My Story of Vengeance

Chapter Twelve

     I enter the house and close the door behind me. I walk towards the office and stop at the door. Alfred and Bruce are in there, hovering over the desk, looking through papers.
     "Hi guys." I saw, stepping through the door way. They both look up at me.
     "Good morning Ms. Wren." Alfred says.
     'He's still calling me that? Even though he's the one who changed it?'  Anger shoots through me. I walk over to the desk, trying to calm it down.
     "You paged?" I ask, standing next to Bruce. He doesn't look up from the paper he's holding.
     "We have a contract with a company that I need you to proofread before we sign it." He tells me, passing it to me.
     "Okay, what am I looking for exactly?" I ask him. He finally looks over to me.
     "Anything that looks suspicious." He tells me. I nod as if I know what would be suspicious and walk to the back of the desk.
     I sit down in the chair and begin reading the contract. The company is a new electric company. In the contract, they state that they would look to work with the Wayne's in order to pay for their power. In exchange, the Wayne's would get 40% profit brought in from those who use their power. Nothing too suspicious stands out to me as I read it.
     "It all looks fine to me, but is 40% of profit okay to you?" I ask Bruce. He nods as he looks through other papers. I wait for him to speak or look at me. He doesn't. So I plop the contract down on the desk and stand up.
     "It's good to sign." I tell him. I start to walk out of the room before turning back around.
     "Alfred?" I ask him. He looks up at me.
     "Could I speak to you alone for a minute?" I ask him. Bruce finally looks up at Alfred then to me. Alfred looks over at Bruce then back to me.
     "Certainly dear." He says, walking after me. I walk towards to front door, trying to get distance from Bruce so he doesn't hear. Alfred stops next to me.
     "What is it?" He asks me. I put a hand on my hip.
     "When were you going to tell me that it was you who changed my name in the hospital that night?" I ask him. His face flushed.
     "I-I have no idea what you mean-" he starts. He stops as he sees me looking at him with a knowing look. He lets out a sigh.
     "How did you find out?" He asks me.
     "Batman explained it to me last night, AFTER I was almost shot." I whisper at him. His eyes widen.
     "Almost shot? Are you alright?" He asks me. I nod my head.
     "I'm fine, but they brought my friend Claire into it. She had a concussion!" Alfred looks down the hallway then back to me.
     "You said Batman explained this to you?" He asks me. I nod again.
     "So, he saved you I take it?" He asks me.
     "Yeah, and this wasn't the first time either." I tell him.
     "When was the first time?" He asks me.
     "The night before the interview I had with you. I was working and uh...let's say one of the customers weren't very happy..." I say. Alfred stares off, thinking.
     "So, can you explain to me why you did that?" I ask him.
     "I did it to protect you." He says. "Your parents and yourself were very close to the Wayne family. After they were killed, you were all that Master Wayne had. Your parents took care of him for a few years before they were killed themselves. I got a note from someone saying that you weren't suppose to survive that car accident ." He tells me, keeping his voice low.
     "It was important that your identity was kept secret. So I paid the doctors to change your legal name, that way the people who killed your parents couldn't come after you." He looks down at his hands and sighs.
     "Not only were you important to Bruce, but you were important to me too. You still are." He says.
     "So, why are they coming after me now?" I ask him. "Did they finally find out what you did?" He shakes his head.
     "I don't know, I wish I did. But from now on you need to be careful. If they are after you, you need to stay low." He tells me.
     "What are you guys talking about?" Bruce's voice comes from the hallway as he walks towards us. Alfred and I turn to him. I look at Alfred as he speaks.
     "Just her pay, Master Wayne." He tells him. I smile, trying not to look suspicious. Bruce lingers for a minute before nodding and walking back to the office. I look at Alfred.
     "Why didn't you tell him?" I ask him. Alfred shrugs.
     "It's best he doesn't know that we're discussing this." He tells me before walking back to the office. Something isn't sitting right with me. My gut is telling me that Alfred is hiding something from me. I start to get aggravated.
     'Why isn't anyone just being straight forward with me?' I think to myself. I pull my phone out and text the unknown number Batman messaged me from the other night.
     "Meet me tonight at 11:00 at Gotham Garden." I message him. I need answers, and I'm going to get them. I walk back to the office and see Bruce on his phone. When I enter, he looks up and puts it in his back pocket.
