"Dad, I just asked a question." She moved closer to him now, surprised by his calm demeanor after she caught him in a suspicious phone call.
"Can I explain myself?" This time, he tried to get farther from her as she got closer. "Yes, I can hear you." The unclear words she heard came back to her memory as she got closer to him. She remembered what Michael had said and started believing everything.
"Like I said earlier, it is not what you think. The people I just appealed to are not related to the kidnap of your mother," she remembered not accusing him about that, but maybe he did. Just maybe he kidnapped the love of his life, but she had just one question to ask.
"Why? What did Mum do to deserve all of these from you?" she saw her father's face soften at the mention of her mother.
"Believe me, my love. I don't know anything about her disappearance."
"Then, what was that call all about?" she confronted him, already very close to him as he got to the wall and there was no other space to move. He felt her breath on his face, and it sent the wrong kind of shivers on his body.
"Well, something that is not your business for now."
"Oh. Okay." She decided to leave him for now. The atmosphere was already so tense and she needed to relieve herself of the mental stress. She has a lot to worry about, from Lucas' whereabouts to her mum's kidnap, and she definitely wouldn't want to add her father's call that doesn't concern her according to him.
"My love, please don't go." he saw her leaving and felt a huge burden in his heart to just tell her the truth. She didn't know how to react to that request, as she was already done with the conversation and needed to invest more time into finding out where her mother was.
"Uhmm… What do you want?" She couldn't help the way she talked and didn't feel bad about it.
"I am sorry," he said, thinking she would feel better, but that only infuriated her.
"Dad, I know the things you've been working on. I know what's up. Don't think I'm a child."
"What do you mean?" he asked, already suspecting it had something to do with Mia or the other guy who spoke with her earlier. "What did Mia tell you?"
"And how do you know her name? What business do you have with her? Do you think I know nothing about how you looked at her with so much hatred in your eyes?" he knew she was observant, but didn't know she also observed something he thought he suppressed.
Just as she was about to ask him tons of questions again, a crash sounded from downstairs, then a light scream: "Lizzy! Lizzy!"
She stared at her father and it looked like they had the same thoughts on what to do next. Immediately, they ran downstairs like their lives depended on it, probably because it did. What she saw was probably the biggest shock of the day: Michael was right there, breathing heavily, his clothes the shadow of what he wore the first time he came there, blood stains on his face and clothes, and his eyes telling a similar story.
"What happened?" She didn't know the question to ask at that time. She wanted to ask if he was okay, but by his looks, he was far from okay.
He then brought out his right bloodstain hand and opened it up to reveal a little paper. He moved closer and handed it over to her. She looked at her father to get some sort of approval to collect the paper, and he nodded, prompting her to open up the paper.
You shouldn't have heard anything.
You shouldn't have said anything.
You shouldn't have gotten yourself into this issue.
The Berlin family is mine to deal with and not yours to interfere with.
Before it's too late, leave this issue. Else, you will regret your actions.
Elena
"I saw this immediately I got home, on my table, and as I was done reading, I got a low blow and the greatest beating of my life. I got out of consciousness and thought to show you first."
Realizing that he had been through a lot in just a few hours, she naked him to sit and went in to get a bottle of water for him. She got back to see him still standing.
"Thanks for your kindness, but I have to go right now," he said, collecting her water to note that he appreciated her gesture, but fear was still evident in his eyes as he briskly worked out of the house.
"Dad, what is Elena's name doing at the end of the write-up?" she handed it over to her dad, trying to make sense of the whole situation. Her father quickly read it and was also genuinely surprised.
Just as they were about to comprehend the issue that just happened, she heard a ping from her phone and decided to take a look at it since she could not look down at any text that came to her at this point.
Caleb sent a message to her: "You need to see this," the message read, and he sent a video, she got a little upset, asking herself the reason Caleb would send a video to her. Did it look like she had time to watch videos? She wanted to respond back to him, telling her a piece of her mind.
However, she changed her mind at the last minute, checking the video with the best form of disinterest. What she saw turned out to be the most important information she needed at that point.
"Lizzy, are you okay?" Markus saw the terrifying look in her eyes and thought to check whatever she saw on her phone that made her look that way.
There it was, the video that said a lot about him. A video of a familiar person and a mysterious figure, beating up girls and sending them to a van.
