The Secrets Hidden In The Scars

      Meanwhile, Raquelle, Darwin, Victor, Jamie, and the policemen have arrived in the neighborhood where Michael's house is. They did not get too close to it and left their cars not far from the house not to get the attention of such a dangerous criminal. All this time, Raquelle has not been able to calm down. She is nervously shaking her leg, pulling the sleeves of her black leather jacket, and feeling that she is getting more obsessed with a strong panic. The breath is heavy, something is pressing on her chest, her hands get sweaty, and the thought that everything is too bad gets obsessed with her mind.       “Alright, Raquelle!” Darwin exclaims and gets the key out of the switcher after turning off the motor. “We’ve arrived!”       “Arrived?” Raquelle wonders and looks around quickly.       “Yes.” Darwin points at the house of Michael, which he sees somewhere far away. “Michael’s house is there. The largest one of those you see here.”       “That’s his house?”       “Exactly. The former house of Jamie.”       “Wow… Beautiful…”       “Agree.” Darwin looks around and notices a car parked in front of him. “Oh, look, is there your car? The red one!”       “Erm…” Raquelle looks where Darwin points without emotions. “Yup… It’s my car… Terrence and Edward went to Michael in mine.”       “But why? Does your fiancé have no car?”       “He does, but it’s getting repaired now. Well, because Edward didn’t use his car, I let them go in mine.”       “Alright…”       “Oh, my gosh…” Raquelle sighs heavily, putting her hand on her forehead and then her heart. “What’s happening there? What’s Michael doing to them now? I’m even afraid to think…”       “Please, Raquelle, calm down,” Darwin says softly, caressing Raquelle’s shoulder. “I completely understand your feelings, but you must not fall into a strong panic. During the way, you were talking only about it and didn’t relax even when I was talking to you about something else.”       “I can’t get rid of the feeling that everything might end badly,” Raquelle confesses in a shaking voice with a heavy breath. “Something tells me that something horrible is happening there. Maybe, someone is trying to kill someone.”       “I repeat, Michael will kill nobody until his people bring you to his house. He needs you to make his plan come true. And as those men don’t find you at your home and meet only the policemen, your fiancé, soon-to-be brother-in-law, and friend will not be killed.”       “What if he changes his mind?”       “Since we’ve come, we’ll start our operation right now,” Darwin replies confidently. “Mr. Johnson, a few policemen, and I will bring Jamie to the house and catch the guards of the house. He will go first, and then, when we make sure the way is free, the police will enter the house and get Michael arrested.”       “But the guards will not let you in!” Raquelle throws her hands up. “How are you gonna bring Jamie to the house?”       “Don’t worry, Raquelle, everything is planned. We are sure our plan would work.” Darwin glances at Otto and Andrew standing near the gates, talking about something and laughing loudly. “The most important thing is to go by the guards that are standing near the gates. Michael pulls the wool over people's eyes, saying guards are standing in every corner. Actually, there are only those two from security. Though, our informant said that while your friend was here, two more people came to help them.”       “Okay… But what am I gonna do all this time?”       “You will stay in my car. I will ask two colleagues of mine to stand here and make sure that suspicious people don’t come to it.”       “You think I would take it? I won’t be able to sit quietly, knowing danger is threatening my family and my friend!”       “I understand, but if you come in, it will be a catastrophe.”       “And how long will I be sitting?”       “Until I give a sign. When Michael and his accomplices are put in cars and taken to the police station, I will come to you and say you can go out.”       “Oh…” Raquelle exhales sharply with closed eyes. “Alright, Darwin… Do what you think is right.”       “That’s wonderful!” Darwin smiles shyly and looks around, noticing Jamie, Victor, who just left the car, and the policemen. “Oh, it seems like Mr. Johnson is giving the instructions, and Jamie is getting ready to make a surprise for his brother. I must help.”       “Please, do your best not to let Michael do anything to my close people,” Raquelle begs with tears. “I swear I will owe you and Mr. Johnson if you save the guys.”       “It’s gonna be okay, friend.” Darwin puts his hand on Raquelle’s hand with a slight smile. “We’ll do the possible and the impossible to restore justice. Michael has done too many dirty tricks. It’s his time to get what he deserved.”       “I wish luck to all of you,” Raquelle replies. “Big luck.”       “Thanks. I will let you know when you can go out.”       Darwin takes something from the backseat and quickly leaves the car, calling someone and stepping aside along with his colleague. Then the man comes to the policemen, Victor and Jamie, who looks terribly excited, and starts to talk to them about the plan.       Raquelle stays in the car, leans back in the seat, closes her eyes, and starts praying that Terrence, Natalia, and Edward stay alive, and that Michael pays for everything he has done. Realizing that she can do nothing now and has to wait, her panic is getting stronger, and time starts going very, very slowly.       “Terrence, please, hold on!” Raquelle thinks with a feeling that something is squeezing her chest and a heavy breath. “You’ve always said we must fight and believe in the best until the end, even when the situation is hopeless. I’d like to say the same to you….”       Raquelle puts her hands together and brings them to her mouth.       “I’m begging you to fight ‘till the end. No matter how bad you feel, don’t let Michael harm you. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you about it personally ‘cause you’re far away. But you know that you’re always on my mind. You know I’ve always believed in you and know you can do anything. I’ve never dated someone, who has a stronger spirit! You’ll always be a role model. You’re my hero! I’ll always love you and be very proud of you. Please, don’t give up. Help is getting closer. It’s coming to you. Just hold on, sweetie. Hold on for me and those you madly love. I’m near you. Wherever you are.”       Raquelle closes her eyes for a second, sighs heavily, and looks around, seeing some policemen running and fretting, and two more standing not far from the car, in which she is.       “Natalia, I know it’s very hard for you. I know how scared you are. I know what you’re feeling. But please, don’t fall into despair. Don’t give up. Do find the strength to fight. Yes, I know it’s madly hard. But I’m sure you can do it! You’ve got the power of will. You can be strong when you have to. You’ve never pretended to be sassy and strong. You’ve always been. When you need it.”       Raquelle closes her eyes for two seconds.       “Two years ago, you were the girl, who could easily answer to someone to insult you, and not let anyone hurt your close people. You’re still the same. Strong and confident. Maybe, you’ve changed after what happened to you. But now it’s not time to show weaknesses. You must show what you’re ready for love and friendship. Sadly, I can’t comfort and calm you down… But I’d like you to calm me down. Say you don’t blame me for getting almost raped.”       Raquelle sighs heavily and raises her head.       “Yes, I’m still ashamed of blaming you for nobody the fuck knows what,” Raquelle thinks with sadness in her eyes. “If we hadn’t had that fight, you wouldn’t have gone to walk somewhere, hadn’t experienced the rape attempt, and hadn’t broken up with your boyfriend you loved so much. I’m the one to blame for what happened. Because of my stupidity, you felt in such despair that you gave a damn about everything. I didn't think of the consequences. Maybe, I will never do something for the rape attempt to never happen. But I can help you save yourself. And I will do it. Help is here. Please, friend, hold on. Believe everything is gonna be okay.”       Raquelle sniffs quietly and runs her shaking hands over her hair.       “Edward, I started changing my opinion about you for the four days we’ve been a team. I started to think you weren’t so horrible. I saw that you regretted doing such a terrible thing to me and Terrence. Who is your brother… I saw you hated yourself for leaving Natalia, not knowing what happened to her. The fact that you didn’t refuse to save her makes me believe in your love for her. I’m sure you will do your best to prove your feelings for Natalia and your loyalty and love for your family. You’ve done many good things and been honest all this time. Almost… But I won’t blame you for the murder of the man before I find out what actually happened. Maybe, Darwin was right, and you were charged wrongly. And it doesn’t matter now.”       Raquelle sighs heavily and starts pulling a sleeve from her leather jacket.       “Edward, please, don’t leave Natalia in trouble. If you really love her, don’t even dare to betray her. She needs you. Protect her from those stinkers and let them do nothing to her. Don’t betray Terrence. Don’t disappoint the one, who is suffering because of your conflict. He doesn’t say or show it, but I’m sure my fiancé can’t stay indifferent. Please, Edward, don’t forget that Terrence is your close person. You said you loved and respected him. I want us to stop having scandals that would lead to humiliations, insults, and cruel fights.”       Raquelle sighs heavily and looks into the distance with sadness in her eyes.       “I still remember those times we spent time together with a smile on my face. And I’m sad… Because it will never happen again. However, it doesn’t matter now! The most important thing is to save your lives. And the fact that the police are gonna start the operation of the arrest of Michael and his gang calms me down. And while they’re getting ready, I’m begging you, my dears… Hold on! Don’t let them hurt and kill you! Salvation is close. Closer than you think.”       The only thing Raquelle can do now is to sit in Darwin’s car, watch the policemen, who are talking about something with each other and Jamie, and promise Terrence, Natalia, and Edward that they will be fine. Something tells her that they kind of feel her. They beg her for salvation and are counting on her so badly.       

***

      Natalia, Edward, and Terrence keep fighting against Michael, who just almost provoked MacClife, Jr., for the murder of his brother. As Raquelle assumed, the three magically feel that the girl will not leave them in trouble. And they try to hold on, thanks to their belief in the best. Though, nobody knows how long they will be doing it.       “So, I highly appreciated the effort of this gal,” Michael says confidently with his head proudly raised.       Terrence, Natalia, and Edward, who is still holding the pistol in his hand, with which he almost killed the two, turn sharply on Michael and move their contemptuous gazes to him.       “Bravo, Ms. Rochester, you speak beautifully,” Michael says in a low voice, looking at Natalia with an evil smile. “My nephew listened to you with an open mouth and decided not to kill his brother.”       “You did want Edward to refuse!” Natalia recalls coldly. “You said you didn’t need it! Because you didn’t want to share the money with him. Your goal was not the wish to make this man your right hand, but to torture him and make him literally shoot himself from shame and horror.”       “I will not deny it.” Michael smiles slyly. “I’m even happy it happened. Because I did not really want to give him my money. Though, who said I should have given it? This puppy could have just killed his brother and gotten nothing. And he would have died anyway! As I remember, you said something about it! All these money talks are just an excuse and a wish to make your ex kill his brother.”       “Choke yourself with your money!” Terrence throws rudely, setting his icy gaze on Michael. “We don’t need even a cent from what you have stolen!”       “Maybe, you don’t. But this brainless kid would definitely need it.” Michael smirks contemptuously and crosses his arms over his chest, shaking his head and setting his gaze on Edward, who is looking at him with contempt. “Yeah, Edward… You did disappoint me… I wanted to help you a little… So to say, grand my mercy… But you rejected such a generous gift.”       “I do not need this ‘gift’ for anything!” Edward says in a low, rude voice. “I will take no cent for the murder of someone hated by you and loved by me.”       “Yes, yes, I got it. You proved that you would never become brave and confident again. You’d never grow up and get the stupid thoughts about a happy end of kind tales out of your head. I thought money would wash your brains, but it’s clear everything is too bad about your head.”       “Stop insulting him at last!” Terrence demands coldly. “I’m sick of listening to you humiliate Edward every time we talk about him, and he barely opens his mouth.”       “Sorry, Terrence, while you don’t want to confess that your brother is a cowardly, weak boy, I’m not afraid to say it openly. I know this kid much better than you and am aware of what demons he has in his mind.”       “So, do you rate bravery and determination by the ability to kill or rob someone?” Natalia asks coldly. “If a good person doesn’t find the courage to do it, will they become insecure, weak, and cowardly?”       “No, blonde, not only that. Would a strong man break down, let himself be too sentimental, and cry? A real man is strong and as unbreakable as a stone! Not a milksop that hides behind girls’ skirts and shakes like a cowardly bunny!”       “If you stopped exerting psychological pressure on Edward and making an accent on the fact that he is weak, insecure, determinate, and timid, everything would be otherwise. A person quickly starts to believe in what they constantly hear. When they’re called cowardly and worthless, they believe it. As well as they become the smartest and best one in the world for someone.”       “Alright, done!” Michael throws sharply, waving a hand. “Since this bastard refused to kill his brother, it’s alright! It’s even better for me! In this case, we will be waiting for my people to come back here and bring your beloved Raquelle. And I will tell them to kill ALL OF YOU.”       “Are you sure she will go with them?” Terrence asks confidently.       “She will have no choice, my dear! If she scratches like a wide cat, just like it happened to your blonde friend, my people will just put her to sleep or inject a sedative into her. They have everything in case that hellcat is as sassy as her friend.”       “If you think Raquelle is so stupid to let your accomplices take her away, you are deeply wrong,” Natalia says coldly. “My friend is a very smart girl, who will find a solution for any situation.”       “Yeah, but her brains will hardly help her,” Michael smirks contemptuously. “Cameron will not be able to fight against four people that went to her home. She can hardly deal with one, but another would twist her arms around, and a third would send her to the world of magical dreams.”       “I do believe she will not let it happen,” Terrence says confidently. “Raquelle will find a way to save herself. Trust me, she has a very good intuition, and her presentiments have never deceived her. If my fiancée starts worrying about something and being obsessed with one or another thought, something horrible will happen soon.”       “And what? Raquelle will be able to do nothing! My people are supposed to arrive at her home, take her out and be on the way to my home. I sent the strongest and toughest guys that I have in my little army.”       “Raquelle is not a stupid girl. She will do her best to save us and protect herself. I believe in her.”       “Okay, okay,” Michael raises his hands. “You can believe in your salvation as much as you want. But don’t think it will make your chances to get out of here higher.”       “None of us will stop believing in our salvation,” Edward says confidently. “Early or late, justice will rejoice, and you and your bastards will go where you belong.”       “Supporting!” Natalia agrees.       “Your time to pay will come soon,” Terrence says confidently.       “Huh!” Michael snuffs, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest. “What kind of loud words my little nephew says. More known as the constantly barking coward puppy. Even after he started to cry before our eyes because his tender mental health could not take this torture, this kid keeps pretending to be a hero and hopes to do just something good and hear thankfulness from his family.”       “I will not calm down until I know you are dying in prison,” Edward says confidently. “And if I get a chance to do something for it, I will not miss it.”       “Close your mouth, milksop!” Michael throws rudely. “You did not have the courage to kill your brother and ex-girlfriend, who did want to die! But you say about a wish to defeat me! Don’t make me laugh, Edward! And stop making people laugh at you.”       “You will not get it!” Edward hugs Natalia around the shoulders softly but tightly and sets his contemptuous gaze on Michael. “I will never dare to kill my brother, someone else from my family, or the girl, to whom I will never be indifferent.”       “I am sorry. You could get anything you want.”       “Not through killing and robbing! Anything for my close people, but not what I will never forgive myself for!”       “Oh, oh!” Michael shakes his head. “And how long ago did you change your mind? Huh? Since when have you been obsessed with love for these people?”       “I have always been. And nothing will make me hate them, betray them, or strike them out of my life.”       “You struck them out somehow! Forgot how you fought with your family and friends, who think you are a bad person? Forgot you broke up with this gal more than one month ago because you believed she cheated on you?”       “Yeah, are you sure she cheated on me?” Edward wonders loudly. “Maybe, my ‘beloved’ uncle decided to frame Natalia, using the fact that you had the photos of this girl and the sick bastard named Eugene? Who the fuck almost brought her to death!”       Michael says nothing for two seconds and just smiles slightly. And then he carefully fixes his collar and questioningly looks at Edward, saying:       “So, are you blaming me for being a reason for your breakup with this blonde?”       “I don’t have a little doubt you did that,” Edward says confidently. “You should’ve done your best to turn everybody against me and ruin my life. But you forgot that the truth would come to light early or late. Someday, Natalia would tell people the truth about that bastard, who was not her lover. Did you think she would be silent until the end of her life?”       “Why did you decide that I did that?”       “Who else? Wainwright didn’t know my home address! But you knew it well! So, it happened that the bastard gave you the photos of my half-nude girlfriend, and you put them in an envelope and sent them to me.”       “And it was easy to guess everything when we saw that man among the people, who wanted to bring me here,” Natalia adds. “I realized you meddled in this case. It’s been everywhere: you were aware of what happened to your brother, turned Terrence against his father, made Edward consider himself a weak boy, and made me a dirty slut that cheated on her boyfriend and dated another man.”       Michael laughs quietly, saying nothing for two seconds. But then he nods and looks at Edward and Natalia with pride.       “So, alright…” Michael pronounces thoughtfully. “I will tell you something…”       “Do this!” Edward throws rudely. “I demand that you explain it!”       “You see, Edward…” Michael starts walking in circles at the office. “I really have to do with the event of your ex-girlfriend. But partly.”       “Trying to blame someone else for that?”       “Shut up and listen… Three or four months ago, a cute but very sad blonde named Natalia Emily Rochester went to one café. She was sitting at a table alone, but later, a guy came to her. A tall guy with jet-black hair and gray eyes. He was wearing the same jeans, leather jacket, shoes, and t-shirt that our dearest Edward Robert MacClife is wearing now. Who also decided to put on a black collar. He asked for permission to sit down, and she agreed. They talked and decided to unite for what you know about. But it happened that they got love for each other at some moment.”       “Why are you telling us about it?” Natalia crosses her arms over her chest, setting her gloomy, contemptuous gaze on Michael. “To show that hiding something from you is impossible?”       “You are partly right,” Michael laughs quietly and starts to stroke his chin. “Yeah, why does none of you ask how I know it?”       “Tell then!” Terrence exclaims. “Who told you about them that time?”       “The case is that on the day of the acquaintance of Edward and Natalia, one person accidentally ended up at that café. He knew who this girl was, but didn’t know her personally. I will not say who he is, but that man recognized this beauty immediately. And he knows much about her parents. The Internet is full of photos, in which you can see the Rochesters together. But I don’t mean it.”       “Something tells me that it was the one to decide to mock me,” Natalia frowns slightly.       “You are not a stupid girl, sometimes you hit the bullseye.” Michael clicks his fingers. “It’s the truth! That was really Eugene. He knows much about the Rochesters and really liked this sweet, memorable girl. He quickly recognized that blonde as Natalia Rochester and the dark-haired guy as Edward Lockhart. Of course, he decided to check everything again to make sure my nephew really met the daughter of Anthony and Letitia Rochester.”       “Oh, yeah! Wainwright called me by the name when I ran into him for the first time.”       “While drinking a cup of tea with me, that man told me about that meeting, but I wasn’t interested in it. I thought it was just another familiar girl of my nephew. Or a cutie he would have wanted to sleep with. But a few weeks later, Wainwright told me he saw Natalia in the late evening in a deserted place where he was with his friends. So, my dear Eugene decided to get to know that girl closer. He has familiar people, who said this gal changed men like gloves and slept with everybody. So, my friend decided to have fun and caress the beautiful, young body. However, the blonde beauty rejected his incredible offer, hit him between the legs, and ran away. Though, Eugene quickly caught her and showed her where she belonged. And… The star of this story can tell us what happened next.”       Michael glances at Natalia and looks at her a little arrogantly with a mysterious smile. The girl swallows up nervously, not being ready to talk about the tortures that she had to overcome. Edward sees she starts getting nervous and does meddle in the talk, hugging the shaking, white blonde around the shoulders and pressing her closer to himself, while she inclines her head with sadness in her eyes.       “We know what happened,” Edward says confidently. “Don’t overload yourself.”       “So, alright,” Michael shrugs. “I will not tell you about the delight that Eugene felt after he saw the gorgeous body of this blonde. He says he doesn’t understand how she could actually hide her beauty underneath clothes. And I must notice that he is right. In the photos, this gal is stunning. Especially when she is almost naked.”       “And you will be VERY lucky if we don’t know you felt her up with your dirty, old hands,” Terrence says rudely.       “No, my dear, although this beauty is fabulous, my people and I didn’t touch her with a finger for the four says that she spent here. Of course, we could’ve done it, but we didn’t need her to have a heart attack. So, I pitied this sensitive girl.”       “You confirm that you were born as a bastard again and again,” Edward hisses through his teeth. “The sick stinker, who must get therapy. People like you or Wainwright must go through horrible tortures that they wouldn't even think about. And as that asshole wanted to rape my ex-girlfriend, he must be castrated. ALIVE! So, that scumbag can feel the pain and see the blood that would be getting out of him!”       “Oh, oh, oh!” Michael clatters, shaking his head with his arms crossed over his chest. “How thirsty for blood you are, my boy!”       “Well, while an attempt to fuck a girl against her wish is fine with you, you must be put in a mental hospital. But since it happened to Natalia, I hate that hairy gorilla much more. He dared to feel her up and undressed her until the underwear and lick her from head to foot.”       “M-m-m, how enraged you are! You humiliated and showered this gal with mud much more than others. You thought she was a whore, wanted to hear nothing about her, cursed the day when you met her…”       “Because I did not the fuck KNOW THE TRUTH!” Edward replies loudly and irritably. “If I had known that Wainwright was among you, I would have beaten that asshole MUCH EARLIER! MUCH, UNCLE!”       “Wow! Do you still love her? Huh, my dear? I doubt you would love to save and protect her if you were indifferent to her.”       “She is really not indifferent to me,” Edward says confidently, raising his head proudly raised. “And you will never understand someone, who feels jealousy and disappointment in the one, who cheats on them. You have never had a woman that you would love so much that you would not imagine your life without.”       “Wrong, guy, I know that feeling.”       “Come on!”       “It’s the truth! I will not tell more, but there was the woman I loved. But who did not want to be with me.”       “Not surprised!” Terrence throws rudely. “A good woman wouldn’t love a mentally sick, selfish, jealous, and nasty stinker that cares only about money and considers good, kind people weak and cowardly.”       “Nevertheless, I had women in my life. I could have married. And become a father. Everything could have happened. It just happened this way.” Michael clears his throat. “However, we don’t talk about it. We are talking about how my nephew left our blonde…”       Michael glances aside for a second and smirks slyly.       “So, these two lovebirds started to date and seemed happy. At first, I thought it was a passing infatuation, and these two would break up in a week or two. I believed my nephew would just play with this gal and leave her. But not. It did not happen…”       Michael starts stroking his chin.       “The first week, the second, the third, the fourth… The second month… And three months later, I realized everything was serious, and you were not going to break up. Well… I decided to ‘help’ you a little. Moreover, I was absolutely sure that Natalia said nothing to anyone about that case. Eugene scared the poor girl so much that she was afraid to go against him. And our blonde is so timid and tender… If you tell her a bad word, she will start crying.”       Michael runs his hand over his hair with an evil sneer.       “I recalled how Eugene and his friends met this beauty and tried to have fun with her. I called that guy and asked him to give me all the photos he had. I viewed them and picked up the hottest ones, on which it seemed that Natalia got pleasure. I came up with a plan that was supposed to work well. And… Since I knew where my nephew lived as a homeless boy, I sent the photos to that address. Next, you can continue this story, my dears.”       Terrence and Edward start to realize that the assumptions they had about this situation partly fit the real truth.       “So, I was right,” Terrence says quietly. “I did know you could be chased on one of those days. I also had an assumption that Natalia’s offender could end up in that place by chance.”       “And I assumed that the deadbeat showed the photos to Uncle, and one of them decided to send them to the address where I lived before I moved into Mother’s house,” Edward replies thoughtfully. “Moreover, I thought Wainwright could know about Natalia’s parents.”       “Almost all of our assumptions are confirmed!”       “I think we knew it. I just needed to get a confirmation.”       “And we got it!”       “Right! Now we know this old bastard had to do with the story of the photos.”       “That’s good you know!” Michael simpers quietly and crosses his arms over his chest. “If your little brains for you two worked, congratulations. You either got brains or made your rotted ones work somehow.”       “How could you feel no shame?” Terrence resents. “How did you dare to do that to the poor girl? Who does not have to do with our family! You had no right to hurt her! Framed her, make her a whore for others, and especially kidnap her and hold her for nobody the fuck knows how long.”       “I should’ve made your brother feel lonely,” Michael smiles innocently. “It would’ve been unfair if his family turned their back on him, but his girlfriend would’ve kept protecting and supporting him. And I got a very good chance to do it.”       “Did you think I wouldn’t know it?” Edward asks rudely. “Wouldn’t I know how one old bastard had me wrapped around a finger!”       “But I got what I wanted – you left this gal and were showering her with mud for one month, believing she was a local whore that slept with all men.”       “BASTARD!” Edward screams at the top of his lungs with his widely open eyes, runs to Michael, and looks at him with evil in his eyes, while his nostrils inflate. “I HATE YOU, ASSHOLE! HATE! BY HURTING THIS GIRL, YOU CROSSED ALL THE LINES!”       “Don’t scream, boy,” Michael winces slightly. “It’s too late to blame someone and scream at those, who are not guilty of you being so stupid and naive.”       “CLOSE YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!” Edward hits his free hand against the table as strongly as possible. “You did force me to break up with the girl, who I DID NOT WANT to break up with! Because of you, our relationship was ruined! Because of you, I was insulting and humiliating her for nothing. Though, this girl DID NOT DESERVE the insults and tears she cried out!”       “You’re the one to blame, my dear,” Michael throws his hands up. “Of course, jealousy is a fine thing. But you should’ve thought better before getting enraged by thinking that your ex fucked Wainwright.”       “If only you knew how much I hate you,” Edward hisses through his teeth, setting his cold gaze on Michael. “You have always been disgusting to me, but now I have a stronger hate for the bastard, who RUINED OUR LIVES! SEPARATED ME FROM MY BELOVED GIRLFRIEND! MADE ME NOBODY THE FUCK KNOWS WHO! CONGRATULATIONS, THE FUCK, YOU GOT WHAT YOU WANTED!”       “Since the photos easily made you believe in the betrayal of this girl, you didn’t love her so much. Maybe, you needed her just for fun, but you’re afraid to confess it. Because you’d be under threat of getting lots of slaps from the furious girl. Who lost hope of getting married and is definitely jealous of her friend Raquelle, who is engaged with Terrence.”       “So, you ruined Father’s life and decided to do the same to all of us?” Edward smirks ironically. “Decided to ruin my life first? Deprived me of my girlfriend, tried to turn me against my family, and made your pal attack my brother and tell him I was guilty of everything… And how much you had done before! I will get sick of calling all the reasons why I had to suffer!”       “You will never be happy. While you’re cowardly and acting like an insecure boy. You will not get anything and will be waiting for someone to do everything for you.”       “Ha, did you naively think I’d run to you to ask you for help?” Edward smirks loudly. “I’d lose hope in getting the help of others and come to you? Huh! Do not wait! Even if I have NOBODY in this world, I will not come to you. I will NEVER ask such a nasty, shameless, and selfish asshole like you about something!”       “I’m not going to help you, naive moron! I do not want to provide for the fucking piece of shit that belongs to the street. I’d rather choke myself than give you AT LEAST ONE cent from what I have.”       “We are the same, at least in something!” Edward throws in a low voice. “You should not have been born in my family. In the MacClife family! And poisoned the lives of your relatives literally since babyhood! The nightmare of the MacClifes started when Michael Gregory MacClife was born. We could’ve been happy if we hadn’t had you in our lives!”       “Those, who shouldn’t have been born, were your father, you, and your brother. One stole everything that should’ve belonged to me, and two more make me furious by just living. It would be fine if you did something good, but you’ve been ruining my plans. FOR MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS!”       “Don’t even hope I’d dance attendance upon you, as well as your accomplices,” Edward says confidently. “Even if you offer me billions, I will take no cent to kill, rob, and flatter you, so Your Fucking Highness feels good.”       “You will get nothing, yobbo!” Michael hisses through his teeth. “And all the money that your father bequeathed to you and your brothers, will be mine. No matter how hard you try to fight for your part of the inheritance, you will not make me sure to give you everything.”       “CHOKE YOURSELF WITH YOUR FUCKING MONEY AND COMPANY!” Edward screams at the top of his lungs. “I DO NOT NEED IT! PUT IT IN YOUR ASS! I will have the pleasure of rejecting this fucking inheritance, so you finally leave me and my close people alone!”       “I don’t also need the fucking money and the company,” Terrence says confidently, crossing his arms over his chest and setting a cold gaze on Michael with his head proudly raised. “Come on, Uncle, put the papers on the table, and we will sign them.”       “You should’ve started with it! So, dear Michael MacClife, give us a refusal from the inheritance, and Terrence and I will sign it. And then, you will no longer meddle in our lives. Do I say it clearly? Or do I repeat it if your old brains work badly?”       At first, Michael smiles slyly and then starts laughing hysterically with a widely open mouth, not being able to stop for some time and tightly holding his stomach. He scares Edward, Terrence, and Natalia, who frown slightly and look at each other questioningly. But a little later, the man calms down a little, but keeps laughing.       “My dears…” Michael pronounces through a laugh. “Say… Do you really naively think that if you reject the inheritance, I will let you go and forget what happened? Come on, guys! Are you really waiting for me to give you the documents and ask you to sign them to live quietly?”       Michael stops smiling and laughing sharply and looks at Edward and Terrence with contempt and pride in his eyes.       “No! Even if you two reject the inheritance for me, it doesn’t mean it will save you and the others. No matter how hard you, Edward, try to make me sure to leave everybody alone and say you and Terrence will sign all the papers, I will not change my plans. Everything is on! You will die, no matter if you reject the money or not. We should only wait for Raquelle Cameron to join you three.”       “I repeat, Raquelle is not so stupid to let your people catch her,” Terrence replies confidently.       “We will see, Terrence. And yeah…” Michael frowns slightly, looks at the watch that he is wearing on his right hand, and checks his expensive mobile phone placed on the table. “It’s very weird that my people haven’t been back… Though, it’s been almost three hours. Where are those idlers? Did they see a café and decide to go to eat?”       Suddenly realizing it’s really been a long time, Natalia frowns slightly and glances at Edward and Terrence.       “Listen, how much time has it been since we ended up here?” Natalia asks quietly.       “Probably, as much as Michael said,” Terrence assumes. “I left my watch at home.”       “But indeed!” Edward exclaims. “Those men were supposed to be back here! One and a half hours there, and one and a half hours here before it’s three hours.”       “Do you wanna say they got problems with Raquelle?” Natalia wonders.       “I dunno… But it makes me have some questions.”       “Yes, it’s really weird…” Terrence says thoughtfully. “What if Cameron really plans something?”       When Natalia wants to say something, Michael waves a hand and says:       “Alright, I will wait for some time.” Michael puts the phone on the table and glances at Edward, Terrence, and Natalia. “I think they are about to come here and finally bring Raquelle to us. And then I will have fun and finally stop having to see the faces that make me sick to death.”       “I wish your plans were ruined!” Edward says rudely, humming with rolled eyes.       “Stop snapping, it will not help you!” Michael throws coldly. “I cannot wait to finally defeat you once and forever. Little parasite! Fucking rat! Fucking cockroach that cannot be crushed with a leg!”       “You know, it’s mutual. You also make me terribly enraged, the curse of the MacClifes. So much that I madly want to strangle you with my own hands.”       “You can shoot me down if you want. With this pistol. You are still holding it in your hands. You can point it at me and kill me. Kill your uncle Mikey. Who could be your ally if you weren’t such a brainless, cowardly bastard.”       Honestly, Edward distracted himself and kind of forgot that he was still holding the gun. But now the man glances at this one and looks at Michael with a sly smile two seconds later.       “You know, it’s a good idea!” Edward smirks slyly, setting his contemptuous and cold gaze on Michael.       Edward points the pistol at Michael slowly but confidently, while Natalia and Terrence shake slightly, gasping quietly and opening their eyes widely. They step back, taking each other’s hand tightly and getting horrified by what’s happening.       “Listen, Uncle, I didn’t think I’d feel so cool with the pistol in my hands pointed at the nasty cad, who ruined the lives of my close people,” Edward says confidently and smiles widely, setting his sly gaze on Michael. “I’ve always wanted to see you under the tip of the gun. To know how you’d behave. And my dream has come true!”       “You look funny, boy,” Michael laughs contemptuously. “You better move the pistol down. Otherwise, your soul will not take this tension.”       “If I shoot you down accidentally or on purpose, I will never regret it. I’ve never loved you and considered you a close person. You’ve been only insulting me, humiliating me, and making me bad for other people. And after what I just heard, you can expect no mercy from me.”       “You will have no courage to shoot at me, puppy,” Michael replies confidently. “Since you couldn’t kill your brother and ex-girlfriend, you will not kill me.”       “You think so?”       “Your heart will not take it, baby. You’re about to get so excited that I will not have to kill you. You will be carried away with your legs first and buried in the ground.”       “One thing is killing someone you love and are afraid to lose,” Edward says confidently in a rude, low voice. “And another thing is trying to kill someone, who ruined your life and the lives of your close people. Trust me, Michael, if I have to kill you to save my family, I am ready to do it.”       “Stop threatening for nothing. Your attempts to show off with a pistol in your hands make us laugh loudly.”       “And your attempts to harm everybody make us hate you and consider you our enemy, from whom we must keep ourselves far. You love nobody. You have never done. So, it’s easy for you to kill people. I mean, It’s easy to tell your accomplices to do this. But I don’t doubt you wouldn’t move your eyebrow if you had to kill someone. Though, it will not make you better. The law judges not only those, who kill, but also those, who tell someone to kill. You will pay for hiring a killer and attempts to attack.”       “To whom? To you?” Michael smirks loudly. “Do not wait, boy! Nothing will save you and these two!”       “Maybe, something will do!” Edward says confidently, squeezing the pistol in his hands tighter. “Now I have a chance to kill you and save me and my family from the sufferings you’ve given us. Save those, who you have not killed yet.”       “You know what will happen to you if you try to kill me,” Michael replies rudely. “You will be put in prison for many years! No good lawyers will help you get out of there. And, maybe, you will not spend more than twenty years in a high-security prison. Maybe, you will actually be liable to capital punishment and executed.”       “You know, I’d rather go to prison and either stay there for twenty years or be executed than accept the fact that there is someone to poison the lives of mine and my close people. If I have to, I will go to prison! I will be standing in front of the judge and hearing my sentence! But I will never regret it. Because I will know the bastard, who made all of us suffer for so many years, is dead. I’m ready to pay for all my mistakes and any illegal actions. If Gods believe that I really deserve a hard punishment, They will give it to me.”       “What are you waiting for?” Michael throws his hands up, looking at Edward surprisingly. “Shoot me! I am standing in front of you with nothing in my hands. No security. No gun. Press on the trigger – that’s all! I shall die, and you will go to prison to pay for the murder.”       “You are too self-confident. Aren’t you afraid to die?”       “I don’t fear you. No matter how much you threaten me, I can expect no danger from you. Because you will do nothing to me, cowardly puppy.”       “Bad, Uncle, bad. You know me too badly and cannot imagine what I can do.”       “Prove it then!” Michael throws his hands aside. “Come on, Edward, shoot at me! You can use a pistol. You know where the trigger is. So, come on, baby. Shoot me down with the thought that your family will no longer suffer.”       “As you said some time ago, I should make pleasure last longer. Feel this moment with every single cell of your body. And now I’m really getting pleasure keeping you under the point.”       “You’re cowardly, girl… Trying to pretend to be sassy, but you’re afraid of everything in the world.” Michael laughs quietly. “Damn, Edward, stop making yourself someone to laugh at. Your brother and ex are silently laughing in their minds at your attempts to pretend that you fear nothing.”       “Don’t doubt, Uncle, I will shoot at you. I just want to feel this moment better and realize everything will be over after one shoot.”       “Maybe, you shoot at yourself with the same pleasure?” Michael smiles slyly. “Kill yourself, my dear. Would you sacrifice your life for these two, for your mommy, and for your brother’s fiancée, who hasn’t been brought here by my morons yet?”       “You’re provoking me?”       “No, just suggesting you try to prove that you’d really do anything for your family. That you are not so cowardly and weak.”       “Do you want to deprive yourself of pleasure to kill me?”       “I don’t want. But I will have a greater pleasure to watch you put the pistol against your head and take a shoot.” Michael smiles widely, glancing aside for a second. “There would be a pool of blood… The blood of one of my enemies…”       “Do you really want it?” Edward moves the pistol down slowly.       “Yes. Shoot at your head right now. No kidding. I do want you to kill yourself before the eyes of these two.”       “That’s how…” Edward smirks evilly.       “Come on, coward, do it. If you love your family and are ready to do anything for them, prove it.”       Michael points at the pistol in Edward’s hand with a sly smile, looking forward to the moment when his nephew kills himself. MacClife, Jr., himself says nothing for two seconds, but then he raises his head and, squinting his eyes slightly, simpers quietly.       “So, if it’s your wish…” Edward says thoughtfully. “Let it happen!”       Terrence and Natalia move their eyes sharply to each other and set their horrified gazes on Edward, who sounds serious enough.       “What?” Terrence and Natalia get horrified at the same time.       “Wait, is he serious now?” Natalia asks in a shaking voice, opening her eyes widely. “Is he serious? Edward’s gonna shoot at himself?”       “No, Edward, don’t dare to do this!” Terrence exclaims loudly. “You went crazy? Don’t dare! Stop listening to this sick bastard!”       “Come on, Edward, don’t waste time,” Michael says with a sly smile, crossing his arms over his chest. “Maybe, you’ll find the courage to kill yourself after you didn’t do it to Terrence and Natalia. I am giving you another chance to prove your bravery and the power of will. Although you will die, you will die as a hero. Moreover, you will not be able to live with the thought that you almost killed these two. I see that you want to die of shame. You are ashamed to look into the eyes of these people. And after that, nobody will treat you well. Everybody will be saying bad things about you, cursing you, insulting you, humiliating you, and wishing you to die. So, in order not to hear all of that, I’m suggesting you end this shit.”       “If you are insisting, alright!” Edward says confidently and, not moving his eyes off Michael, takes the safety off. “You wanted to watch me die. You will see it.”       “No, Edward, no!” Natalia screams desperately with horror in her eyes, putting her hands together, bringing them to her mouth, and opening her eyes widely. “Don’t listen to him! Don’t dare to shoot at yourself! NO! PLEASE, DON’T DO THIS!”       “I have always said that I’ll never give you pleasure or make any of your wishes come true,” Edward continues to speak confidently, looking quiet and literally not being afraid to hold the gun in his hand and die. “But this time, I will make an exclusion. Because I will not have to kill my close people. And I’m easily ready to sacrifice my life. And I shall do it.”       “No, Edward, enough!” Terrence demands excitedly, breathing heavily and watching Edward with his eyes full of horror and wide open. “Wake up! Don’t do stupid things!”       “Say goodbye to your brother, who tried to kill you, Terrence,” Michael smiles slyly. “This cowardly, weak boy decided to kill himself. He does not have the courage to kill others and wants to die of shame. But he will become a killer anyway. The killer of himself.”       “SHUT UP!” Terrence roars at the top of his lungs, shaking slightly from the tension. “I AM SICK OF WATCHING YOU POISON THIS POOR GUY AND MAKE HIM NOTHING! STOP, ASSHOLE! LEAVE EDWARD ALONE! STOP INSULTING AND HUMILIATING HIM! HE GOT THE FUCK SICK OF YOU!”       “Wow, wow, you scream loudly! Calm down, honey, breathe deeper. And watch Edward doing the first noble thing that will help many people get better.”       “Maybe,” Edward smiles slyly. “Don’t think that I’m bluffing. And to prove it…”       Edward brings the pistol confidently to his temples, looking too quiet to shoot at himself but feeling terrible excitement, fear, and horror inside and feeling that his heart is beating fast.       “NO, EDWARD, PLEASE!” Natalia screams at the top of her lungs, closing her mouth with her hands and not holding down tears rolling down her cheeks. “DON’T SHOOT! NO! I’M BEGGING YOU!”       “Stop, buddy, please!” Terrence begs loudly with despair and pity, shaking his head with widely open eyes, and continues speaking much quieter. “I don’t wanna lose you…”       “Pathetic, cowardly puppy,” Michael provokes. “A worthless piece of shit. You are good for nothing. Nobody will suffer if you die. Nobody needs you. You have no meaning to live in this world. Moreover, since you feel remorse for trying to kill your brother, you definitely want to die of shame. So, do it. Kill yourself right now. Otherwise, the sense of shame will not let you live quietly. A tender boy would prefer dying than suffering from shame for their sins. You will not take it. A sense of shame will chase you all your life. Early or late, you will wish to die.”       “Don’t succumb to his provocations, Edward!” Terrence begs excitedly. “He is doing this on purpose! Don’t listen to this bastard! Move the pistol down and don’t do stupid things.”       “Please, Edward, please…” Natalia begs desperately with tears in her eyes full of pity. “Don’t do this to us…”       “Watch and enjoy, dear Uncle,” Edward says confidently in a lower voice. “Now, there will be a lot of blood. As you love.”       Edward seriously wants to take a shot in his head, getting ready to die at least because he would hardly be able to live with the thought that he almost killed his two close people. The finger of the man is going to press the trigger of the pistol to take a shot. But while Natalia starts screaming in horror with widely open eyes, crying bitterly and shaking strongly with her mouth tightly closed with her hands, Terrence makes a loud shout:       “NO!”       Terrence runs to Edward shortly, squeezes his hand with the pistol tightly, and moves it down sharply, trying to do it so that the gun does not shoot at him or the guy. MacClife, Jr., did not expect anything like that and gets a little confused. But two moments later, he kind of automatically shows resistance and tries to get the hand with the gun out. However, MacClife, Sr., shows much more strength and takes the hand of his younger brother aside by force. He starts to hold it tightly with a little heavy breath, looking quite collected and quiet and confident looking at him, while the guy throws a scared gaze full of a scare. It makes Michael laugh and clap his hands slowly, shaking his head. And Natalia exhales with relief, seeing her friend tightly holding the wrist of the hand of her ex-boyfriend, in which he is holding the pistol.       “Bravo, Terrence, bravo!” Michael smirks evilly. “You made a noble thing. You did not let your little brother shoot at his empty head. And you did it after this kid almost killed you.”       “You better close your fucking mouth, otherwise I will not be responsible for me,” Terrence replies rudely in a low voice, still tightly holding the wrist of the surprised Edward and literally killing Michael with his icy gaze. “And if you try to make Edward do something like this again, I swear I shall break your neck.”       “Ah, you are so weird, boy… Your own brother almost shot at you, but you don’t get enraged and disappointed. You come and hug him… And you save him from the attempt of a self-murder… You are supposed to hate this man! Hate him for daring to do such a horrible thing to you. Why are you the fuck trying to defend him?”       “I’m going to explain nothing to you. But I want you to know that I will not let you insult or humiliate my brother, and especially provoke him for horrible things.”       “Oh, oh, here’s the protector!” Michael rolls his eyes. “Wake up, Terrence! Stop doing stupid things! You kind of seem like a smart adult man, but you act like you have no brains. And put your love for this kid in your ass. If Edward is still a close person to you after everything he has done to you. Stop worrying about this worthless piece of shit and protect him. He does not deserve this love and care.”       “YOU do not deserve it!” Terrence says confidently. “Not this man. And if you want to know, I want to tell you one thing. I will never be indifferent to my younger brother. Whatever happens between us. I cared, I care, and I will care about Edward.”       “Ugh, alright, stop, or I’m going to clean my stomach,” Michael winces strongly. “I’m sick of one brother worrying about another. And this gal screaming loudly and crying every time her ex does something to kill someone or die himself.”       “And we are sick of you showering him with mud for nothing,” Natalia says confidently, coming closer to Edward and putting her hand on his shoulder. “Edward doesn’t deserve the insults that he hears from you. And it’s unpleasant for us to hear you trying to humiliate him. It’s disgusting for us to know you see only shortcomings in him.”       “I’m not the one to blame that this kid makes himself the one. That he can do nothing good and necessary and lives nobody knows why. Who needs this talentless creature? What can he give someone? Nothing! A worthless piece of shit! A pathetic, cowardly creature that shouldn’t have been born in this world.”       “We need this man!” Terrence says with his head proudly raised.       “Your life would’ve been better if your mom and dad hadn’t let him be born.”       “And our lives would’ve been better if you hadn’t been born,” Edward says in a rude, low voice and points the pistol sharply at Michael, holding it tightly with his hands. “Though, I will fix this great mistake with pleasure.”       “Oh, don’t make me laugh, boy,” Michael laughs evilly. “You look terribly stupid, holding a pistol in your hands and trying to seem horrifying with such a pretty baby face.”       “Do you think I’m playing games with you? No, honorable, I’m not bluffing and will shoot at your old head with great pleasure!”       “Stop playing a hero, puppy. You better go to your mommy and stay with her. You can even ask her for a bottle of baby formula or a pacifier. It’s too early for you to leave the nest, baby. Stay there.”       “I don’t doubt that if Father was alive, he’d do what I want to do with pleasure. He suffered much more from your dirty hands and your accomplices. And now I want to do what he did not do when he was alive. I will do it for him. For my family.”       “Calm down, you will not make him proud of you.”       “But he would be happy to know you’d be burning somewhere in hell,” Terrence says rudely.       “Huh!” Michael smirks and crosses his arms over his chest. “Your father is dead! He is now watching you somewhere in heaven and cannot wait to meet his sons. A little time to go before you reunite.”       Michael raises his head with a wide smile on his face.       “Wait, Jamie! Your sons are coming to you! You will reunite with these freaks soon.”       “I’m sure he is proud of his sons,” Natalia says confidently and proudly. “They became real men, whom people would never be ashamed of. Yes, every one of them has made mistakes and done bad things somehow. But everyone makes mistakes. You can learn from them. Terrence and Edward got better and more clever thanks to this. Their parents really love them and are proud of them. The guys became decent people, who can love, be loyal, respect, do noble things, and protect those they love.”       “Not all mothers or fathers are proud of their children,” Michael replies rudely. “There are outsiders, who never get the attention of their parents. Don’t think that all parents love their children so much and give their lives for them. Just because you were raised like a princess doesn’t mean everybody was surrounded with love, care, and attention.”       “Any mother and any father worry about their child, even if they don’t show it. Yes, there are those, who aren’t ready to give themselves to their children. But they love them and wish them the best deep inside. Besides… Sometimes you should put in some effort to give people a reason to be proud of you. Instead of waiting for being adored and made an example for nothing.”       “Listen, you kind of starting to make me enraged,” Michael says irritably. “You have annoyed me for the past three hours so much that I want to close your mouths with tape!”       “Did you think we’d be sitting, looking at you scarily, and begging you to let us go and do nothing bad?” Terrence asks coldly. “No, Uncle! As Edward said, you will shut us up only when you kill us. But before you do it, we will be speaking and reminding you that you are a shameless bastard, who must pay for your tricks.”       “If I had known you’d be so talkative, I would’ve told my people to seat you on a chair, tie you up tightly and tape your fucking mouths.”       “What are you waiting for?” Natalia rounds her eyes. “Do it! Call your pals and tell them to tie us up! Come on, let’s go! Or can you only work your tongue? You want to seem horrifying? Want everybody to be afraid of you, even if you are nothing? Who are you to make everyone shake in front of you and walk on eggshells? You are a nasty dog that barks out of the corner and asks his pals to do the dirty work for you!”       “Ar-r-r, FUCK!” Michael growls, rolling his eyes and clapping himself on the forehead. “How I’m sick of being with you! You annoyed me! ANNOYED! Why do I waste time and talk to you about nobody knows what? I should’ve killed you when my people brought this gal here! Not waiting for her friend to join you!”       “Yeah, you spent too much time making your pleasure longer,” Natalia crosses her arms over her chest.       “Alright, stop wasting time! I lost my patience! I’m not going to wait for those assholes to bring Raquelle here!” Michael sharply gives a start and confidently starts to go on Edward, who starts going backward. “Give me the pistol now, fucking puppy! I will kill you! Give, I said! GIVE ME THIS FUCKING PISTOL!”       Two moments later, Michael tightly grabs the pistol in Edward’s hands and tries to take it. But the guy starts resisting and tries to push his uncle off himself, giving him painful hits with his knees and elbows in the weakest places to play some time. After a few seconds of the fight, Michael sharply pushes Edward so that the guy almost falls and tries to attack him with fists, even if he understands he may be much weaker than the young guy due to his age. But everybody suddenly hears a loud voice full of evil that belongs to the man, who comes confidently into the office of Michael with his head proudly raised:       “First, deal with me, bastard. And then you will hurt my children! But I doubt you will kill me. Because you will not catch me this time.”       Terrence, Natalia, Michael, and Edward sharply turn and look at the unexpected guest as if he is charmed. But while the girl does not know who that black-haired man with gray eyes is and just looks at him, the others get frozen from the shock, setting their dumbfounded, widely open eyes on the man. Terrence and Edward immediately recognize the man, who is similar to them, and become speechless. While the oldest of the brothers shakes his head, the younger one tightly closes his mouth with a hand and gasps quietly. And Michael sharply gets kind of green from horror or evil when he sees this man, who sets his gaze full of hate and contempt on him. They look quite similar enough. But while Mr. MacClife’s features are very rude and none-attractive, and he looks shriveled and is half gray, the unwelcomed guest’s ones are much nicer and softer, and the man looks much younger and has not gotten gray hair by his age.       Silence settles in the air for two seconds. And then Terrence and Edward, who get sharply white, find the courage to break it.       “Father?!” Terrence and Edward pronounce at the same time.       Getting very nervous and breathing too heavily, Edward weakens his grip and lets the pistol go. It falls to the floor with a crush. However, nobody sees it, as everybody is shocked by the appearance of the unexpected man.       “Jamie?!” Michael gets horrified, looking at the one, who he did not expect to see, with widely open eyes.       Jamie confidently comes into the office with his head proudly raised up, lowering his hands and setting an icy gaze on Michael that could kill anyone to be under its point.       “So, brother, didn’t you expect me?” Jamie asks in a rude, low voice. “But I wanted it and came! I went to my house! Where you are living so well!”       “I don’t get it…” Natalia pronounces hesitantly, being a little confused and not understanding why everybody got so shocked after this man came. “What’s going on? Guys, is that really your father? Why did you get so nervous?”       Natalia gets the answer two or three seconds later. Edward does find the courage to answer it, even though his voice is shaking strongly, and he can barely move his lips, while his dumbfounded eyes are set on Jamie.       “Y-yup…” Edward pronounces quietly. “That’s him… That’s my father…”       “But how?” Natalia wonders, moving her gaze to Edward. “How? He is dead! You said that! Your uncle said that! How?”       “I don’t know… But it’s Father… My father…”       “So, didn’t he die?” Terrence wonders. “Did Father survive after Uncle tried to kill him?”       “It happened… So, you can meet, it’s our father, Jamie MacClife. The one, who you’ve considered a horrible man all your life.”       “Damn, it can’t be the truth,” Michael says with evil in his eyes, looking at Jamie from head to foot and shaking his head. “CAN’T!”       “As you see, it can be!” Jamie says confidently.       “HOW, THE FUCK? YOU DIED! DIED BEFORE MY EYES! I SAW IT!”       “I died! But I came back from the dead! To beat your face well and make you pay for everything you have done to me!”       “IT CANNOT BE THE TRUTH! THOSE BASTARDS COULD NOT MESS UP EVERYTHING! THEY COULD NOT BETRAY ME!”       “But how?” Terrence barely moves his lips. “How did it happen? We thought… That you were dead! Uncle said that!”       “Do I tell you the full version of what happened between this bastard and me?” Jamie asks and comes closer to Michael, at whom he does not stop looking contemptuously. “Or did he tell you a bigger part?”       “Shiver me…” Edward pronounces in a shaking voice. “It’s impossible! Impossible!”       “In some cases, even dead people can come alive and come to those, who ruined their lives.”       “How did you get into the house, Jamie?” Michael asks rudely. “ANSWER, ASSHOLE!”       “Super easy!” Jamie throws his hands up with an innocent smile. “On my feet. That are healthy, thank God. I thought It would be hard, but it was not. It was much easier than I thought.”       “HOLY SHIT!” Michael roars and glances at the open door. “BASTARDS, WHY DID NOBODY TELL YOU THIS PIECE OF SHIT GOT INTO MY HOUSE? WHAT DO I PAY YOU MONEY FOR, FREAKS? YOU THINK JUST BECAUSE I’M SO GENEROUS, YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO WASTE THE MONEY AND DO THE FUCK NOTHING? WHY DOES NOBODY ANSWER ME? JACKASSES! I WILL KICK EVERYBODY OUT OF HERE!”       “Did you think those scumbags loved you so much?” Jamie smirks contemptuously. “You thought they’d be loyal to you entirely and come to His Highness shortly if you paid them a lot of money?”       “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!” Michael sharply points at the open door. “YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO COME HERE AND ACT LIKE YOU ARE AN OWNER! GET OUT, I SAID!”       “Huh!” Jamie comes two steps closer to Michael, looking at him with greater evil. “Are you sure it’s your house, Michael? It never belonged to you! And I have a right to come here at any time!”       “Don’t dare to touch anything, scoundrel,” Michael points at Jamie with a finger, staring at him with a contemptuous grin. “I will crush you like a pea! GOT IT, SCUMBAG?”       “I do repeat, it’s NOT your house! You insolently stole it from me, making me believe you’d give me MY job at Father’s company. But you did not keep your promise. You paid half of the amount and refused to give me my job as the manager.”       “Don’t pretend that I stole the house from you. Do I remind you how you gave me the keys and documents for it? Everything was legal! You have NO rights to this house!”       “Come on! If I want, I can easily apparel against the sale and demand that you give me this house in court.”       “I repeat, fucking piece of shit, it’s MY house!” Michael says rudely, knocking at the surface of the table. “You did sell it to me! I do have a right to grab you by the collar and kick you out!”       “No, Michael, I WILL kick you out! You will give me EVERYTHING you have insolently stolen from me! You will be hanging around the streets until the end of your worthless life and counting every cent. You, scumbag, do deserve it!”       “Fuck, you are too stubborn to die! HOW MANY LIVES HAVE YOU GOT IF YOU SURVIVED WHEN IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE?”       “Yeah, you failed it.” Jamie crosses his arms over his chest, squinting his eyes slightly. “You should’ve checked the place where you threw my ‘corpse’ better. And hit me on the head much stronger.”       “Those morons will PAY me for that!” Michael throws loudly. “I shall make them explain what IT THE FUCK MEANS! WHY THEY DID NOT MAKE MY ORDER!”       “I’m not guilty that they are so brainless and thought of MY money that you wanted to give them.”       “It’s MY money! I DO rule the company, and it gives me income! You don’t have to do with it and have no right to say it’s your money!”       “It HAD BEEN MINE! Before you took everything from me! Come on, asshole, tell us how you stole all my money, the company, and the house from me… And ruined my personal life! Twice! Ruined BOTH of my marriages!”       “Want your babies to hear it?” Michael hums and points at Terrence and Edward. “These two idiots know everything. They know their daddy sent his younger sonny to our mother, slapped Rebecca, took this sonny with him, and got out somewhere, leaving his eldest one on his own. They know you gave a fuck about your first child, whom you thought about many years later. And the second one, who nobody has ever needed.”       “Yeah, do they know how hard it was for me and their mother to live?” Jamie asks rudely. “Do they know how horribly we lived because you deprived me of a job and got my house by deceiving me? How we had to use the kindness of two wonderful people! How we saved money for us! Did not eat enough! Did not buy so much! Just to feed one child and then two? Do my children know that their mother and I had to give our younger son to his grandmother because we could not take care of the two sons at the same time? Do they know we slowly started to go crazy, become aggressive, and want to get out of that shit we lived in?”       “Don’t pretend to be a victim, Jamie. And don’t blame the poor life with your wife and the two children of you.”       “Don’t deny the fault for what has happened in my life. If you, asshole, hadn’t hurt me, I would’ve lived in luxury and been surrounded by my beloved people.”       “But I’m not guilty that you slapped Rebecca, took Edward away, and disappeared nobody knows where, leaving that woman and Terrence alone. Got scared to stay with them and ran away like a cat that did a bad thing.”       “I’m not going to tell you where I disappeared and why,” Jamie replies rudely. “I shall only explain it to those, who should know the truth.”       “I do know everything. I know everything that happened to you. I know that you met Isabella Thorn, a very rich and provided woman, after running away from your wife and eldest son. You made her fall in love with you and married her for her dollars. Made two more sonnies… And forgot about the son that you took with you.”       “I do know hiding from you is impossible!” Jamie throws rudely. “Even if I live on the Moon or go somewhere in the Arctic or taiga, you will find me there.”       “You lived quietly with Isabella for many years. You spent her money, worked in her firm, made her a mother of two children… You became the father of many children…” Michael crosses his arms over his chest and simpers quietly. “You made four sons! You learned to breed like a cat well! Maybe, you are not lucky because you don’t have a daughter. A little princess, as sentimental mothers would say.”       “I never cared about a child’s gender. The important thing is that my children are healthy.”       “Yeah, but not all of your children are so perfect. The difference between your sons is that the older sons from the first marriage are brainless, annoying bastards, but the younger children from a second marriage are very clever and obedient babies.”       “Don’t dare to insult my children!” Jamie demands rudely. “You hate my older sons because they are similar to me and are featured in my will. Though my younger children are also featured in it, but you treat them well.”       “I love Will and Jer at least because they have never meddled in my business and always treated me with respect. They’re living well with Isabella, studying, working, and doing their business. But as for Edward and Terrence, I have no reason to love them. These bastards can only be rude, insult, and show disrespect for older people. I thought your eldest one would be smarter and more gentle. But no – Rebecca taught Terrence nothing. He is the same non-educated scumbag as Edward is, who nobody cared about.”       “Stop insulting my older sons! They are a thousand times better than you and would never do what you would do.”       “Huh, are you an angel?” Michael smirks contemptuously. “Do you kind of love your sonnies? Are you ready to do anything for them to be happy?”       “For my children, I will do anything. Tear anyone to dare to touch them with a finger or insult them.”       “You forgot it when you took Edward with you and married Isabella. You always cared only about Jeremy and William, while Edward didn’t exist for you. Yes, I understand this boy was adult enough when his brother was born, but a fact is a fact. He never got a father’s love and always heard his own dad pissing him off.”       “I have always loved him, Michael!” Jamie says rudely. “I love all my children in the same way! But you will never understand it because you don’t know what love is.”       “Believing your words about love for your children is as hopeless as expecting that Edward would grow up, get stupid thoughts out of his head, and become an adult, brave, and confident man.”       “You do want to think I’ve never loved Edward. You want to make him think the same.”       “Well, as you love him so much, why did you the fuck treat him so horribly that he started to believe he was your burden?” Michael asks coldly. “That you didn’t need him! That you cared about nobody else but the children from Isabella and your eldest sonny, Terrence!”       “I don’t know what you are talking about!”       “Stop pretending to be holy! You know that everybody is aware of your sins, but you try to pretend that you don’t know what I mean.”       “You don’t have to do with it, fucking animal!”       “But it’s the truth,” Edward says hesitantly.       All the surprised gazes stop on Edward.       “What?” Jamie opens his eyes widely. “What do you mean?”       “Uncle tells the truth,” Edward says quietly. “I really feel like a burden. Someone you don’t need.”       “But why? Why do you think so?”       “Huh, as if he doesn’t know it!” Michael blunts with his eyes rolled and arms crossed over his chest.       “You did make me think so,” Edward recalls. “Thanks to your attitude toward me. You never gave me attention when I needed it.”       “Listen, Edward, I…” Jamie tries to say something.       “I always knew you loved Jeremy and William much more. And you never needed me.”       “What?” Jamie opens his eyes widely. “No! No, it’s not the truth! I swear!”       “I never felt it. It seems like I didn’t exist. As if I was walking like a ghost.”       “I have never loved one of my sons more than the others. My love for them is the same.”       “Yeah, but you’re loved by only two sons of four,” Michael says coldly. “And as for the others, one thought you didn’t love him. That’s why he got out of home and changed his name and appearance. And another hates you because of what happened between you and his mother and refuses to talk to you.”       “I know! But I tried to find a reason to meet my eldest son and explain everything. Though, he refused to meet me because he hated me because he thought I was allegedly mocking his mother.”       “Wait, wait, do you want to say it’s the truth?” Terrence asks hesitantly. “Did you really never beat my mother?”       “I would never dare to do that to the woman that I love with all my heart,” Jamie says confidently. “Yes, I don’t deny I slapped your mother when you turned three. It happened before your eyes. But you hardly remember.”       “I remember.”       “You do? But now?”       “I’ve always known about that conflict. I remember you and Mother screaming at each other. I remember your slap, I remember her tears… I remember you placing something in your bag and leaving, while Mother was begging you to stay and promising to forgive you for anything…”       “My God…” Jamie shakes his head. “But how? You were a baby! How could you remember that?”       “I remembered,” Terrence shrugs. “So, don’t need to remind me that you slapped my mother.”       “Unfortunately.” Jamie glances aside for a second and looks at Terrence with greater pity. “But it was the one last event. I will no longer let myself hit or especially beat Rebecca.”       “But why did you slap her? What did she do?”       “I didn’t think it would lead to that,” Jamie replies, looking at Terrence with pity in his eyes. “Your mother and I barely had money. We were excited… We could not talk for weeks or scream at each other all day long… We lived in the apartment of my old friend, and we didn’t have enough money. Everything was spent on necessary things that costed a lot. Luckily, my friend paid for water, electricity, and gas. While I was trying to get some money, your mother was watching you and then Edward. My friend was helping us, but it wasn’t enough. But we didn’t dare to ask him more because he had done too much for us. Our nerves were so broken that we couldn’t stand each other, even despite our great love for each other.”       “Mother said you were never rich and always lived in a hard condition.”       “It’s the truth. I was so poor that Rebecca and I even had to borrow money from my friend to register our marriage officially.” Jamie falls into silence for two seconds. “We lived well, even after your birth. But we started to lose our minds after the birth of your brother. We often started to have conflicts… Your mother got so sick of homework that she was close to a nervous breakdown and wanted to run away from the children’s shouts, diapers, baby formula, and toys. And I was doing my best to survive and feed my wife and children, working for little money and going home absolutely exhausted and wishing for calm and peace.”       Jamie falls into silence for two seconds again to swallow up nervously.       “And I also began to get closer to the edge. And one fateful day, everything in the soul led to a very serious fight. Rebecca and I literally got loose and felt free to say anything. It went so far that I eventually broke down and… Slapped your mother. And I regretted it shortly after you began to scream and cry when you were in your bed. I quickly realized what I had done. I got scared. I thought being with me was dangerous. So, despite her tears and begs, I took my stuff, left home, took Edward from Mother, who was with her, and disappeared. I thought I was the best solution. But now, I’m sure I acted like a coward. The stinker, who betrayed his wife and eldest child.”       Terrence feels his heart squeezing from thinking his parents lived in a horrible condition and did not eventually pass that test. And after hearing what his father did to Rebecca, he feels sorry for this man.       “Of course, it’s wonderful,” Michael says rudely, snuffing with his arms crossed over his chest. “But it sounds like you are excusing your mistake of the youth for your sonny. With the hope that he’d get sympathy for you and pity you.”       “I’m going to excuse myself for nobody,” Jamie replies confidently. “I just honestly answered the question of my son.”       “But I really doubt he would forgive you easily,” Michael simpers. “Nobody becomes good immediately after many years of believing that someone is horrible and mean.”       “Not in your case, bastard! Nobody will forgive you, even ten or twenty years later. Even when you finally die!”       “Now we talk about you, my dear brother, not me. Don’t forget that Terrence has always believed you were a tyrant, who was beating his beloved mommy.”       “I already told him I never beat Rebecca. I don’t know why he decided that I was a tyrant, but it never happened when we lived together.”       “This guy does remember how you slapped his mother. I think he made a conclusion and realized that he must’ve kept himself far from you.”       “Yeah, but why are you, Uncle Mickey, silent about why I thought so?” Terrence asks coldly, crossing his arms over his chest. “Maybe, you tell him how you turned me against him? I think my father would love to know who is guilty of the fact that I was running away from him with the thought that he was a nasty tyrant.”       “Close your mouth, bastard!” Michael snaps with evil in his eyes. “Otherwise, I will strangle you with my own hands!”       “Why are you so nervous? Don’t you want to tell your brother the truth?”       “I said, CLOSE YOUR MOUTH!”       “I didn’t get…” Jamie wonders, looking at Terrence questioningly, and moves his gaze full of evil to Michael. “What’s he talking about? So, did you do that? You, asshole, stuck your nose in it as well?”       “I don’t know what you are talking about!” Michael says rudely.       “Why are you silent, Uncle Michael?” Terrence asks coldly, looking at Michael gloomily. “You recently told me what Father doesn’t definitely know. If you don’t want, I can tell him. Now I remember everything and know, who was the reason why I was unfair toward this man.”       “What did you tell him, Michael?” Jamie hisses through his teeth, grabs Michael by the collar sharply, and sets his cold, piercing look on him. “ANSWER, STINKER, WHAT YOU SAID TO HIM AND HOW MADE HIM HATE ME?”       “Hey, get your dirty hands off me,” Michael demands rudely and pushes Jamie sharply off himself. “Don’t dare to touch me! Otherwise, you will regret it much!”       “Don’t make me enraged and make me strangle you with my own hands. You know that I lose patience easily! SPEAK OUT, WHAT YOU SAID TO MY SON NOW!”       “Want me to tell?” Terrence shows initiative, not stopping to look at Michael.       “Speak, Terrence. What did this sick bastard say to you?”       “The case is that Father, when I was six or seven, this stinker went to the home of my mother and me. She tried to kick him out, but he went to the room where I was playing and locked the door. Mother was knocking on it and telling him to open the door for a long time. But Uncle didn’t hear her and started talking with me. I thought this man was my father, but he answered he was my uncle. I started asking him about it. And later, Uncle said that you left Mother and me and forgot us so easily because you never loved us. Of course, I didn’t believe it and said Mother said different things. And then this man said you never loved me and were even mocking my mother and beating her. Always. Even when she was pregnant. Uncle repeated it many times, while Mother was knocking at the door and threatening to call the police… He repeated it until I got hysteria.”       Jamie gets enraged and moves his gaze full of fire to Michael, who he is ready to tear apart.       “What?” Jamie resents in a loud, bass voice, staring at Terrence amazingly. “This cad dared to say I was beating your mother?”       “Even when she was carrying me under her heart,” Terrence confirms. “Uncle said it very confidently. And I was too little to figure out something and… I believed him… But I couldn’t remember who told me about it before tonight. Though, Uncle Michael’s story put everything in the right places. And… That’s why I… Hated you for so many years…”       Jamie sets his sizzling gaze on Michael and slowly starts going on him, clenching his hands into fists tightly and starting to breathe loudly and heavily.       “Ah, you, scumbag…” Jamie hisses through his teeth. “Asshole… BASTARD! So, was I beating the pregnant Rebecca? Never loved my child and his mother?”       “It would’ve been a sin not to use a chance to visit that boy and his mommy,” Michael smiles slyly. “That’s good one familiar of mine lived on the same floor as yours and told me what happened in your family.”       “You are a scumbag, Michael! Asshole! I HATE YOU!” Jamie gives Michael a slap in the face with an irritated growl as strongly as possible, and starts threatening him with a finger. “BASTARD! A motherfucker that ruined my life! Because of you, I became a beggar and couldn’t feed my family. That I lost BECAUSE OF YOUR FUCKING FAULT! I was doomed to suffer because I was born when you lived. At first, you were doing your best to ruin my life in childhood and humiliate me for my parents, our family members and close friends. And then you decided to steal the company, which Father gave ME! You did your best to separate me from my wife and sons! And you even ruined my second marriage. I’m not allowed to see her children and don’t know what’s happening to them.”       “Ha, as if you’ve never stood in my way!” Michael smirks loudly, putting his hands on his hips. “Because of you, my parents never loved me. And when you were born, they forgot about me, and I became their burden. They didn’t notice me as well as you didn’t notice Edward when he lived with you, Isabella, William, and Jeremy. If I had been hit by a car or train, nobody would’ve pretended that they were worried about me.”       “Knowing you’re a selfish bastard that can only do bad things and hurt people, I agree with you. Probably, for the first time in my life. I would not personally pretend that I worry about you. Moreover, I would even wish you to die. Yes, you did annoy me so much that I’m not shy of saying it. I hate you to death, Michael Gregory MacClife! I hate you as much as I’ve never done before. I’m terribly jealous of those, who have loving brothers and sisters. Sadly, my brother is a nasty shit that deprived me of my family, my job, my house, and my money… Everything!”       “Same, Jamie Steven MacClife!” Michael throws with evil in his eyes. “I have always thought your birth was the stupidest mistake of our parents. I don’t know why they made you! I didn’t ask them to give me a brother or sister, and I was happy to be the only child. Mother gave birth to you when I stopped being afraid I’d become an older brother. And I cursed the day you were born! You always got the best, but I got pathetic remains. Our parents did anything for you. So, their beloved baby felt good. You graduated from school and university with dignity. While I barely graduated from school and got refusal when I asked them to pay for my studies even at the worst university.”       “Yeah, did you ever show brilliant knowledge? What you had in your head would’ve been enough for you to get kicked out of the university after the first exam. You would’ve paid nobody to pass a test.”       “I give a damn! I didn’t want to go to school, and I was glad when I graduated from it. My dream was always the opportunity to have a prestigious job in the company of Father and take his place someday. I was waiting and believing I would get a chance to show myself. But the last drop was the announcement of Father that he made you the manager and made me answer calls. He made me a secretary! I was doing a fucking feminine job! Instead of having meetings with partners, I was smiling at everybody, making coffee, and controlling your business. And the worst thing was, I was earning little money. While Father gave you a great salary.”       “And later, you got an idea to deprive me of the job. You went so crazy because of your jealousy that you were ready to make me a fool for the others. You started to forge all the documents that contained very many mistakes and inconsistencies. It looked like I was robbing the company and stealing a part of the money. And the people did believe it and started to think I wasn’t able to rule the creature of Father. Because of you, I lost my job, and you took the place of the manager.”       “The staff wanted to see me as the manager,” Michael smiles innocently. “And I couldn’t reject the honor to start ruling the company.”       “You know, I could easily prove I didn’t have to do with forging documents. I have the proof that I started to get when I guessed you planned something. But I don’t want to come back to that. I don’t need the company. If you wanted to rule it, alright, keep ruling! I will not meddle in its business.”       “Then give me the fifteen percent of the stocks that you signed over to the mother of these two bastards. So, I become the only owner and don’t have to share it with you or your babies.”       “I don’t mind it. I think my sons agree with me” Jamie turns on Terrence and Edward. “Yeah, guys? Should we give your uncle the stocks? I’m sure your mother will kindly agree to sigh all the papers to sell them.”       “He can choke himself!” Edward throws rudely, waving his hand sharply.       “I don’t need the company!” Terrence says coldly. “And I will not work there because I have different interests.”       “So, we decided!” Jamie exclaims and glances at Michael. “That’s all! The company is yours, stinker! Choke! You wanted to become rich and own the company – alright! Rule! And now, when we have agreed on everything, be nice, leave our lives. And leave us alone FOREVER! DO I EXPLAIN IT CLEARLY, STUPID DONKEY?”       “Huh!” Michael simpers. “Did you also think you, these two idiots, and their beloved girls would get off me? No, brother, I will not give you this pleasure! I shall crush you like cockroaches for what I lost BECAUSE OF YOU! Remember, even if a cat has nine lives, it doesn’t mean it will always avoid death. Early or late, they will be wasted. You and your pathetic sons magically avoided death the last time. But this time, there will be no mercy.”       “We will see it, bastard!” Jamie says confidently, raising his head proudly raised.       Michael shakes his head with a contemptuous sneer, and two seconds later, he stops his eyes on the gun placed not far from him on the floor. The man looks at the gun for some time, and then he sharply pushes Jamie off himself and slowly goes two steps back. Terrence notices it and takes two slow steps aside from the new pistol nobody has shot from yet. And after choosing a good moment, his uncle sharply runs to the pistol to take it. But Terrence gives a start quickly, picks up the pistol at the last moment, and points it at him, getting up and looking at the old man with a cold, contemptuous gaze.       “Don’t dare to do anything to Father,” Terrence hisses through his teeth, holding the pistol pointed at Michael tightly. “Otherwise, I will shoot you down so that you will not realize it.”       Meanwhile, Edward and Natalia shake slightly in surprise and step aside slowly, holding each other's hands and hugging each other tightly with one arm. And Michael is probably not afraid to be under the tip of the gun and keeps calm, smirking quietly after what Terrence did.       “Oh, wow, I see something new…” Michael smiles slyly. “Terrence MacClife, who never held a pistol, decided to experience new feelings and take a cold gun.”       “Stop showing off, bastard!” Terrence throws loudly and irritably. “If you don’t close your fucking mouth, I swear I will make a hole in your forehead.”       “Be careful, my boy. It’s not a toy! The pistol might shoot accidentally.”       “I can use a gun because I had a hobby of target practice,” Terrence replies in a cold voice, still pointing the pistol at Michael with no fear. “And I always hit the bullseye every time I took a gun and shot from a long distance.”       “Starting to show off again and prove to everybody that you can do anything?” Michael smirks contemptuously. “It’s funny! You are too sassy and self-confident, and your brother is too cowardly and insecure. You have the same father and mother, but you are such different people.”       “Don’t make me wild, Uncle. Otherwise, I will shoot you down without thinking. You will not realize you will be lying on the floor and bleeding.”       “Do you want to protect your father after he left you on your own?” Michael shakes his head with a sly smile. “First, you started to protect your brother, whom you just found, and now you got a love for your daddy? Who got scared of the responsibility for his horrible act.”       “Because of you, I want to say. You are guilty of bringing everything to that! You turned his life into hell and made him live in poverty. And I’m sure Mother would’ve stayed with Father, no matter how hard and unbearable she felt. She is a too kind and loyal woman. And it’s clear that she still loves Father because she hasn’t even thought of marrying another man all this time.”       “Sorry! If that woman easily forgot how her hubby slapped her and ran away like a fucking coward, your mother is a weak lady!”       “Don’t insult my mother!” Terrence and Edward demand rudely at the same time.       “AH!” Michael makes a disgusting squeak and puts his hand on his heart. “Damn, how much drama! Stop, guys! I’m going to have a heart attack! I will not take it!”       “Minus one problem,” Terrence says in a low voice. “We wouldn’t have to dirty our hands in your dirty blood and kill you!”       “You will not kill me as well as your brother could not kill you, your best friend, or even himself.” Michael starts stroking his chin, moving his thoughtful gaze aside for a second. “Well, this puppy would’ve probably shot at his head if you hadn’t run to save him.”       “What?” Jamie gets enraged. “What do you mean ‘could not kill you, your best friends, and himself?’ You tried to make Edward kill Terrence?”       “Gave him a chance to get everything his brother had.” Michael throws his hands up with an innocent smile. “But your sonny is a coward and could not do that. He cried here like a girl and almost got hysteria… And your brainless image is grateful to him for that… He comforts him, protects him, saves him… Holy shit!”       “And you, cad, are VERY LUCKY my sons are alive and unharmed,” Jamie hisses through his teeth, clenching his hands into fists. “Because if at least one of them died because of you, I would skin you alive. I swear, Michael, you’d pay me for that! For my children, I will tear anyone!”       “Calm down, bro, your sonnies will go to another world anyway. Along with you and their mother. I didn’t get upset that Edward could not kill Terrence. Vice versa, I’m happy. I would’ve had to thank him with money, but I want to give this puppy no cent.”       “Edward didn’t do it because he had shame. He is not deprived of feelings, regret, and sympathy. But you love no one but yourself. You think the world of people must go around you. A typical egoist that doesn’t know that you sometimes have to share something.”       “Ha, why should I love you all?” Michael smirks, crossing his arms over his chest. “For ruining my life with your pretense? Or for having nine lives like cats and not being able to be the fuck killed?”       “I think we DID NOT bother you. You’ve hated me all your life, but I’ve NEVER made your life worse or tried to command you. I want to say more: I didn’t need you as a brother, either. I had and have very good friends, who I could call my close people. Who would not betray me and would always support me.”       “Yeah, you always had lots of friends! You were the fuck lucky in everything! And you are tough! And your babies got a few lives and become unsinkable shit. At first, Edward stayed alive after my people wounded him. Also, he didn’t die after he was hit on the head against the wall. He just passed out for some time and then got up and went as if nothing happened! He could’ve died, but he is fucking alive!” Michael hums quietly with rolled eyes. “Then Terrence started a race, during which he could’ve died along with his fiancée. He wanted to get some drive and was driving like crazy. And now he avoided a threat to die because this blonde gal, the ex of your younger sonny, saved him. But now we found out that you survived where a person WOULD NOT HAVE HAD a chance to survive!”       Michael contemptuously looks at Edward, Terrence, Jamie, and Natalia, who has been standing aside and saying nothing for a long time, watching what’s happening with scared eyes.       “It seems like it’s a family thing!” Michael adds rudely.       “Yeah, I see you’ve done so much,” Jamie says rudely, breathing like an evil bull, struggling with a wish to kill Michael and literally getting kind of red from the anger and tension. “You’ve tried to kill my children several times.”       “Aren’t you surprised? You react too quietly.”       “I knew it. I knew everything you had planned. I have a very good source, thanks to which I could be aware of what was happening to my family. And by the way I also knew Edward changed his name and was pretending to be another person for a long time. I know he got into the circle of Terrence as his friend, not as his brother.”       “I thought so. Otherwise, you would’ve strangled me if you had heard how I tried to kill your babies for the first time.”       “I want to strangle you to death now. And I hate you more and more. You tried to deprive me of the last thing I have – my sons. I’m ready to close my eyes to all your past tricks and can forget how insolently you robbed me.” Jamie starts threatening Michael with a finger. “But don’t dare, hear me, don’t dare to hurt my children. If something happens to them, I shall turn you, asshole, to dust.”       “Ah, Jamie, how mutual everything is,” Michael replies with a slight smile. “I hate you to death, as well. And I hate your wife and your older sons, who are similar to you not only thanks to their appearance. They became non-educated scumbags. In the case of Edward, it’s not amazing because you didn’t care about educating this sucker. But I don’t know what Rebecca was doing when raising Terrence. But it’s clear that she loved him too much if he shouts about his awesomeness everywhere and acts as if he is afraid of nothing.”       “There is only one non-educated scumbag – it’s you, Michael! And my sons became decent men, who weren't deprived of feelings and emotions. Even if they make mistakes, it doesn’t make them worse. I don’t think someone, who always gets wrong must be ashamed of it.”       “Oh, close your dirty mouth,” Michael moans loudly and irritably. “I’m starting to get sick of you and what you say.”       “I would bet whose mouth is dirty!”       Michael sharply raises a hand with a contemptuous smirk to give Jamie a slap. Terrence wants to give a start and not to let his uncle do it, but his father perfectly avoids the hit, holding the hand that is a few centimeters away from his cheek, and sharply pushes his brother off.       “Don’t dare to touch me, jackass!” Jamie says rudely. “Don’t try to slap me again! I swear I will tear you into pieces!”       “Bluffing, brother, bluffing,” Michael smiles slyly. “You will do nothing to me. Because you are a coward.”       “Come on!” Jamie comes to Terrence confidently. “Terrence, give me the pistol!”       Waiting for no answer, Jamie takes the gun from Terrence’s hands. Michael tries to creep toward his brother from behind and attack him. However, Jamie sharply turns on him and points the pistol at his brother, making him ooh falsely with widely open eyes. While Terrence comes to Natalia and Edward standing aside, looks at them, and starts watching what’s happening along with them.       “Oh, geez!” Michael laughs ironically. “Did you all decide to threaten me with the pistol? Wave it in front of my nose with a severe gaze and pretend that you are about to shoot? Natalia, don’t you want to try to hold the pistol? You haven’t tried to yet! These three already held the gun – so, why don’t you do it?”       Maybe, Natalia would say something, but Jamie does it earlier, pointing the pistol at Michael with some kind of enjoyment and a wide smile on his face.       “How long I was waiting for this moment!” Jamie pronounces with enjoyment. “I always wanted to see it! Wanted to grab a pistol and point it at you! And I finally did it!”       “Listen, your attempts to treat me look funnily,” Michael laughs evilly, stroking his hair down with pride. “But while I can quietly watch you or your older sonny threaten me, I want to fall into hysteria from a laugh when this little cowardly boy Edward does it.”       “Close your dirty mouth, bastard!” Jamie cuts off with evil in his eyes, tightly squeezing the pistol in his hands. “You have made me as furious as nobody else had done before. Don’t make me turn into an animal and kill you.”       “Would you have the courage to kill your older brother?” Michael simpers contemptuously.       “I would do! I would have the pleasure to kill the bastard, who has poisoned my life and tried to deprive me of everything I had.”       “Come on, Jamie, it’s me, Michael, your beloved brother. Will you really dare to do it? You want your father and mother to disappoint in you and stop considering you their beloved sonny?”       “You have never been my beloved brother. If my brother was good, not a shameless bastard, who used any chance to harm me, I wouldn’t treat you so disgustingly. When I was a child, I didn’t understand your aggression and thought it would be gone, and we would become friends. But no! I started to hate you more and more every day because you were poisoning my life and making me feel like shit. I accepted the fact that you deprived me of the company, the house, and the money… The fact that you ruined both of my marriages. But the last drop was the fact that you began to attempt on my children. My older children, who do not HAVE TO DO with our conflict. You turned them against me. You dared to make a few attempts to kill them and turn them against each other! You wanted them to be the same enemies as you and me! Though, I always told myself that if I had many children, they’d never be enemies and would be friends. I wouldn’t have let them be jealous of each other and wish to rob or even kill each other. Rebecca wouldn’t have let it happen, as well.”       “You know, I understood that these two idiots can’t be turned against each other,” Michael says rudely. “When one gets a threat, another gets furious and stands by his fucking brother.”       “And I will never forgive you for that. For attempting on the untouchable thing – my sons. You could do anything to me, and I would close my eyes to that. But don’t dare… Hear me, asshole, don’t dare to hurt my children. I WILL CUT OFF YOUR HEAD IF AT LEAST ONE OF THEM SUFFERS BECAUSE OF YOU! And you will not dare to hurt their mother. If I know you or the bastards that are working for you did something to Rebecca, you will have to pay a very high cost. GOT IT, BASTARD?”       “Yeah, about Rebecca…” Michael smiles mysteriously, looking slyly at Jamie threatening him with the pistol. “Don’t you want to tell your sons what you’re hiding? Which secret that has to do with you and my sister-in-law they don’t know yet!”       “Close your mouth, Michael!” Jamie hisses. “CLOSE YOUR MOUTH! OTHERWISE, I WILL DO MY BEST FOR YOU TO SHUT UP! ONCE AND FOREVER!”       “Why are you so nervous, bro? I’m sure your babies would love to know what they’ve believed since childhood is not the truth.”       “I SAID, SHUT UP!”       “What are you talking about?” Edward wonders.       “What don’t we still know yet?” Terrence frowns slightly.       “Don’t listen to him, guys!” Jamie exclaims. “This bastard just went out of his mind in old age and says nobody the hell knows what!”       “What are you afraid of?” Michael smiles innocently. “Come on! Tell Terrence and Edward that you were a bigamist and are still married to Rebecca! Tell them your marriage hasn’t been canceled until the present, and you didn’t divorce her, as they still think.”       Silence immediately settles in the office. Terrence and Edward open their dumbfounded eyes widely and stare surprisingly at Jamie, who lowered the pistol.       “What?” Terrence and Edward get horrified at the same time.       “What?” Natalia pronounces much slower, being shocked by what she heard.       “Mom and Dad are still married?” Terrence wonders.       “Married!” Michael smiles slyly, crossing his arms over his chest. “I will say more: as your father was married when he married Isabella, it happens that his second marriage had no legal effect. So, Jamie has never been married to that woman, and he lived with her in de facto marriage relationships. They just lived together and raised their children.”       “It can’t be the truth!” Edward shakes his head. “Father and Mother are divorced! Nobody would’ve let Father marry for the second time if he hadn’t given proof for canceling the first marriage.”       “Oh, it can be, my dear! Have you and your brother never been surprised that your mother still has the last name of your father? The maiden name of Rebecca is Jonas, but her name is still Rebecca Catherine MacClife. Yes, of course, a woman has a right to keep her last name after divorce. But nobody usually wants anything related to her husband. So, they get their maiden name back.”       “And how will you prove that Mrs. MacClife is still married to Mr. MacClife?” Natalia wonders.       “Easy, my sweetheart…” Michael starts stroking his shin. “When my brother took his stuff and disappeared, Rebecca and he didn’t file for divorce. Jamie concluded a second marriage without canceling the first one. He somehow hid the fact that he was married. Isabella knew about Rebecca, but thought she was his ex-wife.”       Michael clears his throat quickly.       “But a few years later, I found Jamie. Before I did, I’d found out that the marriage of Terrence and Edward’s parents wasn’t canceled, even if they lived apart for many years. With the help of my familiars, I got documents that confirmed that Jamie MacClife and Rebecca Jonas were still spouses. They were not fake. I got them thanks to the member of the city hall’s staff where they filled documents for concluding a marriage.”       Michael smiles slyly.       “After meeting Isabella Thorn and getting on well with her, I told her everything and showed her the documents. Of course, she was shocked and went to court and demanded to annulate the second marriage and deprive Jamie of the right to meet Jeremy and William. She won that process. Of course, with my help. The second marriage of Jamie was annulled, and his children from Isabella stayed with their mother and have no right to see their father, at least until the legal age.”       Michael laughs evilly.       “So, that’s the story, my dears. I told you the truth.”       Being shocked by what they heard, Terrence and Edward say nothing for a few seconds and try to accept the fact that their parents are still married, looking at each other at some moment, and Natalia, who shakes her head.       “Father, how could you do it?” Edward wonders.       “I swear, I didn’t know I was still married,” Jamie excuses himself with pity in his eyes. “I thought Rebecca filed for. And I was so busy finding money and a home that I forgot about it!”       “Didn’t Mother say she didn’t file for divorce?” Terrence wonders.       “She confessed it when I told her what I learned from Isabella, who really left me. At first, that woman left home with Jeremy and William, but then she came back and told me to leave. So, I realized it wasn’t slander of my brother, but the clean truth.”       “Damn, I wouldn’t have thought you were a bigamist all this time!” Edward exclaims.       “How did you deceive everybody?” Terrence asks quietly. “Nobody would’ve let you marry again if you hadn’t canceled the previous marriage! Why didn’t Isabella know it before?”       “I didn’t try to do it on purpose,” Jamie replies. “Everything happened accidentally. It happened that I had lost all my identity documents some time before I met Isabella. That’s why I wasn’t able to get a job and could’ve had problems with the law. But when I told Isabella I lost all my documents, she helped me get the new ones. I had to get tons of papers. In order for everything to end quickly, that woman used the help of her good familiars, who checked nothing. The new documents had no record of a wife. But if I prove I’m still married to your mother, this record will appear in all my documents. I only need a marriage certificate.”       “I did say money decided everything,” Michael notices confidently, chuckling quietly. “Ready to bet that Isabella even had to pay some people for you to get the new documents quickly, without problems. Even if they are her familiars. If you gave some people money, they’d do anything for you for a few days.”       “So, is Father still married to Mother?” Terrence asks hesitantly.       “Yeah! It’s so interesting, huh? And as you see, Terrence, your father is not an angel and has committed tons of sins. Just like you. You two are worth each other. You almost also made your fiancée experience domestic violence. So, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.”       “You can’t know what happened between my fiancée and me! Even the all-known bastard Simon Ringer could not know it! Because he was not a witness of our fights and made conclusions that he wanted to make.”       “At least, a familiar man of my friend said he saw you and your fiancée fighting at a club where you came by one: she came alone, but you came with a sweet blonde. I heard you were screaming like crazy and were ready to kill each other. So, knowing that, I make conclusions that your fiancée had to tolerate much from you somehow.”       “It’s none of your business!” Natalia throws rudely. “Everything that happened between them is their personal business! And you should not stick your nose in what you DO NOT have to do with!”       “I don’t care! I’m just saying what I know.”       “Don’t you know too much?” Edward asks coldly and smirks contemptuously. “Did you like watching someone’s life so much that you tasted it and decided to put your nose in everything? You have never had your own personal life and decided to watch someone’s one and ruin it! Good, Michael, good!”       “You better shut up, pathetic puppy!” Michael sniffs and starts threatening Edward with a finger. “You can’t judge me because you are by far not perfect!”       “Maybe. But I am A THOUSAND times better than you. I will never do what you will do with easiness.”       “Because you are a cowardly, weak boy! A pathetic, worthless barking puppy that has never done anything good. You live just because your mother and father didn’t want to kill you before your birth.”       “Don’t dare to call him a puppy, bastard!” Jamie gets much more furious. “I will not let you insult anyone from my sons!”       “I call them what I want!”       “You are asking for GREAT trouble. You do want me to kill you! YOU WANT IT?”       “What can you do, brainless psycho?” Michael asks rudely. “Wave your hands and scream at me! You didn’t even kill me! Just like your pathetic sons! One of whom is too brave and sassy, and another is too cowardly and insecure.”       “It’s not the end, Michael, I will deal with you!”       “Leave your threats with you! Soon, you, your wife, your sons, and their girls will die.” Michael points his finger at Terrence, Natalia, and Edward. “I would’ve killed these three with pleasure and wouldn’t have waited for my morons to bring the fiancé of your eldest sonny here. But you came and RUINED ALL MY PLANS! I THOUGHT YOU DIED, BUT YOU, SCUMBAG, ARE ALIVE!”       “What would you get?” Edward asks rudely, giving a start sharply, and comes closer to Michael. “What’s the point in killing us? The inheritance is in your hands! So, I think you could leave us alone and live your worthless life. Or are you just revenging on Father for allegedly ruining your life? I think YOU did ruin the lives of HIM and HIS CLOSE PEOPLE, not vice versa!”       “Not just me, Edward,” Michael smiles slyly and crosses his arms over his chest, looking at Edward with contempt in his eyes. “You ruined his life, as well. And I mean not only what kind of son you were. I mean the mistakes you have made. The way in which you made your family think you needed their money and wealth.”       “Close your mouth.”       “Come on, my dear. We both know well what you did when you were nineteen. Did you forget what happened on January 19th, 2010?”       Edward gets sharply white and nervous enough with a feeling that his heart is beating much faster. While his eyes start running from one side to another.       “What?” Jamie resents, clenching his hands into fists so tightly that his knuckles get white. “What are you talking about? What kind of dirty trick do you want to do? What do you want to change my son for?”       “Nothing special,” Michael shrugs with an innocent smile. “I just want to say Edward killed your best friend, Nicolas Carter, six years ago.”       Silence immediately settles in the office, which might be broken only by the heavy, loud breath of everybody, who gets horrified after these words.       “What?” Natalia, Terrence, and Jamie wonder, opening their eyes widely.       “What are you talking about?” Terrence resents and knocks at his temple with his finger. “Did you get out of your mind? You are slandering Edward again!”       “You are lying!” Natalia yells with despair. “Edward is not a killer! This man can kill nobody! And you saw it well!”       “How did you actually dare to say it?” Jamie resents loudly, showing his contemptuous grin. “How do you, asshole, dare to blame Edward for what he didn’t do? Are you the fuck crazy?”       “I’m not blaming, Jamie, I’m telling you the truth,” Michael smiles innocently. “Didn’t you want to find a killer of Nick? Your best friend, who was like your brother!”       Michael points at Edward, who has to get blush for the others again, being terribly afraid that he will surely become a horrible man and lose their trust forever.       “I found him! He is standing in front of you! Here’s the killer of Nicolas! Your sonny, Edward, who probably decided to revenge you for giving a fuck about him and making him your burden.”       “You are lying, LYING!” Jamie screams with evil in his eyes. “I believe none of your words! Edward did not kill Nick! YOU ARE SLANDERING HIM!”       “Stop making him ashamed!” Natalia begs loudly. “Whatever you say, I will not believe Edward killed someone! I believe in him and know that he is not a killer!”       “My brother couldn’t do it!” Terrence says confidently. “You just want to make us disappointed in Edward and turn our backs on him.”       “Alright, listen to me then,” Michael says with a sly smile. “Edward was nineteen when Nicolas was killed. The murder happened on January, 19th, 2010. This guy was caught in a crime and got arrested on a murder charge. A pistol was also found at the crime place, and there were fingerprints on it. Experts compared them with Edward’s fingerprints and found out that they were the same. The boy was in prison for two weeks and was questioned several times. But my nephew denied his fault hard and said he killed nobody. Though, nobody believed him because there were his fingerprints on the gun.”       Michael starts slowly walking in circles in the office before the eyes of the shocked Jamie, Natalia, and Terrence.       “Maybe, this boy would have waited for the trial and gotten his sentence. But after talking to the investigator, whom I knew, I decided to help Edward a little. I made bail for a great enough amount of money. And Edward was released. But the investigator made him sign the undertaking not to leave the country and reminded him that if proof of his innocence wasn’t found, he would go to prison. Also, I gave him a little bribe for temporarily suspending the investigation of the murder of Nicolas. And it happens that your beloved Edward is still under charge and will be on trial, no matter if he killed Nicolas or not. He is featured in this case, and he will be found guilty, or all the charges will be dropped.”       Meanwhile, Natalia recalls the everyday book that she found in the room where she was locked, and the talk of Eugene and Xavier. She makes sure that those people know the true story, and that the notes in the diary belonged to Jamie.       “Oh, gosh…” Natalia whispers, running her hand over the necklace hidden underneath her shirt. “So, the note in the diary was made by Jamie MacClife, and the talk of those two was the truth…”       “What?” Terrence hears Natalia’s words, frowns slightly, and glances at her. “What diary? What are you talking about?”       “The diary of your father. I found it among the unnecessary things after I was locked in the room. And I read it for curiosity… There was a note that said about the death of a friend of the diary’s owner. A certain Nicolas Carter. The note was taken on January, 24th, 2010.”       “A few days later after the murder?”       “Exactly! On that day, his funeral should’ve taken place. I remember the younger sister of Nicolas being mentioned. And the police didn’t work hard on the investigation of the murder. There were no suspected people.”       “And what about Edward? Wasn’t he mentioned in that note?”       “No, there was no word about him! But the next day, I heard the talk of Wainwright and a certain man. They talked about Michael’s plans to bring Raquelle and you here, and then started talking about Edward Lockhart being actually Edward MacClife, who killed the person. They said what your uncle did. But without details. Eugene said Michael told him about it, but he was silent about everything.”       “Damn!” Terrence resent. “Did Uncle kill that Nicolas, but decide to blame Edward? I don’t believe my brother did that! I will never do it! The one, who would’ve killed someone, wouldn’t have been shaking when seeing a gun.”       “I don’t believe it, either,” Natalia agrees confidently. “And I will not do it! Edward doesn’t look like a killer. And just because he ended up in the crime place doesn’t mean he was guilty of the murder. What if that guy just took the gun when the police came there?”       “If the murder happened in a place where there were no witnesses, who, as I understand, weren’t there, it would be very hard to prove that Edward killed that man. I don’t understand why the police thought he killed that man. Maybe, he was just passing by and saw Nicolas’ corpse and the pistol.”       “Hey, it’s amazing that the killer left the gun there. They were supposed to take it.”       “Right… Anyway, the murder wasn’t committed by Edward.”       “It’s slander! Edward was cruelly slandered! It’s an open lie! They couldn’t find a real killer and decided to make him suspicious!”       “Yeah, I agree.”       “Why are you silent, Edward?” Michael asks, crossing his arm over his chest, while Edward says nothing and inclines his head with a fear of looking into someone’s eyes. “Do you have nothing to say? Or are you ashamed to confess the murder to your father? Will you keep pretending to be an innocent lamb after everybody has discovered your secret? That you were hiding for ages! Pretending that you literally faint from fear when you hold a cold weapon?”       “Edward, how could you?” Jamie shakes his head, looking at Edward with pity in his overwhelmed eyes. “How could you do that? How did you dare to kill the one, who did nothing to you? Why?”       “Yeah, this boy went too far, trying to get someone’s attention. He started with innocent jokes and ended with such a cruel murder. They said Nicolas got serious traumas that caused his death. His corpse was bloody. An ambulance would’ve hardly saved him if they’d come there shortly.”       “Gosh, what you did!” Jamie wonders with horror in his eyes. “Do you understand I lost the one, who was like my brother? I could trust him with all my secrets! Nicolas was one of my closest people. Nobody understood me better than he did! But you deprived me of my close person! You killed him!”       “That’s what a lack of attention, care, and love of a father and a mother leads to. Someone drinks, someone takes drugs, but your little sonny became a killer. A thirsty blood killer.”       “How awful… My God…”       “I don’t understand how he has actually lived with this sin for ages. And he hasn’t thought of killing himself from shame. Well… Or he is actually not ashamed of depriving you of your best friend.”       “That was cruel! You disappointed me a lot, Edward. And if it’s the truth, I will really start to despise you and regret your birth. I would have never thought my son… My own child would become a killer! The killer of my best friend!”       “You see, Jamie, what your sonny is made of. You were protecting him and saying he was a sweet and innocent angel.” Michael glances at Terrence and Natalia. “And how hard you two were protecting him. Now you should think better before you tell people about your love and pride for him. Edward is not holy. And honestly, I regret not telling you everything earlier. Maybe, it would’ve washed your brains, and you wouldn’t have been protecting this killer.”       “Why did you do this to me, Edward?” Jamie wonders. “Did you really decide to take revenge on me for not giving you enough attention? To take revenge on your father? I could expect anything from you, but not that. I never thought you would become a killer… Never…”       “Sadly, it’s the truth, brother,” Michael pretends to feel sorry. “I understand that it’s very hurtful for you, and you are regretting the fact that you and Rebecca didn’t go to the abortion. But if your son is silent, he doesn’t deny his fault. The killer of Nicolas Carter is your younger son from Rebecca.”       “No, no, Father, please, don’t believe this bastard,” Terrence begs, looking at Jamie with widely open eyes. “He is turning you against Edward. It’s not the truth! He killed nobody! I don’t believe it! My brother couldn’t do that! Don’t believe him, Dad, I'm begging you…”       “Edward, please, say just something,” Natalia begs in a shaking voice, closing her mouth with her hands and holding down tears coming to her eyes. “Prove to everybody that this man is lying. Don’t let Michael insult and humiliate you again. Please, don’t let your father believe this lie!”       “Edward, will you say something or not?” Jamie asks irritably, getting more disappointed in Edward. “Will you the fuck explain what it means? Who am I talking to? Edward!”       “Do you think a killer will confess that they killed someone?” Michael wonders. “Come on, Jamie, no killer confesses it! Even if you beat your sonny and start screaming at him, he will deny everything. Nevertheless, I finally told you the truth that Edward was afraid to reveal so badly.”       “If you don’t explain why you did it, I swear I will never call you my son. And when your mother knows it, she will also turn her back on you. You will die for us if we know our child has become a killer. We will think you are nobody to us. I’m not kidding, Edward! I swear on my late parents’ grave, if it’s the truth, you can forget you have a family.”       Either Natalia’s begs, or Jamie’s claim has a shocking effect on Edward. Breathing heavily enough, being too nervous and looking white from horror, the man moves his widely open eyes full of horror to his father and shakes his head sharply.       “No!” Edward screams with despair in a high voice. “No, Father! I swear on my life, I killed nobody! It’s slander! I killed nobody! Killed nobody!”       “Stop denying it, Edward,” Michael says gloomily. “Find the courage to confess to your father, brother, and ex-girlfriend that you killed the man and might go to prison for ages if the police started investigating the case again. Stop being cowardly and weak, you fucking milksop!”       “It’s not the truth! I killed nobody! Nobody!”       “I never thought I would say it, but I agree with Michael,” Jamie says coldly. “Stop being a coward and confess everything!”       “Please, Dad, trust me,” Edward begs with pity in his half-wet eyes. “I did not kill Nicolas! I was in prison for two weeks for nothing!”       “But you were caught at the place of the crime with a pistol in your hands. The fingerprints on the gun are yours. So, you are a killer! The killer of my best friend!”       “No, don’t say so, please!” Edward looks at Jamie, Natalia, and Terrence with a gaze full of pity with a heavy breath. “Please, don’t listen to Uncle Michael! I would never kill someone! Terrence, Natalia! You are the witnesses! At least you believe in my innocence. I’m guilty of nothing!”       “Listen, Edward, I understand that recognizing your fault for these things is hard,” Jamie says quietly. “But is everything we just heard not proof of your fault? The charges haven’t been dropped off you! You may go to prison if you killed Nick!”       “You just don’t know the truth!” Edward says with despair, looking at everybody scarily. “I can prove that I killed nobody! I have proof of my innocence! Maybe, it’s not quite irrefutable, but still…”       “Huh!” Michael rolls his eyes. “How are you going to do it? Start crying like a sentimental girl? Huh! I doubt your father, brother, and ex-girlfriend will believe you! Jamie began to disappoint in you and said he would reject you as his son.”       “I can tell you what actually happened on that day. Tell you how I ended up at the crime place, and why the police thought I was the killer. I can’t hide this anymore… And I'm ready to open the cards… To reveal the secret that I was ashamed to tell someone.”       “Oh, don’t try to pity us!” Michael throws gloomily. “You’re the only one to be able to cry like a weak girl. Along with your sensitive ex.”       “I’m not pitying you. And actually, I’m not going to tell you something. I want to say everything to those I love.”       “Nobody will believe you. Whatever you say, it will look like an attempt to excuse yourself and hide the truth. That made you obey me for some time and point the pistol at your brother. You got so scared that the secret of your dark past would be revealed. It used to be a perfect reason to blackmail you. But now I don’t need it.”       “Damn, close your fucking mouth at least for five minutes!” Terrence demands rudely. “We don’t care about what you want to say to us. And I will tell you more: we don’t and will not believe that Edward had to do with that murder.”       “I’m really not guilty,” Edward nods and looks at Jamie, Terrence, and Natalia, turning his back on Michael. “Father, Terrence, Natalia, please, listen to me! I can explain everything! You can turn your back on me if you want, but listen to me and find out who really killed Nicolas Carter.”       Natalia comes to Edward confidently and caresses his forearms softly, looking into his eyes with a slight, encouraging smile.       “Speak, Edward,” Natalia says quietly. “Whatever happened then, we will be by your side.”       “Don’t worry, Edward, we will understand you,” Terrence promises, coming to Natalia and looking at Edward with sadness in his eyes. “Don’t be so nervous. Try to calm down and tell us everything quietly.”       While everybody takes their breath away, Edward, looking excited and shaking strongly enough, swallows up nervously and moves his scared gaze to Jamie, who looks at him gloomily with his arms crossed over his chest. Michael put his hands on his hips, sometimes smirking evilly with the thought that his nephew would not prove his innocence. But a few seconds later, after putting himself together, Edward looks hesitantly at Natalia and Terrence nodding at a different time. The man sharply exhales and starts speaking hesitantly, locking his hands tightly with a heavy breath and tension in his whole body:       “I was really nineteen. I was working as a delivery guy and delivering some stuff from online stores…”       “Excuse me, I'm gonna stop you for a second!” Terrence exclaims. “Today, we talked about it! So, did you avoid that talk because you didn’t wanna tell me about the murder?”       “Yes, it’s the truth, but I will explain it later.” Edward shakes his head sharply to move a couple of strands off his hair. “So… On the murder day, I was going from work to home… With my friend. A young guy that left his parents’ home. We quickly got on well and always left the work together, even though we lived in different places…”       Edward says nothing for two seconds to calm down a little because his voice is shaking strongly, and then he exhales sharply and keeps speaking:       “On that fateful day, my friend and I were going home together. Where we always went. That place was quiet and desert, but not so dangerous. It was quite a late time… The lights were turned on… And at some moment, I looked aside and saw a few men standing not far from the path, on which we were going.”       

