Scars of the past

The end

I sucked in a breath and glared at George as I pulled myself to my feet. I gathered all the confidence I needed.

"We already know." I said in the most normal and usual tone of voice I could express at that moment.

"You already know what?" Mahamud fell apart, he always knew the influence he had on me, he always knew that I panicked, but he didn't count on the strength that George gave me. Maybe he knew that, and that's why he tried to break us up.

"We already know it's Henry." I turned to face the old friend of the family who was in the front row of the auditorium, who I often called uncle, my chest hurt to have to expose him like that, but it really was necessary.

I saw Henry get up, but three other agents held him in place.

"We know he's your contact on the inside, and we know that's been around for a long time. You met when Henry was still an intermediary agent, but he already did commissioned assassinations and used the agency's ruses to cover it up. And he did this really well, but he didn't expect a young internal affairs officer would investigate a murder of a childhood friend of his, a victim of Henry's. Right Uncle Henry?"

My eyes narrowed to stare at him, he had tight lips and an angry expression on his face, probably all that good guy garb was pretense to stay out of suspicion with my father and have access to virtually all files and privileges.

"But when Muller started the investigation, all your red flags went off, killing civilians for money was one thing, now killing an agent, you needed someone to do it, a partnership maybe, he reached out to the last person Muller investigated before he did. be transferred to Internal Affairs and guess who it was? Mahamud."

Now I looked at Mahamud who was astonished and wide-eyed, that disgusting and power-hungry man now looked like cornered prey, and I must confess that the feeling of seeing him like that, after everything he put me through, was incredible.

"We investigated a lot, looking for how Mahamud could find Henry, but actually, it was Henry who looked for Mahamud, since before he was in internal affairs, Muller was investigating Mahamud. A terrorist, drug lord, killing an agent who was already in his way , something super natural. That way it got Henry's skin out, at the same time that a partnership was born. For years you kept it up, benefiting both of you, lining your pockets, until a new Mahamud investigation came along. No one was supposed to investigate Mahamud anymore, Henry found two or three guys that would get the blame for the crimes, but you didn't count on it all falling into my hands."

For a few seconds everything was silent, the air was thin, and the tension was gigantic, until Mahamud looked up at me, speaking slowly.

"And the King's protégé would investigate me. You're right, Henry tried to get you out of this, set up a ridiculous strategy, but even so you found me, after all the apprehension I didn't know what to do and I kept you and torture you until I thought of something. So Henry came up with an exchange with a henchman apprehended by the agency and we exchanged you. I would have killed you myself at the beginning, Henry didn't let me, and in the end I liked having you as a pet to torture, I even miss it, believe me? "

He told me with a laugh, but I could feel a certain tremor in his voice, he was nervous and losing control. I looked at Clarck, and he nodded at me, he had managed to block, we were free, all free.

"You can arrest him." I said with all the sweet flavor of justice in my words.

"Noooo, but what about the files?" Mahamud asked in a shout while I already saw some of his henchmen trying to escape and being arrested in the background.

For a few seconds the agents didn't know if it was right for them to carry out the arrest, they thought in the archives, even so they held Mahamud.

"We managed to lock the file, we're safe."

The cell phone fell from Mahamud's hands, and his wrists cuffed back. I turned to George and it was finally over, it was finally over and I couldn't believe it

"It's over, I can't even believe it."

George hugged me tight, some tears came to my eyes but it was a mixture of happiness and relief. I let go of George and my father was beside him with his arms crossed, I jumped into his embrace, and it seems that everything was finally going to fall into place. I didn't even know if I would still give the talk but I still thought it was a great demonstration of what the software was capable of doing.

After the lecture we returned to the room and my father organized the entire operation to take Mahamud and Henry under arrest, and our return to headquarters.

"I want to see him." My words cut the silence in the hotel room, George's eyes widened and my father was stunned.

"See who? Mahamud?" The words nearly came out of my dad's mouth like a slur.

"No, I want to see Henry." I said with certainty.

"Daughter, I don't know if it's a good idea. I'm going to transferhim to the agency jail in two hours."

"So it's easier to see him now." I replied still convinced.

"Honey, are you sure?" George held my shoulders and looked me in the eyes, he wanted me to be sure of what he was talking about.

"Yes, I'm sure, I just want to talk." I said.

My father exchanged a look with George, and nodded, called two agents to accompany me to the room he was. Taylor was the agent at the door, he served with me. He let me in but stayed at the door to guard outside. I had a million thoughts in my head, but I needed to talk to him to put a definitive end to this. Henry was handcuffed to the chair, in the center of the room, he had some scratches on his face, probably some agent did it, and when he saw me he just looked up and looked at me, in silence, I pulled a chair and sat a little forward his.

"Why didn't you let him kill me?" We had already gone through too much for me to start with small talk, I was direct and incisive.

Henry just stared at me, as if he were trying to search his memory for the real reason.

"I'm not a faerie contact villain, as much of a traitor as I was, I know. I still cared about your family, I really thought of your father as a brother, and I didn't imagine how I was going to tell your father that you had died."

I still wasn't sure if his words comforted or scared me.

"So it was just for my dad?"

He exhaled in a sigh and looked up before speaking.

"No Nina, it was for you too, for all of you. I... Argh... I'm really sorry for what you went through. I know you'll never forgive me for what I did, and what I put you through. I know everyone you'll never forgive me. But I was really sorry. I did it for the money and it took on proportions that I couldn't contain."

This time his words were like balm on my wounds, I felt as if all the ties that tied me to this story were dissolving.

"Uncle Henry... Henry, I can't speak for others but I can speak for myself, all I ever wanted with this whole story was to put an end to it. I just wanted to be free, when I got out of captivity I just wanted my life back, when I was forced to leave the police force I just wanted to go back. I always just wanted that... An end. What I went through I can't change, I can only reframe what happened to me and learn from it. I like to think that only I needed to go through the torture and the trauma, to try to change my life, to go to the police and find George and have my children. So you don't need to seek my forgiveness, because you already have it. I forgive you for everything I went through, only then can I really finish this and move on. But I think the only person you really need to ask for forgiveness is yourself."

I said goodbye to him and left, and so everything ended.