Chapter 8

• Alex’s POV
• Knock! Knock!
• “Go away!” I shouted at whoever was knocking on my door.
• “Alex? Are you okay?” my mom’s voice sounded worried at the other side of the door.
• Shit! I sighed in frustration for screaming at her like that.
• “Come in, mom” I said more gently.
• I sit up straight on my bed, as she walks inside slowly.
• She takes one look at my face and instantly knows there is something wrong with me, as her face fills with worry.
• She sat on the edge of the bed and faced me “What’s wrong Alex? Talk to me honey” she said softly.
• The tears threatened to come out again, but I tried my best to push them down.
• “Melanie left me” I answered quietly.
• “Left you.. As in..” she asked hesitantly.
• I lowered my head down and said rigidly “She broke up with me at the airport. She’s moving to London with her sister to start a new life. She wants nothing to do with me anymore”
• She takes my head gently and brings it to her chest, hugging me and stroking my hair.
• “I’m so sorry Alex. I wish you didn’t have to go through this. I wish Melanie was strong enough to handle living in this town. But you can’t blame her or hate her for it. This town is too much for some people who were born and raised outside it, they can’t all handle living in it” she said tenderly.
• “But you did mom! You were an outsider too, and you’re still here. She didn’t see half the things you saw all these years, and you never left dad. Why couldn’t she be like you?” I asked in a broken voice.
• “We’re not all the same Alex. We don’t all have the same strength to handle something like this. Maybe this is better for you, you never know. Maybe someone else will…”
• I cut her off fiercely as I shook my head “No, there will never be someone else. She was the first and last love of my life. I can’t handle going through this pain again, I just won’t”
• She continues to stroke my hair gently but doesn’t argue further with me.
• After a while, I lift up my head and look at her seriously.
• “You knew about my dad’s will didn’t you?“
• “Yes, he told me about it a while ago”
• “Why did he do this to me? When uncle Stefan is here, why did he put such a heavy burden on my shoulders mom? I feel like I’m failing him already. Look at what this town has turned into within a week of his death! It’s a disaster out there, a lot of people have died and I wasn’t able to do a damn thing to stop it, I still can’t figure out how to settle all these people down and make them agree to live peacefully together. How was he able to carry all these responsibilities on his own all these years? He made it look so easy, but turns out he was just a natural leader”
• She gave me a small smile and said confidently “When I asked him about his reasons. He said there are many, but the biggest one was that you were the only perfect man for the job. He believed in your abilities Alex. And I do too. It’s all new to you right now, especially with the heated atmosphere but it’s not always going to be like this. You will figure this out, because we all have so much faith in you. You can do this, believe it with all your might, because your father did. And whatever way you decide to take to bring the peace into town, just know, we will be one hundred percent with you, all of us. No matter how unreasonable it might look to us, even if we don’t think it's the right way, don’t make that cause you to doubt yourself. Being a strong leader is about making impossible decisions that others won’t be able to make or take lightly”
• She kissed me longingly on my forehead, then left me alone to ponder with my own struggles.
• I put my own heartache aside for the moment and clear my mind to handle the town problem and find an end to the blood feud.
• It takes me fifteen minutes to come up with a perfect solution.
• It was a perfect solution for the town, but it was the most imperfect solution for me and my family.
• One of my father’s very last words that he said to me before he died, jumped into my head at that moment. It felt like my father sent it to me to remind me that he was really here with me, supporting me with this decision I just made.
• ‘One day, this will all fall on you. You will have to make extremely tough decisions. Decisions that might put you in the middle between your responsibility to your family, your clan, your town and between our business. It even might come down to choosing between your own happiness and this town’s safety’
• I look at the clock on my phone, and find it was almost ten at night.
• I pull up Jack Walker’s number and hit dial right away.
• I didn’t want to waste anymore time.
• “Hello?” Jack’s uncertain voice tells me that he doesn’t know who’s calling.
• “It’s Alex Snow” I said tightly and carried on before I could hear his response.
• “Do you want this blood feud to end or do you still want to lose more of your men?”
• A short silence stretches between us before he answers in a tired voice “I want it to end, but you should know that I don’t have complete control over the clan. They’re blinded with vengeance that even I can’t control them”
• “I assume you’re talking about your son. Am I right?“ I said with gritted teeth, I was fighting the urge to call him something else but I resisted.
• “He was really close to his uncle. My brother always treated him like the son he never had. His death made Simon lose his mind and defy even me”
• I expected that response, that’s why I made a decision that will ensure everyone’s compliance to shake hands peacefully.
• “Listen very carefully to me. You will take over the leadership of your clan tomorrow morning and make sure no one steps out of line or attack any Snow in this town, specifically your son. I have the perfect insurance to make them compliant to you”
• “What is it?” he asked almost desperately.
• “Right before your meeting with them, you will bear witness to my marriage to Jennifer Walker at the town church. She will become my wife and come home and live with me. If any one of your men tries to harm someone from my clan, let it be known that the only one who will suffer the consequences of such actions will be the daughter of their former leader that they loved so much. If they want her to remain unharmed with us, they better go back to minding their own business in town. The Walkers will no longer help us manage our smuggling business, I suppose that goes without saying of course.
• We’ll meet in church at 9 a.m. Just you, me, and the girl. Don’t tell any living soul about this before it’s done, especially your son. You’ll meet with your clan at 10 and inform them of what I told you. At noon, we bury all our dead together and have a formal funeral for everyone in the town square. After that, the town goes back to the way it was before my father was killed. Do we have an agreement Jack Walker?“
• He doesn’t miss a beat as he answers right away “We have an agreement Alex Snow”
• “Can you get the girl to agree to this?“
• “Consider her agreed”
• “Great, see you tomorrow then”
• I hung up the phone and tossed it on the bed.
• How did my life get so fucked up? In a matter of a week, I lost my father right in front of me, lost my fiancée and the true love of my life, became the leader of a clan I wasn’t ready to lead yet, forced my brother Jacob out of town, almost lost my brother Lucas for good, and now…. I’m forced to marry the daughter of my father’s murderer just to keep the peace in this town.
• That girl is going to be a living nightmare to live with, I was absolutely certain of that.
• I’ll have to break her into submission right away, do whatever it takes to put the fear of god in her, make her afraid to even gaze up at me, or she will end up tearing our whole family apart.
• Could my life get any worse than this?
• Something tells me it was only the beginning.