Fatal Alliances: Chapter 17
This can’t be happening. No, this….this isn’t real.
Shutting my eyes tightly, I opened them back to realize that this really was happening. This was real. This pain felt like a knife plunging into my stomach slowly yet brutally ripping through me. I called the ambulance in the useless hope that Mr. Dawnly could still be alive, maybe this was like a part of a rare unconsciousness or something. My face dampened as I cried. That man in the mask, he….he was one of the same men I saw before. I just knew he was. He was there that night. This….instantly, I remembered Ricardo telling me to call the number he gave me if I saw anything strange but….I never expected it to be like this.
Clumsily, I scattered the contents of my purse as I sobbed and found the number I stuck inside it. My hands were still trembling, it felt like a magnetic force was against it as I dialed the number. It rang twice and I heard the other end pick up. At first, I didn’t even know what to say, my voice trembled and tears kept streaming down my face. I tried to speak but all I did was sob into the phone.
‘Greene?’ the person asked.
That voice, I never expected to hear from him ever again.
‘A-Adrian? I – I…’ I sobbed continuously. I couldn’t continue, this was too hard but I tried to, ‘Adrian- he…there was…’
My voice broke, nothing I said was even making sense. I just kept crying into the phone.
‘Greene, where are you?’ he asked.
‘I –I – I’m at E-ellen Street…the old c-car tunnel.’
‘I’m on my way,’ he stated and hung up.
Was…was he really coming? Or was he just telling me that? Honestly, I didn’t know what to do again other than cry about what just happened. This never happened to me before, this kind of experience, it broke me. I felt I had no strength in me again. I felt like a coward, a scared pathetic little girl. Getting up, I tried phoning Jenna but my battery died after the second ring. Everything just seemed so hopeless, my heart just felt heavy and aching as I paced up and down trying to calm myself. It wasn’t long until I heard the sound of a car stopping and someone walking up from behind me.
“Adrian.” I whimpered as I buried my face in his shirt and sobbed, “A-Adrian he…there was a man and…”
I didn’t want to continue, it was too hard to. Instead, I just kept crying unable to control myself, and tightly clutched onto his shirt. I’d have expected him to push me off but instead, he held me with him yet it didn’t seem like a comforting kind of embrace. Daring myself to look at him, I noticed that his eyes were fixed upon Mr. Dawnly’s body. There was a menace, confusion, and of course his undefinable expression. I blamed the old man’s death upon myself but it was Vandermir who said everything would be back to normal again, it was him who said that it would be alright for me to leave.
“You- you lied to me!” I cried bitterly as I hit him on the chest, “You…said that everything would be okay. You lied to me. If I was too much of a burden on you then you could have just said so! I would have left, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”
I knew he was angry because I saw how cold and harsh his gaze became but he never spoke a word to me nor take his eyes off the body.
“Why did this have to happen?” I continued sobbingly, “He…today was his anniversary, he was buying his wife a ring! He’s a good man, he- he didn’t deserve this. Ginger didn’t deserve this kind of surprise. Do you know, he wanted to take her to Paris with him? He- and he was talking about these strange things-”
Suddenly something clicked to me, “Adrian- he- he was talking strange things- about some covert partnership. He said it wasn’t my fault, I don’t even know.”
Upon hearing that, Vandermir locked eyes with mine and squeezed my arms tightly, “What did he say?”
“He- I- I don’t know. He was talking about this crazy partnership and about Finny’s family and mine and the Dawnly’s and- and- some people called the Evans and Perez and Rocillie and –and Adrian he –you –your family. I- I don’t understand.”
“Your family?” was all I heard him ask but the question seemed to be more to himself than to me.
The loud sounds of sirens suddenly approached.
“You called the ambulance after he was dead?” Adrian asked with a soft laugh.
“Stop laughing! This isn’t funny you psycho! He- I was scared –I didn’t know what to do.”
“You never know what to do Miss Greene,” He smirked, “Wait here, I’ll take care of this.”
I watched as he went towards the ambulance and sorted things out. They took the lifeless body of my dear Mr. Dawnly away and I couldn’t help but let out a sob.
What was really happening? Why was this happening?
As the place cleared and everyone left, Adrian walked back to me. This was the worst day of my life. First I’ve been fired then I lost someone I loved, someone who was always so close to my heart. Then, I got to find out about this weird secret Mr. Dawnly had which I was somehow linked to along with Finny and Vandermir. And, oh, did I mention that I had to be like a little deplorable pointless moron while I depended on the man who fired me to take care of the situation because I was a weeping sap? Yes, this was a horrid day and I had a sinking feeling that it wasn’t over yet.
“How long are you going to keep crying?” he asked dryly.
Before I could reply, I heard the sound of cars entering. Finny came out of one while Donnie and Ricardo came out of the other.
“You should get home,” Adrian said, “Finny would take you back.”
“What? Are you nuts? After what happened you expect me to just leave and forget that? What is all this? This partnership! Why was Mr. Dawnly talking about Finny’s family and yours as well? W-who are these other people the Evans, Perez, or something? Look Vandermir, my name was in that tra la la and I have a right to know what’s going on!” I yelled back in frustration.
