CHAPTER 35: CRY, BEG, OR BETTER YET, DIE...

A shiver ran down my spine. The way he said it, the look on his face told me he was really serious.

"You... can’t do... that... my father... won’t allow it..." I forced the words out of my mouth, still unable to believe my ears.

"Why not?" He said after speaking one word to someone on the landline telephone. "You are not stupid to think your father cares if you die. He’s only acting protective because he thought that he could use you to regain whatever he has lost. What a moron."

This was him trying to make me hate my father even more. But hell. I have spent years hating him, and right now I didn’t want to anymore, at least not at this point in our lives where we all could be homeless if care was not taken.

"Why are you doing this? What did my family ever do to you?" I demanded in a calm tone, even though I wanted to scream out in frustration.

"I don’t think you’re ready to know what your family is capable of."

"I don’t care what they are capable of, I just want to know how we ever offended you!" I finally snapped, unable to contain my anger anymore.

He tilted his head slightly and gazed at me with squinted eyes, as though he was trying to understand something, then said, "you want to know how your family wronged me, find out from your father... I bet if you know, you wouldn’t even be here, talking about him to my face."

The more he spoke, the more lost I felt. But I realized one thing, Alexander had known my father for a long time and seemed to harbor some certain hatred for my family. He was bent on destroying my family for whatever reason, and I wouldn’t allow it. Even though they never cared about me, they were all I have in this world, and if anything should happen to them... I didn’t know what I would do.

With that thought going through my mind, it was as if something pushed me from behind, and before I knew it, I fell on my knees.

"Please..." my voice cracked. "I don’t know what my father did to you... but I beg you to stop this. Please..."

He scoffed dryly. "Tell me why I should stop?"

"Because hurting my family won’t stop whatever pain you’re feeling. You have already hurt them enough... please, let them be... they are all I have left..." I sobbed through the last sentence as tears flowed freely down my cheeks.

I noticed the emotion that flickered through his eyes, before he began to move towards me. Stopping in front of me, he lifted my chin with a finger, forcing me to look at him.

"Remember what I told you; powerless people have no voice. No matter how much they beg or cry for things to change, it never does," he said with a calm tone that matched his expressionless face. "Cry, beg, or better yet, die for them, that won’t change a thing, because you know why?"

"Why...?" it came out as a weak whisper as more tears flowed down my cheeks.

"Your family deserves every bit of what comes to them. Consider me being kind, if not, they would have all been dead by now."

My eyes popped out of their sockets as his words rang through my ears. "Dead?!"

"Yes. If I were you, I wouldn’t try to plead for people like them. They aren’t worth all this you’re doing." With that, he let go of me and stared down at me for a few seconds before turning towards the door.

"Wait..." I hastily said, just as he was about to leave.

He stopped on his tracks and looked over his shoulder. "You want to say something?" he asked.

"Yeah... I...I took your money... if you promise to let my family be, I will give everything back to you," I confessed, but quickly regretted it. What if he did something even worse to my family or me for taking his money? I bit my lower lips and looked down in disbelief, waiting for his response.

"That is if you still have the money," he casually said and my soul flew out of my body with a gasp. What?! "Before you try some stunt next time, better know that I am always a step ahead of you." That was the last thing he said before he walked out of the room.

My body froze, trying to process what he just said... ’that is if you still have the money’, I repeated in my head. What was he talking about? The money was right in my bank account, or else... a gasp escaped my lips. Oh God, this couldn’t be happening. It shouldn’t be what I was thinking right now.

I rose to my feet and sprinted to my room. Reaching there, I quickly grabbed my phone from the nightstand and sorted out my account balance. And what I found made me almost lose my grip on the phone. The money was gone! Not a single penny was remaining.

I instinctively took a step back and covered my mouth with my palm. How? How did it disappear? I was sure I never dropped my phone or did anything suspicious after taking the money... Then how?

For the next few hours, I kept asking myself how? The more I questioned the whole thing, the more confused and scared I was. Confused because I never thought that was possible, it was unheard of, and scared because I have no idea how powerful this man was. If he could vanish all the money without any trace, then he could literally make me disappear from this world even before I realized it.

My father wasn’t wrong after all, Alexander was clearly dangerous and strange even.

That was why I needed to think fast before things got extremely difficult. I needed to get away from him no matter how hard it took me, and this time, he would never find me again.

I have a plan.