Page 19 of The Echo of Forever

“Demetrius, I shouldn’t have to come looking for you,” he started in lieu of a proper greeting. “You’ve been gone for almost seven months with no word. What’s this about?”

The hard part about being a Cannon and the head of this family stood before me. Arland Cannon’s need to make me explain myself had gotten old fast.

I continued to watch hours of security footage over the last few months. Mainly focusing on the days leading up a handful baby adults rejecting the Collective.

There she goes,I thought.

Forever entered on the perfect day a couple weeks back. My staff moved like a well-oiled machine, whether I was here or not.

During initiation season, Cannon towers were open to all. Not a soul was to be turned away.

“What’s what about?” I asked, switching cameras to follow her movements from that day.

“You allying with an outside family on our behalf without speaking to any of us.”

I leaned back after pausing the video, a still of Forever standing exactly where my uncle stood right now.

“When have I ever needed to consult you all about anything?”

The only man who held a higher rank than me in this family was my grandfather. And he died years back, leaving everything to me, including making decisions on behalf of the family.

It was never my goal or intention to pull rank on the older Cannons, but sometimes they needed a reality check. And I was the only one who could give it without consequence.

“Is this about your mother?” he asked, quickly changing tune and taking a seat. “We all loved Aurelia, but she chose her fate for the sake of the family. Her only goal was for you, Oliver, and Solei to live a life without fear of retaliation.”

He meant well, but nothing anybody said would get me to back down.

Fourteen years ago, she left willingly, and we rolled with the punches. I wanted to honor her choice to go back to the life she’d managed to escape after meeting and falling in love with my dad.

But fourteen months ago, I received a package filled with her things, items she’d never willingly let go of.

If my mother was dead, I wanted her remains. And if she happened to be alive, I could only take the package as a cry for help.

Not a goodbye. But an ‘I need you.’

“Why do you think they won’t give us her remains?” I asked, gaze drifting back to the laptop.

I loved pretty women; the darker the better, and she was exactly my type. But getting her on my side had to do with way more than her gorgeous ass face.

“Nothing but a power play,” my uncle said after a second. “Or…”

His hesitation forced me to look up.

“Or she’s still alive,” I finished for him. “And if that’s true, what do you propose I do? Let the society stand on top of us and cower?”

It all came down to respect.

They had the audacity to send her shit to my doorstep with no explanation.

Fuck that.

We deserved answers. Or a fucking body to lay to rest.

“This is bigger than you,” he tried to reason.

Arland was the opposite of my dad. He preferred we lived in peace, but what the fuck was peaceful about this life? About this family or the fucking city we lived in? Nothing.

Not a goddamn thing.