CHAPTER 43: YOUR FATHER KILLED MY MOTHER.

For the past week, my injuries had been healing very well, though the marks and scratches on my skin hadn’t gone completely, but I was totally fine.

All the days I have been in that place, I was mostly alone. Alexander never came back from the day I woke up to find him.

And yesterday, Ethan came to the vacation home to bring me back here.

On our way, I had pressed him to tell me everything he knew about my mother’s well-being, because if there was anyone who knew every piece in my family, it was Alexander, and Ethan was his accomplice.

He was hesitant at first, but as I pushed him further, he eventually confessed that

that Alexander transferred my mother to the hospital.

Shocked and confused, that was what I felt.

Why would Alexander do that? For what reason?

Was he changing his mind about making my family miserable? It couldn’t be. Alexander wasn’t the kind of person who would do things if it didn’t profit him. He saved my mother for a reason, and that was what I had no idea of.

Standing up from the dresser, I looked at myself in the mirror one last time. Satisfied with how beautiful and simple I looked in my summer gown and light makeup, I grabbed my bag and walked out of the room.

Ethan had given me the address of my mother’s hospital, and now I thought of visiting her to know how she was doing. Reaching the first floor, I was about to open the entrance door when an annoying voice I knew so well stopped me.

"Where to?" I turned my head towards the bar and found Alexander sitting there with a bottle and a glass of wine in front of him. Even though the sky was sunny and shone brightly, inside, the bar was always dim.

"I was going to see my mother," I replied coolly, releasing the door knob.

He was silent for a moment, before speaking again. "You can’t."

"Why?"

"Because I said so."

My fist clenched around the handle of my bag. Now, I couldn’t see my own mother because he said so? Was he restricting my movement all because he helped my mother? Great! I should have known his ’kindness’ was another way to control me.

"This is my mother we are talking about. I need to know how she is doing," I started carefully. "You don’t always have to control everything I do."

"Whatever you take it to be." He reached for the glass of one and casually took a sip. "At the end of the day, you still owe me."

I couldn’t believe my ears. What the heck did I owe him for? For turning my family upside down or leveraging my father’s property? Just what?

"I am not indebted to you." I almost shot at him, my voice rising. "You only took it upon yourself to do things I never asked you to."

I took a step forward defiantly, a deep frown caressing my forehead. "Perhaps, why are you doing this? You cannot just destroy my family and expect to simply piece it back."

"Who said I am piecing it back?" There was a mirthful glint in his voice as though he was stopping himself from laughing.

"If you are not, then what else do you want? You hated me and my family for God knows reason, and now..."

"No, I hated your entire bloodline. But not for God knows reason," he interrupted me sharply before I could finish. "Do you want to know why?"

My heart skipped a beat. He was going to truly tell me that? "Yes, I want to know. I want to know what we have done to you all this while to make us deserve this," I said, even though I wasn’t prepared for it. What if it was something scary, something that would haunt me for the rest of my life? I shook my head to push that thought away.

Alexander rose from his seat and began to move towards me with a straight expression. I shifted backward, unsure of his intentions. When he got closer, he strode past me like I was invisible.

"Follow me," he ordered once he opened the entrance door. Now, I was confused. I thought he wanted to tell me the reason why he despised my family.

"Do you want to know or not?" He asked, irritation clear in his tone.

I nodded and quickly moved my feet to walk. I followed him to the parking lot, where he opened the door of one of his slick cars and gestured for me to enter.

I hesitated for a second, but eventually got inside the car. He got in himself and we rode off.

We drove through the bustling city. Houses, skyscrapers, and people whizzing pass the car window. And soon, we rode out of the city and appeared at a bushy area with few houses.

"Where are we going?" I finally got the courage to ask.

"Going to show you what happened," he simply said, and after a while we arrived at an uncompleted building that looked abandoned and creepy too.

"Where is this?" I asked as we got out of the car.

Alexander didn’t respond and started approaching the building. I stood still, terrified to follow him. Something about the old building felt off. It literally sent chills down my spine.

"Are you just going to stand there?" He asked, almost reaching the doorless entrance.

I swallowed and slowly walked towards him.

Inside the building was even more heinous. The air was heavy and gave a sharp, tangy smell of rust and damp rot. The walls were bare concrete and most parts were cracked. I looked down at the floor, cringing. There was debris everywhere, crumbled cement, and scraps of wood that looked like they had been abandoned mid-construction.

What is this place? I thought to myself as I slowly trailed behind Alexander to another corner. He didn’t look bothered at all, it was as though this place was part of him. But not to me. I hated it here.

Suddenly, he stopped moving, and I did the same. This corner was much smaller than the rest rooms in the building. Here, there was a wooden chair, and wrapped around the chair was a long, rusty chain. Opposite of that, I could see traces of blackness on the floor and the wall. From the look of it, it seemed like blood.

Blood? A shiver went down my spine. We might be in a potential crime scene. Why did Alexander bring me here? Or... a gasp escaped my lips and I stumbled backward in shock. What if he took me here to finally kill me?

"Look..." my voice faltered as I broke the creepy silence. I could feel my heart beating rapidly in my chest. "I don’t... think you should do this... I am sorry if I ever wronged you... please don’t kill me..."

Alexander turned to me, a frown knitted on his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?" he asked, sounding genuinely confused.

"I mean... you bring me here to..."

"To show you what happened fourteen years ago," he cut me off sharply before I could finish.

Now, my fear turned into confusion. "Fourteen years ago?"

Alexander just casted a look at me and turned towards the wooden chair. He grabbed the chain and unwrapped it around the chair.

"When I was thirteen, I was tied to this chair," he began, observing the stiff chain. Then he pointed to the blackness on the floor. "That was where they laid her down."

I could sense his voice slowly losing the sharpness in its edge as he said the last sentence.

But ’her’? Who was her?

"Five men took turns wrecking her until she blanked out..." his voice faltered.

I looked at him. There was sadness etched on his face and pain in his voice. I never knew he was capable of any other emotions, except being blunt and calm. This person must have meant so much to him.

"When she lost consciousness... The quack doctor in their midst began an operation on her...They gutted out her organs... one after the other. Her heart... her kidneys and her liver."

A cold knot twisted in my stomach as his last words hit me. Who in heaven would do something so horrible to a human being?

"I... I am sorry about what happened to her..." I trailed carefully. "But... who is she?"

He hesitated for a moment before speaking. "My mother."

My jaw dropped as I stared at him with surprise. His mother died that way? In front of him? I suddenly felt nauseous and dizzy. The thought of being tied to a chair, helplessly watching as people feast on my mother was horrible. The thought alone made my skin crawl. I couldn’t imagine how he felt.

"I didn’t know..." I whispered. "I can’t imagine what you went through... or she went through."

Alexander just stood still. Something in the way he was distant suddenly made a thought flashed through my head.

"Why... Why are you showing me this? What does this have to do with you hating my family?" I asked, searching his face for answers, then everything happened in a second.

He grabbed me by the neck and pinned me against the wall, his face only an inch away from mine. His midnight blue eyes seemed darker, burning with intensity.

"Because you are the daughter of the man who made that happen," he growled.