Her Substitute Groom

Claire POV

“Honey, can you please stop being like this? We can’t lose three children, please,” I watched Mom through the hole in their door as she knelt in front of Dad, pleading with him like her life depended on it, but even though Dad hasn’t said a thing, I knew what was on his mind.

“If you want to go with them, then do it and stop troubling me. I don’t want to get mad at you,” As expected, he scolded Mom, and I sighed briefly. Dad although was the sweetest man any woman would want to be married to and a man any kids would want as a Dad, he was also a tough man that would never change his mind whenever it was already set on something, and that is the only thing I hated about him.

“Honey, please,” Mom pleaded again, but he wasn’t ready to listen to her. I forgot I was peeping, but the door jerked open all of a sudden, sending me rolling on the ground and I winced painfully while rubbing my hand on my forehead. The two long straight legs standing in front of me made my heart skip a beat, and I panicked when I realized that Dad already caught me eavesdropping on their conversation.

Slowly, I raised my gaze to look at him, and he was staring down at me with an unreadable expression on his face that sent cold shivers down my spine. I swallowed the lump in my throat and blinked my eyes twice.

“Uhm… Dad…” I managed to stand up to my feet, but I was stunned as he walked away without sparing me another glance. I breathed out and pushed the door open, walking in to find Mom sitting on the edge of the bed and burying her face between her palms. I understood her pain, and it hurts that nobody could do anything about it.

“Mom…”

“I want to be left alone,” Even she didn’t want to talk to me. For a sec, I asked myself if she already knew what happened and was just trying to act like everything was fine. Did she find out that I was the cause of Carl’s death? I asked myself, but quickly dismissed the thoughts even though it was disturbing.

“Hmm,” Slowly, I nodded my head and left her room as she had demanded, heading to mine.

I threw myself on the bed when I got into my room, staring at the ceiling as many thoughts came running through my mind, waves of guilt spurred through me, and tears brimmed in my eyes. I didn’t think that I would ever be able to get over this feeling. I would live the rest of my life wallowing in this guilt of being the cause of my brother’s death even though I didn’t want to think about it.

‘Connor’ His name played in my head, so I quickly went to where I hid the phone and brought it out. I switched the phone on and dialed his number afterward. It has been one week since we last talked on the phone, and I had no idea if he has recovered from the sickness now. The call rang for some seconds, and just when he answered the call, the door opened and my jaw dropped because Dad walked inside.

His eyes darted to the phone I was holding to my ear, and his eyes darkened.

“Hey, Claire. Hello? Are you there?” Connor’s voice sounded from the other end, but my heart was already frozen as I stared back at Dad. The world seemed to be frozen for a moment, and this feeling of being alone with him in the world was terrifying. It felt like a bucket of chilled water has just been poured on my body, rendering it numb because I couldn’t even move an inch.

“Claire? Are you there? Are you ok? Did something happen?” Connor’s voice sounded worried this time, and before I could form words to say to him, Dad walked up to me and snatched the phone from me.

“I made myself clear to everyone to stop calling to stop contacting him. How dare you!” I flinched, my soul left my body for a second and came back again. I stepped away from him, scared of what he might do to me because he looked like he’d hurt me anytime soon.

“Da… dad…” I stuttered, but the scary expression on his face didn’t make me confident enough to say something.

“You went to get another phone to contact him. Wow! This is crazy…” He looked so enraged that I was scared he’d beat me up, and that was a nightmare I would never want to come true.

“For how long? For how long have you been in touch with him? For how long have you been speaking with him?” He asked, and I swallowed the lump in my throat, my teeth finding their way to my bottom lip and biting into it.

“Da… dad…” I stuttered and paused again, leaving my lips parted.

“Tell me… Do you want to go with him? Do you want to go with your brothers?” His scary eyes pierced into mine, they were so intimidating that my heartbeat stopped for a moment before it came pounding hard against my chest.

“You can go with him if that’s what you want. Why don’t you go to him? It’s fine if I don’t have a child anymore. Do you want to go with him?” He yelled at the top of his voice this time, and just then, the door burst open and the least expected person barged inside. It was Connor.

“Co… Connor?” I stuttered, blinking my eyes to be sure I wasn’t dreaming, but the excitement that filled my heart when I realized that it was reality, was priceless. It felt like I was being faced with my doom and my savior showed up at the last minute. I knew his being here was going to be disastrous, but still, I was excited that he came through for me.

He grabbed my hand and shoved me behind him, standing in front of me and shielding me from our Dad who was now looking like an angry lion that was ready to devour its prey.

“What are you doing here? I thought I told you not to show your face to me ever again!” Dad roared at him, and I flinched fearfully. It was about to get messy, and I was scared to the bone as the imagination of what might happen dawned on me…