Fatal Alliances: Chapter 30
I really wasn’t sure what to say to him right now. Taking a deep breath, I tightened my eyes knowing what I had to do. What the right thing was to do.
“I’m sorry,” I began ruefully, “I- I know that what I did- was going to do- that- it was- I’m sorry. You have no idea how I feel, Adrian.”
“I think I have a pretty good idea,” he replied, gluing his eyes on me.
The cool crisp night air whipped the strands of my loose hair across my face. The park lights seemed blinding, the scent of freshly cut grass threaded in the air around. All this seemed so normal, so perfect. I wish things would have been simpler, easier. I wish I was never involved in this mess.
“Here.” Adrian handed me back the folder, “I signed it, give it to your dad.”
I felt utter shock sweep through me, “W-what?”
“Take it.” He said impatiently.
I couldn’t. What’s he doing? How could he even do that to himself?
“N-no. I – what’s wrong with you? Are you crazy?”
“No.” He chuckled.
“I – I can’t! I won’t do this. This- I’m not going to give anyone anything! How- How can you even think about doing that? How can you throw away your life’s work that easily? I won’t give anyone anything. I don’t want any part of this, Adrian. Just leave me alone.” I frantically stated.
“Will you just listen to me?”
“I don’t want to!” I said turning sideways away from him.
Suddenly, I felt his hands on my arms, “It isn’t real. If you want me to forgive you, Greene, then listen to me. My signature on this folder is invalid. I knew your father was going to do something like this, so I had Ricardo help me with some things after you left.”
Looking at the time on my watch, I realized that it had actually been two hours since I left. Wow, I was here for two hours?
“You want me to-”
“-Give it to your father.” Adrian finished.
I didn’t want to have anything to do with my dad again, I was just planning to ignore him and pretend he was still dead. Seeing him again would be too agonizing. No, I had to suck it up, I had to do this. Taking a deep breath, I took the folder, “That’s all?”
“Yes. Call him and tell him you have my signature.”
“O-okay.” I sighed taking my phone out and dialing his number.
Holding my breath after each ring, he finally answered after the third.
‘Dad?’
‘Julie, what happened?’
‘I –uh- I got Adrian’s signature.’
‘What?’ he laughed, ‘God, Julie you don’t know how proud I am of you! I’ll meet you at the same address I told you before.’
‘Okay.’
With that, I hung up. I felt myself tremble at the thought of meeting him again.
“Come on, Ricardo’s waiting for us in the car,” Vandermir said as he walked ahead.
Ricardo quickly drove us to the venue. My dad had already reached there ten minutes ago according to the text he sent me. Okay, that was good, so all I had to do was go in and give it to him. That’s all, simple as that. Let’s hope it isn’t as ‘simple’ as I thought it would be with Adrian. The place was creepy. Honestly, I would have been scared of getting here alone. It was clearly an old abandoned warehouse standing at the far isolated corner of a lone street. Rats crawled around the dumpster as large stacks of all types of wires surrounded the place, most scattered on the ground.
“Well this is a marvelous place, couldn’t he have called her in a restaurant or something?” Ricardo scowled, avoiding the wires on the ground.
“Don’t walk there,” Adrian said taking my hand in his, leading me to where he stepped.
The feel of his hand was different, slightly rough, yet elegantly smooth. The heat of his palm pressed against my own, almost warming my insides. What was wrong with me? They were just hands. I mean, who cares if his touch felt like an amusing burning desire being fulfilled?
Certainly not me.
Stopping at the back entrance he released my hand and gave me the folder. I hadn’t realized how nervous I had been because when I took the folder, my hands were trembling. I was never a scared girl before, but now everything seemed different. And to make matters worse, I had never lied to my dad before. Could I do it now?
“Relax, it’s just a simple task you have to do.” Adrian smiled slightly.
“What if he figures it out?”
“Don’t let him,” he replied.
Rolling my eyes, I turned towards the door with bitter sarcasm dripping from me, “Oh I feel so comforted now.”
“We’ll be waiting for you right here when you come back out,” Ricardo said.
“I’ll make no such promise.” Adrian grinned roguishly.
“Bastard,” I mumbled under my breath as I walked in.
The place was dusty and large, it must have had a fire in this place in the past since the evidence of burnt black walls were still visible.
“H-hello?” My voice echoed.
Taking another turn into another room, I stood at an empty large square space with four roman columns at each end. My father stood tall at the end of the room.
“Dad…”
Walking up to meet him, he greeted me with a smile.
“You got his signature?”
“Yes I- here,” I said, giving it to him.
“Oh God Julie, you have no idea how happy I am.”
