Blue Ribbon

Chapter 44 - Welcome to an adult relationship

"So, we're gonna heal,
we're gonna start again."

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Nikolas's POV

"Who do you think did it?" Isaac's voice echoed from the phone's speakers, the words coming out of the old recording had Nathan's eyes grow wide with bewilderment and disbelief, "I was the one to give you the drugs, to get my hand on your phone and just orchestrate the whole thing, wasn't I?"

"But why?" Was what I asked him, because it made no sense, because I had thought that he had loved the little kid he claimed as his heir. That he wouldn't cross the line and hurt him. But he was Isaac after all, so what did I expect?

"Because he will think you did it, that you are the one who hurt him," Was his answer, "Which will make you the perfect villain in his story," He added, plotting for years and years to come, and back then, I never thought he would succeed. But the sad part is, he did. He did win, I gotta give it to him. Even dead, he is still manipulating and staging everything around us like the damn devil incarnate.

The way he brainwashed Nathan, the way he made sure that little boy would grow up to despise me and hate his own family; Isaac did win in that part.

"I thought you cared about him," Was what I said, shocked but also proven right because Isaac was always rotten. He was and always be a terrible father, whether it was to me, to Emma, or to Nathan.

"Of course I do, but you do know this, my son; there is a stage where every kid in our family will need to be toughened up," Isaac added, his words had the dimming light in Nathan's hazel eyes totally fade away, like vanquished dawn, its once golden hues now obscured by the ominous shadows of twilight.

"Nathan is a kid and he is weak, he needs to be toughened up, so he can be worthy of the Virachi name," He said, "And you know Nikolas, you know that nothing could fuel someone more than getting hurt, more than hate and revenge."

"He will get hurt again, and he will believe it is only you," He added, "Because who else would hurt him, right?" He added with a scoff, "Let's just say, you will be his very own Frank," He chuckled, amused by his own words, "He will grow up to hate you, and even when you do kill me, Nikolas," He had accepted his defeat by that point which is why he was prepping the stage for plan B, "He will carry on my work, I will live through him, and he will be my legacy."

"Turn it off," Nathan's whispered words pulled me back to the present, my eyes falling on him and trying to read his body language. His eyes were focused on the phone broadcasting the bitter truth, tears of betrayal filling and clouding his eyes, "Turn it off, I said!" He shot out, his voice bouncing off the walls, his tortured eyes finally flickering to me. They held the weight of a shattered universe, a galaxy torn asunder by the treachery of who he once thought of as his own flesh and blood.

When I didn't budge, he moved forward, a groan left his mouth as his hand flew and threw the phone away, it landed outside the cell, shattering against the ground, and finally, the voices it was once broadcasting fell silent.

His chest heaved, unable to catch his next breath. His face twisted in pain, his eyes pressing shut in an attempt to suppress the ache surging through him, which was both physical and mental. That had a single tear escape his closed eyelids and it trickled down his cheek.

A cough raced up his throat, followed by another and he brought his fisted hand to his mouth in order to cover up the coughs. When he removed his hand away, I could clearly see the red crimson blood over it, as well as the few drops that had covered the corner of his lips.