     "I signed the contract. Go ahead and make a copy and file it for me." He says, walking past me to leave.
     "Aye aye captain." I say. He stops as if to say something, but then keeps walking out of the room. I grab the contract off the desk and walk over to the copier. I make a copy and put it into the filing cabinet. I then put the original contract in an envelope, seal it off, and write the address on it. I put it in the pile to mail out today. Alfred starts to leave the room.
     "You know, Alfred." I say. He stops and turns to me. I grab all the envelopes and put it in a bigger vanilla envelope to send out.
     "I don't have anyone." I tell him, standing up. I look at him, the envelope in my hands. He stares at me.
     "I grew up without anyone. I had no family, no friends. I was in and out of foster homes until I was old enough to live on my own." I start to walk towards him. I stop directly in front of him.
     "I was alone. At least Bruce had you." I tell him. His face drops, the reality of my words hitting him. I give him a soft smile before leaving the house, walking to my bike. I put the envelope in my side bag and start my bike, driving off to the post office.
     I drop the envelope in the mail box outside the post office. I look around at the street I'm on. City life goes on around me, and I start to feel so small.
     'I have no place here.' I think to myself. I shake my head and start my bike. I start back to the Wayne's estate. As I leave the main city and drive down the back roads, I notice a car following me.
     "You've got to be kidding me." I say to myself as I look in my side mirrors. Every turn onto a road I take, the car follows. I start to speed up, trying to lose them. The car stays close behind me, matching my speed. I let out a groan. I see the Wayne's estate just ahead.
     'I can't bring this to them!' I think. I look back at the car following me. In a quick decision, I continue driving past the estate. I drive until I come to a fork in the road.
     'Left will take me out of town, right will take me back to the city.' I think to myself. I veer off to the left, seeing if they'll follow me out of town. The car turns the same direction and follows me. My heart beat quickens.
     'Shit! What am I gonna do?!' I think to myself. I reach into my pocket and call Batman. The phone rings.
     "Come on, come on! Pick up!" I say into the phone. The phone rings for a few seconds before ending the call.
     "Damn it!" I yell. The car is still hot on my tail. I decide to try Bruce. Maybe he'd be able to help. I call his number, the phone ringing. After a few rings it picks up.
     "Wren?" He asks.
     "Bruce! I have not time to explain! I need your help!" I yell into the phone.
     "Why? What's going on?" His voice full of eagerness and worry. I can hear shuffling in the background.
     "I'm being followed! I don't know who it is, but I took a backroad out of town. They're still following me!" The sky has been cloudy for some time now. Rain drops start to fall from the sky.
     "Where are you?" He asks me. I here the start of his engine from his car over the phone.
     "I-I don't know! It's starting to rain and I'm just driving straight. I turned down route 5 out of town!" I tell him, driving around turns.
     "Keep driving! I'll come find you! Don't stop for any reason." He tells me. I hang up the phone and put it away. The rain around me starts to become heavy. The roads become slick from the rain. The headlights from the car are starting to get closer to me. I look in the side mirror to see how close the car is. Just then, I go to turn around a sharp turn, but start to hydroplane.
     "Shit!" I shout. I try to correct it, but I end up over correcting and sliding on the road. I get thrown off my bike and roll off the side of the road. I grunt as my body hits the ground.
     "Fuck!" I yell, grabbing my ankle. I hit it on my fall, possibly twisting it.
     The car slows down to a stop as my bike slowly stops sliding across the road. I look over at the car, it's headlights illuminating my body in the grass. The rain is now pouring around me, making it hard to see. I squint as I watch a figure come out of the car, walking towards me. It's the same man from the other night. He carry's an umbrella over with him, protecting himself from the rain. He walks over to me and stops in front of me, looking down at me. One hand holds the umbrella, while the other holds a gun. He smiles down at me, fiddling with the gun.
     "Oh, you make this so easy!" He says, pointing the gun at my forehead. My hair is slightly covering my face, the rain soaking everything on my body. I look up at him, fear and anger in my eyes. His smile slowly faded as the barrel of the gun rests on my head. Even with the rain, it still feels cold.
     "Almost too easy." He says, cocking the gun. Tears fall from my eyes as I shut them, accepting my fate.
     'I guess this is it huh?....I'll see you soon mom and dad...' I let out a gasp as a shot goes off.