Aiden returned to his unit and immediately felt something was off. The place was too quiet. Carmila had reverted back to being Amaela, and it seemed she was knocked out on the couch.

Aiden walked up to her and poked her cheeks, but there was no reaction.

"Yup, she’s out cold," he mumbled, going to the other rooms.

He didn’t have to look for long to find Alisha and Lily. The little one was asleep, while Alisha was next to her, watching her silently.

"Something on your mind?" Aiden asked, leaning against the window frame.

"...I’m worried about her," Alisha sighed. "I can’t believe James would do something like this. I mean, how could he? As if this world wasn’t messed up already, now Lily would have to be fatherless—"

"And who decided that?"

"What do you mean?" Alisha asked, turning to look at him.

Aiden pushed off the door frame and walked inside, before kneeling at Lily’s side of the bed. Then he reached out and ran the back of his fingers gently along her cheek.

As if sensing it was him, Lily turned toward him, rubbing his cheek on his hand like a kitten.

"Lily will never be alone in this world," he smiled. "She has you, doesn’t she? And... you have me."

Alisha understood Aiden’s sentiments, but even so, having her wasn’t the same as having a father. She wanted to explain that to him, but his next words stunned her into silence.

"She won’t be fatherless either," he said matter-of-factly before looking up at Alisha. "Not while I’m here." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

His words fell on Alisha like a nuke. He wanted her to remain Lily’s mother and wanted himself to be her father... didn’t it mean he was essentially proposing to her!?

Alisha’s eyes shimmered with tears as she stared at Aiden. Then, without a word, she crossed the small distance between them, took his face in both hands, and kissed him deeply like her life depended on it.

Aiden held her by the waist, enjoying the taste of her salty tears mixed with her sweet lips. After what felt like an eternity, she pulled back, resting her forehead against his.

"You are the best thing that has ever happened to me," she whispered, caressing his face.

"I could say the same—"

"No... don’t say that," Alisha interrupted, placing a finger on his lips. "I won’t let you say something that would be unfair to other women in your life..."

Aiden was surprised by her response. She was the last person he expected to act so... permissive. He thought she would be elated to hear those words, and instead, she surprised him by taking Karina and others into consideration.

"Alright, since I’m not allowed to say that, let me convey my feelings some other way."

Saying so, he leaned in and kissed her again, one hand coming up to cover hers where it rested against his cheek. The two were so engrossed in each other that none of them noticed the small figure getting up.

"Mommy..."

Lily’s voice broke them apart. She was sitting up in the middle of the bed, hair sticking out in all directions, and one side of her face was creased from the folds of the pillow cover.

Aiden was worried Lily wouldn’t take kindly to him kissing Alisha, considering she was ’married’ to James. However, after seeing her cutesy expressions, all those worries were pushed back into his mind.

She looked at both of them with a bleary expression akin to someone who had woken up to find people having fun without her. Suddenly, she raised both arms towards them.

"Lily wants kisses, too," she ordered, puffing out her cheeks.

Aiden and Alisha looked at one another, then back at Lily, and broke into smiles.

"Of course! How could we forget you!"

They leaned in at the same time and kissed both of her cheeks.

Lily scrunched her nose at the double impact and then immediately grabbed Aiden’s face with both tiny hands and planted a firm kiss on his cheek. Then she turned to Alisha and kissed her cheek, too.

But the next second, Alisha pouted and looked away.

"Why did you kiss him first?"

Lily’s eyes widen in disbelief. She looked at Aiden with the urgent expression of someone who had just realized how serious the situation was.

"Big bro," she whispered, tugging his sleeve. "Give Lily gummies. Fast."

Aiden knew why she wanted it, but still, he couldn’t help but tease her.

"Gummies? For me?" he asked.

"No! For mama," Lily whispered back, as if Alisha couldn’t hear her from a foot away. "She looks scary."

Even though Alisha had turned her face away like she was offended, after hearing Lily’s plan, she couldn’t help but laugh. Aiden couldn’t hold back either, and both of them laughed while Lily looked back and forth at them, confused by their reactions.

***

Some time later...

The clanging of shackles echoed in a room lit by only one hanging lamp. Bandages stained with blood were scattered all over the place.

In the middle of the room was a stretcher, with a man in his underwear strapped to it. Next to him was a rolling tray containing all sorts of medical equipment.

Jewell stood at one corner of the room, looking at the clipboard hanging, filled with notes and scrawls.

"Will you stop banging your fists on the stretcher?" Jewell said with a frown. "No matter how much noise you make, no one will come to help you, James."

James glared at Jewell with his only remaining eye. The other one was in a jar, next to the jar with most of his fingers. With a gag in his mouth, he could only glare at Jewell while cursing Aiden in his heart.

Even Jewell was involved in his scheme to create the injector. Yet, he was the only one being punished for it. No, punishment would be an understatement. He was being tortured day and night, treated like a cadaver. Only he was alive!

"Hm... the right eye can be replanted with my ability, but I can’t regrow one from scratch. Interesting. I wonder if I can regenerate complete organs if they aren’t inside a host body? Let’s check it out."

Jewell made one final note, capped his pen, and reached for his coat.

"But first, time for another injector dose..."

Just as she was about to administer the dose, the sudden knock on the door stopped him.

"Busy, are we?" Aiden asked, stepping into the room. "Whoa, it smells like shit here. What have you two project mates been up to?"

As soon as Aiden appeared there, James threw himself against the shackles. His back arched off the stretcher and slammed back down. His one eye burned. The gag swallowed everything he was trying to say and turned it into furious groans.

After a while, James sagged back against the stretcher, chest heaving, his only eye fixed on Aiden.

Meanwhile, Aiden watched him with his hands in his pockets until the energy ran out, wondering how many curses James just threw at him.

[126 curses, Host. 31 were aimed at your father, 67 on your mother, and the rest were towards your unborn children in this world. Should I administer the respective punishment for each curse?]

Nah, leave him be.

Aiden thought, looking at the jars filled with James’s organs and bones.

Jewell is already making his life hell for me.

However, it would be a lie to say that he didn’t find James’s constant glaring a bit annoying. So he walked closer to him and laughed out loud.

"Aren’t you a pitiful bastard?" he said. "Forget about your wife, even your daughter no longer cares about you. Just how terrible of a father were you for them to forget your existence in just a day?"

Once again, James began thrashing against his binds. The more he did that, the wider Aiden’s smile got. Once James had settled back to being a testing subject, Aiden reached out and patted his cheek twice.

"But don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you," Aiden sighed. "Nor have I forgotten what you forced Lily to do."

Just then, a notification appeared before James’s eye.

[You have been demoted.]

[Tenant: James Irwin has been demoted to a Drifter.]

The change was meaningless in the grand scheme of things. After all, it didn’t change anything. James would remain shackled to the stretcher for the rest of his life.

Aiden did it just to drive the point home that whatever James was going through wasn’t temporary, nor was it ever going to get better.

As expected, the new hit James harder than it should have. His head hit the metal stretcher with a bang. All the fight he had shown earlier disappeared in that instant.

Aiden looked at him for one last moment. Then he turned and put a hand on Jewell’s shoulder.

"Take good care of him," he said, stopping at the door. "Oh, and one more thing, Alisha and I are getting married next week. We’ll take good care of Lily, so don’t worry about her either. Goodbye, then."