I am stuck.
I am stuck between Brian's ego, Charlene's cruelty and Greyson's calmness.
Why is the man so damn calm? And why isn't Brian concerned by that?
He got shot, he's been taken against his will and has been held captive for the past two days, but he's just calm. His fucking wife is supposed to go into surgery today. To his knowledge, she might die today and he might never get to see her ever again.
So why is he so damn calm?
"Brian," I breathed through my fear, "you need to listen to me and kill Greyson. All our focus has been on him. We've infiltrated his security and we've done all we can to ensure that his people abandon him, but look at him." I roared and pointed at the dark and dirty cell that Greyson was in.
He got shot. His shoulder, arm and chest are covered in his blood, but he's still as calm as can be. He's gone through being shot in the shoulder, getting knocked out, being transported via a van, then being hurled into another van and now finding himself in a damp, cold, dirty and dark cell.
But he's calm.
He hasn't even said a word since waking up.
He hasn't cursed us. He hasn't begged for his life. He hasn't asked us any questions. He hasn't even tried to plead for his wife or ask about her.
Why is he so damn calm?
"He looks like David before he got ready to burn the whole world down!" I roared at Brian. "He's not going to help you. He's going to kill you so you need to kill him before he strikes first."
Brian snapped his head back at me and his eyes made me stumble back and collide with my wife who was standing behind me.
He's taller. Obviously he works out and, unlike me, he doesn't mind getting his hands dirty. He won't even think about it twice. That's what's always made him the perfect accomplice when getting rid of an enemy. That and the fact that the Kim Group's trade with the country has essentially granted them immunity from crimes any of member of that family commits in the country.
Even if anyone can prove that Brian killed David ... there's not much they can do about it. And there's most definitely nothing anyone can do about the man almost killing his own daughter.
"Don't make me knock you out again." His eyes stared me down until I almost tried to hide behind my Liza. "Things are different this time, Lawrence." He growled at me. "I didn't say yes to your offer because I wanted to help you kill David's son. I agreed to come to this obesity-stricken country because if I don't coerce this boy into helping the Kim Group, 30% of Korea's engineering sector may collapse and my family will be to blame for all of it."
He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation and anger.
"David lacked the ability to coexist with his enemies." He growled once more. "You told me yourself over the years that his son is different. He knows how to work with his enemies. I need this man to repair what my daughter has broken."
I felt Liza squeeze my hand nervously behind me.
We've been betrayed.
This wasn't the plan.
He was supposed to kill Greyson. We were supposed to kill Greyson.
I spent the last money I had access to, to get me and Liza in London. I used that money to contribute towards payment of the men and trucks that had to be paid to infiltrate Greyson's people and kill him. Every single bit of my last remaining resources have been used to ensure that this boy dies.
We were going to make it look like a car accident; just like with David.
It's a simple plan, but it's often the simplest plans that have the best results.
Lorraine would have been devastated after losing her son. I would have gone to his funeral just to take pictures of her weeping and send them to my sister. Seeing Lorraine like that would have made her so happy.
But now ...
Brian's desperation has clouded his judgment and ... I have no money left.
I have no men left ... I have nothing left ... not even a penny ...
I have to keep trying to convince Brian that Greyson has to die and hope that Lauren and her friends manage to kill that Ericsson girl.
I helped her and her friend as best as I could. I got a doctor to risk her job and license by killing that Ericsson girl in surgery and then lying that a surgery that was not even necessary, was unsuccessful. I helped them infiltrate the people who take care of Ericsson. Her own security detail held that old man captive in the deepest and darkest basement. Ericsson will never see him again. Lauren assured me of that.
Lauren will be in Ericsson's operating room herself and will kill Ericsson on the operating table. Perhaps after that Greyson will be so distraught that he'll kill himself.
Yes.
He hid himself from the world after he parted with that girl five years ago, but Lauren told me he was a mess. She told me he would have killed himself if it weren't for her.
This time he won't have her because I won't let my daughter keep getting her heart broken by a man who will never love her. I'll keep her far away from him and left to his own devices, he will kill himself after he finds out his beloved wife and unborn child died while he was in a whole other country.
I rubbed my temples and shook my head while staring at this man.
I hate not having money.
