Alaric flipped through the book carefully as he listened to Caroline on the other end of the phone. Dorian had found something, and it wasn’t much, but it mentioned the Merge by name. 

“Wait.” Alaric looked up, finally registering what Caroline had said. “I thought you were catching a flight this morning.”

He knew what was coming before Caroline started the excuses. 

“Yes, I get it, Caroline, but -”

She cut him off, and he set his book off to the side as he waited for a moment to interrupt. 

“I know,” he said when he finally got a chance. “But they don’t.” He sighed as she started again. “I’ll tell them.”

Alaric hung up the phone defeatedly. Somehow, it was always him delivering the bad news to their daughters. Every time Caroline needed to miss a birthday or a dance or a pageant - which was getting more and more frequent - he was the one to break it to them.

The door to his office pushed open, pulling him from his thoughts. Hope looked from him to the open book and back again.

“The Merge?” she asked, leaning over further to read what was written on the page.

Alaric hurried to close it. “Caroline and I still have it handled.”

“Really?” Hope tilted her head and scrunched her nose. “Because Caroline hasn’t been at this school in years, and one of her daughters is doomed to die at twenty-two.” Hope’s eyes fell back on her headmaster for the final blow. “And neither one knows that.”

“Did you come here for something, Hope?” Alaric asked instead of giving her an answer.

“Yeah. I came to say goodbye.”

Alaric furrowed his eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”

Hope’s calm and collected face began to crumble. Tears shone in the corners of her eyes. “I’m leaving this school,” she said. “And … And I don’t want to leave on bad terms, but … I can’t stay.”

Alaric nodded slowly. “You’re an adult, Hope. I trust you to make your own decisions about where you want to be in life.” He took a deep breath. As painful as it was to say, it was true. “But if you decide to come back, the doors are always open for you.”

Hope nodded and wiped at the tears that were streaming down her cheeks now. The doors will always be open for you.