#iwabd

"Sir, we found a body inside your house." The man spoke just as Alec was about to call Rafael. 

"And?"

The man gave a quizzical glance as if he did not expect Alec to say that.

Why should Alec care about a random dead body in his house?

The man hesitated. "Someone died inside your house. We need you to identify the body."

Alec paused. "Why should I identify the body?"

"Alec—"Jace put a hand on his shoulder.

Alec turned to his brother and frowned. "Why should I identify some random body?"

The man in front of him, officer Miller, the same guy from the phone, inhaled heavily. "Sir, we think it might be the body of one of your family members."

// Magnus Lightwood-Bane dies under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind a grieving husband and three children.

The further the investigation goes, the more Alec finds out about everything that his husband has hidden from him; shaking the very foundation of their family. The more secrets are revealed, the more his children are in danger.

Now, Alec is in a race against time to save whatever is left of his family. Only time will tell if he can really uncover all the secrets while protecting his sanity, or if he will end up creating a few of his own//

Chapter One of It Was All By Design

“Mr. Lightwood, we need to talk about something.”

“Lightwood-Bane.”

The cop paused for a second.

“Yes, Mr. Lightwood-Bane. We need to talk about your son.”

Alec hasn’t much cared about anything these days, but the mention of his son brought him back to the conversation.

“What about him?” His worry increased instantly. The kids haven’t been dealing with everything well.

It had been hard.

Alec didn’t know how to do any of this alone.

“His alibi doesn’t checks out.”

“What?”

“Your son’s alibi, the night of the accident doesn’t check out.”

Alec pushed himself up angrily and a vase from the table next to him fell down. “What are you implying?”

“We’re not implying anything but his statement raises concern now.”

“First you think I did it. And now my son? What next? My sixteen year old daughter did it?” He said angrily.

Jace put a hand on his shoulder. “Detective Miller, we’re going through a difficult time. Please don’t mind.”

The cop nodded in understanding.

“Mr. Lightwood-Bane, we understand what you’re going through. But we need to continue the investigation. As of today, Rafael Lightwood-Bane is a suspect in the murder of Magnus Lightwood-Bane.”

-Magnus Lightwood-Bane dies under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind a grieving husband and three children.

The further the investigation goes, the more Alec finds out about everything that his husband has hidden from him; shaking the very foundation of their family.

A few months later, more people in their close circle start dropping dead and now, Alec is in a race against time to protect whatever is left of his family.

Magnus raises his head and finds his husband with a soft expression on his face.

“Hey.”

Alec crosses the distance and sits infront of him cross legged on the bed.

“How are you holding up?”

“Fine. You?”

“Okay-ish.” 

Magnus leans closer and kisses his forehead softly, mindful of the bundle between the two of them.

“And, how is my other baby doing?” Alec asks in the gentlest of voices and looks down at his lap, where their daughter sleeps peacefully. 

“She’s strong.” Magnus states and strokes her cheeks. 

Alec bends down to kiss her forehead. “The boys are waiting for you, outside.”

Magnus sighs. “I don’t get it.”

“Magnus, they are kids.”

“They are her brothers, Alexander. Why don’t they like her?” Magnus asks sadly.

Alec grabs his face in his hands and places a soft kiss on his lips. “Baby, it’s not like that.”

“Max wasn’t like this when we got Rafe.” 

“Rafael was older than Max so he didn’t mind much. He had someone to play with. But Max doesn’t know what to do with Ari, she’s a baby.” 

Magnus shifts Arianna closer to his chest, remembering how badly things could have ended today. “And what’s Rafael’s excuse?”

Alec hesitates. “I think he’s scared.”

“We’re not replacing them.” Magnus sighs sadly. He loves Rafael and Max with everything but the two have made things harder for them the past few weeks. 

“They don’t know that. We do spend most of our time with her these days.”

Magnus hates that what Alec just said was true. “You know why that is.” 

Alec pushes himself up from the bed and opens the door so that the boys can enter. The two look so sad and guilty that his heart cracks. Alec bends down and kisses their heads.

He has been mad at the two of them too. But then he saw how pissed Magnus was and had realised that the boys could do with at least one parent on their side. 

“Hi.”

