Daren didn't expect those words to come out of his own father's mouth. He knew that his father was angry with him, but he never heard those words actually come out and be shown to him.
Of course it shocked everyone at the funeral, especially Viona, Barney's wife.
"What!? How dare you say that to him! Why would you say such a terrible thing to your own son! Daren is still your son after all and what happened to Aldrich is in the past!" Viona scolded her husband for yelling something she considered very stupid at their youngest son.
Not only that, Ivan even tried to persuade Barney not to say such bad things.
"Mr. Wyne, please don't say that to Daren. He's also at a loss for what happened to Aldrich 5 years ago. And I'm sure he still feels guilty about it," he coaxed the father of his best friend.
But from the look in Barney's eyes, he didn't regret his words and was still pointing at Daren as if it was all his fault. Feeling upset and sad at the same time, Daren ran away from Aldrich's grave away from everyone.
Seeing this, Axel immediately chased after him without heeding the call from his master not to chase after Daren. "Come back here! I didn't order you to leave this place right now!"
Neither the Alpha nor the Omega cared and they both left the elite cemetery anyway.
Daren entered the car, with his head bowed his tears flowed because he could no longer hold back his tears. The guilt and loss still enveloped him until now, especially since his father continued to hate him.
Without thinking, Axel got into the car and sat in the driving seat right next to Daren. He glanced at the blond-haired man who was now trying to cover his tears.
"Don't look at me, I know you want to laugh at me right now," Daren said as he wiped away his tears.
"No, I don't intend to. You can cry all you want, I'll just sit here with you."
The Omega asked his bodyguard to take him away from that place, to a place where he often went together with Aldrich. Axel started the car and drove to that place.
A place on top of a hill where they could see the whole city, with a tree at the end of the cliff. The place was behind the urban forest.
Getting out of the car, Daren then sat on the hood of the car while hugging his legs. The dark-haired man who was with him also got out of the car and sat next to him.
For a moment there was only silence between the two of them, but it was quite calming for Daren because he knew that Axel was with him.
"I never intended to make Aldrich lose his life. I didn't even know that night would be the last time I'd ever speak to him," he said, causing Axel to turn to Omega who was burying his face in the folds of his arms above his knees.
"I just fell asleep at the game center after school and I didn't know I'd wake up at nine at night. I asked him to pick me up and I didn't follow his words to wait inside a crowded store."
"He must have asked you to do that so you wouldn't be in a deserted place by yourself," Axel said.
He nodded his head admitting that he hadn't thought that far ahead at the time. All he could think about was getting home quickly and if he waited at the end of the street, Aldrich would easily find him.
But he didn't expect that he would be trapped with four Alphas who wanted to sexually assault him.
"They grabbed me and hit me when I bit the hand of one of them. I fell down and I was still conscious, but I couldn't move my body. I saw Aldrich arrive and fight them alone to protect me. But when they were defeated, one of them pulled out a knife and finally... "
Flashback
STAB! STAB! STAB!
Aldrich fell when one of his opponent's Alphas stabbed him in the back three times. Daren was in shock but he couldn't move his body. The Alphas then left, and Daren tried to grab the fallen Aldrich.
"Al are you okay? Please answer me," he said in a voice that was still weak because his temple was bleeding.
"I'm sorry for coming late, I should have come earlier..." Aldrich said while trying to hold back the pain.
Daren held his brother's body in his arms, trying to find help but the road was deserted. No one could save them, but at that moment Aldrich said he would be fine.
"Don't cry, I'll be fine. But if I don't survive, you have to be a strong Omega. You must be able to protect yourself, will you promise me?" Aldrich asked, smiling when his face had paled enough.
Tears dripped from his younger brother's eyes onto his cheeks. "No, please don't leave me. Help will come, please stay with me."
"Daren, you will always be my proud little brother."
Flashback End
"Didn't you try to call an ambulance?" asked Axel.
"I tried to call the operator, I asked for an ambulance to be sent immediately. But they said that all the ambulances that were on standby were busy going to two fires. The one that was so crowded was a fire near the harbor," Daren explained.
Axel gasped in shock when he heard Daren's answer. A fire near the harbor?
The Alpha male was familiar with the harbor that Daren might have mentioned earlier.
"You mean the Monarose textile factory, which is near the harbor, that caught fire at night on this date?" he asked again.
Daren nodded his head, because the factory had burned so much that ambulances had gone there. That's why no ambulance came to pick up Aldrich.
"I carried his body slowly to his car and then drove the car even though I wasn't good at it. I took him to the hospital myself, but it was too late."
Hearing all the explanations that the young master bought gave, there was a different expression on Axel's face. A feeling of guilt also suddenly appeared inside him. Something he shouldn't feel because it wasn't his fault, but there seemed to be something that connected the incident with Aldrich's death.
"Do you know anything about that?"
"Huh? No, I don't know anything about it. Just read about it on the news," Axel replied then looked away.
'Damn.'