Greyson is the reason all my assets and bank accounts have been frozen. Ericsson would have taken months to get the courts to grant her the order freezing my assets, but her husband merely snapped his fingers and just like that me and my family were destitute.
He's left us vulnerable and I know that the only reason the worst of the worst hasn't happened to us is because he's holding back for some reason.
Maybe he's holding back for Lauren's sake.
Maybe my daughter is right.
Maybe deep down he loves her, but can't admit it to himself?
No.
I'm letting my fears make me as delusion as my sweet daughter.
"Okay then." I held my hands up so that he wouldn't try to hit me. "Try to speak to him, but don't say I didn't warn you, Brian. He's up to something."
I'll have to talk to him later. He's angry right now.
He dragged a wooden chair until he reached the middle cell where we placed Greyson. Charlene and her son were in the cells on each side of Greyson's cell.
Lisa should have seen the resemblance between Ericsson and this boy much sooner. They may look different, but their eyes are so similar that anyone would wonder if they're related or not.
The two of them kept staring at me and Liza with those cunning eyes of theirs.
They also didn't seem scared at all, but they have to be faking. Right?
Brian leaned in his chair and started unbuttoning the top buttons of his formal shirt.
Greyson had his back against a nearby wall in his cell and still had that cold calmness in his eyes.
"You're a man now." Brian took a deep breath. "Let us talk like men, Greyson."
He didn't respond.
Brian shrugged.
"Come on, Greyson!" He taunted. "We're family now. Surely there's something you wish to say to me or ask me. Don't let this opportunity go to waste. You have something I want and believe it or not, I also have something you want."
A frown appeared on Greyson's face.
He has to be in pain because of that gun shot wound in his shoulder.
Liza looked at it while he was knocked out. She said the bullet went through and merely poured alcohol on it when Brian demanded that the wound be cleaned.
His shoulder has to be painful ... he should be in agony and screaming pain ... and yet the man is just calm.
"What do you think you have that I want, Brian?" He asked him.
His question made Brian lean forward in his chair and smirk.
"You have your wife's parents right infront of you." He sounded amused. "Aren't there questions you're dying to ask us. Aren't you curious to know what she was like as a baby? Don't you want to ask us how we managed to raise such a smart and strong-willed girl?"
Anger and rage flashed in Greyson's eyes.
I've never seen that before.
He knows.
He can't know.
No one knows.
The only people who know are the people who were involved in getting Brian to take out his wrath on his daughter and none of those people would ever tell a soul. We would never tell a soul.
He can't know.
His anger must be due to what he knows about Charlene and Brian. Those two people are like fire and petroleum together and they burned the closest thing to them in their fiery blaze - their own child.
"Why do you hate her?" He directed his cold gaze at Brian. "You two have a daughter that any parent would kill to have. She's kind, she's so giving, smart, charming and ambitious. She gives her all all the time and everything she touches always turns into a huge success, and yet all you ever did was hurt her. Why?"
His words dripped with restrained anger, but Brian didn't seem to notice.
He chuckled and then turned his head slightly to face Charlene's cell.
"Charlene", he chuckled some more, "I think your answer will be kinder than mine. Perhaps you should go first."
Charlene's mischievous eyes filled with anger and defiance before she turned her back to us while seated on the concrete floor in her cell.
Even I have to admit that I'm a bit curious to know why these people treated their daughter that way.
Brian was a drunk so maybe that was his excuse, but what about Charlene? She was sober each time Liza saw her so why do that to her own daughter?
"Charleeeeeeeene", Brian started singing her name. "Come on, darling. Tell our daughter's husband why you did what you did to our lovely girl."
She mumbled something while facing us with her back, but no one could hear her so Brian got up from his chair and went to go stand infront of her cell.
"Talk, Charlene." He said in a serious tone. "Or else I'll make you talk."
She took a few deep breaths in the silence before she turned around to face us; but still there was no fear in her eyes; only defiance and anger.
"To protect her." She said a bit louder. "I beat my own daughter and let her father beat her. In exchange, he agreed to let her live. That was the only way to keep Brian satisfied without burying my daughter alive."
