Chapter 325: Second chance
When the memories finally ended, Timothy remained seated, his head bowed and his entire body frozen in place.
His face was pale and eyes widened. He was no longer cautious to fight Kyle or even resist if Kyle decided to attack him.
He just...appeared to be a lost soul who was finding it difficult to even recognise himself properly.
Kyle stared at him for several moments before speaking.
"You were trying to save someone, and you sacrificed Veronica for them. I don’t know whether what you did was right or wrong, but because of your choice, she died."
Timothy flinched.
The severed head of the Commander flashed through his mind. No matter how desperately he tried to convince himself that the memories were false, that nothing like this could ever have happened, his heart already knew the truth.
He had betrayed the one woman who had trusted him enough to call him her comrade.
Timothy clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.
"Kill me."
He drew in a deep, trembling breath.
"That is the only way I can atone for what I did. I don’t deserve to live."
Kyle’s eyes narrowed.
"You regret what you did?"
Timothy nodded slowly.
"I always believed nothing could harm the Commander. She was too strong for that. I thought she would always be able to overcome whatever danger stood before her."
His voice grew heavier.
"But that doesn’t justify what I did. I betrayed her trust. I willingly threw her into the jaws of danger to save someone else."
He lowered his head, his expression filled with shame.
"No..."
His fists trembled.
"That mistake has no redemption. There is only one punishment I deserve."
Kyle raised his hand.
"You are right."
Timothy closed his eyes.
"Please take care of her once I’m gone. She’s been alone for most of her life. She deserves to be happy."
Kyle paused for a moment.
Then he brought his hand down.
"Ah!"
Timothy suddenly jerked as something began to creep down his spine. It was a strange sensation, almost as though a layer of his very being was being peeled away. Yet there was no pain, only a faint, unsettling tickle that crawled beneath his skin.
He looked down at his body.
A golden layer was slowly being drawn out of him.
At the same time, his mind grew heavier and heavier, as though his consciousness itself was being dragged down.
"Ah... haah... haah..."
When the sensation finally ceased, Timothy was left gasping for breath. His entire body felt utterly drained, as though he had just climbed twenty flights of stairs without stopping.
He slowly looked up at Kyle.
The man was staring down at him with a cold, unreadable expression.
"What did you do?" Timothy asked, bewilderment creeping into his voice. "Why am I still alive?"
The current Kyle could have killed Timothy effortlessly. And Timothy had offered no resistance whatsoever.
Yet Kyle had chosen not to.
"You made a mistake," Kyle said calmly. "But I could tell you mattered to Veronica."
His gaze hardened.
"You’re the only man she ever called her friend besides me."
Timothy’s shoulders sagged at those words, his heart swelling with a mixture of self-anger, sorrow, and regret.
Kyle shook his head, his expression turning solemn.
"I removed your Genesis Core. You’re just an ordinary man now. So never show your face to Veronica again."
Timothy’s lips parted, but no words came out.
Only then did he understand what Kyle had done.
He had spared his life while, in a way, taking away the very life Timothy had known.
Timothy slowly rose to his feet, pulled his hood over his head, and lowered his gaze.
"I understand."
Kyle dismissed the barrier, and in the very next instant, he vanished.
Timothy remained where he stood, silently looking around.
The members of the PSC.
The familiar atmosphere.
This chaos has once his oasis and these people his family.
He let his gaze linger for one final moment before turning away and walking down the street.
He had no destination in mind.
No purpose.
Yet his steps carried him back to where it had all begun, far away from this world and from the Commander he had once sworn to stand beside.
His footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
"Farewell, Commander."
....
Thud.
Amanda closed the car door and looked toward the crowd gathered outside the mansion.
People from several other families had arrived after hearing the news, including her own father.
She had called him only minutes ago, but there was only one thing she cared about.
Astortia Mathew had never been her concern.
She needed information about someone else.
"Let her through."
As Amanda reached the barricade and made her way through the reporters, a CPB officer recognized her and instructed the officer stationed at the perimeter to let her pass.
Amanda stepped inside the mansion and immediately spotted her father standing with several others not far away.
The moment he saw her, Hades excused himself and approached his daughter.
"You should have worn something less fancy, dear."
Amanda shook her head, ignoring the remark.
"Forget about that. Did you hear anything about Kyle?"
Hades sighed.
"Everyone is talking about him. At least, everyone who knows what happened."
He paused, a frown settling across his face.
"I never thought Kyle would be so impulsive as to kill his father just because he found out he was adopted."
"And he isn’t."
Amanda glared at her father.
"You don’t know the whole story yet, Father. And trust me when I say this, Kyle isn’t someone who cares about his bloodline or who his biological parents are. He never loved his family enough to care about something like that."
Hades shook his head.
"That doesn’t change the fact that he killed someone. And that someone was the patriarch of a Petalled Clan. A meeting has already been organized, and the people who will decide his fate are the clans themselves."
Amanda felt a knot tighten in her chest.
The Ten Clans were notorious for how ruthless and extreme they could be. They wouldn’t care about the circumstances or the reasons behind Kyle’s actions. They would see only the result.
Kyle had killed a patriarch.
And they would use that as an excuse to remove a potential successor to the Astortia family seat before he could become a threat.
’Not only the PSC, but the Ten Clans are after him too.’
Her worry deepened.
’Just why did you take such an extreme step, Kyle?’
Before she could dwell on it any further, her eyes suddenly landed on a familiar figure.
Amanda glanced at her father.
"Talk to you later."
Hades didn’t stop her as she weaved through the crowd.
"Tch."
Her expression turned irritated as several people began gathering around the man she wanted to approach.
She raised her voice.
"Brother Blake."
The bespectacled man turned toward her, along with those gathered around him.
Blake pressed his lips together before excusing himself.
"Give me a moment."
He then walked toward Amanda and spoke quietly.
"Follow me."
°°°°°°
A/N:- Thanks for reading. I have started another story, a little different than my previous works but if you like SOL stories, you would enjoy it.
Check it out and drop a comment.