Maybe not, but clearly, Charles was too much of a fucking idiot to say no!" Lucius snapped.

"And Natalia was too much of an idiot to think that she was actually going to outwit a fucking troop leader!"

"What the fuck did you say to me?" Lucius had enough of these restraints, but he couldn't pull them off. His entire face burned red when he heard Nate say that, his eyes filled with flames as he growled, "Natalia was brilliant and the strongest one, and don't you fucking dare belittle her existence when she just fucking died."

"You called my son an idiot first, Lucius. You're trying to find someone to blame and you're trying to pinpoint it on my son and I'm not going to let this happen."

"Then blame yourself for letting someone be born with your fucking genes, because the reason he was such a fucking pussy and couldn't tell us shit was because of you!" Lucius snarled, then gritting his teeth.

All of them were taken aback and stayed quiet. None of them had expected for it reach such intensity.

"And how dare you speak about friendships when your definition of being a good friend is to fuck them while you're engaged, just to figure out if you like them or not."

Dante gasped.

Nate's lips sealed.

"Let's not even talk about friendships, how about we talk about your relationships, Nathan?"

"Lucius," Dante tried to intervene, "that's enough—"

"Your definition of a relationship is to be threatened to be killed on the spot if you don't become someone's sexual slave," he pointed to Dante, "and to you, that's the love of your life. Dante brought you into his life against your will at nineteen, sexually used you, had you tortured so bad to the point that you lost your arm and your eye, you went so crazy that you killed your own mother, you're now disabled for life, and you still went, you know what?" He grimaced, mimicking Nate's voice sarcastically and said, "This man is my fucking soulmate."

"So you know what, Nathan? There's only one idiot among us, and it's not Charles, or Natalia, it's fucking you. But now," he shrugged his shoulders, "we know where the fuck Charles gets it from. We were all just stupid to believe that someone with your genes would have been any smarter than you were. No wonder you were never meant to be born; didn't Melle hate you so much that she shipped you off to Judith the minute you turned eighteen? Right, now it all makes sense why no one ever loved you to the point that you fell for the only person that did, which was your fucking abuser."

The moment Lucius finished saying these things, one could hear a pin drop from how quiet it became.

In Nate's mind, it felt as though he was hearing these words over and over again; had this been what Lucius always felt? He knew Lucius was grieving, but that didn't mean these words hurt any less.

As much as Nate wanted to let this go, he couldn't. He had done a lot of healing, a lot of growth and maturity, and he didn't need any negativity of this sort in his life. He needed to protect his son, and if that meant cutting out the people who blamed him for a death, then he would do it without a heartbeat.

Even if those people were his family.

"We're done." When Nate spoke, none of their eyes turned to him, not even Lucius who shook his head and scoffed. "Dante and I won't be helping you find her killer, or avenging her death in any way. We're not associating with you anymore, Lucius," he said sternly.

Jules spoke next, swallowing hard before he begged, "Guys, please take a day to sleep on it, or even a week, but you can't tear this family apart when we need each other the most."

"No, I'm done," he shook his head, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't want to explain myself anymore, I don't want to hear Charles being berated as a sixteen year old kid and I don't want to hear about my past like this. I love Dante, I love my family, and it's not fair that you..." Nate had to take a breather because he felt his eyes grow teary and a lump form in his throat. After a few seconds, he nodded his head and hissed, "Yeah, I'm done, we all go our own separate ways."

Jake sat back down on his seat beside Lucius's bed. "That's fine with us."

Lucius hadn't meant to say that, but the grief and the rage to hunt this killer had overwhelmed him that he was lashing out at anyone who didn't agree with him on anything. Hence, although he knew what he said was harsh, he didn't care because in this moment, everyone could be the enemy.

That was why, he hissed, "We don't need your help anyway, I'll find them all on my own."

Nate slowly nodded his head, unable to meet Lucius' gaze. They had been friends for over a decade now, almost even two decades, and Nate couldn't even imagine a life without Lucius and his family. However, he had his own family he needed to protect, and that was the priority.

Nate started walking towards the door and said, "I'll be at the funeral, but after that," Nate waved his hand dismissively, "you'll never see me again."

"Don't even bother showing up to the funeral since it's your fault."

The spite through Lucius's tone felt as though a blade had launched through Nate's heart and made it stop beating. Without saying another word, Nate walked out of that room and went upstairs.

In hindsight, Nate wished he could go back in time, because this decision to dismantle their big family was one that cost them all greatly.