The Lost And Forgotten Memories

      Maximilian starts to regret being so blind and literally pushing Anna into a deep hole. The man also feels sorry for Lillian, who warned him that Julian was a suspicious man, who thought up something along with his father. Feeling the cold blaze of Potter’s knife against his throat and literally feeling like a little boy under his terrifying look, Anna’s father tries not to make sharp movements, even if he looks white, and breathes heavily enough from the fear that gets obsessed with him.       “Yeah…” Julian pronounces with a sly smile and laughs evilly. “As it turned out, you are not only stupid but also cowardly. Your legs started to shake after I took the knife! And how pale you got! It’s clear that you are afraid!”       “If you touch my daughter with a finger, you will regret it,” Maximilian says in a low, rude voice. “I shall cut your throat, bastard!”       “You will not save your daughter from me,” Julian says with some pleasure and a feeling of superiority. “She belongs to me and will do anything I want. And now I want her to obey me. And I give a fuck about her opinion. Nobody asks her if she likes what is happening. People do not ask women anything because men know what to do.”       “My daughter DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU!”       “She does,” Julian smirks with an evil smile. “Seymour is at my mercy.”       “You are sick, Potter! Sick! How do you dare to treat the girl like this?”       “And I also want your daughter not to talk to any other people, especially, her friends or any men,” Julian says coldly. “Anna must show me her computer and her phone and tell me everything she does. And if I find something that I do not like, she must get rid of it by the first command.”       “Yeah, should she also give birth to your child? Serve you like a king? Be someone like a free prostitute for you?”       “We will talk about it later. But now Seymour must remember that she is a woman and has no right to her opinion. Nobody cares about it. She is told, she does. SILENTLY. If she protests, she will get a hit in the face.”       “You will pay for this, cad! PAY! Lilian and I will put you in prison! We will call all of our familiars! And we will deal with your daddy if he has to do with all of it.”       “Yeah, as for you two…” Julian puts his knife closer to Maximilian’s throat. “You and your ex-wife also must be obedient. You must tell me everything your daughter does and where she goes. And I ban you from finding doctors for her and going to the police. If you do this, you will all die. And I shall make your daughter a slut and make her suck me and spread her legs widely. Just like she did it for that beggar.”       “You must be in prison! For everything you’ve done to my daughter!”       “Your words are like the squeak of a child. You can scream and threaten me as much as you want. But it will not help your daughter, and it will make the situation worse. She will suffer for herself and for you. One wrong thing before I beat her strongly. I will be beating that chicken until she understands she should be sweet and fluffy. AND SAY NOTHING!”       “I swear, scumbag, if you bring her to death, I will do something that your father did not do to you when you were a kid,” Maximilian threatens rudely.       “You will do nothing,” Julian says confidently. “The police would need proof, but you would hardly prove that my father and I are the ones to blame for something verbally. And Anna will keep her mouth closed because she knows what will happen to her.”       “Lilian and I will not leave it so! You will be dying in prison and paying for your tricks!”       “Leave your threats with you. Better enjoy the moments that you are spending with your daughter. Because all of you will be dead very soon.”       “We will find a handle on you, bastard!” Maximilian cries, clenching his hands into fists tightly.       “I said everything, Maximilian. Do not even hope for salvation.”       Julian falls into silence and understands that Lillian and Anna are going to go to the living room because he hears their steps that get louder and louder as they come close.       “But now I will be pretending to be good again. I do not want to show the real me and kill you now. May everything be as sweet as it was some time ago.”       Julian moves the knife off Maximilian, folds it, puts it in his pocket, and puts on the mask of a good man, smiling falsely and folding his hands in front of him. And while Seymour being full of anger is standing in the same place and looking at his daughter’s offender with widely open eyes, Lillian and Anna return to the living room.       “Everything is alright now,” Lillian says with a slight smile. “I had to work on her sweater, but it’s okay now. It will be like new soon.”       “Doesn’t Anna have burns on her body?” Julian asks anxiously. “She spilled the boiling water on herself and could get burned!”       “No, it’s fine,” Anna replies very quietly, crossing her arms over her chest and looking down. “Nothing happened.”       “That’s perfect. I am very glad.”       Julian comes to Anna with a very false smile and kisses her on the temple with disgust. That’s why she barely holds down her wish to step away from the coldness that burns her body unpleasantly. Also, she feels scared and disgusted because of the way the man hugs the girl not very tenderly and presses her against himself so that she can barely breathe.       “Oh, by the way, I almost forgot to tell you something,” Julian says thoughtfully, putting his finger on his lip. “The case is that my father and I have to leave the city due to our work for a few days.”       “Leave?” Lilian rounds her eyes.       “We got some important things to do and must deal with it.”       “And for how long are you leaving?”       “I cannot say it exactly, but we will try to solve everything quickly. Because I do not want to leave Anna alone and let her feel sad and suffer because of her love for the betrayer.”       Being happy with what she heard, Anna opens her eyes widely with a feeling that her heart misses a beat. She feels a great relief at the thought that she could get rid of his pretense and live without his insults, humiliation, and hits.       “Oh…” Maximilian pronounces in a shaking voice. “And when do you want to leave?”       “Tomorrow in the early morning,” Julian replies quietly. “My father has already received the tickets for the morning trip, and we have already packed our stuff.”       “So, will Ryan go with you, too?” Anna asks hesitantly.       “No, he will stay here. Ryan will be studying. And my brother will not notice our departure because he does not almost stay home and spends all his time at the university or a city library.”       “So, in this case, I wish you a nice and safe trip,” Lillian says with a slight smile.       “I thank you heartily, Mrs. Seymour,” Julian thanks with a fake smile.       “Yeah, have a nice trip,” Anna says without emotions.       “Fruitful trip,” Maximilian says thoughtfully.       “I thank everyone with all my heart!” Julian exclaims. “I shall tell Father all your wishes.”       Silence settles in the air for two seconds, during which everybody looks at each other, and then Julian clears his throat quickly and locks his fingers tightly.       “Yeah, Mr. Seymour, Mrs. Seymour,” Julian pronounces thoughtfully. “While I am not here, watch Anna, please. I do hope that you will make her feel better.”       “Of course, Julian, don’t worry,” Lillian says with a slight smile. “Maximilian and I will not leave our daughter and will do our best for her to feel good.”       “By the way, my father also wants Anna to come to herself. We often talk about her, and he’s never hidden that he finds her a very kind, sweet, and good girl.”       “Tell Normal not to worry because she will be fine,” Maximilian says thoughtfully, crossing his arms over his chest. “He should solve his problems and think about them.”       “Come on! How could my father not think of her? Anna is like a daughter to him! He loves her very much and often asks me about her. And I tell him about her with pleasure when we have dinner.”       “I must confess that we haven’t seen Norman for ages,” Lillian notices confidently. “I believe we need to talk about a joint dinner.”       “Father said the same. And I think we should definitely talk about it and come together someday. I believe Ryan could also leave his textbooks alone for some time and join our company.”       “Yeah, it would be great…” Maximilian says distantly, crossing his arms over his chest.       Silence settles in the air for two seconds, during which Julian looks at everybody with a sly smile, then moves his eyes to his watch, and opens his mouth slightly.       “Oh, excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, but I have to leave you,” Julian says with sadness in his eyes. “I need to do something before I leave.”       “Sure, we get it,” Lillian replies with a slight smile.       “If you need it, go,” Maximilian adds. “We don’t hold you.”       “We wish you a lucky trip again.”       “Thanks again,” Julian nods. “I shall give your greeting to Father.”       Julian says goodbye to Lillian by kissing her hand, shakes Maximilian by the hand with a sly smile and hugs Anna so that she can hardly breathe, and scratches her face with his beard to give her a kiss on the lips that makes her wish to wash her mouth. And then the man takes something placed on the table next to half-empty cups and leaves the apartment of Maximilian, who closes the door after him. While Anna exhales very quietly with relief, thanking God for such a desired salvation from torture.       “So, he’s leaving…” Lillian says thoughtfully, putting her finger on her lip.       “With his father…” Maximilian adds.       And Anna, looking at Lilian and Maximilian without emotions on her face, thinks:       “Thank God. I wish he never came back and stayed where he’s gonna leave. At least, I wouldn’t get beaten… My whole body hurts after his hits… And I lie if someone notices them. Even if I know I can’t do this forever…”       “I believe we really need to talk to Norman about the dinner,” Lillian says confidently. “I like this idea.”       “Yeah…” Maximilian pronounces hesitantly. “Maybe…”       Lillian frowning slightly looks at Maximilian but says nothing. Even if he notices that he looks kind of weird and even a little scared.       “Let him and Mr. Potter solve their problems at first,” Anna says quietly and hesitantly.       “Yup, I agree,” Maximilian nods, crossing his arms over his chest. “You must solve problems when you get them.”       “You’re right… Absolutely right…”       Anna moves her eyes into the distance and thinks about something not very pleasant with both arms crossed over her chest. While Lillian looks at her with sadness in her eyes, feeling that her heart squeezes strongly at the thought that she is suffering.       “Listen, sweetie, maybe, you can better go to have some rest?” Lillian suggests softly. “I will come to you a little later.”       “Sure…” Anna pronounces hesitantly. “I’m so tired now…”       Anna glances at the excited Lillian and the thoughtful Maximilian.       “I will go to my room,” Anna adds much quieter. “Excuse me…”       Anna, embracing herself with both arms and inclining her head, slowly goes to her room, which has literally become her refuge from all the terrible things that are happening to her. While Maximilian and Lillian watch their daughter with sadness in their eyes, barely holding their tears down. But when the girl goes to her room and locks the door, the woman moves her eyes to the man and looks at him suspiciously, putting her hands on her hips.       “What’s wrong, Max?” Lillian wonders. “Why are you so pale and scared as if you saw a ghost?”       “We need to talk,” Maximilian replies hesitantly. “It’s about our daughter.”       “Gosh, what happened to you? You’re literally about to start shaking and being scared of everything, as well as Anna!”       “You were right, Lillian! Julian is really not what he pretends to be! He is dangerous for Anna and might defeat her.”       “Excuse me, what?” Lilian gets confused.       “Please, forgive me,” Maximilian apologizes excitedly with pity in his eyes, breathing heavily enough. “I’m sorry for not believing you and calling your words about that stinker delirium. I am very sorry that I almost let my daughter drown in this pool.”        “Wait, wait, Max, don’t jab like this, I don’t understand you,” Lillian says quietly, carefully caressing Maximilian’s shoulders. “First, calm down a little.”       “I swear, Lilian!” Maximilian exclaims, throws a short look aside, and exhales sharply. “Julian is a horrible man! Anna didn’t lie when she said he was terrible and was begging me to protect her. But I, idiot, didn’t wanna believe her and see that my daughter was suffering because of him.”       “Listen, what bit you after Anna and I left?” Lillian frowns slightly, crossing her arms over her chest. “You wanted to hear nothing bad about Julian! You said Anna lied as well as Ryan and me.”       “I’m very sorry, Lillian,” Maximilian apologizes with pity in his eyes. “You were all absolutely right, but I was blind and noticed nothing. And you were right when you said I was always a bad father. Because I almost gave my daughter to that nasty stinker.”       “Okay, let’s talk about everything in order. What happened here while Anna and I were cleaning her clothes?”       “When you and Anna had gone away, Julian and I talked about her. At some moment, I said it couldn’t happen anymore and expressed a wish to bring Anna a doctor’s help and go to consult. Then Potter got very nervous and started to change my mind about Anna's visit to a psychologist. My explanations didn’t make him sure that she needed it because she had him. He is kind of the only one to be able to help her, and all psychologists would get money out of us.”       “Really?” Lilian rounds her eyes.       “Yeah. Do you know what he dared to say when I said I wanted to talk to you about Anna’s visit to a doctor?”       “What?”       “That stinker started to insult Anna. That she is a worthless chicken that does not deserve happiness.”       “What?” Lilian resents. “How did he dare to say it about my daughter?”       “Julian started to insult Anna with no shame. She was right when she somehow said that he considered any woman a creature without rights, who could just be silent, serve a man, and give birth to children, and had no right to her opinion. Potter confirmed everything.”       “My gosh…” Lilian shakes her head with horror in her eyes.       “He said he would give her claims. He allegedly has enough reasons to take revenge on her.”       “Does Norman know it? Does he know what his sonny is doing? The one, who he has always praised so hard!”       “Norman did start everything. And Julian is happy to help him.”       “What?” Lilian opens her eyes widely.       “Norman is revenging us, Lillian,” Maximilian explains. “That man can’t forget how he almost lost everything because of us. And now he wants to defeat us and choose our daughter as the first victim.”       “God, Max…”       “That stinker confirmed everything and put it on a dish. So, don’t wait for him to pretend to be an angel again. It was the last time.”       “But it’s been many years since that time. Why did Norman decide to think about it?”       “I don’t know, Lilian. But I’m telling you what Julian said. That was what he said. And he is definitely not happy that we didn’t get Anna married to his older son, as it should’ve happened originally. And if he agreed with the marriage of our daughter and Ryan, it doesn’t mean that man was happy.”       “But what does Anna have to do with it? She does not have to do with our mistake, which is the reason Norman almost lost everything!”       “First, he knows we’d go crazy if something happened to our daughter. And second, Julian is going to deal with her. While Norman will deal with us.”       “Does Julian want to kill our daughter?” Lilian asks in a shaking voice.       “I don’t exclude it. But now Norman told Julian to mock Anna as hard as possible. So, she doesn’t make a squeak and obeys him in everything. He doesn’t care that our daughter is nobody to him. Potter wants to control her as if she is his wife. And he says he almost got what he wanted. Anna is kind of too cowardly and obedient and would be worried about you and me. Julian threatened to kill her if she said something, at least to someone.”       “Now I understand why she is silent. That man terrified her.”       “Potter said you and I must also obey him and Norman.”       “What do you mean?”       “He says we must tell him everything our daughter does. Where she goes, what she does, and who she talks to… And he banned us from asking a doctor. And she must show him her stuff and immediately get rid of what he does not like.”       “That’s disgusting!” Lilian resents. “Potter has no right!”       “Wait. A little bit before he makes her his personal servant. A free prostitute. Before he makes her give birth to a child. To get full power under her and blackmail her with our grandchild.”       “I can’t believe it…” Lilian shakes her head, barely holding down the tears that show up in her eyes. “Gosh…”       “Poor Anna… How much she has tolerated since she started to communicate with that bastard. My God… My heart squeezes…”       “I’ve never liked that man…” Lilian says quietly. “Julian has always made me feel a strong disgust, I was even afraid to imagine my daughter next to that man. With him, she’d live by the book like a soldier until the end of her life. Step on the left, step on the right – shoot!”       “Anna knew it, too. I thought she didn’t know people, but that’s not the truth. She understood that she’d feel very bad next to Julian much earlier than us. Here’s why she didn’t want the wedding with that man so hard. And she didn’t actually like his company.”       “You see! Ryan didn’t lie when he said Julian and Norman were planning something bad against us and our daughter. He was truly worried about Anna and wanted us to do something to protect her. That guy didn’t say what, but he suspected that our daughter would suffer a lot.”       “Gosh… What an idiot I am, Lillian!” Maximilian puts his hand on his forehead. “Just an idiot… How could I screw up everything? Anna was constantly sending alarms to me, but I was ignoring her… I thought she was suffering because of the guy that she loves… I mean, she is suffering because of him, but Julian made her feel much worse.”       “I don’t deny it, you’re an idiot!” Lilian throws gloomily. “A stupid, naive idiot that doesn’t know people. But now it’s too late to say something and blame someone.”       “I would never forgive myself if that scumbag defeated my daughter. Never… And I will never forgive myself for actually pushing her into the hole. For making her spend time with Julian and not hearing her scream for help… Not seeing that she was suffering because of the mockeries of that nasty bastard. Who must be burning in hell. As well as his father…”       “We must do something, Maximilian!” Lillian says confidently. “Julian might be very dangerous for Anna! If we don’t do something immediately, he and Norman will destroy our daughter. We must save her before it’s too late.”       “He is dangerous for us, too. Moreover, Julian was just threading me with a knife when I wanted to attack him after what he said about Anna.”       “What?” Lillian opens her eyes full of horror wider. “That man was threatening you with a knife? Here? Now?”       “Yes. He put the knife against my throat.” Maximilian exhales sharply, putting a hand on his heart. “I’m gonna be honest… I almost gave my soul to God… I was horrified that he’d kill me here…”       “Oh, gosh…” Lilian closes her mouth with horror in her eyes.       “That man is obsessed with revenge and a wish to bring Anna to death. I’m sure about it. I don’t know why Julian got so mad at our daughter, but he will not let her live quietly.”       “He will kill her, Max…” Lillian pronounces in a shaking voice with tears in her eyes. “He’s gonna kill our daughter! I don’t want to lose Anna! She's the only one I have! Without my daughter, I shall lose the meaning of my life!”       “No, no, Lillian, don’t cry,” Maximilian shakes his head sharply, takes Lilian by the shoulders, and caresses them softly. “He will not kill her! Our daughter will be okay! We will find a way to protect our girl! He will not touch her with a finger.”       “Gosh, does he want to bring her to another world because he didn’t get married to her? Because we decided to choose Ryan as her husband when I made Norman sure it would be better?”       “Anyway, those people are pressing on our most painful and weakest place. They do know we will go crazy if something happens to Anna. Those assholes scared the girl so much that she is pretending for us.”       “We must go to the police! We must immediately let them know that our daughter is in danger! So, they do something!”       “Julian said his father and he would be playing angels for them and doing their best for them not to believe us. The police might require proof of this man’s fault, and we’d hardly prove it with our words.”       “But we must do something!” Lillian notices loudly, excitedly. “A little bit before Julian and Normal destroy Anna! I don’t care about myself, but I do care about my daughter!”       “They threaten to kill us if one of us resists or goes to the police. I’m sure that Anna knows it very well and says nothing to save us. But it doesn’t mean her silence would save all of us.”       “Of course, it doesn’t mean! Julian is a violator! He will not stop and will keep drowning her! If he keeps mocking Anna, we will lose our only daughter! And she will destroy herself if she lets him do anything he wants! What if he wants to rape her, in case he hasn’t done that? That’s another trauma! Which my girl wouldn’t survive!”       “Trust me, Lillian, I’m also terrified and madly worried about Anna. And I know we must do something. But we must be very careful. We must not let those people know that we decided to take measures.”       “I know, but time can’t wait! If we don’t do something now, it will be too late later.”       “Gosh…” Maximilian runs his hands over his face. “What is he doing to the poor girl that she’s afraid of her own father and mother?”       “It seems like I suspect what…”       “What do you mean?”       “You see…” Lilian shakes her head with tears in her eyes. “When Anna and I went to change her clothes and wash them, I saw something that made me speechless.”       “What? What you saw?”       “I went to her room when she didn’t put on a different sweater over her turtleneck. So… I saw a couple of bruises on her arms. Recent bruises…”       “What?” Maximilian rounds his eyes. “Bruises?”       “Yes, Max! I was shocked when I saw them and started to ask her how she got them. And Anna started to find excuses and say that she got them after the hot coffee that she spilled on herself.”       “Bruises after a burn? That’s nonsense!”       “I mean the same! There are two reasons: either she hit herself against something strongly, or someone beat her.”       “Do you want to say Julian beats her?”       “I don’t doubt it.”       “Right…” Maximilian nods. “Julian said that Anna would get slaps in her face if she was rebellious and went against him.”       “As I understand, he not only slapped her in the face but also beat her strongly. She’s got lots of bruises on her arms. And I wouldn’t be surprised if she got them on her whole body.”       “Julian’s hand is tough… He is not as weak as Ryan is…”       “And after that, I’m starting to doubt her words about hitting her head against Julian’s car.”       “I think so,” Lilian nods confidently. “She probably got those bruises on her forehead after his hits in the face.”       “Or he hit her against the car…”       “Oh, gosh…” Maximilian moans with horror in his eyes. “I’m shocked… Just shocked… That bastard is mocking her verbally and daring to beat her.”       “But now we know what Anna is hiding. When I saw her for the first time, I thought she didn’t say something. Moreover, she never looks into someone’s eyes when talking to them. At anything but a person.”       “And Anna has been very timid. She shakes at any sound. Didn’t you see that she shook when Julian rang the doorbell?”       “Right…” Lilian nods. “As if she was afraid that it was Julian…”       “Now I see why she didn’t want to see him and was happy when he didn’t come here. She starts to shake when Julian shows up on the doorstep.”       “The police, Max! We must go to the police and report this stinker and his father! At least, we should try to talk to an officer.”       “I’m not too sure if it would help, but we should try,” Maximilian says thoughtfully, frowning slightly and stroking his chin. “We must save her from that man. In any way. I don’t care about what Norman and Julian would do to us. The most important thing is that our daughter is safe.”       “Yeah, we must take measures,” Lilian replies confidently. “I don’t think Norman would know about our visit to the police. He hardly has familiar people there… Yes, they have money and good familiars, but they aren’t as powerful as it might seem.”       “And if he does it, it must not stop us.”       “And let’s not forget that Potter and his father will leave the city for some time. Anna will exhale with relief, and we will probably make her sure to tell us everything this stinker does to her.”       “Then let’s go there and try to tell everything today or tomorrow. And if it wouldn’t help, I don’t know what to do…”       “I would like to believe it…”       “If we can do nothing, we will try to talk to a psychologist. At least, we’ll go for a consultation.”       “I agree. Let’s go to the police today or tomorrow. Take a free day at work and try to talk to an officer.”       “Alright. And I shall search for psychologists on the Internet and see who we could visit.”       Silence settles in the air for two seconds, during which Lillian thinks about something for some time, moving her eyes aside. And then she moves her eyes to Maximilian and frowns slightly.       “Listen, what if her friends know something?” Lillian assumes. “What if we try to contact them? I’m sure that they could tell us much more!”       “Yeah, but we don’t know Anna’s friends,” Maximilian throws his hands up. “We’ve never spoken to them!”       “You said there were two girls, who were Anna’s friends since school.”       “Yes, Raquelle Cameron and Natalia Rochester. Anna told me a lot about them, but we don’t have contact with them. I mean, Anna could help us contact them, but I don’t think she’d agree to do it.”       “I believe those girls could know something if they are still Anna’s friends.”       “As far as I know, she has one more school friend… Helene Marshall… The three had a conflict with her. But now they have established their relationship.”       “Can we contact her?”       “No, no contact with her, too.”       “Maybe, there is a chance to contact their relatives?”       “I know that Helene is living with her grandmother, Natalia is living with her parents, and Raquelle had lived with her grandfather but moved into the house of her soon-to-be husband. But sadly, we cannot contact them, either.”       “Damn… What about Raquelle’s fiancé?”       “I say nothing about him. As well as the men, whom Anna has lately befriended.”       “Hasn’t Anna introduced you to someone after she left home? You’ve spoken to her for a few months, and she could tell you something and introduce you to someone!”       “Alas, Lilian, she hasn’t introduced her friends to me. But she has talked a lot about them.”       “Okay, I got it…” Lilian replies thoughtfully. “Maybe, you know someone, who we could talk to? Who is close to those girls and men?”       “No, there is nobody, who is able to help.”       “Gosh, there must be someone, who could help us!” Lillian thinks about something for two seconds and frowns slightly. “For example, Anna’s ex-boyfriend.”       “Anna’s ex-boyfriend?”       “By the way… Why did she actually break up with him? You said everything was kind of fine. Did that guy leave her?”       “Oh, Lillian…” Maximilian exhales slowly, scratching the back of his head. “Honestly, it is not what it seems. It is all much harder.”       “What do you mean?”       “I’ll try to explain everything quickly.” Maximilian clears his throat. “Anna said that Daniel – that guy – was hit by a car. He was found unconscious somewhere in the city in a hard condition. The doctors diagnosed him with a concussion that led to amnesia.”       “Amnesia?”       “Yes, he doesn’t almost remember anything. Neither his friends and his girlfriend, nor anything from his life… He only kept all the skills that he had had before he lost the memory.”       “Oh, my gosh…” Lilian shakes her head. “How awful!”       “Anna told me about that.”       “But… What does Anna’s breakup have to do with that man?”       “It does, Lillian!”       “And wait, did Anna leave that man in trouble? He’s seriously ill, but she left him?”       “Anna left him because he cheated.”       “Cheated?”       “One day, she went to Daniel’s room to talk to him. But a certain girl was already there and, as our daughter said, accosted him and actually kissed him. And that guy answered her. So, Anna thought it was a betrayal, took her stuff, and went to me. She asked for permission to live with me. And I agreed.”       “Did she see that guy kissing another girl?”       “She wouldn’t have left him.”       “I see…” Lilian shakes her head and closes her mouth with a hand. “That’s why she said that guy betrayed her…”       “That’s why she feels so bad now. Anna can’t believe that the guy cheated on her.”       “What if he didn’t want it? Maybe, he didn’t remember Anna and didn't know who she was?”       “You know, I don’t doubt it now,” Maximilian replies confidently. “Unlike Anna, I can think soberly and understand that the guy is not to blame for what happened. I’m sure that if he had remembered our daughter, Daniel would not have done that.”       “Hey, who is that girl? Anna’s friend?”       “She doesn’t know where she came from. But she says Daniel has had another girl for a long time.”       “Do you think he could cheat on her?”       “No, Lilian, I’m confident about that guy. When I saw him for the first time, I realized that he really loved her. He always looked at her with admiration. As if he was ready to make any of her wishes come true. As well as Anna. She was very happy next to him.”       “He seemed a good man to you?”       “Very good. I’ve talked to him many times, and I am absolutely sure that he is an educated, smart, and well-mannered man. And the most important thing is that he is loyal. Daniel can treat girls well and has always said that raising a hand is taboo for him. His parents always taught him that and swore at him even when he pulled girls’ pigtails at a young age.”       “I believe that Daniel is much better than Julian.”       “It’s like heaven and earth! Daniel is not what Julian is! The one she felt good with was him. And now I understand it. At first, I advised Anna to forget about him and even blamed him for my daughter's pain. But as you see, the fault is on the other man.”       “So, we’ve gotta talk to him. So, he tells us about cheating and tries to help us protect our daughter.”       “It’s impossible now.”       “He still remembers nothing?”       “As I understand, yes. But I’ve wanted to talk to him for a long time. From the beginning. But I prefer waiting because I’m not sure that he will remember Anna and me. And who knows how long he will have amnesia… It’s such a tricky thing…”       “And how long ago did it happen?”       “I can’t say it exactly, but it’s been two or three weeks.”       “And do you think he hasn’t recalled anything?” Lilian frowns slightly.       “Likely. Otherwise, Daniel would try to find Anna. He doesn’t have my home address, as well as yours, because you and I sold the apartment where he was in secret.”       “At least, he is obviously supposed to have your phone number. If that guy recalled something, he would try to call you.”       “I know, but I’ve received no calls from him. Though, he is our only hope now. Daniel is the only one, who will be able to save Anna from Julian.”       “And there are a few problems: his amnesia and betrayal, Anna’s offense, and Julian and Norman’s threats,” Lilian puts her hands on her hips.       “I know… Oh…” Maximilian runs his hands over his face with a quiet moan. “Everything is too complicated…”       “Hey, do you think Anna’s friends are looking for her? I believe they’re worried that she suddenly broke all contact with them.”       “I don’t exclude that they want to contact us. Those guys understand that Anna could go live with you or me. She has no place to go. Although our daughter is not helpless, she doesn’t have an apartment and job.”       “I’m afraid that Julian might kidnap her one fateful day and require something for her freedom,” Lillian shows anxiety. “He and his father may dare to do it.”       “I’m afraid of it, too. After he almost cut me with a knife, I can expect anything from him.”       “But thank God, we’ve got some time to think about everything and decide what we can do for the salvation of our daughter.”       “Let’s just try to go to the police and talk to an officer. Then we will see… Maybe, Daniel would get his memories back, and we would get his support soon.”       Lillian sighs heavily with sadness in her wet eyes and shares a look with Maximilian. Then the ex-spouses hug each other amicably with the hope that it will help them calm down a little and not to go crazy at the thought that they might lose their daughter, being terribly afraid of what Julian might do to Anna, who is suffering much more than they are.       

***

      The next day, Natalia, Helene, and Raquelle come together at the home of the latter. The girls are sitting comfortably on the soft sofas in the living room, talking about everything, and playing with Sammy, who looks much funnier and listens to the talk of his owner and her friends with interest.       “Finally, Marshall!” Natalia exclaims with a slight smile. “The Sleeping Beauty woke up, heard our advice, and apologized to Peter and your grandmother.”       “Yeah, I behaved very stupidly,” Helene confesses shamelessly, holding a small toy that Sammy pulls out and tries to take. “But now I understand it and am glad everything has been solved. I feel great relief after apologizing to those I hurt.”       “Wonderful then!” Raquelle nods in approval.       “But I ain’t gonna hide that I’m still mad at my parents. And I won’t forgive them if they show up on the doorstep of my apartment and start to beg for forgiveness.”       “They did a bad thing, I don’t deny it. And you’ve got the right to be mad at them. But Mrs. Marshall and Peter aren’t guilty of anything, and you shouldn’t have done that to them.”       “Yeah…” Helene smiles slightly. “Thank God, it’s been solved.”       Sammy barks happily two times, as if he is also happy that everything ended like this, and Natalia laughs quietly and pets the dog’s head with a slight smile on her face.       “I guess he’s happy, too,” Natalia says confidently.       “Oh, poor Sammy was missing his owner so badly…” Raquelle notices with sadness in her eyes. “He almost ate nothing and forgot about his toys…”       “Yeah, my boy suffered a lot because of his owner,” Helene says confidently and pets Sammy’s head. “But I promised him that I wouldn’t do that to him and would never leave him.”       “That’s good there are people, who took care of him.”       “That’s right! I’m so glad Peter took care of him. And helped my grandmother when it was hard for her to watch him alone.”       “Pete is just a gem!” Natalia exclaims.       “But I’m afraid Sammy got sick of him,” Helene laughs shyly.       Sammy barks loudly, jumping on his hind legs.       “C’mon, Marshall,” Raquelle shakes her head. “Sammy is tightly attracted to Rose and supported him all the time. So to say, he thanked him for the care.”       “The doggy comforts everyone, who gets sad. He wants to see everyone happy and doesn’t like when someone is sad and crying.”       “Nobody loves it, my darling,” Natalia shrugs. “So, the dog is trying hard.”       “Oh, girls…” Helene smiles slightly, leaning back in the sofa. “You must’ve seen Sammy’s super sad eyes when he was literally begging me to give attention to him.”       “Really?” Raquelle rounds her eyes.       “Sammy came to me and started to whine with pity. And at some moment, he literally started to cry. And I felt madly terrible… My heart squeezed at the thought that my baby was suffering and wanted my attention. But I, idiot, thought of nobody knows what…”       “Aw, Sammy…” Natalia pronounces with sympathy and pets Sammy’s head with a slight smile, while he wags his tail and looks at all the girls. “I guess you can use someone's weaknesses. It seems like you were the only one to wake Marshall up.”       “Erm…” Helene stutters and bites her lip. “Actually, not only Sammy… But also Peter…”       “You finally heard him?” Raquelle wonders.       “I would say so.” Helene takes a pack of pet treats from her purse, takes a little bit, and offers them to Sammy, who eats them with pleasure. “He just yelled at me at some moment…”       “Peter yelled at you?”       “Yup. He lost his temple… He tried to tell me everything he had said before, but he didn’t hold himself down. He was screaming and waving his hands… Grandmother Scarlett said she was shocked when she heard his shouts. As well as I was. Pete never raised his voice to me. But it woke me up somehow…”       “My gosh…” Raquelle shakes her head with widely open eyes.       “It’s okay, Raquelle. Peter was right. Furthermore, there’s my fault for him losing his temple. Everybody saw he was trying to stay quiet, collected, and soft until the end, but he eventually got mad and said everything he kept inside. And I accepted it and realized that I was doing a terrible thing to him and Grandma.”       “Well, try not to make him lose his temple anymore,” Natalia advises softly. “He might get sick of your tricks and wish to leave you.”       “No, no, God shall save me!” Helene raises her hands up. “I don’t wanna lose Pete! I won’t take it! He did scare me a lot when he said he wanted to leave me. He said it seriously. And he almost did it!”       “Sorry, friend, but you’re the one to blame,” Raquelle replies. “The blond was tolerating your tricks until the end. I ain’t surprised that he broke down.”       “I know. But I promise I won’t do that anymore.”       “Look, Helene, the lads have big hopes for you,” Natalia recalls confidently. “And you must meet their expectations.”       “I remember. They may not be worried.”       Silence settles in the air for some time, during which Sammy amuses the girls by doing some things and barking happily, and asks for a little bit of caress.       “Hey, Natalia, what about your allergic reaction?” Helene asks. “I see you’re no longer scratching.”       “It’s great,” Natalia replies with a slight smile. “Yesterday, I got the results of the test and went to the doctor. He confirmed that I got an allergic reaction to the fresh orange juice.”       “What about the powder?” Raquelle asks.       “I dunno. But not to risk, I threw it off. I’d better look for my favorite one at a store or buy online.”       “And how do you feel now?” Helene asks.       “Good. I applied some ointment on my hand, and life got much better.” Natalia glances at her hand, on which there are barely seen redness and blisters. “The redness is getting away.”       “Yeah, as it turns out, you have an allergic reaction not only to cats…” Raquelle says thoughtfully. “You’re not allowed to taste citrus…”       “I know… But at least, I ain’t allergic reaction to dogs for sure. If I was, I would be very upset. Because I love Sammy so much…”       Sammy barks quietly and brings his face closer to Natalia, so she pets it a little. While Raquelle and Helene smile shyly, looking at the happy dog that does not stop wagging his tail, and give him some attention.       “Oh, girls…” Raquelle pronounces with sadness in her eyes. “I’m not happy with what’s lately happening. We decided to give up on Daniel and let him live as he wants, but the situation with Anna scares me.”       “Not just you, Raquelle,” Natalia sighs quietly. “I shake at the thought that one stinker mocks our little, unprotected girl shamelessly.”       “Even Mr. Johnson can’t help us. To do something, we need proof and people, who know how to help us.”       “Right,” Helene nods. “There would be a solution if we knew Anna’s parents. Well, if Daniel remembered everything and told us how to find her mother and father…”       “But as you understand, we can’t count on that stupid guy.”       “Listen, couldn’t your relatives know Anna’s parents? My grandma doesn’t exactly know them! But what if someone from your families contacted them?”       “No, no, my grandpa doesn’t know them,” Raquelle shakes her head confidently.       “As well as my parents,” Natalia says quietly. “And actually, Anna’s parents aren’t too sociable, so to say…”       “I believe they didn’t speak to the parents of her schoolmates too much,” Helene frowns slightly. “While the others contacted somehow, the Seymours never did it.”       “Thank God, nobody treated Anna badly because of that,” Raquelle replies confidently. “But I can’t say she was close to someone, except us.”       “But she really never had conflicts with anyone,” Helene nods.       All the girls throw a sad look on different sides, and Sammy whines very quietly, as he watches every one of them.       “You know, I’d like to give up on trying to find a solution for this problem for a better moment,” Helene confesses. “But… We can’t let Anna suffer because of that man! She is our friend, and we must help her. If we don’t save her, she might suffer seriously.”       “It’s very hurtful for me to say it, but I’m afraid we have to do it,” Raquelle replies hesitantly, locking her fingers tightly. “Now we can do nothing. And there will be no solution in the nearest time. We have to wait for a better moment, no matter how much we don’t want to.”       “And Mr. Johnson said something the same,” Natalia notices. “Wait and have some rest. Everything will be solved someday.”       “But I have not a very big hope.”       “Mr. Johnson is a very smart man, who wouldn’t advise something for nothing,” Helene says confidently. “If he said we have to wait, we have to. And think better: what can we do? Nothing! All the ways lead to Perkins. Without him, we can do even less than half.”       “The most disgusting thing in any case is that you can do nothing and have to wait,” Natalia exhales sharply. “When everything doesn’t depend on you.”       “By the way, Helene, before we forget it…” Raquelle says thoughtfully. “The ring and the knife… That you, Peter, and Sammy found near Daniel on the day when he got attacked… Who has them now: you or Peter?”       “Ring and knife?” Helene asks and bites her lip slightly. “Erm… Yup, I remember… I think Peter has those things.”       “He took them with him?” Natalia asks.       “I dunno… But I think I gave them to him.” Helene begins to wrap a strand of her hair around her finger. “And I didn’t ask him about those things after the visit to the hospital… And, to be honest, I just remembered about them…”       “As well as we did…” Raquelle says thoughtfully.       “But why? Do you need them?”       “Not us, but Mr. Johnson,” Natalia replies confidently. “He wants to look at those things to find out if they belong to someone, who is implicated in a case.”       “Erm… You better ask Pete… I don’t have those things. At least, I haven’t seen them since that day…”       “By the way, Mr. Johnson isn’t happy that we didn’t show those things to Daniel,” Raquelle confesses.       “Would there have been a meaning?” Helene throws her hands up. “We’ve told and shown Perkins so much, but he only remembered the fact that Peter tried to kill himself.”       “Well, he believes those things were found there for a reason. If it’s so, we should’ve shown them to Daniel and found out what he could say.”       Sammy barks two times in approval, sitting next to Helene and listening to the girls’ talk closely.       “Maybe, he’s right…” Helene replies thoughtfully. “Sammy never gives us something for nothing. And let’s not forget that he brought Peter and me to Perkins.”       “Yeah, but now it’s too late to talk about it,” Natalia sighs heavily. “As our dearest Mr. Perkins is mad at us, we can’t show him those things.”       “Yeah, I’m sorry that we didn’t think of doing that before. Maybe, he would’ve remembered what happened to him.”       “Do you think none of those things belong to him?” Raquelle frowns slightly.       “Hardly,” Helene shakes her head. “Peter says Daniel has never worn any rings and doesn’t like them. If we’d found a bracelet, we would’ve thought about it. But the ring… No… That’s not him.”       “Anna said it,” Natalia remembers.       “And the knife doesn’t probably belong to him. Think better, why would he need it? Perkins would hardly take a knife, a pistol, or something like that.”       “Anyway, we really need to show those things to Mr. Johnson and find out what he thinks of it,” Natalia says confidently. “Terrence and Edward promised to talk to Peter and ask him to give them those things. Either they will contact the policeman, or we will go to him.”       “I don’t think it would help us, but we’ve gotta try everything,” Raquelle sighs tiredly. “Any information would give us a reason to reflect.”       Helene and Natalia nod, and silence settles in the air for a few seconds, during which Sammy barks quietly and brings his face closer to the girls, so they pet him and scratch his hair.       “Hey, Natalia, what about you and Edward?” Raquelle asks carefully. “Did you solve your misunderstandings?”       “Nope, we haven’t talked for a few days,” Natalia confesses with sadness in her eyes.       “Listen, Rochester, didn’t you start to talk about the wedding early?” Helene asks. “We’ve got so many problems, but you decided to argue about what you should have on your mind much later.”       “Ah, girls…” Natalia sighs heavily and moves some strands of hair off her face. “Honestly, I don’t know if we’re gonna get married… Everything is too complicated… I’m afraid we wouldn’t bear this load… Yes, I knew it would be hard, but I didn’t think it would be like this…”       “Listen, Natalia, I completely understand that you’re super nervous and wanna be a queen on that day,” Raquelle says quietly. “I’m also madly nervous and don’t know what I want. But excuse me, it’s stupid to cancel your wedding just because you can’t agree.”       “Do you think I want it? Not at all! My main problem is MacClife. Who thinks only his opinion is right.”       “Natalia…”       “I don’t understand why Edward is obsessed with the idea of having a modest wedding. That’s such a grandiose event! It hurts that he doesn’t wanna listen to me and do what I want. But I want a beautiful, lavish, and gorgeous wedding that we will remember all our lives.”       “But you will be wearing a wedding dress. You’ll have everything you dream about. You and I will put on dresses that will make the guests admire us!”       “I’m afraid I will not. MacClife insists that everything is modest.” Natalia hums quietly, crossing her arms over her chest. “He imagines all of that and gets shocked by how much money he will have to spend on our wedding. And I’m gonna be shocked if Terrence wants to support him. If our Apollo goes the wrong way and declines the opportunity to show up from hundreds of guests.”       “What’s wrong with it?” Helene wonders. “A cheap wedding might not be worse than an expensive one. You know how much money you can save! Save them for, for example, a honeymoon abroad.”       “Ha, I am ready to bet that he prefers wearing a shirt and jeans to register our marriage officially. And if a miracle helps us to live until the wedding and decide to have a wedding, I won’t be surprised to see him in a suit. If he borrows an old jacket and pants from the men.”       “But is having a lavish ceremony really more important than the fact that you’re getting married to your beloved man?” Helene wonders with a slight smile. “Sometimes a talk with a couple of very close people may be much more emotional and memorable than a pastime with many people, most of whom you do not know at all.”       “But you can invest once in your life!” Natalia exclaims. “That’s my wedding! And I want it to be grandiose! So, people remember it for a long time.”       “Is a literal royal wedding more important to you than a future life with the man you love?” Raquelle wonders truly.       “Yes! It’s very important to me! I am not going to get married again. Once for life! As my parents did!”       “Listen, I don’t care if my wedding is gonna be cheap or expensive. I’ve actually never dreamed of it, just like all girls do it, and never made it my life goal.”       “But I’ve always wanted a fabulous wedding! A gorgeous wedding dress and many guests that would wipe tears of happiness under their eyes.”       “My gosh, I would easily go down to the altar in a t-shirt and jeans, with tousled hair, and without makeup. Because my life with the one I love is more important to me.”       “Maybe, someone would really say it. But I wanna remember it all my life.”       “But, Natalia, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to remember something until the end of your life,” Helene notices confidently. “Yes, you can do this because you have money. But I think Edward is right to some extent. For him, the fact of marrying is important to him, not luxury.”       “Gosh, I am ready to pay for everything, so he calms down and stops counting every cent. That’s good I was born in a provided family, and my parents said they’d spare no money for my wedding.”       “Okay, let’s share our responsibilities,” Raquelle suggests. “May one spend money and strength for something, and another does something else. The men can do one thing, but you and I can work on another. In this case, talking is the important thing. Being able to hear each other and find compromises.”       “I just want a luxury wedding that people will remember for a very long time. I want the one that my father and mother had. It’s been almost thirty years, but their friends still think about it. My parents were so beautiful and happy in their wedding pictures. I view them at times with pleasure.”       “Trust me, sweetie, your wedding will be much better,” Helene promises confidently. “Now there are much more possibilities than thirty years ago. You can have an unforgettable wedding that people will remember for ages.”       “To do this, you need a lot of money and many guests!”       “You know, girls, the best thing I can advise is to talk about it later,” Helene says confidently. “If you want, you can start looking for a wedding dress, shoes, jewels, and stylists right now. It’s not Edward and Terrence’s trouble, it’s yours.”       “Is there a meaning?” Natalia sighs with sadness in her eyes. “What if we don’t get married?”       “If you keep being capricious and arguing with MacClife, it will happen.”       “But I don’t want it…” Natalia moves her sad eyes down. “I don’t want us to break up. I madly love Edward and wanna take care of him. He’s my everything. I was horrified by his suggestion to cancel the engagement and break up!”       “Sorry, Natalia, but you’re trying to bring everything to that,” Helene says carefully. “Edward is trying to avoid conflicts. He said it on the day you went to the hospital. Your fiancé doesn’t wanna fight with you and is afraid to lose you.”       “Now his words mean nothing and were said by him in anger,” Raquelle adds. “But everything might be serious next time. Edward might lose his temple as well as Peter and take it out on you. Tell you everything he thinks about you and piss you off.”       “I dunno…” Natalia shrugs. “Maybe, I really crossed the line and annoyed him by talking about the wedding…”       “Not maybe, not really,” Helene notices.       “I’m surprised that we quietly spent time at the home of the MacClifes and didn’t have a big fight.”       “You wouldn’t have fought,” Raquelle says confidently. “Terrence and I wouldn’t have let you. He would’ve talked to his brother, but I would’ve calmed you down.”       “No, you two better talk to MacClife and make him remember that I want a gorgeous and unforgettable wedding. I would be madly grateful to you.”       “Getting ready for a wedding is something like a check for your relationship. The first test that would show if you can find compromises when arguing and realize that you aren’t right when you need it. Take it as a check before starting a life together, not as a wish for one of you to cancel the wedding.”       “You know that I’m ready for anything for Edward and can’t imagine my life without him,” Natalia sighs with sadness in her eyes. “But it hurts that he can’t hear me and is as stubborn as a donkey.”       “Then, give in to him and make his wish come true,” Helene replies softly. “He doesn’t want anything impossible. He just wanna marry you in front of his close people and friends.”       “But that’s a wedding!”       “A wedding may be different. No matter how much money you spend, the atmosphere is more important. If there are lots of jokes, dances, and positive emotions, guests will remember it for ages. The most important thing is emotions! Not decoration, a price of food and champagne, and work of the service staff.”       “It’s… Hard to deny it…”       “So, if you don’t wanna cry your eyes out, you better be silent. And when you two calm down, start to decide something.”       “I can’t promise that I wouldn’t start talking about the wedding…”       “Try hard, friend,” Raquelle says with a slight smile. “As Terrence and I said, you both make us and others smile, look very cute together, and can make anyone’s mood better with your look.”       Natalia says nothing and just laughs shyly, moving her eyes to the floor a little later with the thought that her friends are absolutely right. And Sammy barks quietly and presses himself to the girls by one, missing no chance to play with the toy in Helene’s hands or accept some treat that she always has in her purse.       

***

      Peter, Terrence, and Edward decided to spend time in nature. The men came together in a quiet place where anyone could sit on the clean, green grass in front of a small lake and admire the gorgeous view that they saw. It’s possible to see some high buildings and many, many green tresses on the other side. Even if the weather is gloomy, it does not negatively impact the place where the cold, slight wind is blowing. If you go further, you can see a few benches, on which you can sit and read something, and small urns for trash on every side. And there are some stalls with some tasty food that you can buy for a little money. So, the young men could not resist a wish to buy something that they are now eating with pleasure while sitting comfortably on the green grass in the quietest place that they found.       “So, did Helene confess that she wasn’t right?” Terrence asks, bending his legs under himself.       “She did,” Peter replies quietly, leaning on the grass with his hand.       “Did you let her know she behaved badly?”       “I could say so. But in the end, I lost my patience, got a little excited, and shouted at her.”       “Maybe, you shouldn’t have done it?” Edward asks, bending his leg at the knee and letting his hand down from it.       “I swear I held down ‘till the end. But when Helene started to insult and beat me for nothing again, I told myself, ‘Enough!’”       “Wow…”       “I didn’t insult and humiliate her… I just told her everything I had been trying to tell her for a long time again, but very loudly and irritably. I got sick of being tender and soft… However, it worked well, and Helene started to realize that she had done a bad thing and apologized to me and Mrs. Marshall.”       “So, we’re glad everything ended well,” Terrence says with a slight smile.       “By the way, you must also thank Sammy,” Peter confesses. “He also helped me bring Marshall back and make her understand that her grandmother and I were guilty of nothing.”       “Really?” Edward wonders.       “Yeah! And I’m gonna tell you something, guys… That dog is a professional at it! He literally cried when trying to make Helene 'come back to him.’”       “My gosh…” Edward laughs shyly. “The dog is crying…”       “However, it worked well. Sammy made her apologize to her grandmother and me.”       “You know, maybe, Sammy is jealous of you and her, but he loves you anyway. Otherwise, he would definitely add fuel to the fire and do his best not to let you be with her.”       “I guess the fluffy just thanked me for taking care of him all this time while Helene didn’t care about him,” Peter assumes. “And actually, Sammy did support me well and didn’t let me go crazy. So to say, the grief united us.”       “But don’t be surprised if everything starts again soon,” Terrence laughs quietly. “Sammy will come to himself now and start to play a jealous man again.”       “I know. And honestly, Helene and I don’t know where to hide from him. When we wanna stay alone and sit quietly, the fluffy finds us and starts to annoy us. He doesn’t like when we kiss and hug.”       “C’mon, find a beautiful and sweet doggy,” Terrence suggests cheerfully. “Sammy would forget about you two if you brought a female dog to him.”       “Ah, if only we could find him a girlfriend,” Peter chuckles kindly. “The girls and you don’t have beautiful, single female dogs.”       “Well, I wouldn’t mind having a puppy,” Edward confesses thoughtfully. “Although I’m not a crazy dog lover, I like dogs.”       “I love dogs, too…” Terrence notices. “But I met two nasty ones that didn’t like me too much and always played dirty tricks on me.”       “Animals literally ‘love’ you too much, bro,” Edward laughs shyly, putting his arms behind him and starting to hold his weight on them. “Cats scratched your hands, or dogs didn’t wanna leave you alone… You’re popular, man!”       “He’s a celebrity!” Peter chuckles kindly. “Even animals understand it and meet him like a celebrity! C’mon! Terrence MacClife himself is before their eyes! How we could not greet him!”       “As it turned out, not only do little girls droll over him. Cats and dogs aren’t also indifferent to such a gorgeous peacock with a big crown on his head.”       “Hey, close your mouths, dorks!” Terrence exclaims and slightly hits the laughing Edward and Peter on their forearms with a fist. “You’re talking too much!”       “We’re not the ones to blame for you being so popular among two-legged and four-legged ones,” Peter smiles innocently.       “I’m sure your solo show for pets would go on amazingly,” Edward says confidently. “You would be praised several times.”       “Hey, I didn’t let you speak!” Terrence exclaims with a sly smile. “But if you talk too much, I will persuade Sammy to do a dirty trick for you. Or if Raquelle and I get a dog someday, I will do my best for it to bite your asses constantly.”       “Well, Edward and I will bribe Sammy with something tasty,” Peter promises with a slight smile, looking at Edward. “He’s ready to sell his soul for his favorite pet food.”       “And he does also like my face,” Edward adds cheerfully and smiles slyly, raising his head proudly. “And I’m actually a handsome man! I’ve always been popular among girls. Though, how could they not want a young, hot guy with such a gorgeous body?”       “It’s strange…” Terrence frowns slightly. “I thought they said it about me…”       “Everyone forgot about you a long time ago. And I’m getting more popular. Though… That’s not amazing! Girls get wet shortly after they just look at me.”       “M-m-m, yay, Terry, your bro is not leaving you behind…” Peter smiles mysteriously. “Watch out, bro, he might get all the attention on him and make you his shadow.”       “Don’t make me laugh, Rose,” Terrence laughs and strokes his hair with his head proudly raised. “It’s impossible to forget a man like me. I kind of came out of the pages of a book. And Edward… Edward just has a cute face. Not as memorable as mine.”       “Yeah, but everybody says I could become your copy,” Edward notices.       “Just a copy. You will never become an original. The original is irreplaceable.”       “If you’re out of sight, everyone will quickly forget you.”       “Never! Terrence MacClife is great! He was the role model of youth in the 00s and was one of the sex symbols.”       “He was, Terrence. He was. Now it’s time for other celebrities.” Edward smiles slyly. “For example, me. I can become the sex symbol of the 10s. Become the hero of someone’s wild sexual fantasies.”       “Or me,” Peter meddles with pride and strokes down his hair, “You know that girls can’t resist a handsome man with such gorgeous hair and a perfect body. I have everything to become the sex symbol of this decade. I should just show myself, so any girl is ready to spread her legs for me.”       “Relax, guys, you’ll never take my place,” Terrence says confidently. “Another man like me doesn’t exist.”       “Oh, c’mon, bro, shut up,” Edward rolls his eyes. “Or I shall hit you on the head…”       “Yeah, you haven’t gotten your ass kicked for ages,” Peter adds. “We’ve gotta fix it. So, you’re kept on a short leash.”       “Those, who must get their ass kicked, are you, boneheads,” Terrence smiles slyly. “You went kind of wild, but I lost control of you due to all these problems.”       “So, when we solve our problems, I will surely deal with you,” Edward promises, takes some salt chips from his pack, and eats a few pieces. “It’s my favorite thing to do.”       “Oh, don’t remind us that we’re in shit again,” Peter moans tiredly and eats a little bit from his bright packet of chips with onion and sour cream.       “You know, no matter how hard we wanna forget about all this shit, it’s impossible,” Terrence notices, takes his packet of spicy chips, and eats a little bit. “We’ve got tons of problems that we must solve somehow.”       “We decided to give a fuck about Perkins for a while and piss him off,” Edward replies thoughtfully. “So, we have only the problem of Anna.”       “But what can we do in Anna’s case?” Peter shrugs. “Perkins is slowly going crazy and fucking the foreigner that I allegedly insulted… Anna is getting beaten by a sick bastard, who pretends to be nobody the fuck knows who… And we don’t have contact with her parents to explain the situation.”       “And in order for the case to move off the dead point, we’ve gotta wait for Perkins to get his memories back. Though, a catastrophe might happen if we did nothing.”       “I know, but we’re powerless now! We can talk about this problem and feel sorry for the poor girl as much as we want, but nothing will be changed.”       “Damn! And that Blanca, who deceives him so insolently! And Perkins does believe her like an idiot!”       “Hey, something about Perkins!” Terrence clicks his fingers and moves his eyes to Peter. “Peter, do you still have the knife and the ring that you and Helene found on the day when that idiot got attacked?”       “Knife and ring?”       “Or does Helene have them?” Edward specifies.       “Erm…” Peter thinks about something for a few seconds and sharply slaps himself on the forehead with his hand. “Shit, I forgot about them! I put them in my closet at home and never thought about it.”       “You have them?”       “Yes, at my home.” Peter frowns slightly and moves his eyes to Edward and Terrence. “But why? Do you need them?”       “Yup. Terrence and I understand that it may be worthless, but can you give us those things, so we can show them to Mr. Johnson? He wanna look at them.”       “He wanna check if those things belong to someone, who is implicated in a case,” Terrence specifies and eats some chips.       “That man thinks Perkins got in touch with an ex-prisoner?” Peter asks.       “We don’t exclude it.”       “And he didn’t like the fact that we didn’t show Perkins those things,” Edward adds. “Father and Mother weren’t also happy when we confessed that.”       “What would’ve changed?” Peter throws his hands up. “He would’ve said he didn’t know those things or blunted that they seemed familiar to him.”       “Who knows, maybe, Mr. Johnson would be right,” Edward says thoughtfully. “Maybe, Perkins didn’t remember anything, but we’d at least have a chance to find the one to blame for what happened.”       “Erm, okay, I will give those things to you, no problem…” Peter replies a little hesitantly, scratching the back of his head. “But I think it won’t help us find the one to attack Perkins.”       “We’ll just show them to Mr. Johnson and find out what he thinks about them,” Terrence replies confidently. “And as we said, our parents support him fully.”       “Okay, lads,” Peter shrugs. “You can go to my home and take the ring and the knife.”       “Great, we will do it.” Terrence bends his leg at the knee and lets his hand fall from it.       A short silence settles in the air, during which the three eat a few chips from their packets and drink some clean, sparkling water from small bottles.       “Okay, but what’s next?” Edward says hesitantly.       “What’s next?” Terrence shrugs. “Trying to look for a solution for Anna’s problem doesn’t make sense. And I’m afraid that we'll have to forget about her. I do understand that a lot of time may be gone, and Anna may take too much from that man. But now we only have to wait and hope that we'll save her in time.”       “That was clear,” Peter nods. “As I said, everything depends on Perkins, ‘cause he’s the line that leads to the reason for all the problems. If he remembers everything and helps us find Anna’s parents, the case will move off the dead point. It doesn’t mean we can do something grandiose for one day, but we would at least tell Seymour’s parents everything.”       “Oh, Perkins, Perkins…” Edward moans tiredly, leaning his head back for a second. “So many people are suffering because of his amnesia… I mean, because he was traipsing somewhere and got hit by a car. And Anna is suffering more. She feels bad because of that dude, who succumbed to a certain foreigner and decided to marry her. And because a bastard mocks her and beats her shamelessly.”       “I’m still wondering what made him go there,” Terrence confesses. “Desert and unpopular places aren’t for Perkins. What did he actually forget there? I wouldn’t be surprised if you were found there, ‘cause you’re a lover of those places. But Perkins…”       “Someday that dude will tell us everything,” Peter replies thoughtfully. “But it really causes some questions. And I guess Perkins came there on his feet, ‘cause Helene and I didn’t see his car.”       “What if he ended up there against his wish? What if he ended up there at someone’s wish?”       “Do you wanna say he was brought there by force?”       “Who knows… In these cases, we can expect anything.”       “Oh, c’mon, guys!” Edward waves a hand. “We did decide to give a fuck about him and let him do what he wants! We wouldn’t move a finger for him. For the one not to be our friend. If the former Daniel is back with us, we’ll think about whether we wanna forgive him. But now I don’t wanna have a deal with him.”       “Me too,” Peter nods. “Especially after that idiot dared to blame me for such stupid things, believing Blanca, who used the article about my suicide attempt skillfully and blamed me for all the sins.”       “Exactly! Perkins asked us to leave him alone – we made his wish come true. Let him be a doll of the foreigner.”       “That’s right! And then we’ll laugh at him trying to find excuses for his stupid behavior with puppy eyes. Running after us and begging us to forgive him. It will happen! You will see it!”       “I’d like to see his face when he realizes that Blanca had him wrapped around her finger,” Terrence laughs shyly.       “We will see, dude, don’t worry,” Edward smiles slyly. “I wanna watch it, too.”       The young men laugh quietly and fall into silence for a few seconds, eating chips from their packets and drinking water. But at some moment, Edward throws a sad, thoughtful look aside, fingering over or clicking his fingers.       “Hey, Edward, are you okay?” Terrence asks. “Why are you sad?”       “It’s fine,” Edward replies thoughtfully, scratching the back of his head. “I’m just thinking of the situation with Natalia.”       “You fought again?” Peter asks.       “Nope, I don’t wanna talk to her now. I’ve been ignoring her for a few days.”       “But you will have to talk someday,” Terrence notices.       “I know, but not now. Or I will make it worse. And my suggestion of canceling the engagement and breaking up will be the only solution.”       “But don’t you think about it seriously?” Peter asks.       “Of course, no! I still wanna marry her. I said it to cool her down a little. So, she stops acting like a capricious girl and hears me.”       “And how, worked?”       “I’d say so. Rochester immediately stopped being capricious, and all of her words were about not wishing to cancel the wedding and break up with me.”       “Starting to talk about what’s not related to something is a good psychology trick,” Terrence says confidently. “Or what someone doesn’t expect to hear.”       “Though, she kept talking about her wish to have a gorgeous wedding. But that’s good I received a call from one person and was asked about a meeting to talk about a collaboration. Our argument didn’t have to become a grandiose scandal.”       “Erm, hey, you better be careful with words, man,” Peter jabs. “Or you’d really fight to hell, recall all the past hurts, and split up.”       “Cut your tongue, Peter!” Edward throws gloomily. “One breakup with her was enough for me. I won’t survive the second one. But if the blonde keeps behaving like this, she will make me doubt my wish to marry her. Doubt her wish to be with me.”       “Edward…”       “Seriously, sometimes I think she cares about the wedding itself much more than me. As if she doesn’t care who she’s gonna get married to. She just wants the opportunity to wear a wedding dress and put on a veil on her head.”       “But you love her!” Terrence exclaims.       “Of course, I love her. Very much. But her caprices will drive me crazy. It hurts that she doesn’t agree that our wedding should be modest, without any high hats, big costs, or many guests. She, you know, wants a royal wedding!”       “But agree that any girl would like to feel like a queen at her wedding,” Peter notices.       “Do you think I should spend a lot of money for people to remember the wedding?”       “No, no, I agree that you don’t have to spend a lot of money on the wedding when you have a perfect celebration by paying little money.”       “I completely understand her wish to make everything memorable, bright, and amazing. I want to remember it for the rest of my life. But you can pay a little cost and have such a fancy wedding that it could compete with an expensive and luxurious one. Moreover, I don’t want any luxury celebrations. Seriously! It doesn’t matter to me.”       “Okay, then let Natalia work on something,” Terrence suggests. “Her parents have a lot of money and would spare nothing for her. She and Raquelle would do what she wants, and you and I would do something else.”       “Yeah, and then the girls would say that you and I give a fuck about everything!” Edward throws gloomily, crossing his arms over his chest. “That we don’t help them and are interested in nothing! We would only have to come to the ceremony and say, ‘Yes.’ I would be guilty anyway! If I give Rochester a right to do everything, and if I give my opinion and be a part of the preparation.”       “If only Cameron didn’t listen to her friend and didn’t really go wild…” Terrence gets suspicious. “That lady has a much wilder character… If she goes crazy, nothing can the fuck stop her.”       “Sometimes girls may be too capricious,” Peter exhales sharply. “I didn’t also think Marshall would go crazy ‘cause she always seemed quiet and collected. But then she got stuck! Until she literally got a slap in the face, she couldn’t calm down.”       “We haven’t even started to get ready for the wedding yet. We just felt up the ground. I’m afraid to imagine what’s gonna happen if we pick up the day and start to get ready seriously.”        “Anyway, even if the girls work on something, you should tell them your opinion. You’re kind of doing something, but you’re kind of letting your fiancées get ready on their own.”       “But how?” Edward throws his hands up. “How do I talk to Natalia? Our opinions differ on everything! And I’m afraid that we might not get married. Besides, why did she the fuck talk about it now? She does know that we’ve got tons of problems, but she cares only about her wish to be a queen and hear people praising her.”       “You know, Edward, you’re making me more nervous…” Terrence confesses. “I didn’t think about it before, but now I don’t feel quiet…”       “It’s not too late, brother. Raquelle is a hot and stubborn chick… She could easily start a much more serious scandal than Natalia.”       “Before the engagement of Natalia and you, we never talked about our wedding. I’d say we even forgot that we were engaged. We thought about it when our relatives asked us about the wedding day.”       “C’mon, men, you have a lot of time!” Peter exclaims. “Why are you so excited?”       “You, bro, better explain it to our beloved Ms. Rochester,” Edward replies. “Who rushes as if the wedding is scheduled for tomorrow or after tomorrow.”       “Besides, if you don’t wanna spend so much money, there are many people, who could agree to help you with something. If you try hard, everything’s gonna be cool! It will be a bomb!”       “If I could, I’d actually go there in a simple t-shirt, old jeans, and comfortable sneakers…” Edward laughs shyly.       “No, MacClife, you must look perfect,” Peter replies confidently, clapping Edward on the shoulder. “You can put on jeans and a T-shirt for your bachelor, but you and your brother must wear new suits at the wedding ceremony. I, your best man, wouldn’t dare to show up in old clothes, while men pick up perfectly ironed suits, and women wear gorgeous dresses.”       “That’s right. If I put on what I feel comfortable in, Natalia is gonna kill me right before everyone’s eyes.”       “We will do our best for her and Cameron to be overwhelmed after seeing Terrence and you.”       “But let’s talk about it later,” Terrence promises. “There’s no point in talking about it right now when the hell is happening.”       “Exactly! You better wait for some time and calm down. And then you will come together and look for the solution that everybody will love.”       “Yay, Rose…” Edward shakes his head. “I see you’re pretending to be an expert in the wedding preparations… You give us pieces of advice with a smart look and pretend that you know everything about the perfect wedding…”       “Huh, I would organize a better one!” Terrence says with his head proudly raised. “You know well that I’m imitable at everything I do. Even if I can’t do something, I am perfect at it anyway.”       “In this case, try to complete the impossible mission. Try to make Natalia sure that my idea is better?”       “Sorry, bro, but it’s your girl. Deal with Rochester by yourself. You’re gonna live with her, not me. I’ve got my own capricious queen that irritates me from our first meeting.”       “Please, bro…” Edward shows puppy eyes. “Do me a favor…”       “Yeah, don’t you want me to marry Natalia?” Terrence laughs shyly. “And stand next to Raquelle in front of the altar?”       “No, don’t marry her. She is my fiancée! You’ve got yours!”       “Then deal with her by yourself. But I wanna notice a little progress. At first, you just hinted at help like a girl hints at a wish to get attention and gifts, but you never said it aloud. But now you’re asking for help personally.”       “Actually, I didn’t hire a talentless comedian, who thinks all his jokes are genius.”       “But if you can’t agree now, is there any point in marrying? Or do you make the same mistake that Raquelle and I made and wanna live with Natalia because of the sexual attraction?”       “I’m always open for a talk and ready to solve any problems,” Edward replies confidently. “But Natalia doesn’t want it. She behaves like a stubborn donkey and thinks only her opinion is right.”       “Oh, Edward, calm down!” Peter exclaims and eats some chips from his packet. “Natalia will calm down soon and understand that she crossed the line. If you mean a lot to her, she will become a good girl and give up on you in everything.”       “Exactly!” Terrence agrees. “If she’s really afraid to lose you, she’ll understand that she’ll sometimes have to listen to the opinion of the man, with whom she’s gonna live. Maybe, her parents will also let her know that she must not only be stubborn, but also hear the opinion of another person.”       “I wish it happened…” Edward exhales sharply.       “But don’t fight with her,” Peter advises. “You’re doing a good thing by trying to avoid scandals and not wishing to talk to her now. Keep doing the same.”       “I’m just afraid that I might lose control of myself and the situation. In anger, you can say what can make you strangle yourself from shame.”       “Anyway, I’m always ready to help you two. Just call me, and I shall come to help like a kind fairy.”       “I won’t do it without your help,” Edward laughs shyly. “So, I will need you.”       Silence settles in the air for some time, during which the young men laugh shyly, eat chips from their packets, and drink sparkling water from small bottles, sitting on the green grass, admiring the beautiful place and enjoying the good but gloomy weather. At some moment, Edward wipes his mouth with a handkerchief placed in front of him, lies down, and looks at the gray sky, putting his arm under his head and running fingers through his hair. Terrence glances aside, bends his legs at his knees, and lets his hands fall from them. And Peter leans on the grass, which is quite nice to feel with his elbow, and keeps his weight on one arm.       “Hey, I haven’t lately heard anything from George,” Edward notices thoughtfully. “Hasn’t he contacted you?”       “Nope, since we told him about the article about Perkins,” Terrence replies quietly.       “He probably understands that there’s no point in talking about the same thing many times,” Peter assumes. “But I’d like to know what’s going on with our scheduled public appearances.”       “He said he’d agree about everything.”       “Still, we need to call him and say that the situation got much worse,” Edward says confidently. “Tell him that we fought with Perkins, who blamed us for the lie.”       “Right…” Terrence nods. “I’ll try to call Smith tonight and explain the situation.”       “If only Smith didn’t regret agreeing to work with us,” Peter shows anxiety. “Our band got problems for the second time.”       “It seems like he’s ready to tolerate all of that. Otherwise, we’d have to look for a different manager… A different agency… Or examine the management skills.”       “Hey, lads, do you think there’s a chance that we’d go on the stage all together someday?” Edward asks hesitantly.       “Maybe, there is. But it won’t happen soon.”       “Everything depends on Perkins,” Peter notices. “On how long he’s gonna be a brainless, naive asshole.”       “If only we didn’t fight with him so that we don’t wish to see him in the band,” Terrence sighs tiredly. “What if Perkins makes us so enraged that we’ll really kick him outta the band? Do what our fans are dreaming about. And never take him back, even if he remembers everything.”       “Well, I exactly know that if he blames me for treating his alleged fiancée badly, organizing the bullying, and attempting his life, I will not hold down,” Peter says confidently. “I won’t care about all the years of our friendship. Seriously, guys, I will smash him against the wall if I hear something like that or much worse.”       “We should’ve hit him the last time,” Edward replies quietly. “But I didn’t wanna do it with the girls’ pretense.”       “Yeah, he must thank them for being madly lucky to be saved from our anger,” Terrence says gloomily.       “It’s okay, we will laugh at him when he remembers everything, runs to us, and starts to beg us for forgiveness. We’ll tell him everything he has done and let him know he is just a moron.”       “Anyway, let’s get used to the fact that changes happened in our band. Maybe, by far not the temporary ones.”       “It hurts to admit it, but we’ll have to…”       “Honestly…” Terrence shakes his head with sadness in his eyes. “I’m missing our performances and regular rehearsals… I do wanna take my guitar and sing one of our songs.”       “So, what stops us?” Edward smiles slightly. “Let’s come together at any time and rock on! Moreover, we haven’t played for ourselves for ages…”       “Right!” Peter exclaims. “At Terrence’s home! I can bring my cajon! And we could work on the equipment for recording that I have.”       “Nice idea!” Terrence clicks his fingers. “If the girls wanna go nowhere, they could listen to us. If they go somewhere, we’ll quietly play for ourselves. Distract ourselves and get some pleasure.”       “But be ready that the songs will be different,” Edward notices with sadness in his eyes.       “I know…” Peter nods. “But it’s okay! I just wanna warm up my hands and play the drums a little.”       While Peter says it, Terrence takes his phone placed next to him and, seeing some push notifications on the screen, decides to check them out.       “C’mon, the girls would listen to us with pleasure, even if we weren’t the full band,” Edward says with a slight smile. “We all need it now. Since we decided not to go crazy over the problems, we must use the moment.”       “And you know, I have a funny idea,” Peter replies confidently. “Somehow, I was playing guitar at home, and Sammy was near and playing with his toy. So, when I sang something, the dog began to howl along with me. That was cool and hilarious! But it sounded good!”       “Really?” Edward laughs shyly.       “Aha.” Peter eats a little bit of chips from his packet. “That guy has an ear! I tried to play a couple of songs for him, and Sammy did it well.”       “Wow… Well, if he’s so good, maybe, we should make him a member instead of Daniel, who decided to piss us off?”       “I wanted to suggest that! Sammy steals the hearts of people immediately, and fans would be delighted by him. Nobody would think of Daniel.”       “We could play the fool with people and announce that we’re gonna admit the doggy to the band.”       “Good idea! The important thing is not to be killed by the managers.”       “Blond, we are 'Against The System,'! We go against all the rules and do what we want. The army of our loyal rebels supports us, and our managers gave us freedom and don’t try to make us someone we are not.”       “Then it’s a deal! I’m sure Sammy will love this attention.”       While Edward and Peter laugh shyly, Terrence checks out something on his phone, frowning strongly and shaking his head.       “Hey, Terrence, what do you think?” Peter asks cheerfully, sitting up. “Sammy would be a great addition to our band, at least for some time! Let’s make our fans’ mood better?”       But Terrence is so busy checking out his phone that he does not answer the question. Peter and Edward look at each other and move their eyes to the man again.       “Terrence, do you hear us?” Edward asks and waves his hand in front of Terrence’s face. “Bro-o-o-o, Earth is calling you!”       “Hey, MacClife, are you texting your fans?” Peter laughs shyly. “Is it a more important thing to you than your friend and your little brother?”       “Or did you find the nude photos of yourself on your phone and can barely hold down not to finish it?”       “Or are you masturbating while viewing the photos of your nude and gorgeous Raquelle?”       “Yeah… The guy is cheating on the girl with himself.”       Edward and Peter shyly laugh, and Terrence throws a gloomy look at them.       “Very funny, boneheads!” Terrence exclaims. “You only wanna work your tongue!”       “Is that not the truth?” Edward smiles innocently. “Looking at something gorgeous and imitable has never been reprimanded. We do feel how you feel hard at the sight of your naked torso.”       “Okay, kid, stop your verbal diarrhea for a while. It seems like Perkins is freaking out again, but you talk about Raquelle’s nude photos and my orgasm.”       “Perkins?” Peter pronounces amazingly. “What happened?”       “Did he do something again?” Edward asks, sitting up.       “Exactly!” Terrence exclaims. “Look what he sent in our group chat on WhatsApp.”       Peter and Edward move closer to Terrence and start to look at the phone screen, seeing the message on WhatsApp sent by Daniel:       “Daniel: Listen, brainless morons, don’t you think you got really insane? I DID THE FUCK TELL YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE! STOP CHASING AND THREATENING ME! Leave me alone and stop sending some bullshit on my phone! I do have my fucking life that you do not have to do with! I swear, scumbags, if you do not stop, I shall go to the police and tell them about all your tricks. GET OFF ME AT YOUR WISH! OR YOU WILL REGRET IT!”       Peter, Edward, and Terrence read Daniel’s message two more times and look at each other surprisingly.       “No, did he really go insane?” Peter resents, knocking at his temple. “He lost his brain along with his memory?”       “We did leave him alone!” Edward exclaims. “We gave a fuck about him and his life! Let him be deceived by Blanca!”       “And what did we the fuck send to him? I sent him nothing! And I ain’t gonna do it!”       “The consequences of the concussion, I guess…” Edward exhales sharply. “The more, the worse…”       “Wait, lads,” Terrence says quietly. “His next step is to go somewhere with a gun and start to shoot everyone down.”       “Should we call a doctor at his home? May they send him to a mental hospital for therapy! It does cross all the lines!”       “Fuck, I befriended that moron for so many years…” Peter moans tiredly and puts his hand on his forehead. “I was an idiot… I didn’t think that guy would freak out like this…”       “Oh, okay, he doesn’t believe us,” Terrence exhales sharply. “It’s okay that the man treats him with suspicion. I understand it. But the more time goes by, the more I start to get mad. All of his charges are outspoken slander and madness!”       “Listen, Perkins sent the message a few minutes ago,” Edward notices thoughtfully. “What if the foreigner has him wrapped around her finger or says something about us again? And he got enraged and went to text us? Remembered how to use WhatsApp?”       “Aha, she whispered that we allegedly hated her and wanted to deal with her!” Terrence shows quotation marks with a hand. “And Perkins pretends to be a hero, even if he looks worse than just an idiot.”       “What if we reply to him?” Edward suggests. “So, he explains his charges!”       “Or better hit him,” Peter throws gloomily. “In this case, only a couple of strong slaps in the face would help. Or on the head. If he hit his head, we will hit it again. Maybe, everything will be back in the right place.”       With these words, Peter and Edward take their phones and open the group chat on WhatsApp, while Terrence reads the message from Daniel again.       “Trust me, it won’t help him,” Terrence says gloomily. “But I wanna hit him so badly.”       “Anyway, he must explain everything he sent,” Edward says confidently, typing something on the phone. “Even if he isn’t online, he’ll see what we texted him.”       Edward types the text quickly enough and sends it to Daniel, and Terrence and Peter see his message on their phones.       “Edward: Are you sick, Perkins? Did you go crazy? Why do you the fuck attack us and blame us for stupid things? Explain everything before we send doctors from a mental hospital to your home!”       “I will also send him something,” Peter says gloomily, typing something on his phone with both hands. “That moron annoyed me. If he came here, I’d be happy to beat his face.”       Peter sends a message on WhatsApp, and Edward and Terrence see it on their phones.       “Peter: Did you fall from a tree? You did ask us to leave you alone – we did it! We pissed you off! So, go to your Blanca and live with her! And leave us alone! Or we will take measures!”       “Yeah, that guy has done too much…” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully. “And he’s going insane…”       “What do we expect from him next?” Edward asks. “Maybe, he’s dangerous for us? What if he really grabs a gun and kills us?”       “It’s amazing how much amnesia could change a person. So, that we can’t recognize him!!”       “Blanca is the one to blame for everything! She washes Perkins’ brain and turns him against us. Even if we did nothing bad to that girl and don’t even know her.”       “That’s right,” Peter nods. “Because of her, we lost any control of Perkins.”       “I’m sorry that she no longer works in the hospital. We could find out what that girl wants from him.”       “I bet that she has innocent eyes and says she doesn’t know Daniel Perkins and understand what we’re talking about,” Terrence assumes.       “It’s okay, she will remember! If we threaten to go somewhere and tell them that her family is living in the USA illegally. We can’t blame her for meddling in someone's personal life, but we can tell the immigration services about her.”       “But what do we do now?” Peter throws his hands up. “How do we make that stubborn ass open his eyes and look at himself?”       “I’m afraid, anyhow,” Terrence throws gloomily. “Talking to him is worthless. We only have to wait for him to remember everything. But I doubt that we’ll love to talk to him after what that idiot has done.”       “No, I do not need a friend like him!” Peter raises his hands in front of him. “May he go to the fuck!”       “Okay, guys,” Terrence waves a hand. “Forget about him. Let him live his life. And look for his brains that he left somewhere.”       “Yeah, let’s wait for what he’s gonna do next time,” Peter rolls his eyes. “And the next time, we may definitely expect what would make us turn our backs upon that man forever.”       “It’s okay, if he’s hysterical, we’ll put him in a mental hospital. And he’ll one hundred percent show himself at his worse, and the doctors will have to put on a straitjacket and inject a sedative.”       “It all really drives me crazy and…”       Peter does not speak his mind because someone comes to them in a very fast and confident step, wearing all black, clenching his hands into fists tightly, and lets them know about himself in a rude enough voice:       “Hey, bastards! When will you finally leave me alone and stop chasing me? I think it is too much!”       Terrence, Edward, and Peter easily understand that this is Daniel, who is looking at the three with hate in his eyes, breathing heavily enough, and getting literally red from the anger, with which he is obsessed.       “Oh, look, guys, the hysterical girl has come!” Edward laughs evilly, moving his arms behind him and keeping his weight on them. “There will be a lot of fun here. I hope someone will think of calling doctors from a mental hospital.”       “Close your dirty mouth, kid!” Daniel hisses through his teeth. “You dare the fuck to sneer!”       “What do you need, Perkins?” Terrence asks coldly in a low voice, crossing his arms over his chest. “Get out before we hit you!”       “I did the fuck ask you to leave me alone. WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? WHY ARE YOU THE FUCK CHASING ME AGAIN?”       “We are not doing it, moron, your Blanca is doing it,” Peter smirks ironically. “Blanca is chasing you wherever you are and washing your brains. Or… Do you have nothing in your head to wash because you lost everything?”       “Don’t dare to make Blanca involved in this case. OTHERWISE, I SHALL BREAK YOUR NECK! TO THE FUCK!”       “Oh, listen, dude, get out of here,” Terrence winces strongly. “The guys and I had been spending such a good time before you came and messed up everything.”       “Do not pretend that this is not your work!” Daniel throws loudly and rudely, threatening all the men with a finger. “You lied to me too much! AND I AM NOT GOING TO BELIEVE YOU ANYMORE!”       “We tried to help you, idiot!” Edward replies rudely. “But you believed the false girl that is playing with you as she wants!”       “Ah, you tried to help!” Daniel rolls his eyes. “You decided to use my condition and pretend to be my friends… Good help! Because of your help, I was almost deceived!”       “We do not use you, you, brainless ass!” Peter says irritably. “That foreigner does! Who came out of the fuck nothing!”       “Oh, now you say you know her. If you say that Blanca is a foreigner!”       “We do not know her, jack-off!” Terrence shouts. “WE DO NOT KNOW!”       “I give a fuck!” Daniel throws rudely. “I want you to leave me alone. STOP CHASING ME! I DO NOT KNOW YOU! AND I HAVE A RIGHT TO REPORT YOU TO THE POLICE!”       “You will prove nothing!” Edward says confidently. “Even the words of Blanca will not make the police sure that we want to hurt you. You need clues and real proof. You do not have them and will not do.”       “I shall have the law on you if you, scumbags, keep meddling in my life. And if I know you plan to do something horrible to Blanca, I will personally deal with you. KILL YOU BY ONE!”       “Do not make us angry, Perkins,” Peter says coldly. “Your tricks do cross all the lines and make us wish to stop doing just something for you.”       “Remember, cretins, if one of you starts to threaten Blanca and sends her similar messages, I will burn you alive,” Daniel says rudely. I AM NOT KIDDING! If she tells me you threaten her, you will be dead!”       “You are crazy?”       “What fucking messages?” Edward shouts. “We sent nothing to you and the foreigner that we do not actually know!”       “Yeah?” Daniel gets loudly surprised. “But who was that? Me? I send these fucking messages with open threats to me?”       “Maybe, you!” Peter exclaims. “I wouldn’t be surprised!”       “Don’t dare to deny it! You’re the only ones, who need it!” You and your girls!”       “You do not know who is lying, and who is telling the truth,” Edward replies coldly. “But when you know, you will wish to hang yourself in shame.”       “May your blond pal, who sent me that message, hang himself.”       “What?” Peter resents loudly. “Am I the one to blame again?”       “Listen, did you hit your head against something and lose your mind?” Terrence asks rudely, knocking at his temple. “Do you understand what you’re talking about? Why do you the fuck let all the dogs attack Peter?”       “He did not manage to kill me after the attempt and decided to chase me until the end,” Daniel hisses through his teeth. “So, he texts me those messages with threats, thinking I would get scared and pee my pants.”       “You are really sick,” Peter throws rudely. “You must be in a mental hospital.”       “No, YOU all did go crazy!” Daniel shouts. “YOU! AND I AM ALRIGHT!”       “I do not see it!”       “Stop chasing me and texting some messages with threats! LEAVE ME ALONE! ENOUGH! ENO-OU-GH!”       “We sent you nothing!” Terrence shouts rudely. “NO-THI-NG! Neither Peter, Edward, our girls, nor me!”       “STOP LYING!” Daniel screams at the top of his lungs. “I AM SICK OF YOUR LIE! SICK!”       “Is this the consequence of the concussion? Some fucking delusion of persecution and obsessive thoughts?”       “Stop insulting me, idiots! I am not a psycho! I am a totally healthy man, who wants to be happy with his fiancée.”       “Do you think we would believe in your relationship after one fake photo?” Edward sneers evilly. “We didn’t lose our memory, and our brains are fine.”       “I want to live a NORMAL life! But three fucking assholes do not let me do it! They are chasing me and my fiancée and sending me some threats!”       “We sent you nothing!” Peter screams irritably, waving his hand sharply. “WE DID NOT SEND! I repeat it if you are so stupid and deaf: we-e-e-e se-e-e-ent no-o-o-othi-i-ing. Repeat it, so you get it?”       “So, you did not?” Daniel sharply puts his hand in his pocket, takes his phone, opens the message from anonymous, and pushes it under the men’s noses. “What is the fuck this? And do not dare to say I am thinking up!”       Terrence sharply takes the phone from Daniel and reads the message that he got three days ago from the unknown number, along with Edward and Peter. And after reading it two times, they throw a short glance at each other.       “It looks like a threat,” Edward says quietly.       “It seems like he had gotten into something before something slapped his mind,” Peter assumes in a whisper.       “But what?” Terrence wonders. “How could Perkins get into something so that someone wanted something from him?”       “The author of this message definitely has to do with the attack.”       “And they will show up,” Edward adds. “It says someone is gonna contact Perkins soon.”       “Yeah, the case is serious…” Terrence exhales sharply. “Just like we thought…”       Daniel silently watches the young men’s reaction with both arms crossed over his chest for a few seconds and says:       “So, are you deciding which lie to tell me again?” Daniel smirks contemptuously. “You can stop trying! Whatever you and your girls say, I will think it’s a lie.”       “We didn’t send it,” Edward says confidently, moving his eyes sharply to Daniel. “It’s someone’s threat.”       “You had gotten into trouble before you lost memory,” Terrence adds confidently and gives the phone to Daniel, who takes it sharply and puts it in the pocket of his jacket.       “Stop lying!” Daniel hums with both arms crossed over the chest. “Tell the truth at least once! Is it so hard for you?”       “You will make sure about it when you meet the message’s author,” Edward replies quietly. “Early or late, they will demand something from you.”       “You think up everything on the go very well. Excellent! I highly appreciated it. But I am no longer going to believe you because you all are false liars. You agreed with each other to destroy me. Drive me crazy. Make me think that I am out of my mind.”       “You are out of your mind anyway!” Peter smirks contemptuously, crossing his arms over his chest. “And we’re making sure about it.”       “Anyway, I am not afraid of your threats. Especially, yours, Pedro!”       “I am Peter!” Peter shouts irritably. “When will you the fuck remember our names?”       “I do not fucking care what your name is. Whoever you are, I tell you to leave me alone. Or I, asshole, will put you in prison for the attempt, chase, and threats.”       “I will probably put you in a mental hospital!” Peter throws rudely. “So, they wash your brains! You, scumbag, will ask for trouble! I shall do it!”       “You can kill me! Right here! But you will pay for it! You will pay for threatening me and texting me some bullshit.”       “I did not text the message! None of us did! We have no reason to send these things, terrify, and threaten.”       “BUT YOU THREE ARE DOING IT!” Daniel screams irritably. “YOU CANNOT CALM DOWN AND LEAVE ME ALONE!”       “Calm down, hysterical girl,” Terrence throws rudely. “People look at you and put their fingers against their temples. They think you are a patient, who ran away from a mental hospital.”       “Fine, may they know what you are doing. This blond is trying to erase me from this world, and you and your little brother are helping him with pleasure.”       “You are saying what your liar, Blanca, makes you think,” Edward replies confidently. “That girl is playing with you like a doll, but you, moron, do not understand it and blindly believe everything she says.”       “She only tells me THE TRUTH! And if I know you try to shut her up and threaten her in all ways, you will be dead. I swear, bastards, I shall destroy you if Blanca suffers because of you. Even if she says nothing, I will be sure that it’s your work.”       “Stop blaming us for what we did not do!” Edward shouts irritably. “We don’t threaten you or the foreigner that’s deceiving you!”       “We used to treat you leniently and understand your situation, but now you are crossing all the lines,” Peter adds. “All of that is absolute insolence and slander!”       “It would be okay if you didn’t believe us and weren’t sure that we told you the truth,” Terrence says confidently. “But it’s too much! You are doing everything for us to turn our backs on you forever.”       “DO IT NOW!” Daniel throws loudly. “Turn your backs as much as you want! I do not need you! I do not want to speak to the liars, who tried to kill me!”       “We have never threatened anyone and are not going to do it. And none of us would commit a murder or an attempt. Even if someone threatens you, it’s a different person.”       “There are no people that want to threaten me, MacClife,” Daniel throws coldly. “There are only three people, who need something from me and cannot calm down and leave me alone: you, your brother, and your blond friend. Who organized the attempt, started the bullying, and decided to terrify me.”       “We need only one thing, Perkins, – to get into your stupid head the fact that you are twisted around someone’s finger,” Peter says coldly. “Make you remember everything and find your fucking brain!”       “I have the brains! Unlike you and these two! Who have also lots of sins.”       “If you had brains, you would not behave like a sick bastard.”       “It’s clear that you envy the happiness that I got with my fiancée. You hate her because she is wonderful and imitable.”       “Open your eyes, idiot!” Edward exclaims. “Look at that liar! She is not beautiful at all! She has nothing attractive! No-thi-ng!”       “Blanca is beautiful! VERY BEAUTIFUL! Do not dare to say that’s not the truth! And do not especially dare to say she is fat. She is NOT FAT!”       “We don’t know what type of body she has, but her face is non-attractive at all,” Terrence says confidently.       “You do confirm everything! Confirm that you hate the girl, find her ugly, and want to separate me from her.” Daniel smirks evilly. “And you dared to call yourself my friends! Who you have never been! Who have showered me with mud since I was in your fucking band!”       “Oh!” Terrence rolls his eyes with both arms crossed over his chest. “A few seconds ago, you said you didn’t know us! So, do you know or not? Decide it! Or your imitable Blanca got confused and doesn’t know what to tell you: that we tried to kick you out of the band and destroy you, or that all of us use your condition, even if we’ve never known you.”       “Maybe, you actually pretend that you do not know us?” Edward assumes. “What if you just want to make yourself think so, but you cannot? Not all of Blanca's words fit! So, you don’t know what to blame us for and decided to think up some bullshit.”       “I give a fuck!” Daniel throws rudely and loudly. “If you leave me alone once and forever, I will not hurt you. But if you keep attempting me and mocking Blanca, we will go to the police and report you three.”       “Yeah, Perkins, you are such a moron…” Peter exhales sharply, rolling his eyes. “You have always thought badly and barely understood something, but now I have nothing to say. If someone washes the brains of a certain naive idiot and makes them dance attendance upon them, it’s going to be a catastrophe.”       “Do not dare to insult me, you, fucking piece of shit!” Daniel shouts, threatening Peter with a finger. “You will be the first one to go to prison for trying to kill me! For daring to treat my fiancée so terribly.”       “Try then! Come on, put me in prison! Try to prove that I attacked you! When the police know that you remember nothing, you will be immediately turned around and sent to therapy at a mental hospital. Because nobody believes the words of morons, who have gone out of their mind.”       “Ha, I see you are too brave! At first, you were too tender and sensitive and could not bear what was done to you for a reason and decided to die. But now you pretend to be a hero and unsuccessfully try to hide your cowardice. You got the support of these two idiots and made them dance attendance upon you.”       “You have no right to blame me for something without proof. I do not blame you for forcing me to try to kill myself. But seeing how you’re behaving, I do want to take it out on you so badly.”       “You got what you deserved!” Daniel says rudely. “You should not have gotten in touch with me and insulted my fiancée, Blanca, who tried to be good for you.”       “How many times do I say that… I do not know. ANY BLANCA. WE HAVE SAID A MILLION TIMES THAT WE DO NOT KNOW HER! HOW MANY FUCKING TIMES!”       “What a coward you are, Rose…” Daniel shakes his head. “A cowardly bastard… You would not be so brave if these two were not here. You can only be sassy next to them. But when you are alone, you put your tail between your legs.”       “If you do not shut up, I will hit you,” Peter hisses through his teeth, clenching his hand into a fist tightly and breathing heavily enough. “I WILL BE SHY ABOUT NOBODY!”       “COME ON, MOTHERFUCKER, HIT ME!” Daniel throws his hands to the sides. “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, COWARD? YOU PUT A TAIL BETWEEN YOUR LEGS? GOT SCARED THAT I WOULD BEAT YOUR INSOLENT FACE?”       “Do you want to lie on the ground in blood so badly?” Peter smirks contemptuously. “Aren’t you afraid to faint at the sight of it? We do all know how you react when you see someone’s blood.”       “Coward… Fucking coward… You are unsuccessfully trying to be sassy and horrified, but you look madly hilarious. I am ready to bet that you do not protect a weak man surrounded by much stronger people or a young girl accosted by some stinkers. You would stand aside and pee your pants from fear. You would run away to save your precious ass.”       “Stop it, Perkins!” Terrence shouts loudly, while Peter moves his eyes aside, thinking about how he did not help Anna when Julian was beating her before his eyes. “Leave Peter alone! He did NOTHING for you to be treated like THIS! STOP! CALM DOWN!”       “Listen…” Daniel glances at Edward and Terrence, putting his hands on his hips. “Maybe, you will all hit me? Huh, MacClife bros? If this blond is too cowardly and started to shake from fear like a bunny under a tree, show him how a real man must behave.”       “Fuck, what you have become…” Terrence shakes his head. “Fuck… How someone could go so insane… I am shocked… I have nothing to say…”       “Cowards, too? Scared… Put your tails between your legs… Afraid to get in touch with someone to smash you against the wall.”       “Yeah, you did really go crazy…” Edward says gloomily, crossing his arms over his chest. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you had a knife in your pocket. If it’s so, you can take it and wound us right here. Come on, Perkins, go! Kill us! Or you are scared? You do something only after getting permission from your imitable Blanca?”       “Stop insulting Blanca!” Daniel demands rudely, threatening the men with a finger. “Leave us alone and let us live a quiet life! WE WANT TO BE HAPPY! HAPPY, YOU UNDERSTAND!”       “Actually, you did come to us,” Terrence recalls rudely. “Even if we had seen you before, we would not have come to the sick bastard, who started to dance attendance upon the foreigner and do her orders. We do not need you! We do not need the one, who behaves so disgustingly and dares to blame us for stupid things.”       “YOU NEED ME! To destroy me! You want to ruin my happiness with Blanca and kill me! I mean, Rose wants, but you, MacClife brothers, support him!”       “That’s good to blame someone without proof,” Edward says confidently. “That girl can prove nothing because this is an insolent lie. But you believe only her words.”       “Blanca would not lie to me!” Daniel shouts. “She was the only one to tell me all the truth about how you used my condition.”       “If you believe the false liar, keep doing the same,” Peter says coldly. “We will no longer try to change your mind. If you want to live in a lie and let yourself be a marionette, it’s alright.”       “Ah, I think I got it!” Daniel exclaims. “I got it! You are so angry because Blanca chose me, not you! She chose a brave and confident man, not a fucking coward, who is brave only when he speaks.”       “Do you understand what you are saying? Why do I need a girl that I do not know? I already have a girlfriend! And that’s not Blanca!”       “I bet she is a fake. As well as the MacClife brothers’ sweethearts… What are their names? Rachel… Valeria… Well, it doesn’t matter! You made those girls and Elena play along with you, and made me sure that you were allegedly my friends. You probably think I’d do nothing to them and believe anything they would say easily. But you’re deeply wrong!”       “You know it’s funny for me to hear you,” Edward laughs evilly. “I didn’t know someone with amnesia could have such a great imagination. If Blanca does not wash your brains, you can think up lots of stories by yourself.”       “No, morons, YOU did use my condition. You decided to play the roles of my friends and play with me as you wanted. You thought up a story about a girl that you all called my girlfriend. But that girl got definitely sick of this show and refused to be a part of it, knowing that I have seen her only once.”       “Yeah, hard case…” Terrence exhales sharply.       “Just confess that you all are losers and terribly jealous of me. Because I have a loving girl, but nobody wants to look at you. So, you are trying to ruin my happiness.”       “Did Blanca tell you?” Peter asks. “Did she make you think that we were allegedly not lucky in our relationship?”       “If you were lucky, you would not meddle in my life! In this case, you are a greater loser because you started all of this. You started to insult and humiliate the poor girl because of jealousy.”       “Listen, loser, get out of here and do not make us enraged,” Edward demands coldly. “Or you will ask for trouble.”       “It will not happen because you are cowards. Pathetic cowards that do not behave like real men and can only pretend to be brave and sassy. You are cowards and insolent liars! WHO CANNOT STOP CHASING ME! AND HOPED TO LIE TO ME UNTIL THE END OF MY LIFE!”       Peter, Terrence, and Edward were holding on until the end not to hit Daniel. But now they have lost their patience and no longer want to try to prove their innocence or express a wish to help. The men do not want to be good and think of their friendship with the one, who is literally ready to tear them apart and is threatening to deal with them for what they did not do.       “Listen, you, bastard!” Peter throws irritably, gets up sharply, and comes to Daniel, clenching his hands into fists tightly and understanding how tense every single muscle of his is. “We are sick of you! YOU HAVEN’T HAD PROBLEMS FOR AGES?”       “So, cowardly piece of shit, you decided to hit me?” Daniel sneers evilly. “It’s unpleasant to hear the truth about not being brave? You decided to prove that you are?”       “I was tolerating your charges and insults for too long. But now I am done! I lost my patience! I am no longer going to show respect and will forget about what happened before. I AM SICK!”       “I am shocked… Shocked that someone might like such a pathetic freak.” Daniel looks at Peter with contempt from head to foot. “Damn, why did they find out about you? Why do those idiots literally praise you? For what?”       “And I am shocked that I could actually speak to such a brainless bastard that believed the liar and does anything she says.”       “Stop being mad that she chose me, not you,” Daniel says rudely. “I am not the one to blame that you are such a nasty, cowardly bastard that will never be happy and will choke with his fucking envy someday.”       “If you dare to insult me again, I shall hit you,” Peter threatens in a low voice. “I SWEAR! I WILL BEAT YOUR INSOLENT FACE SO THAT GIRLS WILL NOT LOOK AT YOU! NEITHER BLANCA NOR SOMEONE ELSE!”       “So, cowardly freak, is it unpleasant to hear the truth? Unpleasant to hear who you really are?”       “I do know who I am. And I would be happy to tell you who YOU are! What a nasty scumbag, who dares to blame me for what he cannot prove, you are!”       “Be brave enough to confess that you tried to kill me!”       “I will not confess what I did not do! And I will prove nothing! I am done! I give a fuck about what you think! If you wanna think I tried to get rid of you, it’s alright! I WILL NO LONGER EXCUSE MYSELF FOR YOU!”       “Because you can prove nothing. Blanca bit you through a long time ago.”       “Fuck, how much you got everybody sick of your Blanca!” Peter yells, grabbing his hair with both hands. “Blanca! Blanca! Blanca! Blanca! WE DO NOT KNOW HER! WE DO NOT KNOW! WHO IS SHE? WHERE DID SHE COME FROM?”       “I am so sorry that you did not die when you cut yourself,” Daniel says rudely, looking at Peter with contempt and evil in his eyes. “It would have been the best thing you could do. Just to die. And pay for everything you did to me and my fiancée.”       “SHUT UP, BASTARD! JUST SHUT UP!”       “I wish you, asshole, were hit by a car. I wish a stinker beat your face so that you died immediately without waking up.”       “What did you say?” Peter hisses through his teeth, clenching his hands tightly into fists. “What did you, motherfucker, say?”       “Nobody will be sorry if it happens. And I will be madly happy. Because no asshole will dare to ruin my happiness and try to kill me. Or I wish something happened and made you cut yourself to death again. I wish nobody saved you after that. I wish nobody needed you. NEVER! DIE IN LONELINESS, BASTARD!”       Daniel’s words make Peter give a damn about all the years of friendship with this man. Breathing as hard as a furious bull, Rose looks at Perkins with great contempt for two seconds and gives him a very strong slap in the face. It makes Edward and Terrence still sitting on the grass shake slightly. Daniel grabs his burning cheek and turns aside sharply, breathing heavily enough.       “I told you not to make me wild,” Peter hisses through his teeth. “I DID, ASSHOLE? YOU DID ASK FOR THAT! And if it does not help you, I shall beat your face better. AND I GIVE A FUCK ABOUT WHAT PEOPLE THINK!”       The slap does not cool Daniel down, but vice versa makes him much angrier. Holding the cheek tightly, breathing heavily enough, and getting literally red from the anger he is obsessed with, he looks at Peter with a look that is full of hate and makes everything inside squeeze.       “Asshole…” Daniel hisses. “I will kill you… I WILL KILL YOU, BASTARD!”       When Daniel runs to Peter sharply and raises his hand to pay him with the same slap, the blond grabs it easily and holds it tightly two meters away from himself.       “Don’t dare, bastard,” Peter says in a lower, ruder voice. “Or I shall break your arm. YOU, SCUMBAG, WILL HOWL FROM PAIN AT THE WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD!”       “Let me go!” Daniel demands rudely, trying to get his hand out of Peter’s grip. “LET ME GO, I SAID! GET OFF ME! LET GO, SCUMBAG! I WILL KILL YOU! RIGHT HERE!”       “CALM THE FUCK DOWN NOW!” Peter slaps Daniel strongly on the other cheek and pushes him off sharply, while the brunet grabs it. “WAKE UP! YOU ARE CROSSING ALL THE LINES! STOP, PERKINS! ENO-UGH! IF YOU DO NOT CALM DOWN, I SWEAR I WILL PUT YOU IN A MENTAL HOSPITAL!”       “Alright, bastard, you will pay me for this. I SHALL SMASH YOU AGAINST THE WALL.”       Daniel gives Peter a very strong slap in the face, grabs him by the hair tightly, and starts to pull him from one side to another. When the fight starts, Terrence and Edward get up sharply and push the furious Perkins far from Rose.       “Hey, hey, hey, calm down!” Edward demands loudly. “Calm down! Stop!”       “Stop, Perkins, calm down!” Terrence shouts. “Calm down, I said!”       “Let me go, morons!” Daniel hisses with evil, as he resists and tries to get out so hard. “LET ME GO, I SAY! I SHALL BEAT HIS FACE! LET ME GO, ASSHOLES!”       “You, fucking hysterical girl!” Peter screams, stroking down his hair. “Went really crazy?”       “I HAVE NOT DEALT WITH YOU YET, FREAK!”       Daniel barely gets out of the strong grip of Edward and Terrence and attacks Peter again, smashing his fist against his yawl. The blond falls to the ground but gets up quickly and, butting the bullet with pain, answers him back and fights with him hand in hand for two seconds before the MacClife brothers try to separate them again.       “No, Peter, don’t do it!” Edward exclaims, taking Peter aside and clapping him on his shoulders. “Leave him!”       “Sick motherfucker!” Peter resents, stroking down his hair and pulling down his t-shirt. “He ONLY UNDERSTANDS THE LANGUAGE OF FORCE!”       “Calm down, Perkins!” Terrence shouts, taking Daniel aside by force and holding him tightly. “CALM DOWN, I SAID! STOP ACTING LIKE A PSYCHO, HYSTERICAL GIRL!”       “GET YOUR DIRTY HANDS OFF ME, FUCKING DOG!” Daniel keeps resisting. “I WILL KILL EVERYBODY! AND PITY NOBODY!”       When Daniel gets out of Terrence’s grip and wants to attack MacClife, Sr., Edward pushes him aside rudely, while Peter glances at one of the bottles of water and takes it.       “Stop, CALM DOWN!” Edward screams. “You are behaving like a real cretin! WAKE UP! AND THINK OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING!”       “YOU ARE GUILTY OF IT!” Daniel says rudely. “IF YOU LEFT ME ALONE, EVERYTHING WOULD BE FINE! IF THAT BLOND RAT DID NOT CHASE ME!”       “FUCK, WHEN WILL YOU SHUT UP?” Peter demands loudly. “FOREVER, PREFERABLY!”       With these words, Peter opens the bottle and splashes the rest of the water right on the face of Daniel, who shakes in surprise with a feeling of slight coldness.       “You went crazy, moron?” Terrence resents. “What are you doing? We have so many problems, but you got us involved in much more. Because of your fucking illness, we are suffering. Not only because we do not know what to do to you. But also because you are blaming us for lying, insulting, humiliating, and attacking us with fists.”       “You believe the liar, who nobody knows!” Edward adds coldly. “Who came out of nothing and is now insolently using your condition! Why don’t you believe those, who have known you for so long? Why do you believe someone you’ve never known? NEVER, THE FUCK! We understood everything and felt sorry for you, knowing about your amnesia. But what did we eventually get? Lots of charges and insults!”       “And is this how you thank us for killing our fucking time to try to help you remember everything and covering your ass?” Terrence asks rudely. “We could have spent time with our real girls. BUT NO! We were the fuck taking care of you and trying to help you so hard! We were talking about how to bring your memory back for hours! But you, asshole, THANK US IN THIS WAY!”       “We didn’t expect that we’d have to hear these things that our friend is blaming us for… Though, it’s an open question to me now. Because I do not want to have a deal with the one, who’s become a different person because of amnesia. A shameless bastard.”       “Me too. And I do not know if I can keep being your friend after all the charges. You have done too much. And if you remember everything, your whole life will not be enough to get rid of this bullshit. Maybe, you will never get our forgiveness. Because everything has a limit. And you have reached it many times.”       “At least, we are glad you have brains not to insult our girls and your own girlfriend, on whom you are cheating with your beloved Blanca,” Edward says coldly. “If you hurt my fiancée, you would be dead! I will not allow anyone to insult her. And if you touch her with a finger, I swear, asshole, I shall break your neck.”       “As well as I will do if you hurt my fiancée.”       “And my girlfriend,” Peter adds coldly. “If I know you did something to her, I swear I shall cut your head.”       “You know what, Perkins?” Edward puts his hands on his hips. “We are sick! Sick of trying to prove to you that we are right. Stop! We are done! You did everything for us to turn our backs on you. Get rid of your bullshit by yourself. Now, we will not even move a finger to help you. No matter if you are alive or dead – we give a fuck! LIVE AS YOU WANT! AND DO NOT DARE TO GET CLOSER TO US!”       “If I had known that everything would lead to this, I would have preferred to leave you on the road and let you die,” Peter says rudely. “I would have not moved a finger! I would have done nothing for such a nasty bastard like you. And I would not have cared about remorse. Because you are not the Daniel that I have known for almost five years. The former Daniel has his own demons, but he is more decent than you are. He is gone. We have lost our friend.”       Before saying something, Daniel laughs contemptuously and shakes his head.       “Yeah, clones…” Daniel sneers evilly. “So many words and nothing good… Don’t you feel sorry for your time? Why did you say it all? Do you like working your tongue? As well as waving your fists?”       “It hurts that we’ve wasted a lot of time on the thankless pig,” Edward shakes his head. “We were worried… Wanted you to remember everything soon… Believed… Waited… But it wasn’t worth it… I am really sorry about the wasted time. Very sorry…”       “I asked you about nothing! YOU were walking around me and pretending to be my friends, but I believed you like a naive idiot. I did not know that it was a conspiracy. That you agreed to do everything for everybody to shower me with mud. To start defending ‘poor and unhappy’ Rose! So, I don’t take it and get out of the band!” Daniel smirks loudly. “Choke, bastards! I do not need your fucking band! I will leave with pleasure! I did not want to sing and play with some talentless idiots.”       “You know, we do not want to work with such a bastard like you,” Terrence says rudely, confidently. “GET OUT OF THE BAND! Many people would like to join our band instead of you! And it will be BETTER for everyone!”       “ALRIGHT THEN!” Daniel screams, waving his hands sharply. “GO TO FUCK YOURSELF! I DO NOT NEED YOU AND YOUR FUCKING BAND THAT WILL NEVER GET FAMOUS!”       “We will see it!” Edward says coldly. “See what will happen to you when you remember everything. But we doubt that we will wish to listen to you when you want to come to us to ask us for forgiveness. We’ve lost our trust in you. We do not want to have anything in common with you.”       “Fuck yourself, kid!”       “You better keep your mouth closed,” Terrence hisses through his teeth, clenching his hands into fists tightly. “Or you will regret it.”       “So, MacClifes, don’t you want to remember your past sins that I know very well about? Blanca told me about what you did! But you forgot about it and are now pretending to be holy.”       “Do we cut your long tongue?” Edward hisses through his teeth. “You talk too much!”       “You can kill me now,” Daniel sneers evilly. “It’s super easy for you. Somehow, you killed someone and almost went to prison. But you avoided a punishment thanks to the money of your brother.”       “Shut up, Perkins,” Edward gets enraged. “SHUT UP! OR I SHALL HIT YOU, TOO!”       “M-m-m… You got nervous… So, Blanca told me the truth. You killed the man, but you avoided the punishment. But you remained a criminal anyway! You are a killer!”       “Tell your Blanca to examine that story better in the open sources. I am sure you two are gonna be surprised if you find out much more.”       “So, are you going to play on pity again and say you killed nobody? Tell us your allegedly touching story about how you were beaten in prison to half-death before your bro paid a deposit for you and called all his familiars to save the killer?”       “I will say nothing,” Edward says coldly.       “Do not do! I know everything! But looking at you, I could not say you killed the man shamelessly.” Daniel looks at Edward from head to foot insolently. “A little, worthless puppy with an angel's face. That’s the only reason everybody loves you. Looking at your pretty face, nobody thinks about you almost going to prison for the murder.”       “Do not make me mad, Perkins. I am a collected person, but if I get wild, nothing will stop me from wishing to hit some brainless assholes like you.”       “You have the courage?” Daniel pushes Edward off himself rudely, while the guy looks at him with contempt. “Huh, Terrence? What? Hit me? Or are you much more cowardly than the blond, who did show his clatters, after all?”       “You do want us to beat your face so badly,” Edward tightly clenches his hands into fists, looking at him closely like a wild animal that wants to attack its victim. “You want to lie on the ground and scream in pain!”       “We will see who will be lying.”       “You have enough strength? You have never had a perfect shape and have always been weaker than us psychically!”       “You want to check it?” Daniel pushes Edward again. “COME ON, COWARD, GO! BEAT ME! BEAT ME IF YOU WANT PROBLEMS!”       “You attack me!” Edward throws rudely with anger in his eyes. “Since you are pretending to be sassy, prove it! Or are you cowardly? Are you afraid that we will put you down quickly?”       “Come on, puppy, kill me! You did it somehow! So, it’s going to be super easy for you. And nobody will put you in prison because your brother will cover your ass again.”       “Are you sure that someone would cover yours if someone died because of you? You think your precious Blanca will go to save you?” Edward sneers contemptuously. “Ha! The cleaning woman from the hospital would have to work for two or three years without free days to earn money for a deposit. Well, I would bet it. So, your fate is clear – you will die in prison. And when you remember everything and realize what you did, you will hang yourself in shame. And you know… You deserved it! If you did it, suffer then!”       Daniel tries to slap Edward in the face, but the guy grabs his hand and slaps him strongly in the face. Then Perkins pushes MacClife, Jr., so that he almost falls on his back but keeps his balance and gives him another slap on the other cheek. Daniel pushes the guy again, attacks him with fists, grabbing him by the hair and pulling it out strongly, and gives him a strong hit in the yawl before Terrence and Peter take the furious at some distance.       “CALM THE FUCK DOWN, IDIOT!” Terrence screams at the top of his lungs and slaps Daniel strongly in the face. “YOU WENT CRAZY! YOU DECIDED TO FIGHT WITH ALL OF US?”       “You are not controlling yourself!” Peter says loudly. “Stop! Enough!”       “Get the fuck cool, son of a bitch!” Terrence gives much more effort to hold the furious Daniel, who tries to get out of his grip. “STOP WAVING YOUR HANDS!”       “Ha, I have said nothing about you yet!” Daniel simpers contemptuously. “About your mental issues! Everybody knows you are sick! And you call yourself literally a God, to whom people must bow!”       “Oh, I see your Blanca turned everything upside down!”       “You know well that it’s the truth, Edward!” Daniel sharply gets out of Terrence’s grip and moves his contemptuous look to him. “And I know that you are beating your fiancée, who definitely likes it. Or who you terrorized so hard that she’s afraid to leave you.”       “Is this your guess? Or did the Spaniard tell you?”       “If people know it, you will immediately be pronounced a tyrant. But it’s amazing that people are aware of your mental issues, but have a crush on you. Ah, yeah… I forgot that your fans are little girls, who choose an idol based on their appearance. A beautiful face and a perfect body are all you need!”       “Fuck, did you drink or sniff something before you came here?” Terrence yells, knocking at his temple. “Sniffed as hard as fuck and started to talk some bullshit!”       “You don’t need to drink to get enraged and start to behave like a psycho, hysterical girl. You were born as a sick psycho. Who was just madly lucky.”       “Do not dare to insult my brother, you, fucking piece of shit!” Edward shouts irritably after he comes to Daniel and starts to threaten him with a finger. “Or you will regret it!”       “You are worth each other! Same fucking blood! One is a psycho and tyrant, and another is a killer and coward.” Daniel glances at Peter contemptuously. “And this mistake of nature!”       Terrence slaps Daniel in the face strongly again and grabs him by the collar tightly, setting his furious look into his bloodshot eyes.       “I wish you died, asshole,” Terrence hisses through his teeth and pushes Daniel off himself sharply. “SHUT THE FUCK UP ONCE AND FOREVER! IT’S DISGUSTING TO SEE YOUR FACE AND HEAR YOUR VOICE!!”       “I wish you all the same!” Daniel throws rudely. “Losers! I wish you all had died! I wish everybody left you! I wish you wanted to hang yourself from grief and sadness! I SHALL DANCE ON YOUR GRAVES WHEN YOU DIE!”       Terrence attacks Daniel with fists, drags him by the hair, and gets a couple of hits on his face before Peter and Edward take MacClife, Sr., far from Perkins, who fixes his hair with a heavy breath and clenches his hands into fists.       “So, is the truth hurting you?” Daniel laughs evilly. “It’s alright, scumbags, you will listen! Know who you really are!”       “Fuck, how could we befriend such a shameless bastard like you?” Peter shakes his head. “HOW? I do not get it!”       “Yeah, Perkins…” Terrence crosses his arms over his chest. “I thought you were a good man… But you are a snake. And now you are showing it.”       “And we do not regret all the slaps that we gave you,” Edward adds coldly. “Though, it’s not enough for you.”       “We could have beaten you all together to half-death and left you to die. But we will not do this. Not because we are afraid of you, or sorry for you. Because we do not want to regret it. Unlike you, we remember everything and would not forgive ourselves if someone died because of us.”       “Oh, THANK YOU!” Daniel exclaims loudly. “What do I do? Kiss your legs? Make a bow? For being pleased to leave me the fuck alone?”       While Daniel says it, Edward glances aside for a second, turns his back around, but later looks there again. The man rounds his eyes, gets horrified by something that he sees, and tries to look at that better, squinting his eyes slightly and feeling that his heart misses a beat.       “Oh, shit…” Edward whispers. “What the…”       Edward gives a start sharply and runs somewhere very fast, leaving Terrence, Daniel, and Peter, who do not notice him leaving.       “Damn, I cannot believe you’ve changed so much…” Terrence shakes his head. “You’ve become a girl with PMS! A hysterical girl that loves starting scandals and screaming at everyone!”       “Did amnesia change you so much and turn you into a monster?” Peter wonders.       “Do not make me a crazy man,” Daniel threatens with a finger. “I am healthy! You made me angry with your disgusting tricks.”       “Oh yeah!” Terrence hums. “Us! Blanca does want to make you crazy and make you believe the lie, forgetting that anything would be revealed early or late.”       “She did reveal it! She let me know I had been speaking to the liars all this time. Who must be put in prison! For chasing me and trying to kill me!”       “Fuck, nobody is trying to kill you!” Peter shouts irritably. “We are sick of hearing this bullshit! Eno-ugh! Change the course!”       “I have not dealt with you, bastards,” Daniel hisses through his teeth. “I swear I will beat your face! Starting with you, Rose. And ending with the MacClife brothers. One of whom has always been a sick psycho, while another killed the person and lives with it quietly.”       “Wake up, Perkins!” Terrence throws rudely, knocking at his temple with a finger. “Stop saying some bullshit and threatening us! Do you understand what you are saying? Or did your alleged fiancée tell you to speak by the template?”       “What is that foreigner doing to you that you believe every single word of hers like a naive boy and pretend to be a hero?” Peter wonders. “You just believe her words, without asking for proof? If that girl blamed us for all of that, she should try to prove her words.”       “I believe her because I know it’s true!” Daniel says coldly. “She has no reason to lie to me because she loves me and takes care of me! But you all are lying to me and cannot leave me alone! Because you want to take revenge! From envy! Because I’m happy, but you are not!”       “NOBODY THE FUCK REVENGES YOU! NOBODY!”       “You just made yourself think that we were all bad, but that foreigner was good,” Terrence adds coldly. “Even if everything is otherwise!”       “Don’t dare to say that Blanca is bad!” Daniel demands rudely. “DO NOT DARE!”       “We have always had a good relationship with your real girlfriend, Anna, and thought she was very good. But if she knows about your betrayer, she will never want to be back with you.”       “Fuck, shut the fuck up!” Daniel waves his hands sharply. “STOP TELLING ME ABOUT A CERTAIN ANNA! SHE IS NOT MY FIANCÉE! I DO NOT NEED THAT GIRL BECAUSE I HAVE BLANCA! AND IF YOU PRAISE HER SO MUCH, DATE HER YOURSELF!”       “Idiot…” Peter shakes his head and puts his hand on his forehead. “Absolute idiot… Shit… I have spoken to this man for so many years… Damn, where were my brains? Everybody said we couldn’t be friends because we were too different… And I… Fuck… I am shocked…”       “I’m shocked, too,” Terrence pronounces gloomily, crossing his arms over his chest. “Shocked that I was a friend of this man. But now seeing him is disgusting to me.”       “At least something is mutual!” Daniel throws rudely. “I hate you to death, and you finally confessed that you were never my friends.”       “Do not turn everything upside down!” Peter exclaims. “We did not say that!”       “Remember, cretins, I have never cheated on Blanca and am one hundred percent sure that she is telling me the truth. And I know about your tricks and am no longer going to believe you.”       “Fuck, Perkins, do you hear yourself?” Peter wonders with an evil sneer. “Blanca is nobody! We do not know her! You do not know her! She is using you insolently! All of her charges are false! And you have another girlfriend! Ano-o-o-othe-e-e-e-er, got it? And she is not your fi-i-ian-n-nce-e-e-e but a girlfrie-e-e-e-end! Girlfriend! Girlfriend named Anna!”       “ENOUGH!” Daniel shouts, putting the palm of his hand in front of Terrence and Peter. “SHUT UP! STOP TELLING ME YOUR SWEET LIE AND MAKING ME CRAZY AND SICK!”       “What can we do if you are really crazy?” Terrence throws rudely.       “LEAVE ME ALONE! STOP CHASING ME! BUT IF YOU DO NOT STOP, I WILL GO TO THE POLICE AND DO MY BEST FOR YOU TO BE PUT IN PRISON!”       “First, prove that we are guilty of something!” Peter shouts.       “I WILL DO IT, ROSE! I WILL! AND YOU WILL BE THE FIRST ONE TO GO TO PRISON WHERE YOU WILL BE DYING WITH TORTURE SLOWLY! AS YOU WANTED! YOU DID NOT DIE THE LAST TIME, YOU WILL DO IT THIS TIME! AND NOBODY WILL SAVE A PATHETIC, BRAINLESS FREAK! NOBODY!”       “Ar-r-r-r-r…” Peter growls irritably and runs his hands over his face, turning aside for a moment. “So, Terrence, enough! I am done! Trying to explain something to this stupid jackass is worthless. Do what you want, but I am getting out.”       “Yeah, we’ve gotta leave,” Terrence nods confidently. “This bastard will understand nothing. Let him solve his problems and live with his beloved Blanca.”       “Leave before I send him to the hospital or a morgue.”       “Yeah, go.” Terrence slaps Peter on the shoulder. “Let’s go, Edward! Get out of here.”       Terrence and Peter look around, understand that Edward went away somewhere, and look at each other questioningly.       “Edward?” Terrence asks loudly. “Edward, where are you?”       “MacClife?” Peter frowns slightly.       Peter and Terrence look around for a few seconds before they move their eyes to the side and see Edward being at a long enough distance, hiding behind tons of rocks, squatting, and being obsessed with something that he sees far away. The men look at each other questioningly and shrug, and then MacClife, Sr., goes to where his brother is hiding confidently. Rose throws a gloomy look at Daniel, hums quietly with contempt, and catches his friend.       “Hey, Edward, what are you doing here?” Terrence wonders.       “Quiet, don’t show yourself,” Edward replies quietly.       “Get out of here before Perkins makes us kill him.”       “Quiet, quiet, hide. Hide, I say.”       “Oh…” Terrence gets down on his knees and hides behind tons of rocks, behind which Edward is hiding. “Listen, kid, stop playing a spy and watching cats, dogs, or birds.”       “Fuck, shut up, Terrence!” Edward throws sharply. “Are you deaf?”       “Get up! You hear what I say? Edward! I am addressing you!”       “I said, shut up! Better look there.”       “Oh, kid, you’re so…” Terrence rolls his eyes up, but immediately falls into silence after he looks at what Edward is looking at and sees something that makes him open his mouth. “What… What the fuck?”       “I mean the same!”       “But…”       Meanwhile, Peter comes to Edward and Terrence and claps them on the shoulder, asking confidently:       “Hey, guys, why are you hiding?”       “No, Peter, don’t show yourself,” Edward exclaims.       “Hide here!” Terrence says quietly and glances at what he and Edward are looking at with interest. “And look there!”       “Why?” Peter frowns slightly.       “Do what I say!” Terrence and Edward pronounce at the same time.       Although Peter is surprised truly, he comes to the rocks with a slow exhalation, hides behind them, and looks at what made Edward and Terrence so interested.       “Well, and what you…” Peter wants to say tiredly, sharply falls into silence, squints slightly, and opens his mouth. “What? What the?”       “Yes!” Edward exclaims.       “Wait, guys… Is that…”       “Yes, yes, it doesn’t seem to you,” Edward nods. “That’s Eugene Wainwright.”       “Wainwright?”       Terrence, Peter, and Edward really see Eugene Wainwright at some distance from themselves. He does not see them yet and is too obsessed with something that he is holding in his hands, as he is standing with his side or his back turned on them.       “Damn, what’s he doing here?” Terrence asks. “How did that man end up here?”       “I didn’t expect to see him here,” Edward shakes his head. “People are walking here! They might recognize him! Why did he the fuck come here? It’s like he doesn’t care that someone might recognize him and call the police.”       “Yeah, guys…” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully. “That bastard hasn’t changed at all… He still has a horrifying and wide look.”       “Yeah, he hasn’t changed since that trial…” Peter agrees. “But he got much dirtier…”       “Trust me, he smells much worse,” Edward replies confidently. “As if he’s never taken a shower and brushed his teeth…”       “Ugh!” Terrence winces. “I feel bad when I just think about it!”       “Guys! It’s our chance! Maybe, we could find out where that bastard is hiding and betray him to the police!”       “Right, but he’s hiding in a different place.”       “I know. Where there are no people.”       “Listen, Edward, how did you notice him?” Peter wonders. “I didn’t see that deadbeat!”       “I just looked aside when we were fighting with Perkins and decided to watch him.”       “How long has he been here?”       “I dunno. But I saw that he had been holding a small packet before you came here. He opened so cravenly as if it was something important.”       “But what was inside?” Terrence frowns slightly.       “Hard to say. I don’t see it from here.” Edward notices that Eugene takes a small packet from the pocket of his very old and shabby jacket and opens it. “Look! Look! He took a second one!”       “Hey, is that man not on drugs?” Peter rounds her eyes. “There is some powder in that packet…”       “Most likely,” Edward pronounces thoughtfully. “Wainwright was taking the same powder when I saw him for the first time.”       “So, it turns out that he’s a drug addict?” Terrence concludes.       “A long-time one…” Peter adds.       Edward, Peter, and Terrence can see Eugene starting to laugh wildly and smile widely, as he raises his head and hands up. Also, they can hear what he literally screams, not caring that someone might recognize him and betray him to the police.       “OH, YEAH!” Eugene exclaims loudly. “IT’S HIGH! Finally, I found you! Now I feel so good! Ah! We were torn apart for so long, but now you’re with me again! I FOUND A DOSE! A-A-A-A!”       The pale Peter, Edward, and Terrence look at each other with horror in their eyes and frown slightly.       “Yup, he’s a drug addict,” Edward concludes. “That bastard sniffed that shit and started to say some stupid things.”       “He’s supposed to have hallucinations,” Peter replies thoughtfully. “To think that they’re real. Drugs start to change the mind quickly.”       “I believe he’s been dependent for ages,” Terrence assumes. “I thought he got a little skinnier and whiter. And Wainwright had been kinda sluggish before he sniffed the powder.”       “Notice that he’s got tons of weird sores and circles under his eyes,” Edward adds. “I guess, he’s got lots of needle marks on his arms…”       “It seems like he doesn’t clearly understand where he is. His eyes are wild but unfocused.”       “And he’s screaming like crazy…” Peter notices hesitantly.       “Hey, Edward, do you think he sniffed something on the day when he met you and Natalia?”       “Who knows…” Edward shrugs. “At least, he wasn’t weak… He looked like a sick man, who could easily kill us without regret. He had the same wild eyes that he has now after he sniffed something.”       “So, was that man on high when he tried to feel Natalia up and take her with him?” Peter frowns.       “And if it’s so, he would’ve started to inject some shit into Natalia. Now I understand what that deadbeat meant when threatening to give her something to calm her down. Not only sedatives, but also drugs.”       “Oh, fuck…” Terrence exhales sharply.       While the men speak, Eugene is going crazier and crazier because of some powder that he sniffed, feeling very good and seeing what does not happen in reality. The man laughs loudly, walks from one side to another, and says something under his nose.       “NO, NO, NO!” Eugene screams hysterically, setting his widely open eyes into the distance and waving his hands sharply. “GET BACK! GET BACK! STOP! DON’T KILL ME! A-A-A-A! NO!”       “Oh, shit…” Peter whispers.       While Edward, Peter, and Terrence watch Eugene take something that makes him non-adequate, Daniel looks at them questioningly and listens to what they say closely, not rushing to leave those, with whom he had a big fight. And some time later, he slowly comes to them and starts watching Eugene, frowning slightly and focusing his attention on the one, whom he finds familiar enough.       “These sick bastards must be locked in a clinic for force therapy,” Terrence says confidently.       “Agree,” Edward nods. “But it doesn’t mean they will cure him of the addiction… If you try drugs once, you will ruin your whole life.”       “Fuck, I need a dose…” Eugene jabs, looking at something that does not exist with his wide eyes. “I NEED A FUCKING DOSE! IT’S NOT ENOUGH! I WANT MORE! DOSE! DOSE…”       Eugene puts his shaking hands in his pockets, tries to find just a little bit of the powder, and gets mad when he understands that he has nothing more.       “FUCK!” Eugene screams. “NOTHING! NO! A-A-A-A! FUCK! I NEED A DOSE! SOMEONE, GIVE ME COCAINE OR HEROIN! OR I SHALL DIE! WHERE IS MY DOSE! A-A-A-A! I NEED A DOSE!”       “Cocaine and heroin?” Edward shakes his head, watching Eugene with shocked eyes and his mouth closed. “These drugs are very strong!”       “I guess that the powder is either cocaine or heroin,” Peter assumes confidently. “I think that’s heroin. It’s much stronger than cocaine, and a person feels the consequences of taking it much sooner.”       “Oh, fuck…” Edward exhales sharply.       “I hope he won’t take a pistol or a knife and start to run here and kill everyone he sees…” Terrence expresses anxiety.       “He’ll get caught quicker. That bastard must stop walking free as if nothing happened.”       Meanwhile, Daniel keeps watching Eugene very closely and realizes more and more that he has seen that man before. And looking at Wainwright, he feels something unexplainable and understands how his heart squeezes badly.       “Fuck, that man is familiar to me,” Daniel frowns slightly. “I know him! I don’t know why! But I’ve seen him before… And I think that I should be careful with him… Not only because of his weird behavior… As if… He did something that got me shocked… But what? How am I connected with him?”       Daniel glances at Edward, Terrence, and Peter.       “The kid is definitely connected with him. I guess Terrence was his accomplice in a dirty case… For example, the murder, for which he almost was put in prison… And those two bastards know it well. The brother of this cowardly puppy is aware of it. Because Edward took him out of prison. And as I understand, he also helped that man…”       Eugene checks out his pockets several times to find some drugs but finds nothing.       “Shit!” Eugene hisses irritably with a heavy breath. “It’s gone! I need to reach my hideaway as soon as possible… Hide from these demons and take this fucking dose! I must go there!”       Eugene breathing heavily looks around with his dead, unfocused eyes and starts to wave his hands again, as if he is fighting someone off.       “NO, GO!” Eugene screams hysterically. “LEAVE ME! NO! LEAVE! OH, WAIT! I WILL NOW TAKE A DOSE AND DEAL WITH YOU! I WILL TAKE A VICTORY!”       Eugene fights off a fake enemy and screams hysterically for a few seconds, and then he goes somewhere in a sharp, quick step, still waving his hands.       “Look, Wainwright is leaving!” Peter exclaims.       “He said there were many drugs on his highway?” Terrence notices and frowns slightly. “But how does he get that shit?”       “And if he buys it somewhere, there is a question of how he gets the money. Wainwright doesn’t work and is not able to do it!”       “A fake billionaire! That old bastard, Michael, paid so much money to his accomplices. So, I think Wainwright could hide something.”       “But what is he gonna do when the money is gone?”       “I dunno… He’ll robe someone… No other way…”       “So, you’re now on the hook, bitch,” Edward nods confidently with a sly smile, raising his head proudly. “I shall find out where you’re hiding and betray you to the police.”       “Hey, hey, Edward, let’s not do stupid things,” Terrence jabs, raising his hands up. “I don’t need you to look for trouble again.”       “Calm down, Terrence, I know what to do.”       “Fuck, I am even afraid to imagine what you planned. When it’s about problems, you stand in line first.”       “I’m going to track him down and find out where that motherfucker is hiding,” Edward says confidently. “Then I’ll call the police and tell them where to find Wainwright.”       “What?” Peter and Terrence open their eyes widely, looking at Edward surprisingly.       “MacClife, are you serious?” Peter wonders.       “Absolutely,” Edward nods. “If there’s a chance to move the business off the dead point, I’m not going to miss it.”       “No, kid, don’t even think!” Terrence jabs. “You will go nowhere!”       “Get off, guys, you won’t stop me. I will put an end to this story and help the police find that bastard and put him in prison.”       Edward gets up sharply and wants to go where Eugene stumps around in a slow, sluggish walk. But Terrence stops him immediately, sharply getting up and taking his brother’s hand.       “Are the fuck crazy?” Terrence gets horrified, opening his eyes widely. “He’s drugged! What if that scumbag sees you? You will be dead!”       “He will not do it,” Edward replies confidently. “But if he does, I will have the pleasure to beat his face again.”       “Are you out of your mind? What if that stinker drugs you with some sort of shit? We will never find you! Just like we wouldn’t have found Natalia if Wainwright had taken her with him the last time!”       “I’m not going to miss this chance! And I won’t let that stinker keep walking free when I have a chance to betray him to the police.”       “You will go nowhere, Edward!” Terrence says confidently. “And if I have to, I shall take you away from here by force!”       “Do you want to let that asshole keep walking free?” Edward wonders loudly. “Want him to find our girls, take them with him, drug them with some shit, and fuck them ‘till they die?”       “Yeah? I see you want to experience some new feelings? Solving the problems in the past wasn’t enough? You want more?”       “Wainwright will go to prison today!”       “Don’t even dare to think about it!”       “I will think! Because I haven’t forgotten what he wanted to do to Natalia. I haven’t forgotten that I almost lost her because of that bastard, and the Rochesters nearly lost their daughter! I haven’t forgotten how that girl was made to be a liar and a whore! How I looked like a fucking idiot when humiliating her, not knowing the truth!”       “No, Edward, you will go nowhere!” Terrence throws coldly. “If you don’t have brains, I have enough for both of us!”       “Stop, Terrence! It’s decided! And you can change nothing!”       “No, Edward, don’t dare!” Peter exclaims, comes to Edward confidently, and turns him on himself, grabbing him by the shoulder. “Do you understand that this is madness? That man can do anything to you! Especially now, when his brains are turned off, and he thinks only of drugs!”       “I completely understand that he might notice me and even drug me with some sort of shit,” Edward replies quietly. “But I must do it. For Natalia. So, other girls don’t suffer because of him.”       “Listen to your brother. If you follow Wainwright, and he catches you, you will be dead. You will never come back to us. We’ve lost someone because of his stupidity and naivety! Losing you because of your stubbornness and wish to get into some shit would be too much.”       “I’m not afraid of that bastard, Rose. And I can stand for me.”       “Don’t dare, MacClife! If I have to, I shall also take you away by force and won’t let you make the mistake that might deprive you of life.”       “It’s gonna be okay, don’t cry like girls. I will just follow that bastard, find out where he is hiding, and contact the police.”       “Wake up, Edward, hear me!” Terrence exclaims, takes Edward by the shoulders, and shakes him slightly. “It’s not a game! Wainwright might do anything with you, and nobody would help you. Nobody would be by your side! And that bastard would use it. He would probably love to make Uncle Michael’s wish of killing you come true and inject a great dose of drugs into you.”       “Wainwright won’t catch me.”       “Please, bro, don’t do stupid things…”       “Sorry, Terrence, but I will do it anyway, no matter if Peter and you like it,” Edward replies confidently and harshly. “Do what you want, but I won’t change my mind.”       “Think at least of your parents and Natalia, if you don’t think of us,” Peter encourages with despair. “If something happens to you, they’ll hardly survive it.”       “I’m doing all of this for them. For the wish to know that nothing threatens my fiancée.”       “That man is too dangerous! Especially now, when we know he sniffs any sort of shit! Terrence is right: Wainwright might easily inject a mortal dose into you, so you don’t survive.”       “It’s gonna be okay, guys, don’t worry,” Edward replies confidently. “Don’t panic as if the end of the world is about to happen.”       “Edward, I’m begging you, don’t do this,” Terrence begs with despair and pity in his eyes. “It won’t lead to anything good. He will kill you, and nobody will be able to do something.”       “When a case is about my close people, I am ready to do anything. And now I’m ready to take the risk to restore justice and make that bastard pay for everything. For almost raping my fiancée and dancing attendance upon that old bastard, Michael. That scumbag will pay for everything he has done. I WILL NOT LEAVE IT SO!”       “A drug addict cares about nothing. They might easily kill anyone to stand in his way with no regret.”       “I understand all the risks. But my wish to restore justice and save my close people from trouble is stronger.”       “Please, don’t do this! I don’t want anything to happen to you!”       “Don’t worry, brother, it’s gonna be okay!” Edward claps Terrence on the shoulder with a slight smile. “I must do it. And I am doing.”       “Then, none of us will leave. Either we follow that bastard together, or we leave immediately.”       “No, no, guys!” Edward sharply shakes his head. “Don’t dare! I don’t want you to go with me! You must not risk your lives.”       “So, must you do it?” Terrence breaks into a cry. “Must you put yourself in danger and make everybody nervous?”       “Don’t worry about it. Please.”       “Fuck, idiot, are you looking for trouble again?” Peter gets horrified loudly. “Is the story of your uncle not enough for you? Did you understand nothing after you were on trial and MAGICALLY avoided the punishment for what you did not do?”       “And what do you suggest?” Edward cries excitedly. “WHAT? Let that bastard leave and walk freely? So, Natalia is afraid to meet him until the end of her life? So, I’m the fuck nervous every time we are apart?”       “If Wainwright catches you, you will be lying nobody the fuck knows where, drugged by some shit.”       “Stop dramatizing.”       “Sorry, MacClife, but you’re really sick,” Peter says confidently. “Your brother is out of his mind, but you outstand him. A normal person wouldn’t come to the one that might easily kill them!”       “You won’t stop me, guys,” Edward replies quietly. “I want that bastard to get what he must get. I want him to die in prison. I do care only about it.”       “Stop acting like a stubborn donkey!” Terrence demands harshly. “What kind of obsession with problems! You can’t calm down and live quietly! No matter how much you get hits with a belt on your ass, you don’t understand the fuck anything!”       “I’m leaving. Or I will lose Wainwright’s track.”       Edward turns around sharply and quickly goes to where Eugene hid a few seconds ago.       “Edward, stop!” Terrence exclaims loudly with a shake and despair. “Stop now! Edward!”       But Edward does not hear Terrence and is going where Eugene went, going to betray Natalia’s offender to the police. MacClife, Sr., starts to breathe heavily enough, getting obsessed with the thought that something bad is supposed to happen and blaming himself for not being able to stop his brother.       “Shit!” Terrence swears irritably, breathing heavily enough. “Stubborn donkey! Sometimes he irritates me so much that I wanna strangle him with a pillow.”       “He mustn’t go alone,” Peter says excitedly. “Otherwise, he’s gonna get into some shit.”       “I know… Fuck! I should’ve just taken his hand and taken him away from here by force.”       “I’m afraid of Wainwright… Especially now, when he is under drugs…”       “Damn…” Terrence grabs his throat with his hand, feeling that he cannot breathe. “I’ve got a too bad presentiment… I can’t stop thinking that it won’t lead to anything good.”       “Clear thing!”       “Something’s gonna happen… I do feel it…”       “To Edward?”       “I don’t know…” Terrence shakes his head. “But he might do stupid things… And we might lose him…”       “Terrence…”       “I’m scared, Peter… Really scared…” Terrence winces slightly with the feeling that something is pressing strongly on his chest. “Damn, my heart is squeezing… It’s some kind of pain…”       “Oh, dude, you got so pale…” Peter gets horrified, looking at the excited, white from horror Terrence. “And too tense…”       “Will that dream come true? The nightmare that Raquelle saw… It’s gonna be real…”       “Stop, MacClife, what are you talking about?” Peter claps Terrence on the shoulder. “Relax! It’s okay.”       “No, Pete, you don’t understand…” Terrence pronounces in a shaking voice. “Raquelle’s nightmare was really a sign… A warning… It lets us know that if we don’t do something, a catastrophe will happen. In this case, Edward will die if he is not stopped.”       “Terrence…”       “You know…” Terrence says nothing for two seconds, looking into the distance. “After I told Mr. Cameron about Raquelle’s nightmare of my death, he advised me to be careful… Not to do something if I feel danger…”       “Sorry, but nobody’s guilty that your brother is so stubborn and hears only himself. That a normal person runs away from a fire, but he runs up to it.”       “Yeah, but… I can’t… I can’t leave Edward… You see…” Terrence moves his eyes to Peter. “I don’t already feel good just because I couldn’t stop him.”       “And what are you suggesting? Follow him?”       “I have no choice, Peter. I must do it.”       “But do you understand you might suffer if Wainwright catches you two?” Peter shows anxiety. “As well as Michael, he has a strong hatred for those, who have the last name, MacClife.”       “I understand it. But he’s my younger brother… I don’t want anything to happen to him. I don’t wanna lose him… If something happens to him, I will be guilty. Because I couldn’t stop him. Because I’m kind of responsible for him.”       “Maybe, try to catch and stop him?”       “Nope, Edward won’t agree, I know him. He will follow that bastard anyway.”       “Don’t dare to risk, Terrence. You two won’t deal with Wainwright. Especially now, when he’s on high.”       “I must do this. Even if we can do nothing, or someone becomes a victim of that bastard…”       “Are you sure about it?”       “Yes,” Terrence nods. “It’s my duty. And my coincidence doesn’t let me go. I can’t let Edward go alone, and I will not let him do it. He will have to go with me, or nobody will go. No third way.”       Peter thinks for a few seconds, swallowing up nervously and moving his eyes aside. And then he looks at Terrence and claps him on the shoulder, saying confidently:       “I’ll go with you, guys. We’ll follow that deadbeat together.”       “No, Peter, you better stay,” Terrence shakes his head, taking Peter by the shoulders. “If you aren’t able to contact us in a few hours, call the police and tell Raquelle and Natalia what happened.”       “You’re my friends. I can’t leave you because I owe you. I’ll owe you ‘till the end of my life. If we risk, we risk together.”       “You don’t have to do with Wainwright and must not suffer.”       “But I will risk it. Even if we get caught, I will not hide and will be fighting with that man as hard as you and Edward.”       “Think again before it’s too late.”       “I’ve made up my mind. We are going together.”       “Okay then,” Terrence nods with sadness in his eyes. “So, go together…”       Peter and Terrence look at each other and, slightly fixing the hair disheveled by the wind, follow Edward, not paying attention to Daniel, who has been standing near them all this time and listening to their talk.       “I will go, too,” Daniel pronounces quietly. “Because of curiosity and the feeling that makes me do this. I can’t resist it… Resist the thought that the answers to some questions are somewhere near him.”       Daniel exhales sharply and follows the men slowly but confidently, hoping that he will not waste his time. Meanwhile, Terrence and Peter quickly catch Edward, who went not too far. He is now hiding behind a big tree and watching Eugene, who barely stands on his feet and leans on the trees he sees.       “No!” Edward rounds his eyes. “I told you not to go with me!”       “You will not go where nobody the fuck knows where alone,” Peter says confidently. “We are going together.”       “No, no, guys, don’t dare!”       “It’s out of the discussion!”       “I shall contact you later and tell you where that bastard is hiding if I find his hideaway.”       “No, brother, don’t even think of getting rid of us,” Terrence says confidently. “If we risk, we risk together.”       “Go away now! I don’t want you to go with me!”       “Stop pretending to be a hero that could deal with the bastard being on high alone,” Peter replies gloomily. “You won’t do!”       “I will do. You’ll see it.”       “Alright, Edward, shut up!” Terrence exclaims. “Nobody will ask you about anything anymore.”       “But…”       “Either Peter and I will go with you, or we will take you away from here by force!”       “I will just watch him and…”       “Close your mouth!” Terrence and Peter demand confidently.       Edward no longer tries to protest anymore, but he gets a bad feeling. The man understands that arguing with Terrence and Peter is worthless. And he understands that it would be better to have their help in case he had to protect himself from Eugene. And a few seconds later, Daniel comes here, while the men are not happy to see him here.       “What’s he doing here?” Edward asks gloomily.       “I dunno,” Terrence throws gloomily. “I give a fuck.”       “I swear, if that scumbag does some crazy things again, I will strangle him with my own hands.”       “Relax, clones,” Daniel says in a low and rude voice. “I am not going to save your asses if that man does something to you. I will be grateful to him if he kills all of you.”       “Why did you the fuck go with us?” Peter resents, crossing his arms over his chest. “Nobody invited you! You can go home and stop hurting our eyes!”       “None of your fucking business, Rose. Get through your shit, but I will decide what to do.”       “Oh, yeah…” Peter blunts under his nose. “At first, you better cure your head…”       “Leave him, he can do what he wants.” Terrence waves his hand and turns his back on Daniel as well as Peter and Edward. “We will not save his ass if he gets into something.       “You’re right,” Peter agrees. “We’ll just ignore him, as he wants. And if he gets caught, he will deal with Wainwright by himself.”       “C’mon, guys,” Edward makes a calling gesture. “We can’t lose Wainwright’s track! Look, he’s leaving!”       With these words, Edward slightly pushes Terrence and Peter forward. The three confidently follow Eugene, who continues on his hard way to the right place, limping strongly at times and barely standing on his feet. Daniel hums contemptuously with both arms crossed over his chest and follows Wainwright, trying not to leave the men behind but staying far away from them, while he asks himself where he will end up because of the curiosity and the anxious feeling that is calling the man where there might be danger.