“He knew mine and Ricardo’s surname?” I heard Donnie ask.
Before I could even ask him anything, Finny came up to me, “Julie, just calm down. Maybe Adrian is right, you should go home. And be with your family. They need you now.”
“Wait, what did you say?” I pushed Finny away and looked at Donnie.
“It doesn’t matter, Miss Greene,” Ricardo replied.
“No, it does. She’s right,” Adrian suddenly stated, “Her name’s in this business now whether she likes it or not.”
“Adrian.” Finny sighed worriedly.
At that moment, I felt a bit uneasy, maybe I should have just listened and gone back home. My family needed support right now. No, no I won’t run again. I’m tired of being pushed around today and whatever Mr. Dawnly had said to me, he wanted me to know more. He wanted to tell me about it but didn’t get the chance. I wouldn’t take the chance of ignoring the matter and putting my family’s lives at risk.
“Well the Dawnly’s name is certainly on the list of partners but I don’t see any Greene’s,” Ricardo said as he was looking at his phone.
“Name all the members,” Adrian said firmly.
“Harrisons, Evans, Perez, Dawnlys, Vandermirs, Luciens, Rocillies.” Ricardo answered.
Luciens? That name, that was my mother’s surname but….how? What did she have to do with any of this?
“What’s this list for?” I asked carefully.
“An agreement forged between these families, they called it the covert partnership. It dealt with the black market. They formed it only to nab some individuals who were becoming a threat to the social well-being of the economy and they did get them but some members didn’t want to end the contract because well….they thought the money was nice.” Donnie replied.
“Money? Where-”
“The money the partnership gained went back to those individuals in absolute poverty. So basically it was like a Robin Hood kind of thing going on there.” he continued with a laugh.
“But Juliet’s not in this so why tell her about it?” Finny interrupted.
When Finny said that Adrian chuckled, “Because she’s the Lucien, isn’t that right Greene?”
How badly I wanted to say no, I didn’t want to be in this mess. What they were saying was nothing I would ever think of in my wildest imagination.
“N-no! My mother isn’t like that. She wouldn’t be in this sort of stuff!”
Adrian smirked at that, he got his answer.
“The Dawnlys and the Luciens were the sleeping partners so they never knew about every
transaction the partnership made. Nonetheless, they were in it, and to end the partnership all members had to re-sign a contract.” Ricardo said with a sigh, “But since all partners never signed it then the partnership is still official, it’s still valid. Which means that if anyone finds out about this, then we could get into a lot of trouble. Especially you, Miss Greene.”
“But I never knew about it. This isn’t even fair and besides, I’m not a Lucien, I’m a Greene.” I replied back feeling frantic.
“Your mother was never married to your father, so you’re still carrying her name,” Adrian said dryly.
“How do you….n-no you’re lying to me!” I yelled.
This was just so much to take in right now, my mother was married. Wasn’t she? All this time I thought she was….but….I had never really asked her. I just assumed she was. What sort of a person was I? Adrian just ignored me and continued,
“Rocillie never signed the contract because he was against ending it. Until now he operates in the partnership but keeps the money for himself. But then you came in the way, in my way. I honestly don’t know if it was by coincidence or just your stupidity, but those folders you had that night…”
Those folders…oh my gosh…I remember, there was a man named Rocillie in it. It was about a partnership between two people…Vandermir and Rocillie? But it had nothing to do with any underground partnership dismissal. There were illegal transactions in the second folder but nothing was linked with any partnership. Was that all the activities Rocillie did? But then, Adrian Vandermir was smarter than that, he wouldn’t just randomly go into business with a man like Rocillie unless……oh my god.
“You were going to hoax him into signing that fake partnership contract just to get his signature in the dismissal agreement,” I stated in a matter-of-fact manner.
“Well look who just put two and two together,” He said in an annoyed manner, “And because of you, someone stole it from me. How? Because I was busy fishing you out of the pond.”
“It’s a good thing it happened that way though, Juliet.” Finny cut in, “Because we found out that there’s someone else who doesn’t want to end the partnership, but it’s funny though because this person is against Rocillie as well as Adrian.”
“You mean those men who wore the creepy masks?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Those were the same men who killed, Mr. Dawnly.” I sighed softly, “But….you all told me those men were gone. I didn’t need to worry about them. Adrian you –you…”
When I said his name I knew he felt frustrated.
“We didn’t know, Juliet. We all thought those men were gone. We thoroughly investigated the matter, we found out about every person but…I honestly don’t know how this happened. One of the men must have returned back. I think there’s more to this than meets the eye. I’m sorry about this, we really are.” Finny sighed with remorse.
Sorry wasn’t going to bring Mr. Dawnly back to life now neither was getting mad or emotional about this. Whatever was going on had to end, this situation had to be fixed. That moment I realized something, I realized that I was in more trouble than I actually thought I was in before.
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