***

      January 19th 2010.       Two young guys are going on the dark street lighted up with lamps. One is tall and thin, with a cute face and a thick head of black hair. Another is tough, lower than his friend, and has brown hair. The two are wearing shabby old jeans: blue for one and dark blue for another. The black-haired guy is wearing a dark t-shirt and an old, shabby denim jacket. And the owner of brown hair is wearing a simple gray sweater with half-rolled sleeves. The first one has a thick fridge that makes him much younger, covers his forehead, and literally reaches his eyelashes. And the other has very short hairs on his temples and the back of his head, but it’s much longer and raised at the roots.       The young men are going home after a long work day. Today was especially hard because they received too many orders and got exhausted while delivering everything. After such a long load, they want to go home as soon as possible, eat, take a shower, and fall on the bed. The guys are slowly going down some path, talking about something, joking much, and laughing, not even thinking about making the mood worse by talking about claims from clients. They always go on this way, going to the center of the city, where they say goodbye and go home. But not tonight…       At some moment, the black-haired guy at the age of nineteen gets a wish to distract and look forward. He was thrilled with laughter from a joke from his friend and could not literally breathe well. But when the boy looks forward, he immediately stops smiling, stops sharply, and sets his widely open eyes into the distance.       “Edward, what’s up?” the guy with brown hair asks anxiously and waves his hand in front of the face of the boy named Edward. “Are you okay, dude? Why did you stop?”       “Look there, Kevin!” Edward says with horror in his eyes, not stopping looking into the distance and pointing at the side.       Kevin frowns slightly, but looks at what Edward set his dumbfounded eyes on. At first, the guy sees nothing and wants to answer his friend, but then he sees something horrible and squints slightly.       “Holy shit!” Kevin gets horrified. “Is someone getting killed?”       “Yes, look how many men surrounded someone! There are three of them! Three!”       Edward and Kevin see a short man surrounded by three men. One of whom presses his victim against the wall and squeezes his throat strongly. That’s why he cannot breathe. The second one is threatening him with a pistol, and the third one is using a knife. The victim of the criminals with dark hair and little bald paths on his hips is about forty or forty-five years old. He is wearing black pants, a dark red shirt, and a black jacket with a hood. He looks like he is by far not the poorest man and definitely earns a lot of money.       “I wonder, what do they need from that man?” Kevin wonders. “Wanna steal money? He is not poor at first sight. He definitely has money.”       “He’s adult at first sight…” Edward assumes. “And those bandits are young…”       “Yeah, they’re too young, unlike that man…”       “Listen, Kev…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully. “I think I know that man.”       “What man?”       “The one, who is getting strangled. I know him.”       “What?” Kevin moves his surprised gaze to Edward. “But how?”       “That’s the friend of my father,” Edward says excitedly, moving his little dumbfounded gaze to Kevin. “His name is Nicolas Carter. That man was often at the house where I used to live with my father, stepmother, and half-brothers.”       “Erm…” Kevin shakes his head sharply. “Wait, wait, Ed… Are you sure that’s a friend of your father? What if you’re wrong? Maybe, the man is just similar to him! How can you see if you’re far from there? You got a vision like an eagle’s one?”       “No, dude!” Edward swallows up nervously, not moving his overwhelming gaze off what’s happening a few meters away from him. “I know that man and can’t be wrong.”       “Okay, but what about the men, who are threatening him?”       “I can’t be sure, but one of them seems familiar to me. But I can’t remember where I saw him.”       “He knows your father?”       “I don’t know. I can only say that their victim is a friend of Father. He’s a good man. Father always said very good things about him. And my stepmother got on well with him when he introduced them to each other.”       “Okay…”       Meanwhile, the man named Nicolas says something to those, who are threatening him, waving his hands sharply and kind of starting a cruel argument with them.       “Get off me! I’m going to do nothing! Leave me alone! I DID NOT HAVE AND DO NOT HAVE WHAT YOU WANT!”       One of the men with a very rude appearance smashes his fist against Nicolas’s yawl as strongly as possible. That’s why the man almost falls to the ground. And then the criminal does it several times, looking at Nicolas with crazy, widely open eyes. Seeing that the situation is dangerous, Kevin looks around quickly and decides that he and his friend Edward should hide somewhere and not let the criminals know they are here.       “Listen, let’s hide and watch them,” Kevin suggests. “Getting problems would be too much. I don’t want them to see us and start to beat us, as well.”       Kevin tightly grabs Edward under an arm and takes him aside. The guys run to the almost broken brick wall that is placed near them, hide behind it and start watching what’s happening a few meters away from them with scared eyes.       “I wonder, how didn’t Nicolas please those men?” Edward frowns slightly. “What’s happening between them? Why is someone threatening that man?”       “It seems like your father’s friend has serious problems,” Kevin assumes, seeing one of the criminals cruelly beating Nicolas with his legs and hands, while the victim is trying to protect himself but is not able to be so fast due to his by far not young age.       “STOP!” Nicolas begs loudly, hysterical, as he closes his face with his hands. “NO! STOP!”       “Yeah…” Edward pronounces with anxiety, exhaling sharply. “He got problems…”       “Hey, didn’t your father ever talk to Nicolas about his problems?” Kevin asks. “What if he knew about it and tried to help him somehow?”       “I told you about Father! He wasn’t even pleased to say, ‘Hello’. But you want me to be aware of his business with Nicolas.”       “Well, maybe, you barely heard something? You were playing a spy and listened to the talks of your father and stepmother!”       “No, I know nothing about it.”       “Sorry… We could know what happened.”       “Father only cares about one thing – the problem with my uncle Michael. They have a very tense relationship. I remember that every time he went to our home, Father always confronted him and even gave him some things.”       “Does Nicolas know your uncle? Maybe, they have some ups and downs?”       “He does, but he doesn’t get on well with him. And… Second…”       Edward sharply falls into silence and starts to lock at the man, who takes a pistol from one of his friends and starts threatening Nicolas with it. The guy starts to think more and more that he saw that stranger in black with a very rude face and eyes full of evil.       “Why did you fall into silence?” Kevin frowns slightly. “Keep going if you started!”       “That man with the pistol!” Edward exclaims excitedly. “That’s the one, who seems familiar to me! I’ve seen him before! His face is too familiar! As ugly as Uncle’s.”       “Listen, MacClife, if that man is a friend of your father, what if those men are threatening him because of Michael?” Kevin assumes thoughtfully. “You said your father and uncle hated each other so much that they couldn’t be in the same room.”       “Uncle? Why do you think so?”       “I don’t say they are all connected! But what if there is at least one pal of your uncle among them? Maybe, Nicolas really has some ups and downs with your uncle and his pal.”       “But they rarely speak. They know each other, but they don’t meet as often as Father meets Nicolas.”       “What if I’m right? What if your uncle wanted to get some money, but that man is far not poor. And if Nicolas gets into some shit and has great problems with Michael, his money could be the reason for what we’re watching.”       “Wanna say those men are getting money outta him?”       “You said your uncle loved money too much, even if he got enough.”       “I’d bet it’s his money,” Edward blunts, rolling his eyes. “I heard Father say that Uncle was freaking stupid and would never reach anything thanks to his brains.”       “Doesn’t his money belong to him?”       “I don’t doubt it. And I’m gonna find it out. I know much about this story, but I wanna know everything. Everything that Father never told me.”       “You need it?”       “I do! If Uncle really stole the money, he must give it back to Father. And his pals, who dance attendance upon him, will also give everything to the last cent. Because it’s not their money.”       “Oh, Edward, you are getting into trouble…”       “My family will say ‘thank you’ to me for…” Edward sharply falls into silence for two seconds and shakes as if he gets a strong electric shock. “Minute! Kevin, you’re a genius! Right! I’m a brainless idiot! Why didn’t I guess it before?”       “Okay, what did you come up with?” Kevin asks gloomily, crossing his arms over his chest. “Speak out!”       “I just recalled who that person with the pistol is! That man really has to do with my uncle! He is one of his accomplices!”       “C’mon, really?”       “His name is Eric! Eric Brown! The snake that kisses Uncle’s legs and is ready to do anything for his old ass!”       “Do you know everybody, who is a part of your uncle’s gang?”       “Not everybody, but many of them. And that deadbeat was always near Uncle when I was at Michael’s house several times. He is kind of a servant! Or a personal bodyguard!”       “So, is the man, who has to do with your uncle and literally licks his ass, threatening Nicolas?”       “Exactly!”       “So, everything fits then!” Kevin slightly pushes Edward on the hip. “That man didn’t just please your uncle, and Michael decided to get off him, telling Eric to scare the friend of your uncle.”       “Yeah, but what could connect that man, my father, and my uncle?”       “Who knows. But you see everything.” Kevin points at the gang of criminals, who are threatening Nicolas with a gun, strangling him, beating him, and screaming at him, while he is trying to protect himself verbally. “Here’s what’s happening there.”       “Yeah, serious… No, of course, I know that Father and Uncle fight like a cat and a dog, but…”       At this moment, Edward and Kevin hear a loud shot that scares them. The person with the pistol named Eric shoots shamelessly at the abdomen of Nicolas, who is pressed to the wall by his friends and is tried to be strangled. The victim screams loudly with his face winced, feeling the unbearable pain, tightly grabbing his stomach and starting to bleed strongly, and immediately falls to the ground.       “No!” Edward and Kevin get horrified with their dumbfounded eyes, closing their mouths with both hands and barely holding down a wish to scream from horror.       “They shot at him,” Edward pronounces in a shaking voice.       “May the sky fall over me!” Kevin shakes his head with his dumbfounded eyes set on the bleeding Nicolas. “I’m shocked!”       “My gosh, what those monsters are doing!” Edward gets horrified, tightly grabbing his hair and starting to shake strongly. “Though, I’m not surprised… Eric is an asshole. The same shameless bastard as Uncle.”       “Damn, there are real jackasses! No, maybe, I’m just lucky I’m not surrounded by some shit, and I’m sure about those I speak closely with. But still…”       “But I’ve always known there was this type of person.”       “Sadly, it’s…”       Seeing Nicolas is still alive, lying on the damp, dirty ground, doubling over from the hellish pain in his stomach and bleeding, Eric grabs the bleeding man and starts to say something to him, setting his furious gaze full of hate and evil. But that man gets obsessed with such a strong pain from the bullet in his stomach that he cannot think, hear or speak. Everything he can do is wince from pain, shout whenever his offenders give him hits on his whole body, and hold his stomach, from which blood is getting out in the pool and taking his strength away.       “Stop, Eric…” Nicolas pronounces with despair and splits the blood he is choking with. “Please… Stop…”       “SHUT UP, BASTARD!” Eric screams at the top of his lungs, still beating Nicolas strongly with his legs and hands along with his friends.       “Poor Nicolas…” Edward gets horrified, breathing heavily enough from the excitement. “This man has never shown disrespect to me, Father, Isabella, and my brothers. He’s always been very nice to me and asked how I’m doing. At least someone cared about me. You see… A stranger cared about me much more than my own family.”       “Don’t say it, Ed!” Kevin protests. “Your family loves you! And they care about you!”       “Yeah, care…”       “Hey, you should let your father know about you. He’s probably looking for you, but you ran away from home and don’t wanna talk to him.”       “Don’t worry, Kev, he’s terribly happy he got off me. Father dreamed of the day I’d get out and let him live with his new family. For him, I’ve always been a reminder of his past. That wasn’t definitely nice.”       “Stop, you’re unfair to him.”       “Unfair?” Edward chuckles quietly. “As if he’s always been fair to me! He treated me like a piece of shit and gave me attention only when I did bad things. To scream at me and say I gave him problems.”       “Oh, I don’t know…”       The guys stop talking because they see how Eric, who grabbed his victim by the collar and tries to find out something, gets furious because of the silence and the indifferent reaction. He screams some bad words at the top of his lungs toward the wounded Nicolas. And then, still holding the man by the collar with one hand, he gives him a strong slap with another hand. Then again, again and again… Next, Brown starts beating his victim with his fists and legs. Gives him a strong hit in the bleeding stomach. But it does not make his victim say at least one word. Mr. Carter keeps getting tortured by pain, bleeding with blood that is getting out of his stomach and mouth. After waiting for a while, Eric slaps the wounded man in the face as strongly as possible and beats him with his legs several times.       At some moment, Brown takes the pistol from one of his friends and shoots at the victim again… On his forearm. They hear a quiet shout from Nicolas full of despair sounds, while he tries to get up a little but cannot do it, as he is obsessed with strong dizziness and feels that he cannot breathe because something is pressing on his chest. Besides, one of the criminals squeezes his throat strongly again. Nicolas starts to feel that the world is getting less clear, closing his almost dead eyes at times.       “Fuck, how cruelly they’re treating him!” Kevin gets horrified, closing his mouth with a hand and shaking his head with widely open eyes. “I never thought I’d see someone trying to kill someone.”       “It seems like I won’t sleep tonight,” Edward assumes, shaking strongly from fear and being shocked by what he saw probably a little more because he is more sensitive and vulnerable than Kevin. “I won’t be able to forget this horror movie for a long time.”       “Yeah, we thought this street was quiet. Fuck! I think we should better choose a different way. Otherwise, we might get into the same shit and die from a bullet in our foreheads.”       “That’s right,” Edward, breathing heavily, glances at his strongly shaking hands. “But since we’re here, we must do something. Otherwise, they will bring him to death! Nicolas doesn’t deserve that!”       Edward tries to leave the runaway and run to the crime men to help Nicolas, but Kevin sharply grabs him by the wrist and pulls on himself.       “Where are you going, brainless idiot?” Kevin asks with horror in his eyes. “What if they kill you, as well? Think about what you’re doing a little!”       “But we can’t watch that quietly!” Edward throws his hands up sharply. “That man is a friend of my father and is tried to be killed by Uncle’s accomplice! That fucking Eric, who must burn in hell alongside my uncle!”       “I know, but if we show up now, we’ll be dead. Those men will be beating you and me. But you know, I wouldn’t like to die. I’m only eighteen! I ain’t gonna give my life because of your stupid recklessness and wish to meddle in real danger.”       “I can’t stay here and hide like a coward! That man is dying! We’ve gotta help him! Otherwise, they will kill him!”       “Let’s better wait for them to get out. And then come to the man and call an ambulance.”       “Shit, shit, shit!” Edward swears excitedly. “The person is tried to be killed before my eyes. A friend of my father. But I’m sitting here and doing nothing! It’s unfair!”       “Stop, MacClife! Stay here and don’t show up if you don’t want those men to kick your ass.”       Edward moans with closed eyes and keeps excitedly watching what’s happening. Meanwhile, the criminals go too far and keep beating their victim much crueler on his face, legs, and stomach. While he lost consciousness. The three spend a few seconds beating the man that is lying on the damp ground and literally drowning in his own blood that is getting out of the wound on his arm, stomach, and mouth. They are so busy with this thing that one of the crime men lets the pistol go and forgets about it.       “Get it, asshole, get it!” Eric’s furious roar sounds, while he is strongly beating the helpless, bleeding Nicolas with his legs and hands. “Die, bastard, die!”       Closing their mouths with their hands or grabbing their hair with their fingers, the shaking and pale Edward and Kevin start shaking strongly from fear. Their widely open eyes full of horror, and their breath gets slower. At heart, the friends swear at themselves for sitting here and not trying to help the poor Nicolas because of fear that they might do the same to them. To be clear, Edward still wants to go and help, but Kevin does not let him do it, thinking it might be over badly for both of them.       But some time later, the gang of criminals stops beating the half-dead at-first-sight Nicolas and just watches him with hate and contempt for a few seconds, tightly clenching their hands into fists. At some moment, Eric squints down and claps his victim on his cheeks, but then he sharply gets up and glances at his friends.       “Alright, men, get out of here!” Eric orders confidently. “May this bastard die here. He has a little time to live.”       The one, who let the pistol go, beats the unconscious Nicolas on his stomach with a loud roar, sends him a contemptuous gaze, and leaves as well as his friends with his head proudly raised. And a few seconds later, the tracks of the crime men finally disappear.       After waiting for some time and making absolutely sure the criminals left, Edward and Kevin look at each other with horror in their eyes, leave their hideaway, and rush to Nicolas, beside whom they fall to their knees. While Edward tries to call a friend of his father and ask him something, Kevin starts to check the pulse on the victim’s neck and wrist.       “Mr. Carter!” Edward exclaims excitedly, shaking Nicolas by the shoulder. “Mr. Carter, you hear me? It’s me, Edward, the son of your friend, Jamie! Answer me! Please! Mr. Carter! Tell me something!”       Edward unsuccessfully tries to reach for the friend of his father. But a few seconds later, Kevin looks at his friend with dumbfounded, widely open eyes, getting much whiter and literally not believing what he wants to say.       “He is dead, Edward!” Kevin says with horror in his eyes. “Dead! No pulse!”       “What?” Edward opens his eyes widely and closes his mouth with his hands. “What you’re talking about!”       “He’s dead. I can’t feel the pulse on his neck and wrist.”       “No, no!” Edward grabs his hair tightly with his hands. “No, it can’t be the truth! They couldn’t beat him ‘till death! Nicolas can’t die! Father will not take it! This man is very close to him! He is almost like his brother!”       “I’m sorry, buddy,” Kevin says with sadness in his eyes. “But we can’t help him anymore. Sadly. Nicolas is dead.”       “No, I don’t believe it! I refuse to believe it!”       While Kevin inclines his head with true sadness on his face, Edward tries to feel the pulse of Nicolas’ neck. But sadly, he cannot also feel it and makes sure the friend of his father cannot be saved.       “No, Mr. Carter…” Edward pronounces in a shaking voice, shaking his head. “Father will be overwhelmed by the grief if he knows about your death…”       “I ain’t surprised he died,” Kevin says quietly, looking at the bloody corpse of Nicolas with horror. “You just look! This man is all in blood! Even if an ambulance came here right now, doctors would do nothing.”       “I know… And it all seems like a nightmare! I wanna wake up and realize it’s not the truth! That I didn’t see Nicolas being killed! It’s just madness! I can’t!”       Barely being able to breathe because something is pressing on his chest, Edward looks at the dead Nicolas or Kevin, who is not less shocked but looks more collected than his friend, with widely open eyes, shakes strongly from fear, and feels that his body is too tense from fear and horror.       “What are we gonna do, Ed?” Kevin asks hesitantly. “Leave him here?”       “No, we can’t leave him here,” Edward pronounces in a shaking voice, shaking his head. “I know he’s dead… But we can’t… Can’t…”       “We can call the police and tell them what happened. They’ll come here, take the corpse and investigate the murder.”       “I’m afraid, Kev. What if they don’t believe us?”       “Why? We will just tell them everything we saw, so they can catch that gang. Moreover, you know at least one of them. If that man is from your uncle’s band, you will just point at him, help the police get a sketch, and go away.”       “I dunno… I’m scared…”       “I don’t understand you, MacClife! You were gonna meddle and deal with those deadbeats, but now you put your tail between your legs and are afraid to tell cops what happened!”       “They may just not believe us. Do you think cops will believe little kids at the age of eighteen and nineteen and accept what they say?”       “They must listen to us! If decent people work in the police, they will listen to even a little ten-year-old child. Moreover, we are together. They’d believe us two, but wouldn’t believe you if you told them everything.”       “Oh, I don’t know, Spencer…” Edward sighs heavily and stops his eyes on the pistol lying next to the corpse. “Oh, look! It seems like they forgot the pistol! It was in Eric’s hands!”       Edward’s hand reaches for the gun and takes it. The guy starts looking at this from all sides, seeing some blood on it. While Kevin shakes and opens his dumbfounded eyes much wider.       “Hey, hey, c’mon!” Kevin jabs with horror and claps Edward sharply on the hands. “Put it in its place!”       “Listen, dude, that’s cool they left the weapon here,” Edward says thoughtfully and glances at Kevin. “Here’s the proof of killing Nicolas Carter! The pistol!”       “Idiot! Why did you the fuck take the gun? The pistol got your fingerprints! You may be made a suspect!”       “Why do you think so, Spencer? How could I be called a suspicious one if I killed nobody?”       “Super easy! Now cops will see you with the gun in your hands, drive you to the police station, get your fingerprints, check them, and find them on the pistol! That’s all! You will be put in a cage and charged with murder!”       “If we tell them the truth and say this pistol was lost by Eric Brown, nothing will happen to me.”       “Aha, nothing!” Kevin rolls his eyes. “You’re so stupid, MacClife! Stupid and fucking naive! You must have brains! Not a little boy anymore!”       “Fuck, why did Eric get so mad at Nicolas and kill him?” Edward frowns slightly, looking at the pistol and wrapping it in his hands. “I should find out what connected this man, Uncle, and Father. And why Uncle and Father hate each other so much. I should discover all the secrets hidden in the story of the MacClife family. I feel there are many secrets that are supposed to get me shocked.”       “Fuck, don’t meddle in this case, boy! I doubt it would lead to something good!”       “If I sit and do nothing, it will lead to nothing good.”       “Don’t pretend to be a hero. If you got out of the home to find your older brother and learn something about your mother, do this.”       “I know where to find him, but I need a reason to get closer to him. Remember, I can’t easily come to him and say he is my brother.”       “Yeah, I agree. But you may not meet him until the end of your life.”       “Early or late, I will get closer to my brother and mother. Maybe, they’d treat me better than my father. Who was hiding the truth about my mother and the fact that I had a sibling.”       “Oh, Edward, I don’t…”       The boys suddenly hear the sound of the police siren, which is getting louder and closer. And a few seconds later, Kevin and Edward can hear a man says something like, “Something happened here! I see a man! Go there faster! Find out what happened!” Then the friends scarily look at each other, starting to breathe much heavier and getting much whiter.       “Fuck, it’s the police!” Kevin gets horrified. “Hear the siren?”       “Yup…” Edward pronounces quietly. “They’re here…”       “Probably, they were passing by, saw the corpse, and decided to find out what happened.”       “Anyway, they’re coming to us. Look! Cops are leaving the car!”       “Excellent! We’ll tell them what happened and give a description of Eric.”       Edward says nothing for two seconds, but then he sharply moves his dumbfounded eyes to Kevin.       “Kevin, go away from here,” Edward begs excitedly.       “What?” Kevin gets horrified. “Leave?”       “Go. Leave me here.”       “MacClife, are you serious now?”       “Yes, Spencer, please, go away as far as possible!” Edward begs with pity in his eyes, still holding the pistol.       “Are you crazy? Kidding me? I will go nowhere! Don’t even hope!”       “Do what I’m telling you! Get up and run away if you don’t wanna get problems!”       “What about you?” Kevin asks with horror in widely open eyes.       “I’ll stay here! Tell the police about Eric and explain everything.”       “Who would believe you?”       “I won’t let you get into this shit. Having problems because of me would be too much. That deadbeat is sick. If he, his pals, or Uncle know about you, they can do something horrible to you. Though, I don’t want you to suffer because of them.”       “But you have the pistol in your hands! Cops will think you killed him!”       “I give a fuck. I can’t leave, but you shouldn’t end up in the police because of me! This situation has to do only with me and my family.”       “But, Ed…”       “Go, Kev, I’m begging you!” Edward begs with despair. “Go and don’t look back. Go home and try to forget this nightmare.”       “You’re sick, Edward! You really want to get into this shit? Who will save you if you become a part of this?”       “Save yourself, Kevin. Please. Go away before it’s too late. Before the cops see you.”       Kevin scarily looks at Edward for some time, while the black-haired boy persuades him to run away with gestures. But then Spencer hesitantly gets up and steps back from the corpse of Nicolas very closely. And then he starts getting faster and starts running, sometimes looking back and doubting his decision is right. Edward, being terribly excited, breathing heavily from strong excitement and shaking strongly from fear, stays alone with the friend of Jamie, still holding the pistol and looking at the corpse of the man with widely open eyes.       

