Chapter 50.4

"What?!"

Her words were like a thunderbolt, shocking everyone. Melanie nearly pulled her hair out as she shrieked, her eyes almost maddening with disbelief and killing intent. Emily stood frozen in place as though her brain had stopped working, her blank face blanched with emotions. Alice also shouted in disbelief, her mind refusing to believe that Jason would have someone else other than her mother, Katelyn, as a wife. The others, such as Suni, also recognized Elizabeth as a famous singer and turned to look at Jason while green with even more envy.

Junco herself was surprised, her face blank for a moment before she opened her mouth to speak slowly. "What you mean to say is that Jason was with you earlier tonight?"

"Why, yes, we had a wonderful bedroom date," Lizzy answered almost shamelessly as she leaned on Jason's shoulder and Junco was speechless at how in sync her reply was with the former's, even though she knew both were bullshiting. "If you don't believe me, you can ask my bandmates. Also, Hotel Belvedere will have security footage of him entering my room. Not exiting though, cause he jumped out a window as soon as he heard his daughter was in danger."

"I see . . ." Despite her doubts, Junco wasn't able to arrest Jason now that he had an alibi, especially if there was a recorded footage of said alibi. "We'll just leave you two alone then. Seems like you will all have a lot to . . . discuss about."

Junco's eyes travelled to Melanie and Emily as she spoke before she turned around and walked away along with her soldiers. Jason also realized what she meant and he turned to look at Emily and Melanie but instead found himself focusing on Alice, who glared at him with tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

"Daddy, you . . . you jerk!" Alice struggled to come up with a word before shouting jerk and running off to where Maple and Grace was.

Jason, who was stunned and mildly hurt, raised his hand to call out to Alice but lost his voice. He was tempted to pursue her but noticed how Grace was holding onto Alice as she made a silent gaze towards him.

I'll take care of her. You deal with your problems, young man.

Jason could almost hear her thoughts so he turned around and focused on the three girls next to him while taking a deep breath. To him, this next confrontation was even more frightening then walking into a battlefield all alone.

Lord above, or anyone else who's listening, give me strength, Jason thought as he desperately prayed to God for the first time in his life.

"Listen, uh, I -" Jason began but quickly shut himself up and shrunk away when all three turned to glare at him.

"Nuh-uh, this is girls' talk now, baby boy," Elizabeth said while making a shoo-ing gesture to him. "Don't butt in."

"As much as I hate to admit it, I agree," Melanie said begrudgingly.

Jason turned to Emily but the latter had no mercy for him either.

"Besides, shouldn't you be chasing after Alice?" Emily asked with crossed arms. "She's really upset at you right now."

Though, she's not the only one, Emily thought as she glared at Jason with her piercingly emerald eyes.

Aw, hell, Jason thought as he grimaced and looked down at the ground; he was unable to maintain eye contact with Emily due to his shame and guilt.

Despite being told to leave the girls alone, Jason hesitated. He was worried about Emily, who just was a normal highschool girl when compared to Elizabeth or Melanie. At the same time, he concurred with Emily and wanted to go and explain everything to Alice, but indecisiveness was evident on his face.

"Don't worry, none of us bite," Elizabeth appeared to have realized what Jason's thoughts were and turned to look at Emily's direction with mixed feelings. She knew that Jason and Emily didn't have a physical relationship, yet Jason's overprotectiveness of the latter was quite obvious.

Would he have done the same for me, if we had just met less than two months ago? If we didn't shag? Elizabeth thought; she couldn't come to a conclusion, at least not one that was satisfactory to her.

Jason stared at all three for a moment before turning to Emily, almost as though he was asking for permission from her. The latter barely nodded, and it was only after that gesture did Jason reluctantly turn and walk away to Alice. Once he was far enough from earshot, he turned back around for a moment and noticed how the three seemed to have a tense conversation with glaring eyes and barbed smiles.

Damnitall, Jason thought as he slid a hand through his hair. I knew this was eventually going to happen . . . but hell, this is bad.

He had noticed how several people, Suni more than the others, appeared to be gloating over his misfortune over his relationships.

Ha! Serves you right bastard, for juggling so many women all at once. Burn and get dumped by 'em all!

He could hear the cries of joy from their eyes and felt irritable. This annoyance made him want nothing more than to smack them around, but instead, he turned his attention to Alice.

"Alice, I -"

"I don't want to hear it!" Alice interrupted angrily.

Grace had noticed how Jason was kicked away by the girls and decided to leave with Maple as soon as he approached, giving the two, Jason and Alice, some privacy.

"Just let me explain myself?" Jason asked guiltily. He understood that he needed to explain everything to Alice despite her being a child. She was very mature for her age, and Jason felt like he was having a conversation with someone like Alina rather than a six year old child.

"Explain? Explain what?" Alice asked back bitterly. "You're here, with so many women, while mommy's -"

Alice's voice broke and Jason sent her an expression of agonized pain. "That's not fair and you know it."

Jason's voice was hoarse with mixed emotions but Alice turned to glare at him, her eyes watery.

"What you're doing isn't fair either!" Alice shot back. "What exactly is mommy to you? What -"  

Alice's voice broke but she forced herself to ask. "What am I to you?"

"I . . ." Jason noticed how hurt Alice was and he sighed with frustration and regret.

After what he did to Katelyn - after abandoning her to literal death - he knew that they could never go back to the way things were. He had seen the pain, and hatred in her eyes during the recent times that they had met, and he knew that it would be difficult for her to forgive him, let alone enter a relationship again.

And now, he realized that Alice also had just as many insecurities as everyone else. Perhaps it was because of her not meeting him until now, but that question of hers proved that she was afraid of losing him; she was questioning what her position was in Jason's heart.

"Kid," Jason sat down next to Alice who looked away, turning her head grumpily. "I meant everything that I said before. I love you, and no matter what happens, between your mother and I, or anyone else, that - that won't ever change. Ever. And I'll always, always, have you on my heart. And I wall always love you. Always."

Alice curled into herself the more Jason spoke and when he was finished she bowed her head to prevent him from seeing her teary eyes.

"I - I just wanted us to be a family," Alice finally said, her voice choking as she revealed her wish. "I wanted the three of us to be together. Forever and ever. As a family."

Family . . .

Jason closed his eyes when he heard Alice's wish. He wanted to give her what she wanted, what she dreamed of, yearned for. But he knew it was beyond his abilities.

"So do I, kid. So do I."