Third Person POV
Gerald spent the whole day running between his friends that are in positions higher than the president himself as he referred to them, but all answered with one short sentence. "A.L is not someone I want to mess with."
Some of them didn't even bother to meet him, they sent their words through their secretaries.
The 24 hours were about to end and he found no one that did so much as listening to him until the end.
They were all scared shitless that they might end up in the same predicament as Gerald if they dared to help him. One phone call from Müller to each of them was all it took for them to know that their power is nothing compared to hers.
With that one simple phone call all their dirty laundry was thrown at them, and they knew that someone who could destroy Gerald in the span of two days had no problem in doing the same for them.
When he knew that there's nothing he could do to get out of this he opted to do the one thing he had left.
If he was going to go down anyway, he wanted to do it himself instead of being hunted down like stray dogs. Maybe then he could save his family at the very least, so he fished his phone out.
He spent awhile looking at it, then he hesitantly dialled the number that haunted him for the past couple of days.
It rang for a while without any response and just when he was about to hung up, an unexpected voice rang on the other side of the phone. It was of the voice of the one person because of whom all this ordeal started in the first place.
"The same place where this all started in an hour from now." Jürgen said as soon as the call connected. It was as if they were expecting his call because he wasn't even given the chance to speak before the line went dead.
Gerald knew the place he meant all too well, he knew that Jürgen meant the warehouse where he killed that man years ago.
The same man he got him arrested for.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
"Hello, gramps! Remember me?" Gerald recognised the voice as the one of the kid from the video.
He just pushed the door to the abandoned warehouse and the boy's voice that came out of no where startled him that Gerald jumped back causing him to lose his footing.
"Dude, I know I'm extremely handsome, but no one ever fall on their butt upon seeing me. I think I like you already." Giuseppe winked at the old man on the floor. "Boss, can I keep him?" He looked at Emma at the far end of the room, expectantly like he was talking about a puppy he wanted so desperately.
Emma just rolled her eyes at the noisy weird boy.
"Bring him here." She ordered one of the guards that are standing not far from the door instead of responding to Giuseppe.
"Oh, come on, boss. He's the first to literally fall for my looks, you can't just deprive me from that!" He whined while following the guards that dragged Gerald to where Emma was.
"Not now, Giuseppe!" She warned.
Giuseppe was going to retort, but a glare from Müller made him swallow whatever comeback he was about to shoot at her. The boy started scrutinising his boss' tired features and almost pale skin, he knew something was wrong with her so he shut his mouth for now.
"Start!" Emma ordered as she sat in the far corner.
She wasn't going to dirty her hands this time. It was not her revenge to take.
Besides she doesn't interfere personally unless it was about Papa.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
"Hello, boss." Came a voice Gerald knew all too much. The only difference was that he sounded much confident than the meek scared and obedient secretary he used to beat.
Puerto came out of the darkness, bruises from the last beating he had still apparent on his body but there was an aura of confidence oozing from his stance. His eyes dark with anger and hate to the man he once considered a role model. "We have some scores to settle, don't we boss?" He asked rhetorically.
Puerto walked to Gerald's son that was tied to the chair, he was well-built just not as well as Puerto and he didn't have anger and pure loath pumping in his veins to fuel his strength some more.
Gerald was forced to his knees watching as Puerto punched his son so hard, knocking him down to the ground as soon as he was released from his ties. "You sit there watching and feeling what I went through all these years, through your precious son." He said as he picked Gerald's son up from the ground only to punch him again twice harder then the first one, sending him back to the ground.
"I looked up to you!" Puerto hissed as he kicked the son in his stomach with all his might causing some blood to came out of his mouth.
"I was all hope that once I work with you I'd be the person I always wanted to be!" Another kick.
"I thought that I will finally be able to help my family once I join your company!" And another.
"I was the happiest when I received that phone call that I was chosen!" The poor man kept on whimpering whenever a blow comes flying at him but no one responded to his silent pleas of help.
The screams and pleas of Gerald and his wife to stop this whenever their son is hit fell on deaf ears. No one made a move to change anything.
The only one who really could stop all this with one word, sat at the far corner of the room almost swallowed by the darkness with a neutral expression on her face. No one could guess what was going on on her mind.
"And what did I receive in return? A contract that enslaved me to your constant beatings!" Puerto yelled the last part at Gerald angrily before stepping on his son's face harshly. "Your son will feel exactly what you forced upon me for years." He promised before picking up the unconscious form of Gerald son and dragged him to God knows where.
"You're angry at my doings and you just joined hands with the woman who killed people more than Hitler himself did! What a contradiction." Puerto was stopped by Gerald's mocking voice.
"I don't care if she killed half of earth population, she gave me justice and my family is now living in the finest part of Berlin in a fucking mansion bigger than your whole premises." Retorted Puerto. "And what did you do, beat me on daily basis for petty mistakes and gave me a paycheque that cou.d barely cover the rent. Yet you expect me to wear the finest of clothes and to be at work on time when I spend days upon days eating the leftovers of the employees. I was paid peanuts! My family lived in the slums because their only son signed his life away to a fucking psychotic hypocrite that left him no space to breath." His tone broke when he mentioned his parents that did everything for him to have a proper education and have a decent job. He remembered his mother wrinkly hands that comforted him whenever he apologised about not picking right and his father encouraging words that everything will be right in due time. His heart ached as a familiar image of them struggling in that roofless abandoned house in harsh winters with nothing to eat but a piece of bread or some leftovers he would sometime sneak them secretly from the cafeteria because if anybody knows the high and mighty Gerald Fischer's secretary was taking leftovers he would be in deep troubles.
If somebody saw his parents they would think they're in their late fifties or mid sixties when in fact they're in their early forties, all because of the hardships they went through because of him.
Puerto looked at Gerald with a broken expression. "If you had taken care of my parents properly, then I would have given you my soul sincerely without the need of that contract, if you were half good as you portray yourself to be none of this would have happened." He said before dragging Gerald's son out of their sight.
Gerald looked at his devastated wife, guiltily. "I-"
"Don't you even start!" She cut him off. "It's my fault that I married a monster like you, now my son is paying the price." She said sobbing for her only son.
Gerald finally started to get the whole picture. It was never Jürgen or Puerto's mistake that he's in this predicament.
It was all his fault.
All he did was driving people away from him, blinded with the taste of his new acquired power.
He never believed that what goes around comes around.
He never believed in karma until now.
A/N
Happy reading, my lovelies!