Part Fifty-Three
Caid watched the dark-haired boy silently. Everything had coalesced into a burning need for revenge. Not just for Eoin now, but for the pain Xander and the other boy were going through.
‘How can a man be so heartless? He has to be stopped. For good,’ he thought angrilty, crushing a defenseless Styrofoam cup in his hand. He barely noticed the tepid coffee that coated his hand as he plotted revenge against the man who could so casually manipulate the lives of others for nothing more than his own personal gain and very possibly, his own amusement.
Xander was pleading with the doctor. “Please, just let me see him, one last time. I need to say goodbye.”
The doctor nearly protested again, but as he looked at Xander, he realized the boy would not give up. “Very well, but only for a few minutes.” Silently he lead Xander into the room that held Corey and Oz, then left.
Xander tentatively stepped up to where Corey lay. Hesitantly, he brushed a few strands of hair from Corey’s face. “Corey, baby, I’m sorry.” He dropped to his knees next to the bed. “I shouldn’t have left. I still love you. That should’ve been the last thing I said to you. I love you.”
Brushing tears from his eyes, Xander stood and placed a final kiss on those cold lips. “Wherever you are now, don’t ever forget that. I love you.”
Iam sobbed in Giles’ arms. Giles patted his back consolingly. He found life to be so cruel. He could tell that Oz had meant more to Iam than his nephew would probably ever admit. And now to be so viciously torn away, like so many things in his life. The same for Xander. These two boys he’d taken in and loved more than either of their fathers ever could have. And still he couldn’t keep the pain and harsh cruelty of life from them.
Xander stepped out of the room and was immediately embraced by Caid. “Hey, it’s okay to cry.”
With that, Xander let go and the tears fell.
Iam wiped his eyes. “Uncle Rupert? Will they let me see him?”
“I’m sure they will, Iam. They let Xander see Corey.”
Giles got up and went to ask a nurse. Presently he returned with a nurse in tow. “You can say goodbye.”
Iam stared down at Oz. Placing one hand on the still chest, he hoped to feel something, anything, that would tell him the doctors were wrong. That Oz was alive. That he would open his eyes and his lips would curl into that slow smile that told Iam everything. “I was blind for too long,” said Iam finally, removing his hand. “And now it’s too late. I think I love you. But now you’ll never know.”
Xander watched dry-eyed as Corey’s coffin was lowered into the ground. Nothing would ever be the same again. A warm hand on his shoulder, and he could feel Caid’s presence. Caid, who held the same grudge against Vincent that he did. Caid had told him everything about his two brothers the past couple days. Comfort and revenge. That was as far as they would ever get. Xander knew that. And he knew Caid did, as well.
Looking over at Iam, Xander wondered what he would do. Oz’s funeral had be yesterday. Iam had stayed at the grave for hours after the service ended. Xander supposed the statement of Veruca Williams had blown his mind.
“ ‘Oz was mine. That boy had no right to take him away. So I took Oz away! And I’m glad! I’d do it again if I had to. No one takes what’s mine and gets away with it!’ ”
Turning his eyes back to Corey’s grave, he bit back a sob. The headstone was enough to break his heart even more.
Corey Nathaniel Morgan
April 20th, 1980 – October 17th, 1999
I stood in the sun today
To feel what I was afraid to feel
I stood in the shadows today
To deny what I was unable to deny
I stood in the sun today
To love as I never loved before
Not a single person from Corey’s family had come. His mother had phoned Giles and asked him to arrange the funeral for her, as she was in Chicago and unable to return to bury her son.