Trying my very best to put on a smile seemed like the hardest thing at the moment.
Flipping through the paper as if it was gold, he sighed in relief, “How did you do it?”
“Well, I- ”
“-It doesn’t matter. What matters now is that everything is fixed! This is great!” He laughed.
“Well, then I must congratulate you.” A silky voice laced through the air from behind.
Adrian stood there with a smug look on his face leaning on one of the columns. Wait, what was he doing here? His footsteps hammer the ground achingly as he neared us.
Turning to me he softly smiled, “No promises remember.”
I was actually taken back by what he had meant now.
“What is this?” My father’s voice itched in a calm confusion.
“It’s probably just a way to meet you. I was actually dying to see you in your true colours, what you really are, a greedy coward.” Vandermir spat, “What father uses his own daughter to do his dirty work?”
“You betrayed me? You told him?” Dad questioned through clenched teeth.
“I- ”
“You lied to me!” He roared.
Adrian gave a chuckle, “Betrayal? You’re one to talk. You have some nerve calling her the liar. Why don’t you tell her the truth, Bronte?”
Bronte? Is he?… no… but…
“B-Bronte?” I breathed softly looking towards my father, “M-Michael Bronte?”
My father didn’t answer.
“You’re Michael Bronte?” I questioned louder.
“Yes, I am! God Juliet, you ruined everything! You chose some man over your own father!”
“My own father? You… My own father had me kidnapped in Japan by some sick man! Do you know what they did to me there! What that man wanted to do to me! How could you even… I’d choose anyone over you!”
“I told them to keep you alive until I arrived Julie.” Dad defended.
I scoffed at that, “Alive.”
“Look at what this partnership did to you.” Adrian began in disgust, “I did some research about you, Michael. You’re an interesting man. Not only were you an unfaithful husband in the beginning, you became so greedy for money that it consumed you, especially when you found out that one of your wives was a member of a partnership that made millions. You wanted that from her, didn’t you? So, you took things into your own hands.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about boy!”
“Oh, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You played everybody Bronte, you hid everything so perfectly. I actually thought murder was harder to get away with in the past, but I was wrong.” Adrian contemplated.
“Murder?” I asked in confusion.
“That woman deserved it. You don’t know what she did, she played everyone. I loved you, Julie, I raised you, you owe me something now. But her death was in the best interest. Damned woman, she didn’t even want anything to do with the partnership.”
“My… my mother? You- you killed my mother?” I asked feeling an intense shock within my body. My father killed my own mother?
“It was in everyone’s best interest.” My father stated.
“Best interest! Whose best interest was that? It wasn’t my sister’s, nor my interest! You… oh my god, that’s how you got into contact with Takumi? You wanted his ‘services’ to assassinate her and cover up the evidence?” I recalled what the sleazy man had hinted to me about Michael Bronte.
“But with her dead, you realized you had no more connection to the partnership since you didn’t lawfully marry her.” Adrian gave a sick short laugh, “The only connection you had were her children since they carried her name.”
“Then… why did you leave?” I asked my father.
“Simple, it’s because he wasn’t a good father,” Vandermir answered, “He couldn’t keep the burden of three children, so he continued his life with his other family, using their money.”
That wasn’t making any sense, if he left, why did he come back here? Why did he offer to help my sisters and I? As if reading my mind Adrian continued, “To use you. After all, you’re the only Lucien that could sign off the partnership. He had to start slipping himself back into your life now. You’re like a parasite, Bronte.”
I wanted to break down right now, I couldn’t handle this. My father was doing all this for money? He was doing this for his own selfish reasons? I remember he told me ‘he had his reasons, that ‘his intentions were good’. They were all lies. It only benefited him.
“You seem to know a lot about me, Vandermir.”
“Like I said Michael, I did my homework. And honestly, Takumi was a wonderful cheat for me. Money talks for you people. It’s stupid that you wanted to get revenge on me. Why? It’s because I helped the police wipe out your men, right? That’s pathetic, be a man Bronte.”
“I feel so sick of you right now.” I spat in disgust, “What you did… you did everything for money? Did you deceive everyone? My mother… you killed her. You…you’re were the one that night, you killed Mr. Dawnly! That’s why you didn’t kill me, oh my god, that was you!”
“I loved your mother so much Julie, especially when we first met. I loved her.”
“You’re lying! If you really loved her then you wouldn’t have killed her! You wouldn’t have cheated her!” I cried.
“That’s not true! I did love her! She isn’t how you thought she was!”
“Stop it! You’re a liar! That’s all you’ve ever been!-”
Within that second, my father raised his hand swiftly about to slap me, but Adrian stopped him.