***

      “Then we saw the police,” Edward says, not knowing what to do to his hands and being terribly excited. “I barely convinced my friend to run and stayed here. The policemen came to me later. Luckily, they didn’t see that guy. He hid just in time. They asked me what happened, and I said the man was killed before my eyes. But I was holding a pistol that those deadbeats forgot. The policemen saw it… They saw me being near the corpse with a gun in my hands.”       Edward exhales silently, relaxing his tense shoulders slightly.       “My friend was right when he told me that the police could’ve gotten me arrested. It really happened… They called a few more policemen and an ambulance. They examined the corpse and assumed he died after the gun wound on the stomach and arm that caused massive blood loss. Found documents of Nicolas Carter in the pockets of the dead man… Money, cards, a phone, and something else… And while someone was examining the corpse, the others were asking me about what happened, how I ended up there, and what I was doing. I quietly explained that I ended up there by chance, was going by, and saw that man being killed. But they didn’t believe me. I said I took it accidentally and killed nobody. But since nobody could confirm it, and the only witnesses ran away, I was taken to the police station. I didn’t lie and called my real data: name, last name, date of birth, and place of birth… And I eventually found out that the investigator, who got that case, knew Michael MacClife very well. He even asked me if that man was my relative, and I said I was his nephew. That man had been very rude to me, but after he heard it, he began to show much more aggression.”       Edward falls into silence to swallow up nervously, understanding it’s too hard for him to tell everything, but knowing he must do it.       “That investigator was questioning me and felt free to show disrespect for me… He even slapped me in the face two times… Insulted me, humiliated me… He wanted me to confess that I committed the murder. But if I had confirmed that fact, it would have been a lie… Because I killed nobody… Though, nobody believed me… They especially stopped believing me when they got my fingerprints. Compared them with those that were on the pistol… And… They were the same… It became a reason to put me in a cell… I didn’t come back home and didn’t go to work anymore… I tried to prove my innocence… But it made everything much worse… The investigator threatened to put me in prison for the murder and for the resistance to the police.”       Edward sighs with a shake, locking his fingers tightly and looking quite tense.       “I was in prison for two weeks. Those days seemed like endless torture. Time was going too slowly… I was questioned several times, but nobody believed me, even if I said the same things. The investigator began to exert psychological pressure on me to get the confession out of me… And he even raised a hand on me… Beat me as strongly as possible… I always had bruises… Besides, my cellmates were regularly beating me… They just disliked me. Those people beat me so strongly that I was beaten black-and-blue two weeks later. I could barely walk… I was exhausted morally and psychically… Those people got everything out of me and made me literally a half-alive corpse. I thought I’d die every day. Those people were stronger than me… I still remember everything that happened for the two weeks and can’t come to myself after that. I feel my mental health is still broken after the violence that I had to experience…”       Edward grabs his throat for two seconds, breathing a little heavily and understanding something is pressing on his chest. Jamie, Natalia, and Terrence get horrified by what they have heard, shaking their heads slightly, closing their mouths with their hands, and looking at the poor guy with widely open eyes. And the girl is crying quietly, not caring about the tears that are rolling down her cheeks and feeling that her heart is squeezing strongly.       “By the end of the two weeks, I started to accept the fact that they would be beating me every single day,” Edward says quietly. “But I was so desperate that I wanted to find a quiet place and kill myself. Hanging, swallowing tablets, cutting my veins, shooting… Anything! I felt unbearable! I was on edge! Close to a nervous breakdown! And I got horrified, thinking the same could’ve happened to my friend. The thought of saving him calmed me down a little. I would’ve rather been a victim than let my friend suffer.”       Edward, breathing heavily, glances slowly at Michael, who is not touched by the story of his nephew.       “And two weeks later, Uncle Michael came to the police. He talked to that sick investigator for a long time. Then someone came to me and said that man told them to bring me to his office. I thought he’d start torturing and beating me again. But no… The visit of Uncle to the police was a surprise for me. However, I was much more overwhelmed when the investigator said Uncle Michael made great bail for me, and I’d be released. He made me sign an undertaking not to leave the country and reminded me that I was still on the list of suspects and would be put in prison again when the courting hearing on the murder of Nicolas Carter takes place. I let him know that I understood everything and left that hellish place… And then I went home… Being half-dead… With bruises, with pain in my body, with broken mental health, and horrible memories… I spent a lot of time stopping to think of suicide and finding the strength to live. And I’m still living… Though, all those horrible memories are still alive in my mind… And I often see nightmares about that time… Besides, I lost my job. Not because I was in prison. Because I allegedly gave a damn about my duty.”       Edward swallows up nervously and exhales slowly with closed eyes, shaking strongly enough and feeling his body is tense.       “You’re probably wondering why I am still free. It’s easy! Uncle Michael really gave the investigator bribery, so he suspended the investigation. Thus, the real killer of Nicolas has not paid for that… And as the case hasn’t been closed, I’m still under suspicion. Under undertaking not to leave the country… I’m not allowed to leave the USA… And if the investigation is renewed again, I may get a sentence. Even if the killer is arrested, I will be convicted anyway. I can do nothing with it… Because I’m featured in this case… And… If you’re interested, I change my appearance and name to Edward Lockhart after I left prison. I thought nobody would know about that case. Because… They arrested MacClife… But I became Lockhart. It was official. My documents are not fake. Yes, I had to work hard to find the money to pay for changing my name, but I managed to do it.”       Edward scarily looks at Jamie, Terrence, and Natalia with the hope that they will believe him. And the man can see a great shock in the eyes of every one of them. He sees his ex-girlfriend crying quietly, shaking, and closing her mouth with her hands. He sees his older brother shaking his head with widely open eyes. He sees his father getting softer and starting to realize that his son does not have to do with the murder of his best friend.       “I can’t believe it…” Terrence pronounces in a low voice.       “My God, it’s horrible!” Natalia pronounces with wet eyes in a shaking voice.       Jamie slowly comes closer to Michael, literally making a hole in the forehead of his older brother with his enraged gaze and clenching his hands into fists tightly.       “Stinker…” Jamie hisses with evil in his eyes. “Asshole… So, do you have to do with the murder of Nicolas? You killed him? Your pal killed him at your order!”       “What are you talking about, moron?” Michael smirks contemptuously. “Went crazy?”       “No, Michael, YOU went crazy! YOU killed my best friend and blamed my son for that! Made him experience those horrible things! I was shaking while Edward was telling us about what those policemen and his cellmates did to him. BECAUSE OF YOUR FUCKING FAULT! He did even change his name, so nothing reminded him of that hell.”       “Get cool, brother. Don’t get so excited.”       “Don’t close my mouth! DON’T DARE! TO CLOSE! MY MOUTH! GOT IT, BASTARD?”       “Yeah, Uncle, you’ve done too much,” Terrence shakes his head, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at Michael contemptuously. “How did you dare to put Edward in prison, blaming him for the murder and letting those people make him experience those tortures! You made the lives of Father, Mother, my brother, two innocent girls, and mine worse and committed the murder. The fault for which you put on my younger brother.”       “Scumbag, shame on you!” Natalia resents. “How did you dare to do that to Edward? You killed the man and blamed him for that! You probably also convinced the investigator to torture the poor guy and did your best for him to be in a cell with the craziest and most dangerous criminals, against whom he couldn’t fight.”       “I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!” Michael explodes and points sharply at Edward. “This boy washed your brains, but you believe him like naive idiots!”       “I washed?” Edward wonders, pointing at himself with his fingers. “Actually, I told the truth! You deny it because you don’t know who killed Nicolas. You don’t know that the real killer was next to you and licking your ass all this time. You were made to think I killed him! Though, it’s not the truth! Maybe, you didn’t tell him to kill him. But he was killed by your greatest kiss-ass.”       “So, did you tell your tale?” Michael simpers. “Nobody will believe you anyway.”       “Yeah, maybe, you call your beloved Eric and ask him what happened on January 19th, 2010? It’s strange that the bastard, who adores you so much, didn’t tell you how he shamelessly beat Nicolas and shot at him two times.”       “Stop denying your fault and washing everybody’s brains, Edward. You are the killer! You can go to prison at any time, be convicted, and get your sentence. Maybe, you will actually get capital punishment for being so cruel. And I would be happy to do my best for you to get it.”       “Maybe, you wash our brains, bastard?” Jamie asks rudely. “You want to hide that you told Eric to grab his pals and kill Nick! You want to make us think that Edward killed him!”       “I would never kill the one, who treated me so well,” Edward says. “Nicolas was always very nice to me and talked to me a lot when he was at the home of Father and Isabella.”       “But you killed him anyway!” Michael continues to insist.       “I DID NOT KILL HIM!” Edward screams at the top of his lungs, sharply comes to the writing table, throws off everything that falls on the floor with a crush, and throws a desk lamp on it. “I DID NOT! HOW MANY TIMES I WILL REPEAT IT! DID NOT KILL! STOP MAKING ME A KILLER! I’M NOT GUILTY! I KILLED THE FUCK NOBODY!”       “Don’t be like your psycho brother and father and act like a patient of a mental hospital,” Michael smirks evilly.       “YOU CAN MAKE ANYONE ENRAGED!” Edward throws a little glossy pen holder against the wall, takes a few books from a bookshelf, and throws them on the floor. “AND YOU ARE NOT GOING TO THE FUCK DIE! YOU ANNOYED US! I CAN’T WAIT FOR YOU TO DIE!”       “Quiet, Edward, calm down,” Natalia says softly, coming closer to Edward being tense and breathing heavily, caresses his shoulder and tightly hugs him with both arms. “It’s okay, it’s okay…”       “Since you are so enraged, you are really guilty,” Michael smiles slyly.       “Close your fucking mouth!” Terrence hisses through his teeth irritably. “Stop torturing the poor guy and making him feel much worse! We believe none of your words. And after what Edward told us, we will not especially dare to doubt his innocence. We did not believe it, but now we put our doubt aside…”       “You just want to make yourself believe it. If your fucking love did not cloud your mind, you would open your eyes and see this kid is not as innocent as he wants to be.”       “Stop telling us a lie!” Jamie demands rudely. “STOP THE FUCK SLANDERING MY SON! You killed Nicolas! You told Eric to kill him! It’s YOUR fault! You would never kill people by yourself. Other people do it for you. I was tried to be killed by those bastards, who were licking your ass, not you. They tried to kill Edward. Tried to attempt on Terrence and his fiancée. And they kidnapped the ex-girlfriend of my son. They were doing EVERYTHING. You were only sitting on a chair like a king and giving everyone orders, drinking expensive wine or champagne.”       “I told nobody to kill Nicolas, even if I never loved that man,” Michael says rudely. “And even though he was a friend of yours. That man wasn’t a threat to me. And he gave me nothing good. So, I was not going to hurt him.”       “But your people killed him! Your most loyal pal! Who always goes around you. Will you keep denying your fault for telling him to kill my best friend?”       “Yes, I will! Because I did not kill that man! Though, I’m glad that idiot died.”       “So, are you trying to blame someone else?” Terrence wonders. “Your pal is the one to blame!”       “Even if Eric did it, I’m glad he defeated the one, who adored your father. I don’t care about his personal business, and I don’t meddle in it.”       “Yeah, I thought that sick henchman had no secrets from you,” Edward says gloomily, calming down a little. “As it turned out, Eric wasn’t honest with you and was doing his tricks secretly from you. If you didn’t know that he was the killer of Nicolas Carter, you decided to blame me for everything. Threatening that you would tell my close people everything with the hope of making me ashamed. With the thought that I would not be able to prove my innocence.”       “You will not prove your innocence, fucking puppy!” Michael throws rudely. “You were holding the pistol! So, you killed the friend of your father!”       “The pistol had Eric’s fingerprints. If the police check them better and aren’t stuck on the thought that I killed Nicolas, they will find fingerprints of Brown and his pals, who were holding the gun, as well. And if I find my witness and ask him to protect me, I will have a very good chance to make the judge sure I am not guilty of that murder.”       “Nobody will listen to the little puppy! If you deny your fault, you will be put in prison again and be waiting for the courting hearing. Of course, unless you don’t decide to die and hang yourself somewhere at late night. Your mental health is much more tender than a girl’s.”       “If we have to, all of us will protect him!” Terrence says confidently. “Yes, we aren’t witnesses of the murder. But we can make the judge sure that Edward wouldn’t hurt a fly. And we will do it. We will not let this guy experience those horrible tortures, because of which he could’ve died and stayed disabled until the end of his life.”       “If I knew this kid had wanted to die, I would’ve waited for some time. Maybe, Edward would’ve stolen a rope and a chair and hung himself. I wouldn’t have to spend my money to make bail for this bastard. Though, he would’ve spent several years working on me for free to pay his debt. This puppy would’ve gave me everything to the last cent.”       “If you say something like this again, I swear I shall break your neck!” Jamie threatens Michael with a finger. “I’m not kidding, Michael! Don’t dare to say something like this again. Otherwise, you will be dead! DEAD!”       “Be sure, Jamie, your sonny will end his life in prison. Edward doesn’t have proof of his innocence or the fault of Eric for killing your pals.”       “Yeah, I’ve been wondering for ages why you actually got me out of prison,” Edward wonders. “You had a chance to put me in there! If you had paid your pal, he would’ve easily found false proof, so I got a life sentence.”       “I will answer. After finding out you got arrested for the murder charge, I thought you were not so worthless. I always thought you were a cowardly, terribly insecure, and weak boy. But then I started to believe that a great demon that could do a lot was hidden underneath the little angel. And I decided to help you. For your loyalty to me. If you had agreed to become my personal killer and deal with everyone as well as my people, I would’ve done my best for them to drop the charges off you and blame someone for the murder. I’m going to be honest, when policemen brought you on the day you were released. You really looked half-alive. I did not think everything would be so horrible.”       “Wow!” Edward simpers sarcastically. “Do you know a sense of pity? Or does it seem to me?”       “I was waiting for you to decide to become one of the Michael MacClife army for almost six years. You had a great opportunity to become rich and powerful and avoid punishment. But you preferred death in prison or death from a bullet in your heart. You rejected it for a long time. And today, you rejected it again when you couldn’t kill your brother, did not shoot at your ex, and could not shoot at yourself.”       “Did you bribe that investigator because of that? You hoped I’d become another henchman of yours and do your dirty tricks?”       “I can easily do everything for you to go to prison again,” Michael says confidently, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at Edward with contempt in his eyes. “One word of mine before you are arrested and put in prison for ages. I can agree with some people right now, so they renew the investigation, get you arrested again, and hold you in a cage until the hearing. And I can also make you pay me the money that I spent on bail. If I want it, you will immediately give it to me. Until the last cent. And I give a fuck about where you’d get it. You would work your ass.”       “If a good person that cannot be bought investigates the case, they will find proof of my innocence and put Eric in prison.”       “Stop dreaming, boy. You will not get off me easily. Either you stay by my side and do what I say, or you die from a shot at your heart or in the dirtiest cell. Alone or with criminals, who would beat you to death.”       “Even if Edward goes to prison, we will do our best to get him out,” Terrence says confidently. “Find the best lawyers and get him released.”       “Try,” Michael smiles innocently. “But I doubt you could do it. None of you will be able to help this boy. He had a chance to avoid punishment, but after he rejected it, there was only one way – death. And alright, I will let him choose what kind of death will be better for him.”       “Do what you want,” Edward says in a low voice. “Put me in prison, kill me with a pistol, or wound me with a knife. I don’t care.”       “So, my dear, are you starting to realize you have no place to run away from me and will die, despite your actions? Do you understand you will either spend the rest of your life in prison or die in the nearest time? The police would not believe you. I can find amenable guys and give them some money, so they do what I need.”       “But there is one thing,” Natalia says confidently. “You will not have so much money to bribe all the policemen because there are many of them in the city.”       “My dear, I’ve already said it, but I will be happy to say it again.” Michael raises his head proudly. “When you have money, you are God! The God that can do anything! Before whom all the doors are open but were closed before. And who gets an opportunity to control those, who you should make shut up or serve you.”       “Of course, it’s not a secret to us that there are many corrupted scumbags… But don’t think there are too many. Only the most spoiled ones will be dancing attendance for you.”       “Yes, yes, I understood that you were all so right and didn’t need what belonged to someone. Even your ex made everybody sure that he wasn’t going to rob anyone if you are protecting this kid so hard.”       “I wonder, how much do you pay to your accomplices to make them dance attendance upon you? For which amount are they ready to bow to you and care about you so hard?”       “It doesn’t have to do with you, babe,” Michael smiles slyly and fixes the collar of his shirt carefully. “I’m going to tell nobody how much I pay those, who are working at my house and my company.”       “It’s MY house and MY company, scoundrel!” Jamie roars with evil in his eyes, clenching his hands into fists tightly.       “There is nothing yours, Jamie! You lost your job at the company a long time ago. And you sold the house at your wish.”       “I wouldn’t have sold it if I hadn’t needed money! It was the gift from my father on my majority. He wanted me to live here with my wife and children and accept my grandchildren. But I lost his gift. Because of you! Because of you, I became poor and had to sell what I had! I had a chance to sell this house to someone who agreed to pay a lot of money for it, which would have been enough for me and Rebecca for a long time. But you started to promise that you would give me my company for selling the house.” Jamie claps himself on the forehead. “Gosh, what an idiot I was! I thought my brother would love me or at least respect me. NO! This brother ruined my life and harmed all my close people.”       “If you hope I will give you my house and company, you are deeply wrong,” Michael says rudely, humming contemptuously. “You will not need it when you and your beloved sons and their girls die.”       “Seriously?” Jamie snuffs, still holding the pistol in his hands. “I would kill you sooner than you would do it to me.”       “We will see. Otherwise, you will repeat the fate of your sonny and die in the dirt cell.”       “I give a fuck! For my close people, especially for my children, I’m ready for anything. Even sacrifice me. But I will not regret it. I will know that the one, who poisoned the lives of my family and me, got what he deserved.”       “You will not dare to touch me!” Michael shakes his head with a sly smile, staying confident enough. “I will call my guards, and you will immediately be kicked out of the house like a dog. Or I will tell them to kill you as well as these two morons and this stupid blonde.”       “Ha, how are you going to do it?” Jamie smirks contemptuously. “Tell them to hit me with a stick on the head and throw me in the sea again? Those bastards will hit me so weakly that I will realize everything?”       “Again?” Edward asks amazingly.       “Throw in the sea?” Terrence rounds his eyes.       “Maybe, you tell us how your pals tried to get rid of me?” Jamie suggests. “Or do I do it if your long tongue got dry?”       “You tell,” Edward says. “What did he do to you on the day when he thought he killed you?”       “With pleasure!” Jamie turns on Edward, Terrence, and Natalia with his head proudly raised. “Two months ago, Michael called me and asked about a meeting to allegedly talk about giving my company to me. At first, I refused, but this man can palaver so well that I didn’t realize how I agreed. At six hours, I went where there was a personal yacht of this fucking robber. At first, this pathetic actor was pretending to be good, offering me drinks, food, and something like that. But at some moment, this bastard showed his side again and let him know it was a trap. When I realized that he had deceived me, I tried to run away from the yacht. But his pals quickly caught me and hit me on the head. As I said, not too strongly. Though, I couldn’t get up and fight. So, I eventually ended up somewhere in the sea. Not far from the port, where there was Michael’s yacht.”       “You remember how they threw you in the water?” Terrence wonders.       “Yes. But if I’d been unconscious, I could’ve drowned. But some time later, I lost consciousness and woke up at the hospital. I was told I was found by one man… A fisherman that took me to the coast and drove me to the hospital. I talked to that man two times and found out that he saw Michael’s people throwing me in the water but decided to swim up only when this lord and his gang got out. And yeah, that man memorized at least one of those stinkers. I know that bastard. Eugene Wainwright. The same asshole as Eric and Michael. This trio is always together. Everywhere.”       “You said, Eugene Wainwright?” Natalia opens her eyes widely, getting a little nervous.       “So, do you wanna say that sick bastard also had to do with the attempt to kill you?” Edward gets horrified.       “He hit me on the head and helped the others guys throw me into the sea,” Jamie explains.       “Asshole! A nasty bastard that is wanted to get his face beaten…”       “Yeah, but how did it happen that nobody knew you were alive?” Terrence wonders.       “After waking up, I quickly recalled everything. But I decided to use the fact that I didn’t have documents, and my identity was unknown. To make everybody believe in my death, I just called my false data to the doctors: name, last name, place of birth, and date of birth. I just said what I thought about first and was a different man while being in the hospital for a long time with brain damage.”       “And did nobody guess it?”       “Nope. Nobody at the hospital knew my real name. I was another man before my release from the hospital. Then I found a good place where I had been hiding for a long time and planning to make a surprise for my brother. And today, it was time to stop this game. And I believe the show is incredible!”       “Wow…” Edward pronounces quietly. “I spent some time in the hospital, too…”       “What do you mean?” Jamie wonders, moving his eyes to Edward.       “Uncle said I was tried to be killed. And it’s the truth.”       “This stinker really tried to kill you?”       “Yes, one month ago. Uncle’s accomplices beat me and seriously wounded me with a knife. And believing I had a little time, they left me there. But I was lucky one man called an ambulance, and I was taken to the hospital. And they knew me as Edward Lockhart. Because I changed my name officially.”       “My gosh…”       “Hey, didn’t you get any marks on your body after what happened?”       “No, but why?”       “But I got them. The scars on my back that I got after one doctor made a mistake. I didn’t understand what it was, but these scars will probably never be gone.”       “Really?”       “Want me to show them?”       Jamie nods, not moving his eyes off his son. And Edward raises the edge of his shirt and turns his back on his father, showing him the two couples of perpendicular bright scars in different areas on the small of his back.       “Oh, gosh…” Jamie gets horrified, looking at the wounds with horror in his widely open eyes. “They’re so big…”       “Yup,” Edward pronounces quietly, lowers the edge of his t-shirt, and turns on Jamie, glancing at Terrence and Natalia standing near him. “Only Terrence, his fiancée Raquelle, and this girl knew about these scars. It’s Natalia, my ex-girlfriend.”       “You’ve always known it?” Jamie asks Terrence and Natalia.       “Nope,” Natalia shakes her head. “We found it out a little more than one week ago.”       “And your mother? Does Rebecca know about the scars?”       “No, Mother doesn’t know about them,” Edward replies. “I’ve never told her.”       “Ar-r-r…” Jamie tightly clenches his hands into fists, moving his gaze full of evil to Michael. “I wish you died, Michael MacClife! You attempted on the holy thing! THE UNTOUCHABLE ONE! MY CHILDREN! You are MADLY lucky they are standing here alive. If they were dead, you, bastard, would die immediately.”       “Oh, no matter how much you’ve tried to be killed, you survive and come back over and over,” Michael snuffs. “It seems like it’s your family thing.”       “The problem is about your worthless pals, who cannot do what they should,” Edward says confidently. “If they wanted, we would be dead. And we wouldn’t know all the secrets of the MacClife family.”       “I am sorry that you will not need them because they will go away from you.”       “Yeah, I believe you’ve been saying it to us for almost three hours. At first, you wanted to play some time, so your pals brought Raquelle here. But then you kind of forgot what you wanted to do because of my father’s appearance.”       “Wrong, puppy, I forgot nothing. None of you will leave this place alive. I was waiting for so many years not to let you go so easily.”       “So, congratulation, you got what you wanted,” Terrence says quietly, crossing his arms over his chest. “You ruined the lives of every one of us. At first, you turned me against my father, then began to support Edward’s belief that he was never loved. That nobody needed him, and he has always been talentless and was born because of his parents, who didn’t kill their child. You framed Natalia by making her a prostitute, who slept with everybody, and you did your best to provoke her breakup with my brother. And last, you decided to get Edward to fight with all of us… And you got it! We started to think he was jealous of us, wanted to kill us, and was pretending to be good. Though, this man was just protecting his right to what belonged to him. And he showed that aggression because you turned him against us. With your constant talks about his successful relatives and him being a pathetic pauper, who had gotten nothing in his life. The poor guy has a broken mental health, but you were torturing him. And remember, Uncle, if Edward doesn’t take it and wants to kill himself, it will be your fault.”       “He doesn’t have a broken mental health, my sweetie, your brother just has a weak character,” Michael smiles slyly. “Edward is a pathetic parody of a girl. If he had boobs instead of a penis, this man would belong to girls. Only girls can behave the way this puppy does. Maybe, if he ended up in a cell again, his cellmates would make him a real man.”       “You must be put under the torture that Edward experienced because of those jackasses, asshole,” Jamie hisses through his teeth.       “It’s not amazing that after hearing about weaknesses so many times, Edward began to believe he was really the one,” Natalia adds coldly. “It’s violence! Psychological violence! This man was keeping everything inside until the end… But when he lost patience, he exploded and stopped watching what he was doing and saying. And I don’t excuse him. I’m telling the truth. The truth about what constant reminders about being weak, insecure, and coward led to.”       “Was it what you hoped on?” Terrence asks. “You wanted Edward to show the worst side of him and turn us against him? Yes, you got it! But you forgot one thing. Time will go, as well as offenses. The memories get replaced with a wish to forget everything and start it all again. Anger goes away early or late, and you understand that what you believe cannot be the truth.”       “I shall remind you again that Edward meddled in this case at his wish,” Michael says confidently and looks at everybody with contempt. “This boy just wanted to get someone’s attention and become a hero for everyone. So, he started this show just to make everyone talk about him. And yeah, I didn’t make him silent. He was hiding everything at his wish. Only when my people scared my family members, and they decided to press the boy to the wall and get all the confessions out of him, he confessed everything.”       Michael smiles slyly and starts to stroke his chin.       “You, Terrence, and your fiancée would’ve hardly known everything if I hadn’t started giving you sighs. The letters that one of my helpers wrote made you think better. You received the letters at the same time but were at different places: Terrence was home, but Raquelle was at a photoshoot in the country. My helper, who was chasing her and the team, with which she was going on shootings in her car, said she was shooting with a tiger.”       “You did not surprise me,” Terrence replies coldly. “Raquelle and I knew it.”       “Well, as you started to make confessions, wouldn’t you like to say how you got Natalia’s number, sent her tons of messages with threats, and called her?” Edward asks, looking at Michael gloomily and keeping his arms crossed over his chest.       “It’s very easy, Edward. On the day when you were wounded, one of my people got your mobile out of your pocket. He checked a contact list and found the number of your ex-girlfriend that you, I bet, have not deleted yet. So, he quickly wrote the number on a piece of paper and gave it to me.”       “I see. I guessed it. But now you have confirmed everything.”       “Good boy, I’m glad for you! Sometimes you show some little sparks of knowledge.”       “Show us your knowledge. That you have in your empty head. And we will see who is brainless and worthless here.”       “You talk too much, kid,” Michael says in a low, rude voice. “If you were my son, I’d kick your ass every day with a belt.”       “I will decide how to talk. I already said that I had no reason to respect you.”       “Don’t make me enraged, you, fucking booger!” Michael hisses through his teeth, clenching his hands into fists. “DO NOT DO!”       “Gosh, Michael, how do you have so much anger?” Jamie wonders, looking at Michael with contempt. “Why have you always been such a non-educated bastard? Our parents were never such mean people! I always remembered them as wonderful people with a big heart and pure soul.”       “But I can say character traits run in families as well as something about appearance. For example, Father. He was so similar to you. The same hair color and eye color… Very similar features… He could also get excited and scream at someone for nothing… And now you have a replacement.” Michael glances at Terrence. “Your eldest sonny is your image. He is also aggressive and violent… And your younger sonny is not a gift… This one became a non-educated scumbag, who meddles in everything. And he is terribly cowardly and insecure…”       “Are you jealous you don’t have the same mean sons as you?” Jamie smirks contemptuously. “No children, with whom you could do dirty tricks to everybody! Who you would make your replacement not to worry about who would take on the role of the curse of the MacClife family after your death.”       “If I had children, I would make them real men. Not such whipping boys as Edward is. They would be as confident as Terrence. This man will never doubt his affection and success. I do like this feature! I deeply respect that type of person.”       “Don’t praise only one. All my children are decent people. For me, they are all the same. Moreover, I have no reason to be ashamed of my older sons. Because they have a mother. A wonderful and kind woman that made one of them a real man. And despite not getting the love of his parents, the second one, who became the same wonderful man, whom I would always be proud of. Be proud of the two. For who they are.”       “You said such stupid things!” Michael laughs evilly. “Yeah, Jamie… You surprise, brother…”       “By loving my children? My flesh and blood? Yeah, you will not understand a father’s feelings. You will never understand. You will not know what it means to be proud of their talents and achievements.”       “Come on? Which talents could these deadbeats have?”       “For example, a talent for music. That I love, as well.”       “Oh yeah,” Michael growls with his eyes rolled up. “You were playing your fucking guitar all day long, the sounds of which made me feel a headache. And singing songs that made me sick. And Father was playing and singing with you! You can’t imagine how much I wanted to throw your guitar at the window. But I knew my parents would buy a new one, and you would keep the fuck making me nervous.”       “I am sorry, Mr. MacClife!” Jamie rolls his eyes. “Sorry about not letting you think about how to make my life worse. I’m not the one to blame for making you irritated by everything about me. I did not make my brother run after me and be my friend. Not such a great loss!”       “Alright, I’m done with dealing with you!” Michael sharply claps on the table with a hand, contemptuously looking at Jamie, Terrence, Edward, and Natalia, who stay next to each other. “You all got me terribly annoyed! I can no longer hear your bullshit! I don’t care that not everybody I need is here! I will kill you right now!”       Michael glances sharply at the open door of the office.       “GUYS!” Michael roars at the top of his lungs. “ERIC! XAVIER! TRENTON! EUGENE! EVERYBODY! BRING YOUR ASSES HERE!”       But nobody reacts to Michael’s shout and comes even a few seconds later.       “YOU HEAR ME, FREAKS?” Michael gets enraged. “I SAID, COME HERE IMMEDIATELY! IF YOU DO NOT MAKE MY COMMAND COME TRUE IMMEDIATELY, I WILL STOP WASTING MY MONEY ON YOU AND PISS YOU OFF! BROWN! WHO I SAID!”       At some moment, Jamie starts to chuckle quietly with his mouth closed with a hand. It starts to make Michael much more furious and look at him with a horrifying gaze that could easily kill anyone.       “Why are you chuckling, bastard?” Michael asks rudely. “Are you happy you will die soon? Stop laughing! CALM DOWN, I SAID! YOU ARE STUPID? I SAID, SHUT UP!”       “Yeah, Michael…” Jamie pronounces through a laugh, shaking his head. “I’ve always known you can only show off… You try to seem as fearsome as a lion, while you actually look like a squeaking kitty that shows its baby teeth.”       “It’s okay, you will die now! Really! ERIC, HOW LONG DO I HAVE TO WAIT FOR YOU, ASSHOLE?”       “You say guards are standing in every single corner…” Jamie quickly looks around. “But I don’t see it. There are only two guards with little brains standing near the gates. And a servant that can only snap. I thought the whole army would be protecting your old ass with weapons in their hands. Following you, closing you with their bodies… Though, it’s a show-off!”       Jamie shakes his head and crosses his arms over his chest.       “Yeah, you didn’t surprise me, brother. You didn’t… You say Edward is pretending to be brave and sassy. Though, you are pretending. You think the whole world is in your hands, you can subdue anyone thanks to your charm and money. But you’re actually nobody. Just some shit. You do want someone to pay attention to you. You want to be praised. You want everyone to serve you. Yes, one gang is running after you. But trust me, brother, they’ve never loved you. They’re by your side because of money. My money.”       “CLOSE YOUR MOUTH, BEAST!” Michael resents. “GUARDS! HERE! NOW!”       “Calm down, tough guy, your henchmen will not come here,” Jamie says confidently. “Because I came into the house and did my best for them not to stand in my way to your body.”       “What?” Michael gets much more furious, looking at Jamie with evil in his eyes full of hate. “What did you do to my people? Answer! ANSWER, BASTARD! WHERE ARE MY PEOPLE? WHERE THE FUCK?”       “They are fine,” Jamie replies quietly. “It’s just their time to pay for working for you and doing your dirty tricks. Your beloved Eric will go to prison for that and the murder of Nicolas. Eugene Wainwright will pay for the attempt to kill me. And your dearest and imitable Catherine Hadley will finally leave this house and be working where she will not be surrounded by bastards like your trio.”       “The police… The police! THE POLICE!” Michael grabs Jamie by the collar of his t-shirt. “You brought the police here? YOU BROUGHT THE COPS HERE? WHO YOU BROUGHT WITH YOU! ANSWER, SCUMBAG!”       “Calm down, Michael.” Jamie pushes Michael off rudely and fixes the collar of his t-shirt with a proud gaze. “Don’t touch me with your dirty hands. Otherwise, I will have to spend a lot of time washing off the shit.”       “Alright, asshole, I will show you where you belong,” Michael hisses through his teeth, breathing heavily and getting literally red from anger. “You will pay me for everything! RIGHT NOW!”       Michael grabs Jamie by the hair painfully and strikes him down. However, his brother, letting the pistol in his hand fall, starts protecting himself, hitting the opponent in the crotch. Then he sharply gets up and smashes a fist against his face. The furious Michael answers him back with a loud groan, but he always meets failure because his brother easily avoids the hits and gives much stronger and ruthless ones. A few seconds later, Jamie strongly pushes Michael on the writing table, on which he falls, and from which he falls to the floor. And then he raises himself above him and starts beating him on the face much harder, while his opponent tries to resist and starts beating his brother when he strikes him down.       When Michael and Jamie start beating each other cruelly, Edward, Natalia, and Terrence go to another side of the office and start watching what’s happening with horror in their eyes. The girl, closing her mouth with a hand and shaking her head, hides behind the back of her ex-boyfriend and slightly shakes from fear and excitement. And both of the MacClife brothers think about the same, while their dumbfounded, widely open eyes are watching their father and uncle fighting like buffaloes. About the day when they fought. Every one of them imagines himself instead of Michael and Jamie and believes that if they hated each other so much, everything could be the same in their case.       The cruel fight between Michael and Jamie continues for a few seconds. They spare no legs or hands, with which they are beating each other. And at some moment, MacClife, Sr., glances at the pistol that his brother dropped and sharply pushes Jamie aside. Overcoming the pain in his legs, Michael gets up, grabs the pistol from the floor, and points it at his brother. However, Jamie tightly grabs his brother’s hands and tries to move them off himself by force, strongly hitting him in the abdomen and making him wince and double over from the pain. But he does not let the pistol go and tries to stand on his hurt legs, understanding that his age and all his illnesses let him know about themselves and do not let him fight like a young boy. Unlike him, Jamie, who is also old enough, has a way better physical education. His hits are stronger, his grip is tighter, his reaction is better, and he has much more strength and avoids attacks from his brother much more frequently.       “Why are so weak, brother?” Jamie laughs with mockery and gives Michael a few strong slaps. “You can’t fight at all! And you don’t beat me painfully! Now I understand why much younger and faster guys do your tricks for you.”       “You underestimate me, dog,” Michael hisses through his teeth, breathing heavily and looking at Jamie with all his hate. “Maybe, I’m old and have tons of diseases and hurt legs… But I still can BEAT YOUR FUCKING FACE!”       When Michael tries to smash his fist against his brother’s face, Jamie avoids the hit perfectly, grabbing his hand sharply, twisting it around, and making his opponent scream from the pain. After, the man gets great pleasure from giving a few painful hits with his fists to his older brother’s face, arms, legs, and stomach, not hiding his happiness while watching him wincing strongly and hearing his loud, painful shouts. But at some moment, Michael catches a moment and smashes his fist against Jamie’s face so strongly that his brother falls on the fall like a stone. And then he sharply points the pistol at him and is going to take a shot.       But Terrence and Edward attack Michael at the same time and rudely push him off Jamie when he makes a shot that makes Natalia scream loudly and close her mouth with her hands. Fortunately, the bullet gets into the ceiling because Michael raises his hand and falls on the working table. While the furious man, on the corners of the mouth of whom a little flow of blood shows up, growls loudly, Edward tightly grabs him by the collar, gives him a very strong slap, and smashes a fist against his yawl, showing his contemptuous grin. And when Michael points the pistol at him, Terrence sharply twists his arm around, takes the pistol by force, throws it aside, and gives him a few hits with a fist in his solar plexus. That’s why that one temporarily cannot breathe. Using the moment, Terrence hits Michael in the nose, out of which a thin flow of blood starts coming.       “Yes, get it, scumbag!” Edward hisses through his teeth, giving Michael another hit with a fist right in the yawl, grabs him tightly by the collar, and hits the back of his head against the surface of the working table, on which there is only a computer that is about to fall on the floor and get crushed. “You, asshole, will pay us for everything you’ve done to our family. FOR EVERYTHING! I WISH YOU DIED! DIE!”       “No matter how much you wave your hands, you will not become braver,” Michael replies contemptuously and splits the blood that he feels in his mouth. “You will always be a coward that nobody will need.”       “You are wrong, old bastard, now I’m much stronger than you think.” Edward sharply raises Michael by the collar and sets his contemptuous gaze full of hate in his sly eyes. “You will pay for everything you have done. PAY, BASTARD! PAY!”       Edward strikes Michael down from the table on the floor with a loud groan and beats him with his legs on the sides, stomach, arms, legs, and yawl. He is obsessed with such strong anger that he is barely able to think about what might happen. He just needs to take revenge on his uncle for all the humiliations, insults, and sufferings that his close people got. Ruthlessly beating his enemy, the man is getting great pleasure and literally feels he is getting more confident and stronger. But a few seconds later, the bleeding Michael sharply grabs Edward’s leg and pulls it so that the man falls to the floor. The man raises above his nephew, gives him weak hits, and tries to squeeze his throat as tightly as possible. But the young guy does not get confused and strongly pushes his opponent off himself with a hit of a leg in his chest. Terrence comes to help him, smashing his fist against Michael’s backbone and making him scream loudly from pain. Then the man gives his uncle such a strong hit on his hip with a leg that the opponent falls on the back. He does not react to the strong hit on the abdomen and a few ones on all the parts of his face.       At heart, Michael understands that he is not able to fight with younger and stronger guys. However, anger gets obsessed with his mind and makes him hold on and get over the pain. To fight with his hateful nephews, who, in his opinion, are too alive and literally unsinkable.       “Yeah, Michael, Father was right when he said you made your pals kill people and fight with them because you couldn’t do it,” Terrence says coldly with an evil smirk, fighting with Michael hand in hand while raising himself above him. “You can only show off and pretend to be sassy. But you remember that you are no longer a boy that could run fast.”       “You will not also be forever young,” Michael replies rudely, unsuccessfully trying to get his fingers into Terrence’s eyes. “Forever young, forever handsome, forever attractive… Soon, nobody will need you. Nobody will praise you and satisfy your needs with everyday compliments. No matter how hard you show off, your start will fade away early or late.”       “But you, scumbag, have very little time,” Terrence squeezes Michael’s throat, literally making a hole in his forehead. “Jealousy and evil will bring you to death earlier than we think. And you will finally pay for everything YOU HAVE DONE TO ME AND MY FAMILY!”       Breathing heavily enough, Terrence smashes his fist against Michael’s yawl as strongly as possible. While his uncle probably starts to get sick of being something to beat. So, after putting himself together, the man painfully grabs his nephew’s hair and sharply pulls him aside. Terrence strongly hits his elbow against the floor, feeling a sharp pain that echoes in his body immediately, and does not react when his uncle raises himself above him and starts beating him on the face much harder. Not for long. Edward strikes his uncle down the floor with one hit with a leg, smashes it against his chest, and gives him a few strong slaps before the opponent rudely pushes him off himself with an irritated shout and gets up sharply. Then, Michael painfully grabs Edward by the hair and smashes the back of his head against the surface of the working table along with the dumbfounded Natalia’s loud shot. And then, holding him by the collar, the man gives him a few strong slaps in a row. But at some moment, the guy grabs his uncle by the hair and pulls it, shaking his opponent from one side to another.       They are fighting hand in hand for a few seconds before Michael hits Edward between his legs, grabs the guy by the throat, and strongly squeezes it, wishing to strangle this man, at whom he sets his wide, furious gaze.       “You will die first, fucking parasite,” Michael hisses through his teeth. “HERE AND NOW! I SHALL KILL YOU!”       Edward gets deprived of access to oxygen and cannot breathe because Michael is squeezing his throat too strongly. That’s why he cannot protect himself and only thinks that he needs some air, trying to move off the hand that tightly grabbed his neck.       “NO, EDWARD!” Natalia screams with tears in her widely open eyes. “Don’t hurt him! LET HIM GO!”       However, Michael keeps squeezing Edward’s throat with a wide, evil smile, seeing his nephew choking and unsuccessfully trying to set him free. Seeing this, Terrence immediately runs to his uncle and attacks him with his fists. And a few moments later, Jamie also comes to help and save his son.       “Let my son go, Michael!” Jamie demands rudely, trying to weaken the tight grip of Michael. “Let Edward go now, I said! LET HIM GO, SCUMBAG!”       “Finally, this puppy will die!” Michael rejoices with a wide smile and squeezes Edward’s throat much tighter with both hands. “DIE! I SHALL KILL THIS BASTARD! KILL!!”       “You will regret it if something happens to my brother because of you,” Terrence threatens coldly, trying to do his best to help Edward as well as Jamie. “I WILL STRANGLE YOU WITH MY OWN HANDS!”       “You are next, bastard! When I deal with this bastard, I will deal with you! May your father watch you the last time and become a witness to your death.”       “DO NOT DARE, BASTARD!” Jamie screams at the top of his lungs. “I WOULD CUT YOUR THROAT FOR MY CHILDREN!”       “And I will not let you do something to Edward,” Terrence says confidently. “Nobody dares to hurt my brother. GOT IT, ASSHOLE?”       “SHUT UP, YOU TWO!” Michael screams. “YOU WILL DO NOTHING. YOU WILL NOT SAVE THIS KID! HE WILL DIE! NOW”       “NO, STOP!” Natalia screams desperately at the top of her lungs with tears in her eyes. “LET HIM GO! PLEASE!”       A few seconds that Jamie and Terrence are unsuccessfully trying to rescue Edward seem like forever for Natalia. The girl is standing in the same place, shaking from horror, and watching what’s happening with widely open eyes full of horror. Unfortunately, she can do nothing now. That’s why she is terribly nervous and prays that this nightmare ends as soon as possible, crying bitterly and feeling her heart squeezing.       “Gosh, do something…” Natalia begs quietly, running her fingers over the necklace on her neck. “I don’t want Michael to kill Edward… I will not take it… This man is too important to me… Please, God, save him… Save all of us… May this nightmare end… Please…”       Even a few seconds later, Michael does not make the grip weaker. Edward is choking more and more every second and feels he is getting closer to losing consciousness from a lack of air. He is not able to stand by himself and try to protect himself, and he is letting his uncle strangle him. But at some moment, Terrence manages to get Edward out of Michael’s tight grip and let him breathe in some air. But the next moment, Michael rudely grabs his younger nephew by the hair and hits his head against the surface of the writing table. The guy strongly winces from pain and falls on the floor like a stone, couching loudly and trying to breathe in as much air he lacks as possible.       While Natalia rushes to Edward with tears in her eyes and falls to her knees beside him, Jamie and Terrence attack Michael with fists. The eldest son of Mr. MacClife gives his uncle such a strong hit in the face that the man falls to the floor, grabbing his cheek that got the slap. Then, Terrence, literally killing him with his cold, furious gaze and breathing heavily, beats him with his legs for some time and gives him a few hits in the yawl, nose, and temples. By this moment, Michael is literally beaten black and blue. His face is covered with dark red blood, and his body terribly hurts after strong hits gotten from those, who are younger and stronger than him. But he does not let himself give up and gives his nephew a strong slap in the face, grabs him by the collar, and hits his head against the leg of the writing table. That’s why the man slightly winces from pain and rubs the hurt area energetically. Seeing it, Jamie starts to fight with his brother hand in hand.       “You can stop protecting your sons,” Michael says rudely with a heavy breath. “They will die anyway. I will not let them leave this place alive.”       “And I will not let you touch them, at least WITH A FINGER!” Jamie hisses through his teeth. “AND YOU, ASSHOLE, WILL NOT HURT THEM! YOU WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH ME BEFORE YOU REACH THEM.”       “Your time will come, as well, motherfucker, I SWEAR!”       Michael smashes his hit against Jamie’s yawl. That’s why he cannot stand on his feet and falls to the floor. And when the older brother tries to attack the younger brother, Terrence rudely pushes him off his father and gives him a few hits on the face and abdomen, breathing too heavily and looking as furious as a bull.       “Don’t dare…” Terrence pronounces in a low, threatening voice. “Don’t dare to touch these people even with a finger. Otherwise, you will have to deal with me. BUT YOU DON’T BETTER MESS UP WITH ME! I WILL NOT STAND INSULTS TOWARD MY CLOSE PEOPLE AND ATTEMPTS TO HARM THEM!”       “Protecting the scumbags that have done lots of sins?” Michael smirks contemptuously. “Your father left you to die from hunger, and your brother may go to prison at any time. Even the gal is not holy! She has her own demons! She fucks all men!”       “All of our mistakes are nothing unlike the bunch of mistakes you have made. And I think it’s your time to pay for everything you have done. Uncle Mickey.”       Terrence gives a couple of strong hits in Michael’s yawl, grabs him by the hair with both hands, and pushes him to one of the bookshelves, against which he hits his back, and from which many books fall over his head. At some moment, he answers his nephew in the same way. That’s why the brunet hits his head against one of the bookshelves and gets a little wound on his cheek after the edge of a book falls on it and scratches it strongly. By this moment, Mr. MacClife’s office looks half-destroyed. Everything that was placed on shelves or the working table is now lying on the floor, and some things are crushed. However, everybody cares about what is happening in this place much less. They are obsessed with evil and hate for their enemy, who is not going to stop and wants to deal with his opponents, without his friends, who kind of were swallowed up by the ground.       Michael makes himself hold on, despite having pain in his whole body and many bruises on his face, and barely standing on his feet due to his age and weakness. And when Terrence easily strikes him down to the floor and keeps fighting with him hand in hand, his uncle tries to protect himself and reach the pistol lying not far from him. Later, he does it, pushes his nephew off himself with a strong hit in the chest, and points the gun at him. They get up at the same time, and Terrence tries to attack Michael again but has to go back sharply because the old man rudely grabs his nephew by the collar and puts the pistol against his abdomen, keeping a cold gaze in his eyes.       “Don’t move, scoundrel, or I will shoot,” Michael says with a threatening voice. “DO NOT MOVE, I SAID!”       Even though he seems quiet and unbroken, Terrence is actually afraid, while Michael is keeping the pistol tightly pressed to his stomach. But the man does not show it and sets his confident, cold gaze on his uncle, not finding the courage to move because he can really shoot.       Meanwhile, Edward finds the strength to bite the bullet, despite terrible weakness and pain in his body. Natalia has been by his side all this time and helped the man forget about any discomfort. She and Jamie, who is also next to his son, help him get up, tightly grabbing him under his arms. By this moment, his hair got disheveled, and nothing is left of his standing fridge. His black strands fell on his forehead and almost reaches his eyelashes. It makes him much more similar to Terrence, the fridge of who got disheveled, and the hair of who is put on different sides.       “Are you really okay?” Jamie asks anxiously, keeping a hand on Edward’s shoulder.       “Yup, I’m fine,” Edward nods, still breathing heavily. “Don’t worry.”       “Are you sure?” Natalia asks with horror in her eyes.       “I am.”       Edward glances aside and has to forget about any discomfort the next second. He sees Michael is about to shoot at Terrence’s stomach, grabbing him by the hair so tightly that the guy strongly winces from the pain. At some moment, his uncle points the gun at his face and makes him shake and open his eyes full of horror wider. Terrence tries to resist from fear, but it provokes Michael, who is squeezing his throat very strongly and puts the pistol tightly to his forehead. But when this man wants to press the trigger, Edward gives him such a strong hit that the old man sharply shakes and lets his nephew, and the pistol that falls to the floor with the crush. Then the young guy grabs a thin book that he sees first and beats his uncle on the face and starts to fight off with it like a sword after the opponent attacks him with fists.       A few seconds later, Edward throws the book aside, hits Michael on the solar plexus with a fist as strongly as possible, and uses a chokehold from behind, slightly bending him on himself and starting to hold him in a tight grip, so he does not get out of it. Sometimes splitting the blood, with which his face is covered, and which is getting out of his mouth, Michael starts choking from a lack of air and beating his nephew on his arms, so he lets him go. While Terrence throws the pistol off as far as possible with a leg and gives Michael a very strong slap in the face.       “Relax, Uncle, you lost,” Edward hisses through his teeth coldly and rudely and smiles evilly, squeezing Michael’s throat with a special pleasure. “You shouldn't have messed up with us. You did know we’d kick you so hard that you would regret it.”       “Or do you want us to keep beating you?” Terrence asks with a contemptuous sneer and smashes his hit against Michael’s abdomen. “So, you scream from pain and bleed? With rotted blood!”       “It’s not the end, bastards,” Michael pronounces, barely catching a little bit of air. “I am… Not one of those… Who give up so easily… Think… There is no way… Even in a hopeless situation… I CAN GET OUT… OF ANYTHING!”       Michael hits Edward strongly on his ankle. That’s why the guy lets him go sharply with a face winced in pain. And then Terrence gets a slap from his uncle and sharply grabs his cheek. The MacClife brothers quickly come to themselves and attack him with fists. However, Michael later finds a moment and knocks the heads of Terrence and Edward together, grabbing both of them by the hair. That’s why they fall on the floor, wincing strongly from pain and rubbing the hurt area. Throwing a contemptuous gaze at the guys, who got a couple of blood flows on their faces, the old man finds and grabs the pistol from the floor and wants to decide who to shoot first. But then he gets attacked by Jamie, who strongly pushes the man in the back. Michael goes forward, turns around sharply, and puts the gun to his forehead. But if Jamie MacClife was not Jamie MacClife, he would not react just in time and strike the pistol out of his opponent’s hands. Then, the man being obsessed with anger grabs his older brother by the hair with both hands and pulls him into the whole office with an irritated growl and fights with him hand in hand for a few seconds.       At some moment, Jamie grabs Michael by the collar and gives him a very strong hit in the yawl along with Natalia’s shout, who is standing aside. And it’s enough for Michael to shake and fall to the floor like a stone. He does not get up anymore, feeling a terrible weakness and barely breathing after getting beaten by the three people. And when Edward and Terrence, who came to themselves, get up on their feet, tightly taking each other’s hand, and set their surprised gazes on their father and uncle, Michael tries to get up but falls sharply, closes his eyes, and stops moving.       The tense silence settles in the air for some time that may be broken only by the heavy and loud breath of those, who are here. Terrence, Edward, and Jamie hesitantly look at the unconscious Michael lying on the floor, feeling terribly exhausted after such a hard fight, on which they spent all their strength. Nobody is going to relax because they are not sure that Michael will not get up. But even some time later, the man keeps lying on the floor motionlessly with blood and recent bruises on his body.       Natalia, feeling a crazy heartbeat, the sound of which echoes literally in every single part of her body, becomes the first one to break the silence. The girl slowly, hesitantly comes closer to Edward, Jamie, and Terrence, who look at each other with a heavy breath, and moves a scared gaze to Michael, asking quietly, hesitantly:       “H-he… He… He is dead?”       “Would be great,” Edward throws gloomily.       Jamie carefully squats down in front of Michael and tries to feel the pulse on his neck, saying nothing for a few seconds.       “This cad is alive!” Jamie says and simpers quietly. “He says we’re too alive, while he doesn’t drown like shit. I thought he’d die. But no… There is a pulse…”       “And…” Terrence pronounces hesitantly. “What do we do to him?”       “He will wake up soon,” Edward adds quietly. “And start running like a lightning in the whole office!”       “He is not dangerous now,” Jamie says confidently, gets up, and glances at the dumbfounded Edward and Terrence. “He will no longer harm anyone.”       “Are you sure?” Natalia asks quietly, setting her dumbfounded eyes on Jamie.       “I am. Our fight with him is over.”       “What? Do you want to say…”       “It’s time for this bastard and his pals to pay for what they’ve done. I think I can call here those, who will take this handsome guy where he belongs.”       Jamie confidently comes to the exit from the office, raises his hand up, makes a gesture, calls someone, and quickly turns on the others. Terrence, Edward, and Natalia, who hesitantly comes to the brothers, look at each other questioningly, getting horrified while thinking about what surprises they may expect now. Two seconds later, fewer people wearing… The uniform of policemen… They are entering the office. While almost everybody points their pistols at the unconscious Michael, one of them moves his gun on Edward, Natalia, and Terrence but then takes his document and shows it, saying:       “Calm down, the police! The sergeant Markle! Move, nobody!”       Seeing the policemen, Edward, Natalia, and Terrence open their mouths and open their eyes widely. Also, they surprisingly look at each other and throw their hands up or shrug.       “My gosh, how did the police find out what would be happening here?” Natalia wonders and moves her surprised gaze to Terrence and Edward. “Did you two ask them to come here?”       “No, no, we didn’t even go to the police,” Edward shakes his head. “We went here alone.”       “Damn, I don’t understand… So…”       “What’s going on?” Terrence wonders and moves his surprised gaze to Jamie. “Father! Did you bring the police here?”       “Yes, I brought the police,” Jamie says confidently, coming closer to the three. “They helped me get into the house.”       “But how?” Edward wonders. “How did you find out we were here?”       “Yeah, who told you about it?” Natalia asks hesitantly.       “It’s a long story,” Jamie replies quietly. “But I can say that I gave great help in getting this stinker and his gang arrested. And I got help from some trustworthy people. Without them, I would’ve hardly done it.”       “And where are his pals?” Edward asks. “Is there nobody at the house if those henchmen didn’t run to the shouts of this old bastard?”       “Those, who were here, got arrested by the police and were taken to the police station. That’s why nobody came. And those guys were waiting for my sign behind the door to come and take this parasite with them.”       “And…” Natalia pronounces quietly, shakes her head, and looks around the whole room with her dumbfounded eyes. “It happens that… We are free?”       “You are all free. This stinker will no longer harm anyone. I did everything I could.”       While Edward, Terrence, and Natalia hesitantly look at each other and try to realize what’s happening, Jamie glances at the policemen, who place a handcuff on Michael after they help him come to himself after a brilliant knockout.       “You are arrested, Michael MacClife!” one of the policemen announces. “You have to go with us!”       “What?” Michael resents when one of the policemen places a handcuff on his hands. “No! I will go nowhere! You have no right! It’s arbitrariness!”       “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. Follow us.”       “No! Do not dare to touch me! NO!”       The policemen take the resisting Michael away by force, holding him tightly under his arms and leading him to the exit of the office. And on the way, the man sends his contemptuous gaze full of hate to Jamie, Terrence, Edward, and Natalia.       “I HATE YOU ALL, BASTARDS!” Michael screams at the top of his lungs. “ESPECIALLY YOU, JAMIE! YOU WILL PAY ME FOR EVERYTHING! YOU WILL NOT RUN AWAY FROM ME! IT’S NOT THE END! YOU DID NOT WIN! I WILL DEFEAT YOU! YOU, JAMIE! YOU, TERRENCE! YOU, EDWARD! YOU, NATALIA! AND YOUR BELOVED RAQUELLE! EVEN IF YOU RUN AWAY TO ANOTHER END OF THE WORLD, I WILL FIND YOU. ASSHOLES! YOU WILL NOT GET OFF ME SO EASILY!”       While he is taken away from the office and the house, Michael keeps screaming loudly and cursing the members of this family that he hates so badly. A few policemen go with him, do not move their eyes off him, and watch every single step and act of him, understanding that they have to deal with a dangerous criminal that may do anything. But there are still a few policemen in the office. They are writing something and examining the things thrown on the floor or placed in their places.       And while Jamie goes aside to talk to policemen, Terrence, Edward, and Natalia watch what’s happening with a dumbfounded gaze, not being able to believe this torture is finally over. What’s happening is like something clouded. They barely realize something, being in a stupor and not knowing where the line between reality and dreams is. But some time later, the three start to realize that they stayed alive. Yes, they are broken morally, and the men are also beaten strongly. But they are alive.       “I can’t believe it…” Natalia pronounces in a quiet, shaking voice. “Is it really over? Someone, tell me that everything is over! Or it’s a dream!”       “Yeah…” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully, looking tiredly at what’s happening, breathing heavily and running his hand through his disheveled hair. “It seems like everything is over… But I can’t say it’s a dream…”       “I can’t deny it,” Edward replies thoughtfully in a low voice, having a breath issue, looking around the office with dead eyes, running his hand over his disheveled hair, and fixing his fridge.       The three are so shocked by the events that have happened to them for the past three hours that nobody wants to talk. Everybody has fallen into their thoughts and is trying to make themselves think it did not happen to them. And some time later, Natalia starts slowly walking into the office, looking at everything she sees and running her hands over them. Terrence and Edward stay where they are standing and thinking about something, but then the youngest of the MacClife brothers goes aside and leans on the writing table with his hands, exhaling slowly with his head inclined, starting to breathe heavily enough and feeling that his body hurts and is tense strongly due to the stress. The older one watches him with pity in his eyes for some time and glances at the girl, who is definitely deeply shocked and coming to herself as long as the adrenaline effect gets weak slowly.       Meanwhile, Jamie looking quite exhausted finds the strength to talk to the policemen about something, and thank them for their help in this hard case.       “Gosh, everything is finally over,” Jamie exhales with relief. “It’s probably one of the best days in my life.”       “Do not worry, the police staff is working on your brother’s case,” a policeman replies confidently. “You did your business, and now we should care about him, and the judge will give him a sentence.”       “I know. Anyway, thank you so much. This story would have never ended if not for your help.”       “Thank you for collaborating, Mr. MacClife.” The policeman tightly shakes Jamie by the hand. “You did very much and helped us get the dangerous criminal caught.”       “To put that cad in prison, I was ready for anything.”       “Anyway, congratulation on the successful end of the case.”       “Thanks a lot, Mr. Policeman.”       “You can go outside. Captain Johnson and Officer Austin are waiting for you. Don’t worry, I will tell them that Ms. Cameron can go out.”       “Sure,” Jamie smiles slightly. “I will come to them now.”       “Alright. But now excuse me, I need to help my colleagues. We will confiscate the wealth of your brother and seal this house.”       The policeman steps back from Jamie and goes to his colleagues, who are talking about something, filling out some papers, and examining all the things they see here. At this moment, one of them comes to Edward and Terrence standing not far from each other, who cannot come to himself and feels absolutely exhausted and emptied. The man looks at his sons with sadness in his eyes, who do not notice him and talk to the policeman without emotions on their faces. Jamie understands that he can finally calm down because he did what he should have done. The man watches the guys for a few seconds, sighs heavily, and slowly goes to the exit from the office, staying unnoticed by his sons.       “Are you sure you are alright?” the policeman asks anxiously.       “Don’t worry, we are fine,” Terrence replies tiredly.       “Maybe, we call an ambulance? You have many bruises on your face. You should treat your wounds.”       “No, no, everything is alright.” Terrence runs his hand slowly over his hair. “Just a couple of scratches.”       “Do you actually feel well? Did Michael MacClife do nothing to you?”       “No, no, Mr. Policeman, we are alright. We just got exhausted. It was a very hard fight. We got exhausted psychologically.”       “Alright, I will not insist. I think you better go outside. You are expected by the one, who can answer all your questions. We will seal the house and confiscate everything. You can no longer stay here.”       “Thanks a lot, we will come to them now,” Edward replies without emotions.       “If you need something, let us know.”       The policeman comes to his colleagues, who are writing something on pieces of paper, examining everything on the table, and talking about something. Edward and Terrence keep staying where they are and think about something for a few seconds. But at some moment, they hesitantly look at each other and say nothing for some time before Terrence decides to become the first one to break this awkward silence, coming closer to Edward and putting his hand on his back while the guy keeps leaning on the table with his hands.       “Are you really okay?” Terrence asks.       “I’m fine,” Edward replies without emotions. “And you?”       “Fine, too. But terribly exhausted.”       “I get it. I don’t feel better psychologically.”       “I think we better leave. The sooner we get out of this hellish place, the sooner we’ll get better.”       “Yeah…” Edward exhales quietly, gets straight sharply, and grabs his throat with his hand. “You’re right… We better leave now… Before this place makes me sick… I mean, I’m already doing…”       When Edward and Terrence want to leave, they stop, look at each other and then move their eyes to Natalia. The girl is standing with her back to everybody in front of a big window, through which she looks with her dead eyes, tightly embracing herself with both arms and thinking about something. The brothers watch her for two seconds and look at each other again, and then Edward comes to Natalia slowly but confidently, while Terrence follows him but stops at some moment.       “Natalia…” Edward pronounces quietly.       Natalia slowly turns to Edward and moves her dim eyes, tear-stained and red eyes to him, scarily looking at him and still embracing herself with her arms. To be honest, the man does not know what to say. To be clear, he kind of gets stuck. He cannot make himself open his mouth and say just something. The brunet looks at his ex-girlfriend with sadness in his eyes until the girl starts talking to him first:       “Are you okay? How do you feel?”       “Yeah, I’m fine,” Edward replies quietly. “And you?”       “More or less,” Natalia smiles tiredly. “Thanks for asking.”       “The most important thing.”       Natalia glances down for a few seconds and hesitantly moves them to Edward, who looks as exhausted as she.       “I knew you wouldn’t leave me,” Natalia says softly. “I hoped you’d come for me for a reason.”       “I couldn’t leave you,” Edward replies quietly. “Saving you was my duty. I don’t know if I did it or not. But… I did everything I could. You saw everything.”       “And it was enough for me. At least, you proved to me that you were never the one you were considered.”       “Maybe, the others will believe it someday, as well. But now my conscience is quiet, at least because I wasn’t cowardly. I was doing my best to prove it was wrong. I should’ve done something to give a reason to reflect.”       “You’re a fine fellow, Edward,” Natalia smiles slightly. “Really! You acted like a man. You weren’t really a coward and did show the best side of yourself. I’m really proud of you and highly appreciated everything you did for me and your family. That you’ve found, after all.”       “Many thanks,” Edward thanks with a shy smile, not knowing where to put his hands and breathing heavily enough because of the excitement. “Glad you appreciated it.”       “I didn’t need much. You should’ve just come here with a wish to take me away. And you came.”       “I say again, I couldn’t leave you.”       Natalia comes closer to Edward with a slight smile and softly caresses his shoulders, looking into his eyes with warm kindness. This gaze is enough for the two to take each other in an amicable hug a few seconds later and snuggle their noses on each other’s shoulders. The girl sometimes makes quiet sobs, and the man cannot relax in her hug, even if it helps him get a little better. Edward and Natalia cannot find the courage to say they are grateful to each other for everything. They actually feel kind of awkward of being with each other. Despite the strong love they feel for each other, the ex-lovers still have a bad feeling caused by the offenses and a sense of fault. Anyway, they are happy that they can speak as friends, that everybody stayed alive, and that this nightmare is over.       When Edward and Natalia slowly step away from each other, Terrence comes to them slowly and hesitantly, looking at the girl with sympathy. And two moments later, he hugs her amicably with a slight smile on his face.       “I didn’t say…” Terrence pronounces quietly. “Thank you so much for saving me. Not letting me die…”       “I should’ve done it,” Natalia replies quietly. “That was my duty.”       “Although the situation was very dangerous, you behaved very worthily and were tough. Excellent, Natalia.”       “It would’ve hardly happened if I had stayed alone.” Natalia slowly steps back from Terrence and smiles at him tiredly. “Realizing that I had someone by my side gave me confidence and made me think I had no reason to fear.”       “I get it.”       “And don’t devalue your merits. You behaved worthily, as well!” Natalia glances at Edward. “You two. You two showed the best side of you. And I’m proud of you. You did a great job, guys.”       “The most important thing is that everything is over, and we’re alive,” Terrence smiles slightly.       Natalia says nothing and smiles shyly, finally starting to understand she will no longer have to stay locked up and be waiting for her death. And while the girl glances at the policemen for two seconds, who are still doing their business, Terrence looks at Edward inclining his head slightly, and claps him softly on the shoulder with an encouraging smile.       “You’re a fine fellow, as well, Edward,” Terrence says amicably. “You behaved worthily. You weren’t a coward and were fighting until the end.”       “You’d do anything to end this story,” Edward shrugs without emotions on his face. “And I’m glad everything was over like this. Glad… That I’ve finally told the truth about me. About who I am.”       “Anyway, you may not be ashamed ‘cause you did everything you could.”       “Glad to hear it.”       Terrence takes Edward in an amicable hug with a slight smile, clapping him on the back and head. The guy answers this gesture a little hesitantly, with fear, getting much tenser and feeling terribly awkward. But after stepping back, the two move their eyes to Natalia, who fixes her matted, loose hair.       “Oh, okay, let’s leave,” Natalia suggests tiredly. “I can’t stay here anymore… I wanna go outside…”       “Agree, let’s leave,” Edward nods. “The policeman said someone that would explain everything was waiting for us.”       “Yeah, let’s go,” Terrence pronounces confidently.       Terrence slowly turns around and goes to the exit of the office. Edward and Natalia look at each other and follow him, trying to stay close to each other as if it helps them get a little better. The man softly embraces the girl around the shoulders, and she presses herself tightly to him and puts her head on his shoulder. They are exhausted and emptied, but now much is clear. Even if none of them feels better.       

