Jace felt Avery's memories invade his body, and for a minute it felt as though those memories and emotions belonged to him.
Avery Ford was born to a loving mother and a cold father, he would hide behind the door and watch his parents argue and fight, he would watch his mother break down in tears after his father had left and all Avery could do was hold her as much as his small body allowed.
Nobody knew what happened; what caused Avery's mother to snap— but she committed suicide. It was Avery who had found her body; dangling from the ceiling with a rope holding her weight. It had taken half an hour for the maids to find him— crying and begging his mother to come down— but it was too late, an image too dark had been burned into young Avery's memories forever.
It was three months after his mother's death, when her memory would still torment him in his nightmares and his father would beat him into silence, that she came— a beautiful woman with a shy child same age as Avery — Avery couldn't understand who this woman was or why his father looked at her and her child with a gaze he had never once used on him and his mother.
The maids would stare at him with pity— they knew something he didn't. Then one day Avery's father came he wanted, no commanded Avery to accept this woman as his mother and the boy as his brother.
Avery was horrified, he hated the woman and her son immediately— they were here to replace him and his mother. When Avery cried— a child too confused and grieving, refusing to replace his mother when the wound of her death still throbbed freshly in his heart— his father would beat him, curse him and lock him in the basement— the basement saw more of Avery in his childhood than his bedroom did.
Avery grew into a spiteful and resentful young man, he hated Ian— his father's bastard son— because he had everything that Avery had fought all his life for at his disposal — loving parents, loyal friends, respect, happiness and Dylan— oh Dylan! What hadn't Avery done to have the man who held his heart since the day he promised to be his friend when they were eight. Maybe it was Avery who faulted, it was he who broke their promise, after all Dylan had only promised friendship yet his heart — that traitorous organ in his chest— would beat faster at the sight of Dylan, but of course Dylan only had eyes for Ian— sweet beautiful Ian who could do no wrong— yet another thing stolen from Avery.
Avery hated Ian, even as he spiralled to the end of his life, as the cold hands of death snatched him away, all his heart held for Ian was hate. Why could Ian get everything he wanted so easily? He wanted Ian to crumble, to feel half of what he felt and maybe— just maybe he might be able to let go of the hatred in his heart.
*********
When Jace opened his eyes, it was to a new world— literally. He blinked struggling to absorb Avery's emotions that ran rampant in his system.
Avery had suffered a bad life, surely no child should have to suffer through abuse and emotional neglect from their family, yet did this give Avery a reason to hate Ian? Maybe
Ian had gotten everything Avery ever wanted easily and he couldn't help but resent him. Jace understood the emotion— when he had been younger, he had watch someone else take first position in a character design competition which Jace had won, but his prize was taking away from him because the other kid had been from a wealthy family. Jace detested this, the money from the prize would have helped paid his school fees, yet this rich boy who would probably splurge the money on some ridiculous outfit had won, he resented him— an emotion that grew from sadness, anger and the dissatisfaction with your reality.
Maybe if Avery had stood up, stopped wallowing in the depths of his own hatred, anger and self-pity, maybe he would have lived a better life. Maybe Ian wasn't to blame, perhaps all Avery wanted was someone to blame for his failed life, but then who was wrong and who was right could never really be known.
*******
"Mr Ford?" A soft voice snapped Jace out of his daze.
Jace turned slightly, catching sight of a petite nurse with soft features who stood close to him. No sign of Ian and the loud Emilia— good.
"Will I be okay?" His voice still sounded strange to his ears but he would have to adapt.
"Of course Mr Ford," she smiled gently, "you are under one of our best specialist in one of the best hospitals in the city." She assured.
"Which city is this?" Jace needed to confirm his suspicion.
The nurse looked baffled by the question, yet she answered softly. "This is Denizal City."
Denizal City. Indeed his suspicion was through, he had really transmigrated into that book— Alpha CEO and his darling Omega— Jace wondered how Avery would feel if he found out that his life was written tragically by a little girl who just wanted to create a disposable side character.
Jace stared at the nurse in front of him, she looked real— alive and breathing— with a healthy blush on her cheeks, no sign of her being a book character.
And Avery's story had been real— the tragedy and pain, that could not have been faked.
But in the story Avery Ford had no backstory, he was just the scheming step-brother of the protagonist. The only reason why Jace had remembered his name was because he was the character who built the beginning of Dylan and Ian's relationship.
Avery had tricked Dylan into drinking a potent aphrodisiac that would trigger his rut, hoping that Dylan would sleep with him and get him pregnant, unfortunately Dylan had managed to fight out of his hold and stumbled across Ian who was suffering an impromptu heat.
Because Ian was in heat he couldn't fight off Dylan's advance and they ended up making wilde passionate love — which was two chapters long— in the morning Ian fled and disappeared to another country while Dylan kept looking for the Omega he had spent the night with hoping to apologize — three years later they met again and the rest was history.
"Mr Ford how are you feeling today?" A powerful voice and the click of heels snap Jace out of his daze.
He turned towards the source— a beautiful woman with golden brown skin, black hair held in a high ponytail which revealed her sharp features and high cheekbones, red lips and brown eyes. She carried herself with the confidence of a woman who knew what she wanted in life and was set on achieving it, with the way she walked Jace could have mistaken her for a model if it wasn't for the white doctor's coat that hung over her knee length black dress which hugged her exquisite figure.
Jace could make out a few words from the ID card that dangled around her neck; Amanda Watson, Congenital Cardiologist, Alpha.
"Good morning Doctor Watson." The nurse smiled politely.
"A good morning to you too Nurse Clarissa." Doctor Watson chuckled.
"How are you feeling Mr Ford?" Doctor Watson asked again. "I am Doctor Amanda Watson, your attending specialist."
"Tired. I feel dizzy, sore and a slight headache, but other than that I am okay." Jace said.
"That good." She smiled confidently. "Your family has been notified and they are on their way here, in the meantime I will have a little discussion with you." Doctor Watson motioned for Nurse Clarissa to leave.
"Why am I here doctor?" Jace asked uneasily, hospitals had a way of unsettling him and he would prefer to be out of here soon.
"You had a severe heart failure—"
"What?" Jace gasped.
"Calm down Avery— can I call you Avery?" Doctor Watson placed a soothing hand on his chest.
Jace managed a weak nod as he tried to regulate his breathing.
"You don't have to be scared, a heart failure is not a death sentence you can still live a healthy long life, if you manage it properly." She smiled soothingly. "Your heart failure was caused by an undetected heart disease that you were born with— a congenital heart defect."