"You could have gone back to dad." Her son suddenly roared in disappointment from his own cell. "He loved you, mom. He would have -"
"I did." She cut him off with every bit of that defiance still in her eyes. "Well, I tried, Jona, but I left you and your father when you were only five years old. I tore apart a perfectly good marriage so that I could run into the sunset with a handsome rich man who showed me attention. Your father may have shielded you from how much I hurt him, but you should know that I really did hurt him, Jona. I arrived at his doorstep with my one year old daughter that Brian refused for me to bathe or clean or feed and begged him to take me back or try to hide me from Brian."
. . .
"And?" The boy asked.
. . .
We all knew the answer at this point, but I think he needed to hear it.
Charlene gave Brian the most mischievous smile as she answered; as if refusing to be anything but mischievous and cunning when she was in his presence.
"He refused." Her smile grew wider with anger. "He told me he would never raise another man's child no matter how much he loved me. When I begged to see you, he refused once more and said I would only make you cry because I'd inevitably have to leave and you would want me to stay. When I asked him to hide me from Brian, he just gave me the number for some shelter and told me if I ever tried to contact him again, he would call my abuser himself and make him sort me out."
"I think he made that threat because he was angry that I had the audacity to come crawling back to him after what I did." She bit her lip angrily, still refusing to remove all that mischief from her eyes. "But it scared me enough to stay away."
"I had no choice but to go back to Brian", she continued, " he would have found me if I tried to hide. And if he found me instead of me going back to him, he would have killed me and my daughter."
Liza and I watched her son slump his head in one hand.
He was shocked and disappointed that his father refused to raise a child that wasn't his.
Most men would have refused to take her back or help her. Even a Saint would hesitate to help someone like that.
"I was young", she said with a calm smile, "and scared and trapped. I did terrible things to my daughter to save her from something much worse because Brian could do as he pleased whenever he was in this country."
"My turn!" Brian laughed before the silence turned sombre.
Greyson looked disgusted ... but calm.
How is he still calm?
"I guess after hearing that sad story," Brian shrugged, "I should tell you why I did what I did to my daughter, right?"
Greyson still refused to entertain a conversation with him. He was just staring at him with those cold.
"Because I could." Brian dropped all the mock and amusement in his voice.
"What do you mean?" Greyson and Charlene's son asked at the same time.
"I mean I hated her because I could." He stalked his way back to Greyson's cell while narrowing his eyes at the man. "I hate my daughter because I can. I wasn't terrible to her because she was a bad kid or because she wasn't smart enough or pretty enough or whatever a child needs to be. I saw that child's face once she was born and I just hated her. I never needed a reason or an excuse. I hate Charlotte because I can; because she is Charlotte and I am Brian and nothing she could ever do, could make me love her. I didn't even want to give her my surname." He scoffed in disgust. "There's no father registered on her birth certificate because I just dislike that child. There is no achievements that can make me love her. There's no amount of money that could ever make me see her as a person. And deep down she knows that, but she refuses to accept it because she wants so badly to be loved by me. That's why she works so hard, Greyson. That's why she's always trying to prove herself. It's because she knows that she will never be enough for the one person whose approval she needs more than everyone else's. And for that simple reason", he sighed, "Charlotte Ericsson will always be broken. You can't fix her, Greyson. You can't love her until she loves herself because I taught her from a very young age to never even attempt to do something as ridiculous as loving herself."
It was Greyson who stood up first.
He was followed by Charlene's son and then by Charlene herself.
"You're going to pay for everything you've done to her." Greyson closed his eyes. "You, Lawrence, Lisa, Lauren and everyone else who hurt her will all pay for what you did to her."
I didn't hear my phone when it rang.
How could I when it's as clear as day that he knows.
He knows what we did.
Liza was the one who shook me out of my frozen state. It was only after she started shaking me harder that I realised all eyes were on me because of my darn phone.
I took my phone out of my pocket as quickly as I could.
He knows.
How does he know?
I was about to reject the call, but then I saw my daughter's name on the screen.
This means her plan worked.
"Hello." I whispered.
"Dad", my girl's voice came through, "can I speak to Lucas?"
I nodded to no one in particular and put the phone on loud speaker.
Her plan worked.
This girl that I always took for granted; that I never cared to spend any time with, has managed to kill Lucas Greyson's wife.
"Lucas!" Her nervous voice echoed in the room. "Lucas, choose. It's either Christian or Charlotte. Who should get to live?"