“Don’t touch her.” He said in a low, icy voice. His eyes were filled with a violent madness. I’d never seen him look like that before; deadly.
Adrian slammed him against the wall with a hammering force. Dad grabbed him by the collar, but Vandermir kicked him down. With a loud thud, my father fell to the cold ground as an object slipped out of his jacket. I looked at the lethal weapon on the ground in shock. He brought a gun? Was he… was he planning on killing me? I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard the sound of my dad groaning. Adrian forcefully kept kicking him every time he tried to get up. Yanking him back up, he murderously hammered his head to the wall. Again and again and again. Blood trickled down my dad’s face. I couldn’t see this anymore. He wasn’t fighting back Vandermir, he was taking every impact he got or maybe he just couldn’t fight back at the rate Adrian was going. I’d never seen Adrian look like that before; murderous. My father began to breathe unevenly, yet still, Vandermir continued. He was going to kill him if he didn’t stop.
“Adrian!” I shouted in a panicked voice, “Stop it!”
He didn’t. I felt myself go numb with fear. It was as if Vandermir was in his own world. That rage that seeped out of him was maddening.
“Adrian, please! You’ll kill him!” I pleaded, “Please!”
Suddenly Ricardo and two other strange men enter the room, a bit shocked at what they were seeing, although Ricardo wasn’t as shocked as the others were.
“Ricardo!” I panicked.
“Adrian, stop it!” He roared, “Adrian!”
“Oh my God, Oh my God.” I cried.
No one was even going near Vandermir. They were all such cowards! Why weren’t they doing anything? Looking at my father, I saw tears streaming from his eyes, pain. Ripples of pain probably shot through his body like hell. His eyes bulged in agony.
“Please don’t.” I sobbed, trying to get Adrian’s attention.
I hated my father but I don’t think I could have managed to watch him die in front of me. As he was going to hit him in the stomach again, I screamed, “Daddy!”
It seemed to echo through the entire building causing Vandermir to pause his hand and dropped his clenched fists. My dad fell to the ground in labored breaths. Adrian breathed deeply as he turned around. His steel-grey eyes looked into mine. I didn’t know what to say, what to think. I wanted to run to him. I wanted to run from him. And yet some part of me killed me to be away. So many emotions were stabbing me at the moment. I’d never seen him that way before. Snapping his eyes away he went out of the room without a word. My eyes dropped on my father who curled himself on the ground. The two men quickly went towards him and handcuffed him. Ricardo stood at the side looking at the scene.
“Juliet.” I heard him say.
I couldn’t face anyone again, I didn’t want to. Keeping my misery inside, I ran out the room, out the building. The cold breeze hit my face like a hard slap. It woke me up, told me to forget it, forget everyone. I could just run away, go far away from everyone who I cared about, who I didn’t understand. God, why was my life turning into this? Was everything I knew just pretend? My father killed my mother. His own wife! He had me kidnapped, he did it all for money. He… he was even going to kill me, his own daughter. No, I wasn’t going to cry again. I’m just so fed up with everything, of this crap. My life felt like it was stolen from me. It’s a mess. I’m not going to cry, what was the point anyway? Sitting on the cold ground I leaned my head on the wall, trying to get myself together. I had to recollect myself, I wasn’t going to be weak again. That was enough.
“Julie, there you are.” I heard Finny’s worried voice from the side, he must have just gotten here. Nearing me he extended his arm out, “Come on.”
Hesitantly, I took it with a sigh. I wasn’t going to be a stubborn child and let anything affect me now. I was done with that hopefully. He led me to the front of the building where I saw Donnie and Ricardo as well. Adrian leaned casually on the car, yet held a silence. Those men must have taken my dad away already, maybe he went to prison? Honestly, I hated him so much right now. Even though I didn’t want to see him dead, it didn’t mean I never wanted to see him get punished for what he did. My mother needed justice, he wronged us all.
“I’m sorry about what had happened, Juliet.” Ricardo sighed.
“It’s okay, it doesn’t matter anymore,” I replied dryly, not making eye contact with anyone.
“You’ll leave tomorrow for North Carolina with everyone else. I’m leaving tonight.” Adrian stated looking at me.
“No, I’ll go with you.”
“What?” he raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised.
“I don’t want to stay in this place, it’s better if I go. The faster this thing is over, the better.”
Finny placed his hand on my shoulder in concern, “Maybe you should go tomorrow Julie, you should get some rest tonight.”
“It’s okay Finny, I’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I’m leaving from here, Greene. Right now.” Adrian stated.
With a sigh, I replied, “That won’t be a problem.”
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