Chapter 10
This is Not the End
Daniel
My hand hit the plate, sending it flying through the air and crashing onto the floor. I glared at the mess, filled with rage. How could this be? How could this have happened? How did he know about all this? All my plans were ruined. All of them!
“That fool!” Stella scoffed, lying next to me, naked. “Can’t believe he threw the ax on his own foot.”
“You idiot!” I shouted. “Don’t you see what he has done? Don’t you see how he has gotten out of it?”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, and I slammed my hand on the glass table. The glass shattered, spreading everywhere as my hand started to bleed, but at that moment, I didn’t care.
“He got himself out of it!” I shouted. “By confessing to everything himself, he saved his reputation. They will investigate, and they will find that he had nothing to do with his father’s crimes, and they will let him go. He will lose the company and his father, but he will be safe!”
“But isn’t that enough?” Stella asked. “I mean his father is going to get arrested—”
“No!” I shouted. “I want to destroy them all! All of them, the entire family! I want every single one of them to suffer! The entire Fears family must pay, not just one! I want them all destroyed! I want Gale to be ruined as well! His father killed my father! You think I am going to forgive their family just like that? No, I want all of them to suffer. But look, he is safe! He will get out of this alive, and he will have the woman he loves by his side. He will eventually move on, be happy and recover. Did my father get to be happy? Did he get to be with the woman he loved? Did he get to have peace? No! Then why should Gale get it? Why should anyone in his family get it? They all deserve to suffer! Gale was supposed to be ruined. His career destroyed, his firm taken, his reputation in tatters, his father arrested, and the woman he loves gone! And yet, he left that place smiling, holding onto her hand! No, I can’t let them be happy, I can’t.”
“Don’t you think you are taking this a bit too far?” Stella asked.
“I grew up without a father,” I whispered. “Without having that care and love in my life. My mother raised me as best as she could, but I could see it taking a toll on her. I could hear her crying at night when she thought no one was listening, holding onto my father’s picture. When I asked her about it, she wouldn’t tell me. She never told me who my father was, and I grew up feeling that void in my heart. I had no one. I grew up poor, with barely any money or anyone to care for me. I had only my mother, and I had Gale. His father treated me like a son, looking after me, giving me gifts, spoiling me. I felt so blessed. Gale was like a brother, and I was so happy to be his friend.”
I had been there for him through it all. I had been there when Stella had been in his life, and I had been a good friend. I had helped him recover after he broke away from her, and I helped him realize how horrible she was. After all, he was my best friend…that is, until I found out the truth.
“I had always been obsessed with my father,” I said. “I had always wanted to know who he was. And then, on her deathbed, my mother finally told me everything. My dad was convicted as a murderer. I couldn’t believe it. My dad was a murderer? Could it really be? But he wasn’t one. Mom told me everything. About how Gale’s father was his lawyer, and how the real murderer was some big-shot businessman. How he took the money and deliberately screwed up my father’s defense so he would be convicted and the rich man could go free. My father protested. He insisted that he was innocent, but no one cared. One year in that horrible place, and he killed himself.”
I could never forget him. He was all I could think about ever since I found out the truth. All I wanted was revenge. Not just from the man who had done it, but from his entire family. I wanted all of them to be ruined. I wanted that horrible man not only to lose his life’s work but to be arrested and see his own son suffer. And now it wasn’t going to happen. Gale was going to go and live a happy life with Hillary. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let him have a peaceful life after what his father did to mine.
No, I would destroy all of them. I had to find a way to take away Gale’s happiness, and an idea slowly started to brew in my head. A smirk spread on my face, and I picked up the phone and dialed a number.
“Joe?” I said as the other person picked up. “I have some work for you.”
