Chapter 421: Over my dead body
The room that Andrew was brought into was on the smaller side for a conference room. The table was already out of the room and Andrew could tell that it had been shoved into another conference room nearby. As had all the chairs.
Kim and her team had set it up nicely. The rest of the reporter team already had their big lights and equipment set up in the room facing the two chairs that were in the center. There was a small table in between the chairs, a staged kind of feeling around the whole thing, but Andrew stuttered in his steps slightly.
Kim had made sure that his Mom’s favourite flowers were in a vase in the room, on display between the two chairs. Or maybe that was a Jenny touch. Andrew didn’t know, but his heart was warm no matter what.
The ladies trailed after them, not letting Andrew be alone even after he had waved to them. They all looked nervous, anxious, and it was sweet. Andrew made sure to take a photo of the set for Maxwell and sent it off to him.
Almost immediately Andrew got his own photo of Maxwell’s set up. It was his regular office, but in front of his desk. He’d pulled over his nicer chairs and fittingly, a vase of hydrangeas sat in between the two chairs on the desk. Andrew melted.
"Look." Andrew said, thrusting the phone towards Kim. Kim’s expression softened, and Andrew showed Jenny and Luis as soon as they showed interest. They smiled.
"Awe. What a sweetheart." Jenny said, and Andrew smiled softly to himself. He was a sweetheart.
The reporters ran Andrew through a few rules that they had, for his safety and theirs, and Andrew appreciated it. Kim, Jenny and Luis sat in for as long as they could, with Kim having to go in and out but Luis stayed the whole time.
Andrew could feel his heart racing in his chest, and for a moment he doubted if this was the right thing to do. Should he be doing this? Was this the smart thing to do? He was painting a target on his back if he went through with this.
Then he remembered everything that he had gone through, what those fuckers were going to attempt after throwing him and his Mom to the side, and he was reinvigorated. He needed to do this for him, for his Mom, and for Maxwell. He was not about to let them make his life hell.
Over Andrew’s dead body.
The reporter was soft, but stern, with a folder in front of her acting as the vessel for all of the questions she had from her own mind, and that of the fellow reporters who were with her. It was a mostly girl team, with a few males here and there. Andrew could tell a few alphas were on the team as well, and he was rather impressed. He was sure that was the reason that Kim decided to work with them, and why she suggested them for Andrew.
Someone counted them in, and the interview began in earnest.
"I feel like some introductions are in order. Who are you?" She asked, her voice kind, open. Andrew let out a shaky breath. He sat in his relatively comfy purple chair, his legs crossed as he tried to keep his cool, and nodded.
"My name is Dr. Andrew Knox. I am the partner of Maxwell Beckett, recently engaged, and...I’ve been a normal person up until recently." Andrew told her with a weary smile. She blinked.
"What do you mean by that?" She asked and Andrew shifted.
"Uh, well, I think I should start from the beginning, I think." Andrew said carefully. "Do I look at the camera?" He whispered and watched as her professional expression cracked slightly. Her smile was a bit too earnest when she chuckled.
"You can just look at me. Think of it as we’re having a conversation, Dr. Knox." Andrew nodded at her confident words.
"Sorry. This is pretty new to me." He muttered, before taking a deep breath and continuing. "The story really starts with my Mom. She was a single parent. On paper and otherwise. She was a hard working woman, and did everything she could to put food on the table. Never made me feel like we were struggling, never let me know that we weren’t like most families." Andrew felt a soft, reminiscing smile touch his lips. "She was a strong woman." He said softly.
"She’s...." The reporter asked and Andrew nodded.
"No longer with us, yes. I can go into more about that after." Andrew confirmed and she nodded. "My Mom was actually not just hard working, but petty. A very important part of this whole story is that my Mom was an omega, and she was marked and paired against her will. By a true alpha." The eyes of the reporter widened, and Andrew heard a gasp from one of the team members of the reporter’s team.
Andrew didn’t look towards where Kim, Jenny and Luis were sitting. He was sure if he looked towards Kim he’d feel her anger.
"Because of it, my speculation is that my Mom was thrown out from her family. She found out she was pregnant from the bastard who did that to her, and so she decided that she was going to do something about it. She came from a branch family of true alphas, so she knew that there was...something dangerous about true alpha families. She wanted the best for her child, me, so she set to work making sure that happened. She never wanted me to have to rely on the man who hurt her." Andrew was doing his best to keep his cool, but his fist had gone white from how hard he was clenching it.
"She sounds like a very brave woman. Maybe I ask what family she was a branch from?" The reporter asked and Andrew nodded.
