In the end, the choice was taken from him. Kalen's guards pushed him into the trunk and closed it. He took slow breaths to conserve his oxygen in the tight space. He was not claustrophobic, and he had a tracker on him just in case they tried to take him elsewhere. He just had to trust his team.
"The cake is almost ready, and my dresses are finally finished. At this rate we can get married in…"
Alrik could hear snippets of thief conversation from the trunk because they were loud, laughing, and gossipping without a care in the world.
"Your grandfather will be so shocked when we return with Alrik. He always spoke like he had some hope that Alrik would eventually return to the estate." Vaida said, and Kalen just laughed it off.
"He's a hypocrite then. He was the one who disowned Alrik in the first place, and once he sees how incapable Alrik has become, whatever nostalgia he had previously will surely vanish."
Hearing this made Alrik more settled. Since they were discussing about his grandfather, it was more likely that his plan worked, and he was being taken back to the Zerdon estate.
It took about thirty minutes if his count was correct, before they arrived, and Alrik was grabbed from the trunk by another set of guards at Kalen's command.
"What is the meaning of this?" Griffin Zerdon asked as Alrik was dumped at his feet while he was enjoying some time in his garden.
Alrik, to keep up his act, immediately began to babble about the pretty flowers, and tried to eat an insect.
"It's your grandson. We found him begging at the mall, and decided to bring him home before he caused any scandal. He's behaving strangely. He seems to have lost his mind." Kalen said, pretending like he had no idea what had actually happened to Alrik.
Kidnapping Alrik on his wedding night, and forcing him into battle had been a plan between him, and his father. They both purposely kept Griffin out of it, because they weren't sure of his support. The old man was hard on Alrik, and hardly ever supported him, but he still seemed to care in some way. If Griffin ever found out their involvement, who knew what would happen. They didn't want to risk him excluding them from his final will.
"I disowned him for a reason." Griffin said with a frown as he stared at Alrik in confusion.
"Yes, you did. But the situation is different now. He's not functioning properly. Isn't it dangerous, to him, and to us, to leave him roaming free?" Kalen asked while trying to hide his smug smile.
"What's the commotion about? And what is that foul smell?" Jett walked in to join them, and scrunched his face as he pinched his nose.
"That is your nephew, Alrik. We found him on the streets." Kalen said, and a hidden signal passed between him and his father through their eyes.
Jett immediately knew he had to play along.
"After swearing and causing a ruckus when he was being disowned, he must have ended up getting himself addicted to hard drugs on the street. That's the only explanation for his bizarre behaviour." Jett said, and shook his head with a fake look of pity on his face.
He had made sure that news of Alrik's accident never left the war camp. His father might have strong connections, but Jett had blackmailed all the commanders present at the camp during Alrik's second forced battle servitude.
"For now, have someone wash him up, and get him clean. His stench is making my eyes water. Then get him fed…"
"Father, it might be best to just send him away. We can have him attended to by the best psychiatric facility, and monitor his condition from there." Jett immediately cut in.
"I'll decide what to do with him after he's clean and fed." Griffin responded to Jett, and left the garden.
Jett's calm demeanour faded, and he stepped forward to kick Alrik, but Kalen held him back.
"Calm, father. We don't want your father to get suspicious." He whispered.
"What if he decides to investigate the bastard's disappearance? We managed to keep him in the dark this far because he's been caring less and less for dealings of the world outside the estate walls lately. Alrik's presence might change that. If he discovers our involvement, he might cut us off. I've worked too hard for this to get sidelined."
"It won't matter even if he finds out what we did. He disowned Alrik before then, so he can't blame us for anything that happened after that since Alrik was officially no longer a part of the family. And we covered our tracks really well. Even if we didn't, it's been a while now and time makes evidence harder to find. So stay calm. We'll finally be able to get rid of Alrik for good this way, and destroy any hope grandfather had of naming Alrik his heir."
They had both been whispering to themselves, so when Vaida stepped closer, they stopped talking and smiled instead.
"What's wrong?" She asked and Kalen shook his head.
"Just reminding my father that we've already won, so anger has no place here anymore. All we need is a bit more patience."
Later that night, when everyone else had gone to sleep, Alrik made sure the door to the room he was made to sleep in was locked. There were guards standing in front of his door, though he wasn't sure who ordered them to do so. Was it his grandfather? Perhaps worried that Alrik might leave the room, and destroy things. Or maybe Jett put them there to make sure Alrik was trapped with no escape, so their plan to lock him away in a mental institution would ultimately work.
He got to the balcony, and used a rope made from the bedsheets to silently drop into the lower floor balcony of an empty room. He already had a scrambler at hand to disrupt CCTV footage and hide his tracks, so he just had to avoid being seen physically. His first destination was his uncle's private library. The problem was that it was almost all the way on the other side of the house. More risk of getting caught.