"Who's there?"
Someone suddenly walked into the library which made Axel startle and close the photo album in his hand to leave immediately.
However, he dropped the book so that anyone who entered the library could hear it. The man who had just entered went straight to the origin of the sound and found Axel who was picking up the dropped album.
"Oh Mr. Axel, what are you doing here?" asked the man who turned out to be Mike.
Mike looked at the book being held by the bodyguard, then walked over to him.
"I was just curious when I saw this album. You're not going to tell Master and Mistress are you?" asked Axel with the album still in his hand.
"Take it easy, I won't tell anyone. It's just a photo album anyway, there's no harm if you want to see it," said the butler who took the photo album from Axel's hand and opened it back up.
They both saw a picture of Daren when he was a kid, and then a boy with dark hair. Realizing that Axel must not know the boy, Mike explained who the boy in the photo was.
"He is the older brother of the young master, Master Aldrich Van Wyne. He and young master are only 5 years apart in age. And he is the Alpha that Master Barney is always proud of," he explained.
"Then where is he? If indeed they have a son and he is an Alpha, then why should the young master carry on the family business?" asked Axel Yang curiously.
"Master Aldrich passed away 5 years ago. He died saving the young master from the Alphas attack. I don't know the details because the young master never wanted to talk about it, but all we know is that the young master was out late into the night."
"Then Master Aldrich went to pick him up. But suddenly we heard that they were in the hospital," Mike replied, explaining what happened to the man.
He continued, if the help to Aldrich was quite late and the injuries he received were quite severe. This resulted in the man finally losing his life in the hospital.
Since then Daren turned into a naughty Omega, he forced himself to learn to fight and became very rebellious every time Master and Mistress asked him to do what they wanted.
"Whereas before the young master was very obedient, and kind and also cheerful. But since Master Aldrich's death, young master seems to have closed himself off and doesn't want to tell the truth. He still looks cheerful, but not like before."
"He must feel guilty about what happened, don't you think?" asked Axel after hearing the whole story from Mike.
He had no idea that something like this had happened to Daren.
Mike admitted that Daren seemed to blame himself for what had happened. Even today he still looks guilty. Barney didn't even want to talk about Aldrich, because he was still very upset about what had happened and continued to blame Daren for this incident.
Axel understood why Barney blamed his own son so much. He was sure he thought it was better for Daren to die than for his Alpha son to one day replace him.
But still, it was all wrong.
After talking for a few minutes, the two of them finally left the library and returned to their respective rooms.
"Tomorrow is the anniversary of Master Aldrich's death, normally we would come to his funeral. Maybe you can talk to the young master, he should be willing to open up slowly."
"Why me? If he didn't even open up to you guys, there's no way he would do it to me. After all, I've only known him for 7 to 8 months," Axel asked.
"That's because I can see the young master starting to open up to you little by little. He even seems to trust you unlike when he was with the other bodyguards," explained the ginger-haired man.
"You think so?"
He nodded his head and said that Daren seemed more open after Axel's arrival. Maybe he was happy to have a friend he could mess with, but Daren did seem to trust Axel at the moment.
They finally went to the second floor and entered their respective rooms. Axel entered his room and immediately lay down on the bed, thinking about all the things he had just heard from Mike.
'So that's how he became so rebellious and annoying question mark,' he thought to himself.
He tried not to think about it too much, then closed his eyes as he was already quite exhausted.
*****
The next day, the day Aldrich died, they went to the man's grave. Axel joined the memorial service because he kept an eye on Daren. Moreover, Daren refused to be in the same car with his parents.
They went to the elite cemetery in Zondalia and looked for Aldrich's grave that was made especially for him.
When they were there, Axel could see a grave with the name Aldrich Van Wyne.
'Hey Al, I came to see you today. Are you mad at me?' Deren thought when he saw big brother's grave.
Every time he came, all the images of himself with his brother kept spinning in his head. 'I'm sorry, i really sorry.'
Barney and Viona looked so sad looking at the grave of their first son, as if they had really lost him. Axel could also see how Daren was trying to hold back his tears, his body trembling and he even squeezed his own pants.
Mike who was there also witnessed it, and wanted to immediately hug his childhood friend. He wanted to calm him down and tell him that it wasn't his fault.
At the same time, someone who was not part of the Wyne Family also came to commemorate the death of Aldrich.
"My condolences for today Mr. and Mrs. Wyne," said the Beta man who was none other than Ivan.
"Thank you Ivan, you even came here to commemorate the death of Aldrich," said Barney.
"Of course, because Aldrich was like my big brother too. I didn't expect him to leave so soon."
Barney nodded his head, saying that he also didn't expect that his proud son would leave so soon five years ago.
"That's right, five years have passed since Aldrich's death. I'm sure Aldrich is currently watching us from above," Ivan said again trying to cheer them up.
But instead of being comforted by Ivan's words, Barney looked rather angry and then turned to his youngest son. The son who is still alive today, but he treats him differently.
"None of this would have happened if not for his stupidity! If it wasn't for him spending time outside just for fun and ultimately taking Aldrich's life!" he snapped while pointing at Daren.
Everyone gasped in shock as Barney suddenly scolded Daren and blamed him for Aldrich's death five years later. Daren knew that his father still blamed him for his brother's death.
"I know it's all my fault, I didn't expect this to happen," Daren said as he bowed his head.
But at that moment Barney kept pointing at his son while continuing to say that it was all his fault. Mike's father, Barney's personal butler, tried to calm his employer down but the man was still angry. In front of everyone he shouted loudly.
"It should have been you who died and not him. You're of no use to me or to the future of this family!"