"Okay, I am done," the strange person said, and he counted some money to give to him. "Thank you, I'll call you for more deals." This convinced her that it was truly her father.
Taking a look at her dad, he had a look of surrender, amazed that people already knew the kind of deal he was into.
"Dad?"
"I have to leave." he wanted to escape that discussion, but he wouldn't have to do that because he knew that Lizzy would get the truth out of him as quickly as she could.
"No. Dad, you can't just keep dodging matters like this. You have to tell me the truth." instead of coming out rude, the words came soft and calm, making him a little emotional.
"Okay, I think I need to tell you something."
"Lizzy!" she recognized the voice and jumped out of the chair. She did not remember the last time she thought about Lucas, and it looked like he came looking for her.
There he was, the devil himself, Lucas, announced first by his voice, then his fragrance. He did not look like someone who had been locked up in custody for more than 24 hours.
"Lizzy. We need to talk," he said affirmatively.
"Wait, do you still think you can order me around?" she asked, waiting for him to explain the reason he visited his enemies den.
"Lizzy, you know that if this wasn't important, I'd rather stay in the zoo with animals than to be here," staring at the room with disgust, even though he knew his house couldn't match up with the mansion he just entered.
"Okay, please tell me what you have to say fast."
"I can't talk in the presence of your father." he did not want to disrespect Marcus, but he couldn't say what he had to say with him right there.
Markus understood what the silence was about, so he excused himself from the room and just then, his phone rang, giving him another excuse to leave completely.
"We need to talk."
"You've said that about a hundred and one times. Go straight to the point. Talk about what?" she hissed as she already lost interest in whatever he had to discuss with her.
"Our mothers."
She paused for a bit, looking back at him as he made himself comfortable by sitting on the chair his father usually sits on.
"Lucas, so you know about the business they had together?"
"Yes, and I'm not surprised you don't know." he had no idea about that until he got home and met Evelyn with another man in her bedroom. He knew she was into a lot of things, but he didn't realize there was more.
Two men, in bed with his own mother. Since his father died when he was fifteen, she wasn't involved with any man as she vowed that she would love only him. So it was a total shock when she met her in a vulnerable state with not just one man, but two, especially when she was supposed to be concerned about her son who was arrested.
"Mum?" it was the second time he was shocked that same day, as the first shock came when Scarlett helped him out of the station.
The men hurriedly packed his clothes and left in only his boxers, leaving him and his mother in the room.
"My son, please, we can talk about it."
"Why? What happened?" he had no idea of the question to ask, so he kept stuttering "what" and "why".
"Please, you need to understand me."
"Understand what? That you went ahead to sleep with two men instead of being so concerned about me?"
"No, don't think like that." hs mother said, removing her blanket slightly from her body and exposing the light t-shirt she had underneath.
"You know what? Let me just leave this place."
"Please, wait."
"Don't talk to me!" He raised his voice at her for the first time. "Why should I listen to you when you desire pleasure over the safety of your son?"
"Believe me, I was so concerned. I love you. How did you get out?"
"So you can ask me that? When did you ask about my well being there?" he threw back at her, fuming more and throwing more stabs in words.
"Why are you talking this way? Please, calm down."
"No, I won't. Don't expect me to calm down when you are being inconsiderate and irresponsible." This triggered an expression that Lucas once feared, but he wasn't scared anymore. He felt she needed to hear the truth, and having a threesome was an irresponsible act.
"I have heard enough of what you have to say." she said, this time, she stood up and walked closer to him in a bid to confront him.
"I have done everything for you. I have been a good mother to you, sacrificing everything I was to be a good mother to you!" She kept increasing her voice by every word she said.
"All I had done was to protect you and be a good mother, and I don't need your approval to prove that I have fulfilled my role as a good mother!" she said again, her anger intensifying.
"I even had to hide my relationship with Elena, because of you! You!"
The name Elena rang a bell, and almost immediately, he remembered.
"We had an unfinished business of money laundering and child trafficking, but I had to leave all of these, including the huge money involved, because of you!"
His eyes opened widely immediately he said that, and his mother realized she had said what she shouldn't have.
He didn't hesitate to tell Lizzy everything she needed to know about her parent and just as he fi
nished talking, they heard a phone ringing. She took up her phone and saw Mia's name.
"I know where your mother is. I'll send you an address."