“Is bapak mad?” Rafaela’s voice comes through.

Alec nods his head and the boys deflate. “We are sorry, daddy.” Max bites his lips.

“Come inside.”

The two pad towards the bed with slow movements.

Magnus loves them too much to be mad at them so he pats on the space next to him and the two of them jump, but carefully. 

“Is Ari okay?”

Alec runs a finger through Max’s head and nods. “She is now. But it could have ended badly.”

“We’re sorry. We didn’t mean to hurt her.” The boys apologise and a few tears slips from their eyes.

“You need to apologise to her.” Magnus says to them, without any heat. They have felt enough guilty. 

Max and Rafael leans closer towards Ari. Rafael lets out a careful hand and strokes her cheek. he looks scared. “You wont hurt her, Rafael.”

Max has no such inhibitions and he kisses her forehead then gives Magnus a beaming smile. 

“We are sorry, Ari.” 

The second they do that, Arianna wakes up from her sleep and grabs their hands. Or fingers. Since she is so small.

Fuck. She is so small. Magnus can’t believe it sometimes.

A wide smile appears on Alec’s face and Magnus himself feels his heart full.

“What happened today can never happen again, okay?” Alec says.

The boys nod. 

“Are you going to tell us why you are so bothered by us?”

Max pouts. “You are always with her.”

“You missed nailpaint night twice now.” Rafael says, his voice barely audible.

Magnus looks at Alec and his husband takes Arianna in his arms without any saying anything.

He holds the boys closer to him and kisses their forehead. “I’m sorry. We are sorry for neglecting you two.”

Alec gives him a look and Magnus sighs because he knows what Alec wants.

“Arianna is a little sick, right now. It might take her some time to get better.” Magnus can hear the pain through his husband’s voice.

Rafael and Max looks alarmed. “What’s wrong?”

Magnus takes a deep breath. “It’s her heart. It’s a little weak.”

The two frown at it since they don’t really know what it means.

“But she’ll be okay?”

He gives them a smile. “She will be.”

Rafael holds her hand carefully while Max yells. “I will protect Ari.”

“I don’t believe any of this.”

“Alec—“

“No.”

“Mr. Lightwood-Bane, we understand—

Alec stood up from his seat. “No. You don’t understand shit. You’re telling me that twenty years of my life were a fucking lie. So keep your patronising to yourself. You don’t know shit.”

“Dad.” Ari said as she entered the room.

“Get out.” Alec glared at the officers.

“You can’t-“

“I can. I don’t want my kids to find out about this so you need to get out of my house right now.” He interrupted.

“This could end badly for you, Sir. We’re trying to warn you.”

“We’re just trying to clear all our bases Mr. Lightwood.” The detective replied.

“Bane.”

The man gave him a questioning look.

“Lightwood-Bane. My name is Alec Lightwood-Bane.” Alec announced.

Alec has already lost everything else. This name is all he has left.

The cops gave him a pitying look.

People have been doing that a lot lately. He wants to punch everyone.

Not that it would fix his heart.

There is nothing in this world that could compensate for what Alec just lost.

“Yes, Mr. Lightwood-Bane. You did say the two of you were having some problems.”

Problems.

Understatement of the year, he thought.

“Like a normal married couple does okay? We were dealing with them.” He sighed.

Alec wants them to leave.

He wants Izzy and Jace, who have been hanging around him since it happened to leave. He wants everyone to leave him the fuck alone.

Because the only person Alec wants right now is gone.

And it’s tearing his heart and mind apart.

“We are not saying you did this.” The investigator added. His voice betraying his words.

Alec knows that the man thinks he did this.

He laughed at the words but it came out all ugly and pained.

“No, you are just insinuating that I paid someone to get him killed. That I had him burned alive because we had a fucking fight.” Alec yelled.

The burned body flashed across his mind and he shuddered. He knows that that image will haunt him for years to come.

Everything hurts so badly that Alec doesn't know how he will survive.

There are parts of him that do not want to survive.

“I didn’t do it okay. I didn’t. I didn’t kill him. I didn’t kill my Magnus. I didn’t kill my husband. I love him. I love him. Please. I would never hurt him. I just want him back.” Alec begged.