"The Proctors." Andrew told her, and watched as the reporter blinked, nodded, and connected her own dots. "I don’t know much about that. I haven’t...well, some of this is rather new information to me. She kept most of this from me when she was alive, and most of it from me even in her death." Andrew let out a soft chuckle. "I probably would have known sooner if I hadn’t run away in grief after she died." The reporter gave Andrew a soft look.
"It’s alright. We can go as fast or as slow as you want." She told him and Andrew nodded. He gulped in a few breaths. It was different from speaking to his friends and family. He was glad that she was listening, but not cold. If she had been, this would have been even harder.
"Thank you. Uh, so my Mom put a plan in place. She reached out to a few people who she trusted, one of them being my aunt and a few...other people that she knew and began a company. My aunt," Andrew gestured to where Kim was sitting out of the camera’s lights, "is a kind woman, and from my understanding, was attempting to prove herself to her family. She jumped at the chance to kill two birds with one stone." Andrew said. He could feel that Kim wanted to protest his words, but this was how Andrew viewed the story, and protected her and Jenny as well.
"If I may, is there a reason you call her your aunt?" The reporter asked and Andrew nodded.
"She’s probably more like my cousin, but that feels disrespectful. Especially since her and her wife helped raise me. While I don’t have a lot of my memories as a child due to trauma and not from my Mom, I don’t want to demean all of the effort they put into keeping me safe by calling them my cousins. They aren’t just my cousins. They are more than that." Andrew’s voice was firm. Hard.
Leaving no room for negotiation. The reporter nodded.
"Understood. Please continue." Andrew nodded.
"My father, whether I like it or not, kept showing up in my and my Mom’s lives. He had to, especially after what he had done. I didn’t know it, but I could tell that his intentions weren’t pure. He rarely stayed around for long, and some of my memories from my early childhood were full of him stepping out of long limos full of omegas inside. My Mom did her best to shield me from who he was, but I can remember from a young age such a deep sense of revulsion at his actions. I never wanted to be like him." Andrew’s words were impassioned. He meant them.
The reporter let him continue to speak.
"At the same time, I didn’t manifest. I was a beta, and as soon as he found out, he left. Abandoned us." The reporter seemed surprised by that, but held her tongue. "I grew up as a giant beta, with deep morals and beliefs about what alphas should be, what betas should be, and omegas were perfect." Andrew said with a little smile. "Just perfect angels." He laughed, more to himself and the reporter smiled.
"Because of your Mom?" She asked and Andrew shrugged.
"And many other reasons. Often, even as a beta, I found that omegas were terrified of me. That hurt me a lot as a kid. I remember a few times coming home crying to my Mom saying I wanted to be an omega like her. I’m sure she probably had a lot of conflicted feelings about that." Andrew chuckled. He stared at the hydrangeas before him for a moment, before he spoke. "I...didn’t like the reality that most alphas thought that they could get away with anything because they were alphas. I won’t deny that my father’s behaviour influenced that opinion, but our neighbours, basically my second set of parents, were an alpha and beta couple, with an alpha daughter. They were nothing like the little shits I went to school with." Andrew said.
Andrew could hear muffled laughter from somewhere nearby. He had a feeling it was Kim. Even the reporter’s lips twitched.
"I...see. So they had a great impact on your childhood as well?" She asked and Andrew nodded.
"Yes. A great impact. Their son was a giant beta like me too, so we got along quite well. Roughly around the same age as well. They...they helped a lot when Mom started getting more sick." Andrew took a deep, shaky breath in, and let out a shaky exhale. "I...I think I just need to rip the band aid off." Andrew muttered before he stared at the reporter. "My Mom had a health condition that meant that she needed to be constantly around the person who bit her. As soon as my father found out that I was ’useless’ he stopped coming around. He killed my Mom with his neglect, and I know she would have warned him, but he ignored her. He’s a damn murderer, and the only reason I didn’t retaliate is because my Mom made me promise not to." Andrew told the reporter.
Horrified gasps filled the air as the reporter did her best to compose herself.
"Are you sure? That’s a rather bold statement." She asked and Andrew tried not to get mad at her. She had to ask. Had to make sure.
"I was there for every medical check up once I turned 16. I heard what the Doctors said, up until her last breath. If that fucker had even come by then, there is a chance I could still have my Mom at my side. My Mom, from the moment she was bitten, planned her life knowing that she would be abandoned, tossed to the side by a careless true alpha who didn’t care about her besides being a damn seedbed for his alpha spawn. She planned for the future, knowing she wouldn’t be in it." The words felt disgusting coming from his mouth, but that didn’t make them any less true. Andrew felt his eyes water with rage, bitterness and sadness. "She knew she would never get to see me get married, knew she would never get to see her grandkids. That man took that away from her." Andrew’s voice trembled. "He has no right to try and put any claim on me. Not now that I’ve turned into something ’worthwhile’ to him. Fuck him."