***

      Time is getting closer to an evening, but it’s not very dark outside. The weather is gloomy, the sky is covered with gray clouds, and the air is cold. There are many policemen near the house of Michael MacClife, who was put in a police car and taken away literally a few minutes ago. They are running from one side to another and doing their business. Someone is filling out papers. Someone is examining the house. Someone is watching what’s happening and any person, any car, and any biker passing by here. And someone is just talking to their colleagues.       Some time later, Terrence slowly leaves the house, looking at what’s happening with dead eyes and being surprised to see so many policemen. After this meeting, he looks bad: disheveled hair, a scar on his cheek, blood flow under his nose and in a corner of his mouth, and clothes that are ripped and dirty in some places. And a few seconds later, Natalia and Edward leave the house, hugging each other tightly. The ex-lovers are also surprised that there are so many policemen here and watch what’s happening questioningly. The blonde has no scars or bruises and just feels pain in her body because she was sleeping on a cruel bed, looks exhausted, and wants to take a warm shower, wash her head and get enough sleep. But it’s possible to see tracks of blood and many scars and bruises on MacClife, Jr.’s face and body. The wind is slightly blowing the disheveled hair of the man, including his fringe lowered on his forehead and dirty clothes that got ripped much more.       Edward, Terrence, and Natalia look at each other, step away from the exit at Michael’s house, and silently watch what all the policemen are doing. But then Darwin confidently comes to them after he notices them and understands who they are.       “Good afternoon, we were waiting for you to leave the house,” Darwin greets politely and looks at Terrence, Edward, and Natalia. “As I understand, are you Terrence MacClife, Edward MacClife, and Natalia Rochester?”       “Yeah…” Natalia nods. “It’s correct.”       “I hope you all are fine. Do you need the help of doctors or something else?”       “No, no, thanks, we are fine,” Terrence replies, being a little confused. “We need nothing.”       “You are sure?”       “Yes,” Edward pronounces quietly. “We were already offered help, but we refused it.”       “So, alright… Then I must tell you that Michael MacClife was put in a car and taken to the police station a few minutes ago.”       “Uncle Michael was taken away?”       “Yes. And those, who were in this house. You can be quiet. Those people will no longer harm anyone. The police will deal with them.”       “Of course, we did not expect it, but that’s good everything is over,” Terrence replies quietly.       “You risked much, young men. You must have gone to the police and asked for help.”       “We would have gone,” Edward says hesitantly. “But Uncle always told us the police were in his hands. He said it so often that we believed we could not count on their help.”       “That’s bad. You should know that it’s impossible to bribe all the policemen. Moreover, we have an article, under which a person may get a sentence for trying to give a bribe.”       “We know,” Terrence says thoughtfully.       “Nevertheless, that man knew how to talk to you,” Darwin says thoughtfully. “He did not want to go to prison for the charges under a few articles. I can give you a list of the charges, on which his fault has been proven. And tell you what it wouldn’t be hard for us to find proof for.”       “Yeah, he has done much…” Natalia pronounces thoughtfully. “He told us about all his tricks…”       “Then I will not repeat it. I can only say that we were trying to catch Michael for many years, but that man was a sly fox that could always find a solution for any situation. But we finally got a chance to get that man arrested and bring him to justice.”       “What we also wanted for many years,” Edward says quietly.       “Right.”       Silence settles in the air for a few seconds, after which Terrence glances at the policemen and asks Darwin:       “Say, Mr. Policeman, who brought the police here? None of us asked you for help!”       “Yes, we were told you could explain everything,” Edward adds.       “You did not, but other people did it for you,” Darwin throws his hands up.       “Stop, it happened that Father really brought the policemen here? But how did he find out what would be happening here? And where was he all the time? How did he pretend to be dead? Uncle Michael thought my father died and got as shocked as all of us when he showed up!”       “Your father did not bring the police, but he was the one to ask us for help and collaborate with us tightly. His old friend is working at the police and helped him organize this operation.”       “Alright…” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully. “But how did you find out what was happening here and tell Father about that?”       “His old friend kept him aware of what was happening in your life and his older brother’s.”       “I believe he had to hide from everybody, so nobody knew he was alive,” Natalia assumes.       “Right, Ms. Rochester. Mr. MacClife was really hiding where nobody could find him. He did not want any of you to know that he was alive earlier. Only a fewer people, including the police, knew how to contact him, and where that man was all the time.”       “Yeah, but how did he find out what was happening to us?” Edward throws his hands up. “And how did someone, who kept Father aware, know it?”       “Everything is very easy, young man. We sent our person to Michael’s house. They became our secret agent and kept us aware of what was happening in your life.”       “Secret agent?” Terrence frowns slightly.       “Yes. That person should have gotten Michael’s trust and made him tell them all his plans and secrets. And he got caught in our trap! Your uncle trusts that person at one hundred percent and betrayed himself when telling them everything, being sure about their loyalty. And when our informant got time, they gave the information to me and my colleague, who said everything to your father. And I believe our person brilliantly completed this mission.”       “So, was your person at the house of Uncle all the time?” Edward asks hesitantly.       “Yes, that’s how Mr. MacClife found out everything that happened to Michael and his relatives.”       “So, you planned everything well,” Natalia frowns slightly.       “We planned everything very well. We just needed a sign to start the operation of getting Michael and his friends arrested. First, we were finding out everything, putting pieces together, looking for clues, and just waiting for a good moment.”       “You said father did not bring the police here,” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully.       “Right, he did not do it. The police were brought by the other person. Who gave us not less great help. I could say we got a chance to get Michael arrested thanks to them.”       “And who is that?” Natalia wonders, looking at Darwin surprisingly.       “I think you all will be nicely surprised.” Darwin smiles mysteriously. “Because you know that person very well.”       “Know?” Terrence, Edward, and Natalia ask amazingly.       “One second.” Darwin turns his back on Edward, Natalia, and Terrence, raises a hand, and makes a gesture to one of the policemen! “Bryan, it’s time! Time to leave the car!”       The policeman standing near one of the personal cars comes to it quickly. He quietly knocks at the glass, makes a gesture that allows someone to leave the car, and does it again because someone does not react first. After this, the door of the car opens, and the policeman goes back. A girl with brown hair leaves the car, wearing light blue jeans, dark shoes, and a black leather jacket. Terrence, Natalia, and Edward immediately open their mouths and opens their eyes widely when they see Raquelle, whom they did not expect to see here. And about who they kind of forgot, to be honest.       “Raquelle?!” Terrence, Edward, and Natalia pronounce amazingly.       The trio becomes speeches for two moments and sets their dumbfounded eyes on Raquelle, who is standing near the open door of the car she is leaning on with her hand, looking at Terrence, Natalia, and Edward with a true smile and not believing everything is finally over, and they are safe and sound.       “Friend…” Natalia pronounces with a wide smile and closes her mouth with her hands with tears in her eyes. “Oh, God…”       “I can’t believe it…” Terrence shakes his head. “She should’ve stayed home!”       “But how?” Edward wonders. “How did she find out where we were? Who told her?”       “I think that sweet girl will tell you everything,” Darwin smiles slightly and glances at Raquelle. “Now, when the danger is destroyed, she can meet you.”       “I can hardly believe she helped us,” Terrence does not still believe it.       “Alright… Now excuse me, I have to leave you. A little later, I will come back with the one, who kept Mr. MacClife aware of the situation and could tell you what Raquelle would not say. Excuse me.”       Darwin goes to the policemen, who are talking to each other, and joins their talk. For the first few seconds, Terrence, Edward, and Natalia cannot move off because they are too shocked by a sudden surprise from Raquelle. The trio looks at the brunette with a smile that is getting wider and wider, while she steps back from Darwin’s car. But some time later, Terrence becomes the first one to decide to move, while Edward and Natalia keep standing in the same place. Then the man confidently starts getting closer to Raquelle, who quickly goes toward him.       And when it’s very small, Raquelle takes it and hangs on Terrence’s neck with tears in her eyes so that he shakes. He accepts it with a wide smile and hugs the brunette by the waist as tightly as possible, while he is obsessed with emotions. Being too happy, MacClife, Sr., lifts his fiancée off the ground for a few seconds and shakes her from one side to another, while she bends her legs at her knees for two seconds. The two feel strong relief when they find themselves in each other’s hug, even if Raquelle starts crying more bitterly than before and does not get better even after she snuggles her nose in the shoulder of her beloved man and feels the warmth of his body.       Anyway, despite shaking and feeling exhausted morally, Raquelle calmed down a little and thanked the Gods for helping her close people stay alive. She believes in it more and more, as she is tightly hugging Terrence, tightly wrapping her arms around his neck, running her hands through the soft, disheveled hair of her fiancé, and enjoying his tender touches. His smell. His warmth. His body. Everything he can give her.       Although Terrence feels madly ashamed of putting her in danger, he is madly happy to press Raquelle to himself, touch her long silk hair, feel her pretense, and breathe in her special smell. This girl is shaking her energy with him, while he madly lacks it. With her, he feels relief for the first time in a few hours, even if he keeps shaking slightly and breathing heavily. And he also has to calm the girl, who makes loud sobs, hugs him tightly, runs her shaking hands over his back, and caresses his head.       “I’m sorry…” Terrence pronounces in a shaking voice, runs his fingers through Raquelle’s hair, and caresses her head. “I shouldn’t have done that… Shouldn’t have left you alone. I swear, I don’t know what I was thinking of! I must’ve stayed home and protected you. Please, sweetie, forgive me, I didn’t wanna put you in danger.”       “Don’t blame yourself, Terrence,” Raquelle replies in a low voice, still snuggling her nose in Terrence’s shoulder, pressing herself tightly to the man, wrapping her arms around his neck, and sobbing sometimes. “You’re guilty of nothing. You couldn’t know danger was threatening you… And I couldn’t say it…”       “I should’ve listened to your words about a bad presentiment. You’re always right when saying something bad is supposed to happen.”       “If I hadn’t asked the police for help, I would’ve done everything not to let you go. But since I knew it, I was more or less sure everything would be okay.”       “Sweetheart…” Terrence smiles slightly, exhales with great relief, and kisses Raquelle tenderly on the top of her head, holding her by the back of the head. “You saved me! Saved all of us! I can’t believe you decided to do it for us. For our salvation.”       “I did it for my love for you and family and friendship,” Raquelle smiles shyly and puts her head on Terrence’s shoulder, closing her eyes for two seconds. “I was afraid to lose someone of you… For me, it would be a strong hit… I was so scared… I was afraid to think the police could come here too late. That Michael would kill you earlier…”       “It’s over. Uncle has been arrested. No threats anymore. We passed this test.”       “Thank God!” Raquelle kisses Terrence on one cheek and caresses tenderly another and then the top of his head. “Thank God…”       A few seconds later, Raquelle and Terrence step away from each other. The man softly grabs the face of the girl with a wide smile and looks into her gray, tear-stained eyes.       “Thanks,” Terrence thanks softly. “Thank you so much for doing it. If not for you, we would’ve hardly taken it. You should't know everything we got through. That was horrible!”       “I don’t even wanna think about it,” Raquelle replies in a little shaking voice, fixing Terrence’s hair with a heavy breath, barely touching the bright scar placed on his cheek closer to his eye and wiping the blood carefully under his nose and in a corner of his mouth. “The most important thing is that you’re alive.”       “The thoughts about you helped me hold on.” Terrence softly kisses Raquelle on the forehead and touches her nose with the tip of his nose with a wider smile, still holding her face in his hands and looking into her eyes. “To fight… To believe everything would be fine. That salvation was close…”       “It was close.” Raquelle softly caresses Terrence’s cheeks and head, not moving her happy gaze off him. “You were under protection when going here. Even if you didn’t guess it.”       “I will not hide that I was scared. Scared that they could do anything to me at this house.”       “Nevertheless, I’m sure you behaved worthily. I mean, I don’t doubt it. Because you never give up and can stand up for yourself.”       “Did I tell you that you were my heroine?” Terrence moves a couple of strands off Raquelle’s eyes. “The heroine that could risk for those she loves.”       “Do you know you’re my hero and role model that I always take an example from?” Raquelle moves her hands to Terrence’s shoulders, not stopping smiling tiredly but truly. “Who I don’t doubt at all. And who I must’ve saved when I got such a wonderful chance.”       “Aw, Raquelle…”       Terrence grabs Raquelle’s face and gives her a cute kiss as thankfulness for what she did. The young people feel that it literally breathes into them and makes them feel much better and realize that their beloved person is okay. And when Terrence and Raquelle break the kiss and just look into each other’s eyes with a slight smile, Natalia and Edward come to them a little hesitantly. They were standing aside and hugging each other, as they watched the friend of the girl and the brother of the man with a slight but exhausted smile that they shared with each other several times. Raquelle shyly smiles at Edward and Natalia and hugs her friend tightly with tears in her eyes, while the guys watch them with slight smiles. The blonde answers back with the same tight hug, putting her face in the brunette’s face and starting to cry quietly from happiness and great relief.       Raquelle was terribly nervous that her plan might have gone wrong, and Natalia was afraid she would die and lose those she loved so much. But now, when everything is finally over, everybody may exhale with relief.       “It’s okay, friend, it’s okay,” Raquelle whispers, caressing Natalia’s head with wet eyes while the blonde makes frequent sobs and breathes too heavily. “It’s over. It’s all over.”       “I can’t believe it…” Natalia pronounces in a shaking voice, makes a few sobs, and hugs Raquelle tighter. “God! You saved us, Raquelle! Saved! You heard our prays and came to help!”       “Yes, honey, I came.”       “Thank you so much! Thanks, friend! I don’t know how we could thank you!”       “I couldn’t leave you in trouble. And I didn’t do it when I got a chance to end this story.”       “You’re our miracle, Raquelle! The miracle that helped us save ourselves!”       “No, a miracle is that you’re standing with me safe and sound.”       “I know,” Natalia makes a quiet sob.       Raquelle hugs Natalia tighter and snuggles her face on her shoulder, sniffing at some moment.       “Are you okay?” Raquelle expresses anxiety. “Those cads did something bad to you?”       “No, thank God, nobody hurt me,” Natalia replies, steps back from Raquelle, and tiredly smiles. “Yes, they insulted and humiliated me, but nobody tried to beat me, torture me, and rape me.”       “Thank God! Though, you look like they did horrible things to you.”       “No, I’m fine. I’m just terribly exhausted and wanna go home. Put me in order, eat what I love, and sleep on my bed. Honestly, they cooked what I wasn’t used to. It wasn’t tasty. And my body hurts because of the cruel bed, on which I was sleeping.”       “Now it will happen. You’re free, honey.”       “I can barely believe it.”       Raquelle smiles slightly and exhales with relief again. And two seconds later, the girl glances at Edward, noticing that he is exhausted and depressed, and feels pity and sympathy.       “Nice to meet you,” Raquelle says quietly. “Edward MacClife.”       “Do you know everything?” Edward guesses.       “I know. I was told about your real identity. And I see you’ve revealed yourself.” Raquelle looks at Edward closely, starting to compare him with Terrence unconsciously. “No wig, no lenses…”       “Yeah, I had to change my appearance a little…” Edward runs his hand over his hair.       “Anyway, I’m glad we’ve finally found out who you actually are. And that we’ve found the missing younger son of Rebecca MacClife.”       “I repeat, I didn’t have any bad thoughts. At first, I just wanted to befriend Terrence before telling him that he was my brother.”       “I get it.”       “I guess don’t you have questions for me now?”       “Nope. And I hope we know everything about you now.”       “Yes, no more secrets.”       “Oh…” Raquelle exhales sharply. “How are you feeling? Are you okay?”       “Yes, I’m fine,” Edward nods and runs his hand over his face. “Don’t worry.”       “You look too bad… I’m afraid to imagine what was happening there.”       “You don’t better know it. I’m sick not as much psychically as morally. Uncle got us exhausted. He can press you psychologically.”       “I see…”       “Don’t worry. We’ll get better soon.”       Raquelle looks at Edward with sympathy and takes him in her amicable hug for a few seconds. While the man wonders again that the people are now showing a wish to hug and support him. Though, he does not refuse what he definitely needs. And when the girl steps back from the man, she looks at everybody and smiles shyly.       “But wait, Raquelle,” Terrence shakes his head. “I don’t get it… How did you organize this operation? When did you start it? Who helped you? How did you make the police sure to help you?”       “And how did you find us and find out we’d go here?” Edward wonders. “Terrence and I didn’t tell you the address of this house.”       “I didn’t need it,” Raquelle shrugs. “I was just brought here.”       “But how? How do we understand it?”       “Yes, friend, explain everything,” Natalia adds.       “I promise I shall tell you everything,” Raquelle promises, while the three pairs of eyes are set on her. “Now I can tell you what I had to be silent about.”       “Speak! We’re listening to you.”       “I also thought the police wouldn’t help us. Though, I thought of asking for help from Hunter, who helped me get Simon arrested. But on the day of Natalia’s kidnapping, I was at one café where I went after the shootings. I was reflecting on what Terrence found out from his mother. It was about the situation of Edward’s father, who, as she said, was hiding. And who is Terrence’s father, as we know now.”       “I didn’t lie about his death!” Edward exclaims. “Uncle Michael also believed Father was dead.”       “I know, but now I don’t mean it.” Raquelle clears his throat. “So, while standing in the line at the café, someone ran into me. A man. He apologized and excused… And then I found out that I knew that man. We were studying together at the university. I quickly became his friend when I was studying for the first year. But our ways got separated one year later because I had to leave studies, and he studied for two more years and left the university to become a policeman.”       “Policeman?” Terrence wonders.       “Yup. And yeah, you had been talking to that man before I came to you.”       “That one?” Natalia wonders. “So, is that young man in jeans and a blue shirt your buddy from the university?”       “Yup, that’s him. His name is Darwin. That man is now just an officer, but gonna become a sergeant soon.”       “Okay… What’s next?”       “We sat at a table and talked a little. And then my friend mentioned the case that the police had been investigating for ages. The names of Michael and Jamie MacClife were featured in it.”       “Yes, yes, Uncle told us how he got the house and the company of Father and about how poorly the parents of Terrence and me lived,” Edward replies confidently.       “And do you know the house Michael lived in actually belongs to your father?”       “Yes, we know,” Terrence confirms.       “Okay. So, Darwin told me a part of the story because he didn’t know much. And many things seemed weird to me. But he said he was working with one man. He is a good old friend of Jamie MacClife, who knew everything about this story. But the most important thing I found out was that your father was alive and hiding from everybody to pretend to be dead for his brother.”       “Wait, did you know Father was alive?” Edward asks, looking at Raquelle with widely open eyes. “But you said nothing to us?”       “Yes, I knew it,” Raquelle confirms quietly. “I knew that after Michael tried to kill him, he spent some time at the hospital and was hiding in the apartment of the late parents of his friend until today. Darwin also said there was someone, who always kept their colleagues aware of everything that was happening in Michael’s life. And our lives. And gave the information to Jamie.”       “That policeman said they really had an informant,” Terrence says thoughtfully.       “They had some information about Edward. They knew about Lockhart and MacClife. And when Darwin and Mr. MacClife’s friend came to the hospital after they found out about his wound, they had a talk with the doctors. They asked them for permission to look at you. Darwin said you didn't see it because you were sleeping, unconscious or under anesthesia… Victor Johnson, Darwin’s colleague, frowned and suspected something. And when we talked, he confessed that he compared all the facts and guessed that Edward Lockhart and Edward MacClife were the same person. His personal case in the police helped him in it.”       “So, the policemen knew…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully, starting to understand why the policemen could easily recognize him. “Yeah… What about the one, who found me?”       “That man knew nothing about you because you didn’t have documents. He saw you were wounded, called an ambulance, and told them everything.”       “Did that policeman tell you that?” Natalia asks.       “Yes. I told my friend everything I knew and asked him to bring me to the friend of Jamie. Darwin promised to talk to him. He gave me his number, I shared mine, and then we said goodbye. And while I was taking everything I found out, Edward came to me.”       “Oh, did you meet?”       “He came to me. We talked about what happened a few days ago. I told Edward everything I wanted and left.” Raquelle glances aside. “And somewhere two hours later, Edward went to the home of Terrence and me with bruises and blood on his face and said you were taken away by Michael’s people. I had to play the role of a peacemaker, so we forgot about the offenses and helped you. After that, we went to the place of the kidnapping. While we were looking around, I got a message from Darwin. He said Jamie’s friend agreed to meet me. The meeting was scheduled on the next day at half past three.”       “Half past three?” Terrence specifies. “Hey, stop! Am I right that you were planning it secretly? You decided to hide your wish to meet the one, who knew Father, from Edward and me?”       “Yeah, it’s the truth,” Raquelle confirms.       “But why did you say nothing to us?”       “To say your father was actually alive and hiding from his brother? Or that Edward is your brother, who disappeared many years ago? No! I didn’t wanna look like a liar! So, I decided to find proof or let you see it with your eyes.”       “And is that why you were so nervous the next day after Natalia’s kidnapping?”       “Not only because of that. I was really worried about Natalia and terribly afraid those people would do something to her. And I was also thinking about what I should’ve found out from Jamie’s friend… First of all, I wanted to tell him about what happened to Natalia. I should’ve done something to save her, and I couldn’t miss my chance.”       “So, did you get a message from that policeman and agree to the meeting with Father’s friend when we went to where Natalia was taken away from?” Edward specifies.       “Yes. When we came to the place where you got a hit on the head.”       “I noticed you hid behind the wall and looked too excited. But I didn’t take it seriously and thought you just withdraw into yourself. Worried about your friend. Wanted to stay alone.”       “I did. But I hid just to type a message for my friend, so he knew my wish to meet Victor was still on.”       “Now it’s clear for us.”       “I’ll continue…” Raquelle puts a finger on her lip. “The next day, Edward went to the home of me and Terrence and said Michael told his people not to let him in the house.”       “Gosh, was Edward really there on that day?” Natalia opens her eyes widely. “Michael said his nephew got his message and tried to take me away!”       “It’s the truth,” Edward confirms. “I wanted to take you away and came here, but Uncle’s people didn’t let me in and kicked me out like a doggy. And then they told him everything, and he texted me again, letting me know that I wouldn't be able to get closer to his house before he wanted.”       “My gosh…”       “We three had been talking about it before Daniel and Anna went to our home,” Raquelle says. “He wanted to suggest to Terrence that they go somewhere, and she thought of going to your home with me because you didn’t answer her calls. Well… We three had to tell them what happened to you.”       “So, do Anna and Daniel know what happened to me?” Natalia frowns slightly.       “Yes, they do. Hiding it made no sense.”       “So, okay…”       “And at some moment, my phone rang. I stepped aside to talk. It was a call from Darwin, who reminded me of him and Victor waiting for me at the café. So, as I could say nothing, I had to lie. My manager allegedly asked me to go to the agency to leave home and make nobody suspicious. Terrence and Edward tried to be next to me not to let me overcome what happened to you. But I should’ve left. For your salvation.”       “I did suspect you didn’t go to your agency,” Terrence confesses confidently. “At first, I thought you wanted to go out ‘cause you wanted to stay alone after we fought on that day. But then Serena told me she didn’t plan any meetings with you and asked me to tell you about her wish to meet you.”       “Yeah, it’s partly the truth. That meeting was a great excuse to leave home. But I had no time to walk in the city because Victor Johnson, Jamie’s friend, was waiting for me. He told me very much about Michael and Jamie’s childhood. About the company, which Jamie should’ve ruled at his father’s wish. And about the half of the stocks that are supposed to belong to Rebecca.”       “And he probably told you about how Uncle dishonestly stole the company, the house, and the money,” Edward assumes thoughtfully.       “Right. Your parents were so poor that they had to ask Victor and his wife for money for a wedding and live in the apartment of his       late parents. First, they held on somehow, but after the birth of you two, everything got much harder. Even the help of your grandfather, as he said, wasn’t enough.”       “And it led to the day when our parents fought, Father slapped Mother, got scared, took his stuff, and left, taking Edward with him and disappearing for many years,” Terrence continues. “And then he married Isabella and became the father of Jeremy and William.”       “Right, Jamie lived with Isabella Thorn for many years. And Michael was ruling the company of his father and earning a lot of money from its income. But as Victor said, the situation did not get better or worse. Everything was the same.”       “But a few years later, Uncle showed up with a claim that Father was a bigamist,” Edward continues. “That his second marriage with Isabella had no legal standing because he didn’t divorce Mother.”       “Exactly! Isabella got the proof, filed a lawsuit to annulate the second marriage, and ban Jamie from speaking to Jeremy and William. And she won it with the help of Michael.”       “We know.”       “Then Michael learned about the will from Isabella,” Raquelle glances aside. “And he knew that Rebecca had the fifty percent of the company's stock. And Terrence, Edward, Jeremy, and William should’ve shared the four million dollars that he had on his bank account. Well, Michael wanted to get the company stocks and the money. Meanwhile, Edward already knew about Terrence… And Jamie was furious because Michael came into his life again and ruined it.”       “It’s strange, but I didn’t know what happened between Father and Isabella,” Edward says thoughtfully, stroking his chin. “When I left home, they spoke very well. Yes, Isabella left somewhere with Jeremy and William, but I thought they left for their business or wanted to visit her relatives. Her sister, for example.”       “Suspected nothing ‘cause they lived well?” Terrence asks.       “Yes. I heard many talks of them, but never noticed them fighting. They even never argued about the work and always agreed on everything. And when Uncle Michael showed up, he was probably making Father nervous for some time ‘cause Isabella knew him, and I already met him and was even at his home.”       “Hey, your father knew you listened to his talks with Isabella but didn’t care about it much,” Raquelle confesses.       “Really?”       “Really. At least, Victor said it and was told by your father.”       “And where did Father leave after Isabella kicked him out?” Terrence asks.       “Jamie rented an apartment, found a job, and spent almost all the money on the rent and everything he needed,” Raquelle replies. “It happened at the same time when you and I started to date. As Victor said, Michael didn’t know that Rebecca and Jamie contacted each other and tried to convince you to meet your father. But that man was already planning to get the money and the other company stocks. The first mission was to kill your father. He did it, but his plan met failure.”       “Yes, we know,” Edward nods.       “Jamie ended up in a hospital where he was diagnosed with brain damage and decided to pretend to be dead and gave false data to doctors. And when he left it, he asked Victor for help. Who agreed to help him and do something for him to hide from Michael and his people and be aware of all the plans of his brother.”       “Hey, is that true that there was someone at Uncle Michael’s home, who secretly told Victor information about what he was planning?”       “Yes. Darwin told me the police sent their person there. A young girl, who allegedly wanted to get a job as a servant. Michael gave an advertisement about searching for a servant, and the policemen decided that it was a wonderful chance to get closer to him. They sent the one, who could stand by herself and had a sharp tongue. She made that man and his pals trust her, knew all his secrets and plans, and told Victor about them.”       “A girl?” Edward rounds his eyes. “A servant?”       “Thanks to Victor, I knew there was a person from the police at Michael’s house. But on the way here, Darwin told me more about that girl.”       “Wait…” Edward looks at Raquelle amazingly. “Catherine! Damn! Was Catherine working undercover?”       “Yes, her name is Catherine. Catherine Hadley. She is an officer of the police, but Darwin said she could be promoted. He said she was the best one for this role. That’s why Catherine went to work as a servant at Michael’s house.”       “My gosh!” Edward wonders. “I wouldn’t have thought… That girl was pretending very well… It was impossible to guess she was working for the police and agreed against Uncle. He literally wanted to marry her. And he would have definitely done that if Catherine hadn’t had a boyfriend. Though… She could lie about a boyfriend. I never saw him.”       “And if she hurt someone, don’t be mad at her. It was her job. Catherine should’ve played her role until the end.”       “I’m not mad… Of course, Cath was very insolent and non-educated, but I never listened to what she said. That girl just repeated what Uncle said like a parrot. She said what he said.”       “Okay…” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully. “And as I understand, did Uncle decide to defeat Edward, believing he killed Father?”       “But his plan met failure again. Yes, Edward was hiding from his uncle for some time, but he did find out that his nephew didn’t die.”       “Yeah…” Edward exhales sharply, running his hand over his face. “That’s good there was nobody in the hospital, who knew Uncle and could tell him about me.”       “Hey, the policemen recognized you not only because Victor knew your father,” Raquelle notices, looking at Edward gloomily, and crosses her arms over her chest. “There is one thing you are hiding from us.”       “One… Thing?”       “Be pleased to explain, why did you kill the man named Nicolas Carter?”       “What?” Edward opens his eyes widely, getting nervous enough, shifting his weight from one foot to another, and recalling those horrible days when he experienced the worst tortures in his life. “No! No, Raquelle, I killed nobody, I swear! Nicolas died not because of me…”       “Yeah, but you were in prison for the charge of murder!” Raquelle sharply stops. “As Edward MacClife!”       “I got arrested by mistake! I was just passing by along with my friend. We saw one of Uncle’s accomplices mocking Nicolas along with his pals. They shot at his stomach and arm and beat him strongly before he died. When they left, it was too late to save Father’s friend. My friend suggested calling the police and telling them the truth, but I was afraid they wouldn’t believe us. And when the police suddenly came there, I barely convinced my friend to run, stayed and got caught by the policemen with the gun in my hands. They believed I killed him. I tried to deny it. But nobody believed me, and the police eventually brought me to the police station. I was questioned by a sick man, who didn’t believe my story. I was in prison for two weeks and was questioned almost every day. But I automatically said I wasn’t guilty. Even despite the horrible tortures I was put to… By that investigator and my cellmates… And then Uncle came to the police and made bail for me, and I was released. Moreover, he gave bribery to the investigation, so the case was suspended. And I signed the declaration that I would not leave.”       “Why should I believe you’re telling us the truth?”       “I swear, Raquelle, I’m telling you the truth! I might go to prison at any time if someone started the investigation of the case and gave the materials to the court. Even despite the bail, I’m still a suspect and could easily get a sentence of many years. And all these years, Uncle blackmailed me with this. To hide my arrest from everybody and not to go to prison, I should’ve done what he wanted. Otherwise, he would’ve killed me or put me in prison. Where they would’ve eaten me. Or I wouldn’t have survived it and would’ve hung myself…”       “So, do you wanna say you didn’t kill Nicolas?”       “No! He was killed by Eric Brown, the main henchman of Uncle. The one, who was trying to bring Natalia here along with Wainwright.”       “So, does Michael have to do with the murder of that person?”       “Hard to say. But Uncle denies his fault and says he didn’t tell anyone to kill Nicolas. It’s probably the truth, and Eric had some misunderstandings with Nicolas, because of which he killed the friend of my father.”       “But why did Michael actually get you out of prison? Why did he decide that you would work for him? ”       “He just loved pressing on me psychologically. He knew what kind of trauma I got after the two weeks I spent in prison and decided to bring me to the edge. Uncle didn’t want me to work for him. He just wanted to mock me and drive me crazy.”       “But why didn’t you tell us about that? How could you hide that fact? Since when you came into our life, we never heard a hint of your problems with the law.”       “Do you think it was nice for me to tell people that I was in prison for nothing? You think I had the pleasure of thinking about the tortures, after which I thought of suicide many times? Any person tries to hide this fact from the biography! I even changed my name for it! And anyone would go crazy after all the tortures that I took because of the investigator in the hope of getting the truth that he wanted to hear. After some cons beat me so strongly that I was beaten black-and-blue and couldn’t even move ‘cause every single movement gave me unbearable pain.”       “I understand it, but you should’ve said about everything!”       “I didn’t want someone to believe I had to do with it!” Edward excuses himself with pity in his eyes. “Consider me a killer! Hate me and start to insult me. Yes, I’m not guilty, but I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me. Just like the policemen didn’t believe me and suspected me just because I was caught with the pistol in my hands that Eric left.”       “And did Eric know about your arrest? And what about Michael?”       “Maybe, Eric knew, but he didn’t betray himself and kept the belief that I was the killer along with everybody. And Uncle Michael didn’t know the truth and thought I really killed. I never told him what really happened on that evening.”       “And didn’t you try to prove your innocence?”       “Meaning?” Edward shrugs. “Since that investigator didn’t believe me, would others do? Even if I bring my friend to the police, who could confirm my words!”       “And where’s your witness? Why did you let him run? He could’ve saved you from the arrest if he’d confirmed your words!”       “Not a fact, Raquelle. We, little kids, could’ve been put in a cage together. But I didn’t want my friend to have to do with that. So, that’s why I literally begged him to run.”       “Are you gonna stay under a declaration that you won't leave and have this heavy burden on your shoulders until the end of your life?” Raquelle wonders. “You’re ready to go to prison and be sentenced to many years! Edward! Do you understand you might get a sentence if the judge finds you guilty?”       “I know, Raquelle! But only my friend could save me and prove that I didn’t kill Nicolas. And if the police checked the other fingerprints, I’d have a higher chance to avoid punishment!”       “Find him then!”       “But how? I haven’t spoken to him since that day! How could I find that guy if I have no contact with him?”       “I dunno. But if you want to prove your innocence, you must find the witness. If the case of the murder of Nicolas is renewed, and the materials are given to the judge, you may go to prison. If Eric’s fault for the murder is not proven, he will not be responsible for everything, but you, Edward, will.”       “I can promise nothing,” Edward says quietly. “But I’ll try to find him.”       “Try if you want to avoid the worst fate.”       “Yeah.”       Raquelle nods and says nothing for two seconds, and then Terrence glances at her and frowns.       “Yeah, but I still can’t understand…” Terrence says thoughtfully. “How did you bring the police here? You’ve told us almost everything we know from Uncle or Father. Maybe, we didn’t only know about the servant. Well… We didn’t only know about the servant!”       “Yes, Raquelle, I haven’t understood anything yet,” Natalia says. “Do you have to do with the fact that the father of Edward and Terrence went to the office when Michael nearly killed us?”       “Partly, yes,” Raquelle confirms. “I told Victor and Darwin that you were kidnapped and explained what you had to do with the MacClife family. And I didn’t even have to beg them for help ‘cause they understood everything and agreed to help me, saying it was time to end that story.”       “That’s how…” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully.       “By the way, I forgot to say something… I found out that Eugene Wainwright was guilty not only of trying to rape Natalia, but also of trying to kill Jamie.”       “What?” Natalia and Edward pronounce at the same time.       “Eugene Wainwright?” Natalia opens her eyes widely. “Had to do with trying to kill Terrence and Edward’s father?”       “He is one of the suspects,” Raquelle confirms.       “So, do you wanna say Father told us the truth?” Edward asks. “Did that bastard really hit him on the head and threw his body in the sea?”       “Yes. I took Eugene’s documents that we found at the place of the kidnapping. And I showed them to Darwin and Victor.”       “That’s where they disappeared…” Terrence concludes. “I was wondering why I didn’t see the wallet.”       “They recognized that man and said the witness, who saw Jamie trying to be killed and brought to the hospital, recognized Wainwright.”       “Sick bastard!” Edward blunts with evil in his eyes, clenching his hands into fists tightly. “I’d get his nuts out of him for what he did! And I swear I will do it with great pleasure if I see him one mile away from me.”       Although Edward speaks quietly, Raquelle, Natalia, and Terrence hear him well but say nothing, look at each other, and shrug.       “And Victor also said Michael prepared a trap for Terrence and Edward,” Raquelle says hesitantly. “The trap for Terrence meant that he should’ve left me home alone, and Michael’s people should’ve brought me here. And the trap for Edward was an attempt to make him commit murder of my fiancé.”       Terrence and Edward hesitantly look at each other, starting to understand why Raquelle minded their arrival at Michael's home.       “That’s why you didn’t wanna let me go and begged me to stay home,” Terrence concludes thoughtfully. “So, did you know Uncle was preparing the trap for me?”       “I knew,” Raquelle nods.       “And decided to be silent? Let me put you in danger? And you started that show not to make us suspect something?”       “I’m sorry, Terrence,” Raquelle inclines her head guiltily, looking down with sadness in her eyes. “But I couldn’t tell you that. You wouldn’t have believed me and would’ve wanted to do something to prevent me from doing what I wanted. Moreover, I promised Victor and Darwin that I’d keep our plan secret until Michael’s arrest.”       “What if something went wrong? If the plan was ruined? Uncle’s people found you at home and bring you here!”       “Please, understand me,” Raquelle begs with pity in her eyes, looking at Terrence not being happy. “I was doing everything for all of you. To save you. Yes, it was kind of dangerous. But I entirely trusted the policemen and knew they wouldn’t betray me, even if I was afraid they could come too late. I was silent not because of spite or a wish to torture you. I should’ve done it. I knew you would start changing my mind about meddling in this case. I should’ve done that.”       “I understand…” Terrence replies much quieter, glancing aside. “And I should’ve listened to you… Everything happened as you said. Uncle really put me in the trap…”       “Don’t be mad, honey, I really wanted to do my best.”       “It’s okay,” Terrence smiles slightly with the corners of his mouth. “Although you did a bad thing by hiding your plan from me, I understand the reasons why you did it.”       “I know.” Raquelle sighs heavily and looks at Terrence, Edward, and Natalia. “Okay… In short, when Victor and Darwin agreed to help, they asked me to let them know when Michael would show up with claims for Natalia's freedom. And today, Terrence and Edward told me about his call. It was a sign for me! I took the phone and typed a message for my friend to tell him they could start the operation.”       “I thought so!” Terrence crosses his arms over his chest. “I was sure you were checking the phone for the reason while talking with us.”       “And I saw you typing a text,” Edward adds, falls into silence, and shrugs. “Sorry, looked into your phone accidentally! But I didn’t take it seriously. We started to suspect something when we recalled your strange behavior over the last few days.”       “Sort of,” Raquelle replies quietly. “Well… And after that, the only thing I should’ve done was get you out and call Darwin. And I did it.”       

***

      About three and a half hours ago.       When Terrence and Edward leave the house, Raquelle comes to the window, sees Terrence and Edward getting into her car and leaving a few seconds later. The girl has to spend some time getting control over her emotions. And when she understands she can speak, Raquelle takes her mobile phone from the pocket of her jeans, types Darwin’s number, and waits for the answer, still looking through the window even after the brothers left.       “Hey, Darwin!” Raquelle exclaims excitedly. “It’s Raquelle Cameron!”       “Yes, yes, Raquelle,” Darwin replies quietly. “So what? Edward and Terrence left?”       “Yes… They just got into the car and left. I looked through the window and saw them leaving the territory of the house.”       “Great! So, we can start our operation!”       “Oh, God!” Raquelle sighs heavily, turns her back on the window, and steps back from it, feeling that her body is too tense. “I’m so worried about them!”       “Hey, Raquelle, keep yourself under control,” Darwin replies quietly. “You must not fall into a panic! Especially now! Something might go wrong if you weren’t able to control your emotions.”       “I know… I just get horrified from thinking about what Michael may do to them before we come there.”       “Don’t think about it, friend, we’ll do everything. Now just wait for us to go to your home.”       “Yeah, sure…” Raquelle nods, nervously walking into the living room and keeping a hand on her forehead. “I… I’m waiting…”       “Hide all the valuable things and try to find a way to do something for nobody to stay at your house. If you and Terrence have servants, send them home. It’s for their safety and calm.”       “I got it, Darwin. Everything will be done. But please, come here as soon as possible. I’m really scared to stay alone. Michael’s people might come here for me at any time. And the security of the territory might not hold them down.”       “Nothing will happen to you, I promise,” Darwin replies confidently. “Mr. Johnson and I and the policemen are coming for you.”       “Yeah, I’ll be waiting for you…”       “Wait, we’ll come soon.”       “Thanks…”       Raquelle turns off the call and puts the phone in the pocket of her jeans. Then, she walks into the living room for some time, putting her hand on her forehead. But later, the girl breathing heavily turns around and goes to her room, still understanding that she is shaking, and her heart is beating fast.       

***

      “I came to Christiana, Blair, and Violetta and said that I wanted to let them go home. They quickly got ready and left. Yes, the police had come before they left the house, but I explained nothing to them and just asked them to come back tomorrow after lunchtime.”       “My gosh!” Natalia exclaims. “I see you planned everything, Cameron.”       “I was just following the police’s instructions: hiding all the valuable things, letting the servants go, and going here with them. And somewhere twenty minutes later, Mr. Johnson, Darwin, and a few policemen came to the house. We agreed that they would be protecting the house until Michael got arrested, or his accomplices got into it. I came here in the car of my friend, and Victor and Jamie were following us. Well, all those policemen were going after us.”       “So, did Father see the house of Terrence and you?” Edward asks.       “Yes. And I managed to tell him a couple of words. He was super nervous, but he couldn’t wait to make a surprise for Michael.”       “What a story!” Terrence exclaims, looking at Raquelle with a slight smile. “You did organize the whole operation for our salvation! Helped Father and the police!”       “I did everything I could,” Raquelle smiles innocently. “And the risk was worth it.”       “At heart, I knew you wouldn’t leave us in trouble… I thought you’d understand something bad was happening to us.”       “I couldn’t get rid of this feeling until I was allowed to leave the car and see all of you. If you only knew how tense I was when I had to be in the car and wait.”       “The fact that you had the phone in your hands and typed messages to someone seemed weird to us,” Natalia confesses. “Everything the guys saw seemed suspicious to me. As it turned out, we were right when we suspected that something was wrong. You, sly fox, outsmarted everybody.”       “Yeah, I could say so,” Raquelle rolls her eyes with a slight smile. “Nevertheless, I did it only for my close people… For love and friendship. To let this story end. To save my friend. Not to let my fiancé die because of the horrible man…”       “Yeah, but how much we had to overcome before we got help,” Natalia sighs heavily and runs her hand over her hair. “You can’t imagine what we experienced for the three hours. How many times we had to save each other from that sick man! But it was much harder for Terrence and Edward. Michael didn’t hurt me much and never tried to attack. He just insulted me. He hoped he’d give me to Eugene and let him mock me. But thank God, that stinker didn’t come there.”       “You deserve great praise, Natalia,” Terrence notices amicably, putting his hand on Natalia’s shoulder. “You behaved worthily and weren’t afraid to answer Uncle as rudely as he did. And you put yourself at great risk to try to save Edward and me.”       “I should’ve done that. If I hadn’t tried, I would’ve regretted it. Moreover, two hours before the meeting, I promised myself that I would, speaking rudely, put my cowardice in my ass and stop counting on someone. Stop being a coward and prove that I can stand up for myself. Really.”       “And you proved it. You held on more than just worthily and did a truly noble thing. You were ready to sacrifice yourself and said absolutely right things. You were awesome.”       “I couldn’t disagree,” Edward says with a slight smile. “Natalia is really our good girl. She didn’t get scared of that sick deadbeat. And she showed great wisdom, deciding it would be better not to show resistance when she ended up in this house. I’m even afraid to imagine what would’ve happened if she’d tried to run away or fought with those nasty cockroaches.”       “I just understood it was the best thing I could do,” Natalia shrugs. “Screaming, fighting, and biting didn’t make sense.”       “You’re really a fine fellow, honey,” Raquelle smiles shyly, taking Natalia’s hands. “You passed all these tests with dignity. You were awesome, as MacClife said.”       “Not less awesome than you, my sweetheart,” Terrence says with a slight smile, moving his eyes to Raquelle. “Your bravery saved us from death. We would’ve hardly been standing here all together if you hadn’t come to the police. You saved the lives of Natalia, Edward, and me.”       “Glad to hear it.”       “From now on, I owe you until the end of my life, my brave heroine.” Terrence puts his hand on his heart. “For saving me.”       “Hooray!” Raquelle smiles shyly and laughs quietly. “Finally, I did something not to feel embarrassed!”       “Awkward? Gosh, what are you talking about?”       “Not to feel uncomfortable that you always save me and come to help when I need it.”       “You must be kidding!” Terrence laughs amicably. “You can’t even imagine how many times you’ve saved me! Haven’t let me do what would lead to a catastrophe!”       “At least, I will not feel embarrassed now. Because I know I did just something to prove my love and show true care.”       “Aw, Raquelle, my silly girl…”       Terrence takes Raquelle in his tender hug with a wide, tired smile and kisses her cutely on the cheek, while she puts her hands on his back. They do not pay attention to Natalia and Edward watching them, as they shyly embrace each other and do not hide their slight smiles. Which they share with each other. But the ex-lovers quickly move their eyes to MacClife, Sr, who is caressing the head of his fiancée with one hand and her back with another hand. But in a few seconds, Terrence and Raquelle have to step away because Victor and Darwin come to them, Natalia, and Edward.       “So what?” Darwin asks. “Talked about everything?”       “Yes, we know everything,” Terrence replies amicably, embracing Raquelle around the shoulders. “Raquelle told us everything you did all together.”       “That’s good.”       “Excuse me, sir, are you the one, who kept my father aware of what was happening?” Edward asks a little hesitantly, moving his eyes to Victor.       “Yes, it’s me,” Victor replies politely. “If Raquelle has not told you yet, let me introduce myself – Captain Victor Johnson. The old friend of Jamie MacClife, whom I have known for ages. Since when we were young.”       “Oh, yeah, I just recalled that I did not introduce myself when talking to you,” Darwin rounds his eyes. “Officer, Darwin Austin, at your service.”       “So, are you the friend of Raquelle, who she studied with at the university?” Natalia asks.       “Yes, it’s me. And I think she told you how we met and agreed on the operation.”       “Sure, she did.”       “We are really very happy Michael has been finally arrested,” Victor says confidently. “This story lasted for too long and must have ended early or late.”       “We were told Uncle and his pals were taken away from here,” Edward says thoughtfully.       “Yes, everybody has been put in cars and taken to the police station. It’s Michael’s time to pay for everything he has done. You cannot imagine how much that man ruined the life of my friend. Jamie has suffered and tolerated enough from him all his life. If not for that cad, he would’ve lost nothing.”       “Yeah, he has done many things,” Terrence nods. “And he knew even what was supposed to be personal.”       “That cad has many familiar people, who could tell him anything. And sometimes it could happen that his familiar people could have friends that had to do with you somehow.”       “We got it,” Natalia says quietly.       “But you may have no worries: Michael and his pals are in the hands of the police, and we will be closely watching him.”       “Thank you so much!” Edward thanks with a slight smile. “Thanks for making this operation happen. For agreeing to help Father and not leaving him at such a hard moment.”       “Our business is catching and finding proof. And this sweet girl gave us great help.” Victor points at Raquelle and Darwin standing next to him. “If my helper Darwin had not met her and found out that she was our last hope, we wouldn’t have gotten Michael caught. She helped us move off the dead point.”       “But I want to notice it happened accidentally,” Darwin adds shyly. “I forgot to think of Raquelle. But when we met, I quickly recalled and recognized her.”       “Anyway, thank you so much for everything you did,” Terrence replies amicably. “I believe we can exhale with relief. Because Uncle is arrested, and we are no longer connected with this case.”       “Well, not quite…”       “Yeah, sadly, you shouldn't be happy earlier,” Victor says with sadness in his eyes. “The case is that Michael and his accomplices will stand trial for the charge of a few articles. And your four should come to the hearing, so every one of you tells the judge everything you know. You will be listened as witnesses.”       “Sure, we get it,” Raquelle replies quietly. “If we have to, we will come.”       “Will we be the only one to be at the hearing?” Natalia asks.       “No, not just you,” Victor replies. “Many people will be invited. For example, the witnesses of the murder of Jamie and Edward MacClife. And I will be listened as the witness. Jamie will be there. Maybe, Rebecca will be invited, as well. And expect Michael, there will be all of his accomplices as accused. Including Eric Brown and Eugene Wainwright, his main helpers.”       “And when will the hearing trial start?” Terrence asks hesitantly.       “Every one of you will get a notification when it’s time. But I think, not earlier than in one month. Now you have some time to come to yourself and get ready for the long, hard trial.”       “Alright…” Natalia nods.       “And yeah…” Victor glances at Edward and looks at him for two seconds. “Excuse me, young man, are you Edward MacClife? The one, who was pretending to be Edward Lockhart?”       “Erm, yeah, it’s me…” Edward replies hesitantly.       “I got it. Your face is familiar to me because I know you are featured in the case of the murder of Nicolas Carter, a good friend of your father. Judging from the materials of the case, you were arrested and kept in prison for some time.”       “Yeah, you are right,” Edward nods, looking at Victor with sadness in his eyes. “But it happened by mistake! I did not kill that man. I just became a witness of murdering him.”       “I believe you did not kill him,” Victor replies quietly. “But the pistol, with which the dead one was killed, has your fingerprints. The police found out that your fingerprints and the fingerprints on the gun were the same.”       “I took it accidentally, I swear! I did not even think that the police would believe I killed Nicolas when they saw me with the gun in my hands. And agree, a killer would hardly stay beside a corpse with a gun. They would run away, not looking back!”       “You are right about it, yeah. But sadly, all the suspicions are on you. Yes, you were released on bail and have not been sentenced. But it does not mean you should not stand trial.”       “Yes, I understand it. But there is the one, who could confirm that I killed nobody. He was with me on the day the murder happened.”       “Great! Where is that person? As I remember, the case does not have notes about someone else being arrested alongside you.”       “I convinced him to run. I did not want to get him involved in that case. I was afraid he’d suffer because of me. But my friend could confirm that Nicolas was killed by another man.”       “Then I advise you to find that person as soon as possible. I do not know how, but it’s for your best. If you say you killed nobody, you must prove it. Use the moment, Mr. MacClife. You are free now and have enough time to find proof of your innocence and all the possible witnesses of the murder.”       “I can’t be sure I could find the witness because I haven’t spoken to him since the day of the murder. It happened six years ago… But I will do my best.”       “Do your best. Otherwise, you will not prove your innocence to the judge and hear a verdict of guilty. And then you will be put in prison for many, many years. Trust me, I’m a policeman and know all the laws very well. I do not scare you. I’m telling you what is waiting for you if you do not prove that you did not kill Nicolas. Remember, nobody will believe your words. The judge will need real proof. Or the confession of the real killer. This is how you could avoid a sentence and hear a verdict of being non-guilty.”       “I understand it, Mr. Johnson,” Edward says with sadness in his eyes. “But there is something that must change everything. The fingerprints. The police should check the pistol again, as it has the fingerprints of fewer people. There is something that belongs to the real killer.”       “Well, you should prove it. Nothing depends only on your words. It does not mean your claim may drop the charges off you. Of course, the police will check the fingerprints again after the case is reopened and maybe even question you again. But do not hope for luck.”       “Nevertheless, I can confidently show you the killer,” Edward says confidently. “I know the man, who killed Nicolas. He worked for my uncle at the moment of the murder and until the present. I cannot say it exactly, but there is an assumption that Uncle told him to kill Nicolas, even if he denies everything.”       “So, do you want to say Michael MacClife had to do with the murder?”       “Yes.”       “And you can even call the killer’s name?”       “Yes, I can! That’s Eric Brown. The man, who was Uncle’s favorite guy. He killed Nicolas on that day. I’m absolutely sure about it because I saw his face. I saw him shooting from the pistol twice. I saw him beating a friend of my father. And then running like a cat that did a bad thing.”       “Eric Brown?” Victor thinks, stroking his chin and frowning slightly. “Alright, we will accept your charges and check his fingerprints to find out if there are the same ones as those on the gun.”       “Do not doubt, he did that. By the order of Uncle or not, he is the real killer, who must pay for the murder of Nicolas Carter. And if I find my witness, he will confirm my words and recognize Eric easily.”       “Alright, I got you. And as the case probably has to do with the story of Michael MacClife, I will personally investigate the murder of Nicolas. This case will probably be heard as well as the others that your uncle and his friends have to do with.” Victor clears his throat. “All the cases will be heard by one, and then the jury will announce the sentence to every single accused. As for Michael, we will have no problems proving his fault. And as for your situation… Everything is much harder… Sadly, I cannot drop the charges off you even if I find proof of your innocence. So, you will be the defendant alongside your uncle and his friends.”       “I get it. And I am ready to tell them as much as I have to. If I have to collaborate with the police, you can count on me.”       “That’s good you agreed to help the police. Even if you are charged, this fact will make your sentence a little shorter. You will hardly get a suspended sentence, but you may have to stay in prison for less time.”       “Sure,” Edward nods.       “If the police find out that Eric's fingerprints fit one of those that the pistol has, he will also become a suspect. Brown has been arrested for being an accomplice, but he might become a member of the case of the murder of Nicolas Carter. If we catch his friends, who were with him, there will be much more suspects. So, you will have a bigger chance to be justified.”       “Has Eric been arrested?”       “You were kind of told we got all the accomplices of Michael arrested. At least, those, who were at this house and tried to get into Raquelle’s house. Including Eric Brown and Eugene Wainwright, who had to do with the attempt to kill Jamie. And who, as Raquelle said, had to do with the attempt to rape her friend, Natalia Rochester.”       “It’s the truth,” Natalia nods.       “Your charges will be noticed. A little later, you will be called to the police to be questioned, so you tell us more about what he did to you, and I add your testimony to the material of the case.”       “I’m ready… Now I have nothing to fear and will do my best to make him pay for what he did to me.”       “Do not worry, Ms. Rochester, we will put that man in prison for ages. If you tell the judge everything he did to you, and how it changed your life, it will be good proof of his fault. And if you have better proof, I will be happy to look at them and add them to the material of the case.”       “I will do it,” Natalia nods confidently with wet eyes. “Everything. Do not doubt. And give you the photos that will prove it. I still have them.”       “So, in this case, your offender will be put in prison for ages,” Victor replies confidently.       “Yeah, has he been arrested, as well?”       “Yes. A few friends of Michael and he went to the home of your friends to bring her here.” Victor falls into silence for two seconds and turns to Raquelle, putting a finger on his lip. “Ah, yeah, Raquelle, literally a few minutes ago, I was told that Michael’s people recently tried to get into your house. But since there were the members of the police staff, they caught all the accomplices, among whom there was Eugene Wainwright.”       “But how long ago did they come here?” Terrence asks.       “Somewhere half an hour or one hour ago, I cannot say it clearly. But you shouldn’t think about it because all the accomplices of Michael have been arrested.”       “Are the police still in my house?”       “No, fewer people waited for some time, and then one of them contacted me and came here after my order. When Darwin, Raquelle, Jamie, and I came here, only two police cars were with us. But now there are about eight cars, as you have noticed. Because Michael had many accomplices, we had to ask for help.”       “And I’m happy it happened,” Terrence replies with a slight smile. “Glad you guessed to take Raquelle away.”       “We knew they would love to get into your house. So, we made a decision to take this girl with us and be next to her before getting a message about the arrest of all the accomplices of your uncle and him.”       “Thank you so much, Mr. Johnson,” Terrence hugs tightly Raquelle smiling shyly around the shoulders. “Thank you so much for getting Uncle arrested and providing the safety of my fiancée.”       “Many thanks to her for such great help. Thanks to her, the MacClife family has been saved from death.”       “You’re right.”       Silence settles in the air for two seconds, and then Victor closely looks at Terrence, noticing his strong resemblance to Jamie.       “Yeah, as I understand, are you Terrence MacClife?” Victor asks thoughtfully. “Who Jamie has told me so much about?”       “Yeah, it’s me,” Terrence replies quietly.       “Your father has often said that everybody believed you were his image. And you are really very similar to him. Jamie looks the same as you did when he was at your age.”       “How long have you known my father?”       “Very long. He was twenty-one when we met, and I’m two years older than him. Jamie also knows my wife and daughter. I married early because of great love and have been married to that woman for ages. And our daughter is a goddaughter of your father. We chose him because Jamie quickly found a common language with her and was attracted to that girl. And she loved playing with him.”       “Really?”       “Yes. And as your parents’ situation was very hard, my wife and I helped them with money and gave them some things we did not need. Moreover, I still remember you being a very little boy. I remember Edward, too, but he was a newborn baby, and I saw you at an older age.”       “And do you know my mother?”       “Of course! Rebecca is a wonderful woman. Very kind, caring, and fair. She can’t be mad and can quickly forgive anyone. When your father introduced her to me and said he dated her, I approved of his choice. I liked your mother immediately. My wife and I became her friends, and she got attracted to our daughter.”       “As I remember, Uncle Michael said nothing about you. Don’t you know him?”       “Personally, no. But Jamie has told me very much about him. He complained that he suffered because of Michael all his life. I felt truly sorry for your father, who was not lucky to have such a horrible brother. It was unpleasant to realize that Jamie’s family was ruined because of him. Because of the poverty he lived in because of his brother, your parents had such a big fight that my friend slapped Rebecca and left the family.”       “Ah, yeah, Father…” Terrence exhales quietly, glancing aside guiltily. “Damn, I can’t believe I considered him a stinker and was ignoring him all that time…”       “I know. But why did you dislike him? Jamie wanted to get on well with you and explain everything.”       “It’s Uncle Michael. He turned me against Father when I was a kid.”       “Michael had to do with it, as well?”       “Yes, he told me my father never loved my mother and me and was even beating her when she was pregnant with me. Uncle somehow went to the home of Mother and me, locked the room where I was playing with a toy, and told me the lie. While Mother was knocking at the door and screaming, threatening to call the police.”       “Gosh…” Victor gets horrified, shaking his head with widely open eyes. “And you believed that?”       “Sadly, Uncle’s words stuck in my head so deeply that I could not forget them all my life. And I could not remember the one, who told me that Father was beating Mother. I recalled it when Uncle Michael confessed it. He said Father was allegedly beating Mother and feeling no sorry for her even when she was carrying me under her heart.”       “It’s a lie, Terrence!” Victor says confidently. “Your father never beat Rebecca! Especially when she was pregnant with you and Edward. Vice versa, Jamie was always very caring at that time, did his best for your mother to need nothing, visited doctors with her, and brought her to the hospital on the delivery day. Yes, my friend slapped your mother once. But he later madly regretted it and was afraid to look into Rebecca's eyes. Only a few years later, Jamie found the courage to apologize to your mother. And she was ready to forgive him even on that fateful day and begged him not to leave. I still remember that she was too depressed after Jamie left. My wife and I barely made her brace herself, at least for you. You were too little and needed her care.”       “Yeah, Uncle confessed everything.” Terrence glances down. “And I’m so ashamed of Father. I’m sorry about being unfair to him and refusing to listen to him and my own mother all this time… Who knew the truth but wanted me to know it from the one, who should’ve confessed that.”       “Glad you understand it. And I advise you to talk to him and say everything you are worried about. Give Jamie a chance to explain everything. Now you know the truth and can forget about your pride. However, if you need time to think about everything, you can have it. Your father will be waiting as long as you need.”       “Thank you so much for the advice, Mr. Johnson,” Terrence replies politely. “I will use it.”       “Good,” Victor nods and glances at Edward. “And it has to do with you, Edward. You should talk to your father, as well. Although you lived with him, you had a very tense relationship. And Jamie would also like to talk to you about it. Though, you must not do it right now, as well. You can take time to take what happened and decide something.”       “Sure,” Edward replies quietly. “Maybe, someday, I will be able to talk to him about it. After learning about his alleged death, I started treating him otherwise. I wanted to hear nothing about him, but now… Now I’m sorry… For him…”       “Trust me, young man, he is also ashamed of you for being so unfair to you and not giving you everything you needed. I’m not lying to you and your brother. I’m well aware of what was happening in the lives of your parents, who were separated because of Michael’s tricks. I judge many actions of Jamie, but I understand him and the reasons why he did that. And my friend knows it well.”       “Yeah, where is my father now?” Terrence asks. “He left the office kind of secretly, and I have not seen him since Uncle was taken away by the police?”       “He is talking to one of the policemen,” Victor replies quietly. “And then he will probably go to have a rest from this nightmare.”       “Will he really stay in his hideaway until the end of his life?” Edward wonders.       “Who knows. Maybe, later, he will find a job and rent a cheap apartment. Jamie doesn’t know what he will do after the end of this story.”       “But he must fight for getting his house, company, and money that Uncle stole back,” Terrence notices.       “I think he will fight for it. However, it’s not as important to Jamie as the attempt to put his brother in prison. He wanted to save his family – he saved it. He wants to put Michael in prison – he will do it.”       “Alright…”       Terrence nods and starts to think about something, glancing at the policemen, who are still near Michael’s house, and Victor looks at him, Edward, Natalia, and Raquelle with sadness in his eyes.       “Alright, I think you all got exhausted,” Victor says thoughtfully. “You four better go home and have a rest. The police are working on confiscating the wealth and will seal the house after the guys finish their work.”       “Alright,” Raquelle nods.       “If we need something, we will call you.”       “Thank you so much,” Terrence says gently and shakes Victor by the hand.       “Yes, thank you so much,” Edward thanks quietly and also shakes Victor by the hand, doing this shyer than Terrence.       “Thank you for showing bravery and courage,” Victor replies after he shakes Natalia and Raquelle by the hand. “Remember, guys, your father is proud of you two anyway and loves you in the same way. Despite nothing, you are the same to him.”       Terrence and Edward say nothing and just smile shyly, feeling some pride for Jamie and the girls standing near them and something nice that warms them up.       “You know, although they say girls are a weak sex, I believe there are strong people that could stand up for themselves and sacrifice for others,” Victor says confidently. “Staying what you are, believing in the best, not having a panic even in the most dangerous situation, and being able to leave your comfort zone and your hideaway, you can do noble things and prove loyalty to your close people, who have done so much for your best.”       Victor glances at Raquelle slowly.       “And there are girls, who can believe and wait for a miracle even in a hopeless situation, and be ready to do anything for everything to end well. Sometimes that’s what lets them get whatever they want. Even despite great excitement, these people are ready to do anything to save close people and prove their love and loyalty to them. And good brain, cunning, and sensitivity could help you foresee something bad and find a way to avoid it.”       Raquelle and Natalia, being unbelievably proud of themselves and each other, do not hide their tired but true, wide smiles and looks at each other.       “Every one of them did a truly noble act, even though they put themselves at a great risk,” Terrence says with his head proudly raised, tightly hugging Raquelle with both arms.       “We were all helping each other,” Edward adds confidently, embracing Natalia around the shoulders. “We did everything we could to protect each other.”       “I believe you,” Victor nods. “Jamie told me you three behaved worthily. He saw and heard everything you said and is glad you were so close.”       “As they say, trouble unites people.” Edward falls into silence for two seconds and fixes his fringe with a free hand. “Maybe, someone did, as someone believes, not enough to make everyone proud of them… To get true love and deep respect. But I would like to believe it would be highly rated early or late. Well, if it is not… It’s alright…”       Although Natalia, Raquelle, and Terrence know what Edward means, they say nothing and just smile shyly at each other.       “I’m sure that everything will be alright,” Darwin says amicably. “You should appreciate each other, despite all your offenses. Anyway, every one of you proved that you were not indifferent to the others. Maybe, much time will pass before you realize it, but it will happen early or late. Now, you shouldn’t say your ways may go separated. You better wait for some time, calm down, and come to yourself… And then something will get clear…”       “I’m sure it will happen,” Raquelle says with a slight smile. “Now it’s too early to say something. The most important thing is that we united and ended this story together.”       “You’re right. Now just have a rest and come to yourself. And yeah, this story hasn’t ended yet. You just ended the hardest period. There is another one ahead.”       “I know. Nevertheless, thank you for such a great help.”       “No, thank you, Raquelle,” Darwin smiles shyly. “If not for you, we would’ve never gotten a chance to catch the criminal and move off the dead point. We started to think we would never end it. Or we would do it if Michael died from natural causes. He is old and has lots of diseases. Our informant, Catherine, said doctors often went to Michael and could make his condition a little better. He will not probably stay in prison for a long time and will die right in a cell.”       “I never wish death even to my biggest enemies. The worst thing I can wish is to stay in prison or just suffer until the end of their lives.”       “He has a little time. He will live for two or three years and will die. Many experienced doctors surrounded him before, but now he will not have them.”       “Who knows, Darwin…” Raquelle shrugs and smiles shyly. “Nevertheless, thanks again… Thanks for literally falling from the sky. I will be grateful and owe you and Mr. Johnson until the end of my life.”       “I’m really glad we met again.”       “You promised me to meet someday to talk about the university years and recall the guys from our group.”       “I remember, friend!” Darwin exclaims. “When we have some free time, we’ll meet.”       “Got it, buddy!”       Raquelle and Darwin amicably hug each other with a slight smile.       “I wish you luck,” Darwin replies amicably, steps back from Raquelle, and glances at Edward, Natalia, and Terrence. “And you three, too. Be happy.”       “Thanks,” Terrence, Edward, and Natalia say at a different time.       The three shake Darwin by the hand with slight smiles on their faces.       “Alright, people, we have to go.” Victor fixes his glasses on the bridge of his nose. “We should talk about something with our colleagues and control everything. Go home, have some rest and… Treat your wounds, young men… I see you suffered seriously.”       “Alright,” Terrence, Raquelle, Natalia, and Edward pronounce at a different time.       “Stay happy.”       Darwin and Victor slowly turn around and leave, and the latter takes a little pack and a lighter from the pocket of his jacket, and sets fire to one of the thin cigarettes. While Terrence, Raquelle, Edward, and Natalia watch the members of the police staff with a tired gaze, already feeling a little better.       “Okay…” Raquelle pronounces thoughtfully, looking at Terrence, Natalia, and Edward hesitantly. “We have nothing to do here. Let’s go to the home of Terrence and me and drink coffee. And we will see then.”       “Right…” Edward exhales slowly and runs his hand over his disheveled hair. “Let’s go… Anywhere! I never wanna come back to where that old bastard lived.”       “Yeah, let’s leave,” Natalia agrees quietly and hesitantly, stroking down her disheveled hair. “If I stay here for two more days, I will really go crazy.”       “Okay,” Raquelle nods, shows the palm of her hand, and glances at Terrence. “In this case, give me the key to my car.”       Quickly realizing what she means, Terrence puts his hand in the inside pocket of the jacket, takes the keys from Raquelle’s car, and puts them in her hand, which she squeezes slightly.       “Thanks,” Raquelle pronounces with a slight smile. “Since the car is mine, I will drive it.”       “No problem,” Terrence shrugs.       Raquelle smiles slightly and asks Edward, Natalia, and Terrence to follow her with a gesture. The four leave the territory of this house, where there are still many policemen, and go to the car of the brunette parked not far from this place, thinking about what would happen to them after the worst things are over. After Michael MacClife has been arrested. After the judge is going to give the sentence to this man and his accomplices and put an end to the story that lasted for many years.