My investigation is not leading me anywhere near the truth.
This is the fifth shop. Let's try out my luck here too."Excuse me"
"How may I help you"
"Can you tell me if someone named Vincent works here or not?"
"Sorry , but I can't give our worker's personal information."
"It's really urgent. I am his sister , it has been weeks since he didn't contacted me and so I got worried and came here." [I was already prepared for this because I have learnt from my mistake that I made at first shop]
"Emily?"
There he was 'Vincent'. But instead of getting scared he seemed glad to see me.
"Hi Vincent."
"Can you wait outside for me? I will be there in two minutes"
"Sure."
I thought that in meantime he will run away but he didn't.
"So , how are you Emily? I heard that you had dropped out of school. After that, due to some personal reasons, I also had to leave my job, so I could not meet you, otherwise at that time I myself wanted to ask you why you left school."
"You really don't know or are you just pretending not to know?"
" Why would I pretend? I really don't know."
"Do you remember Noah?"
"Noah?"[ His face turned pale]
"Yes , Noah Maxton. Do you remember him?"
"I don't think I remember any such person."
Rain started lashing against the rooftop of shop , mirroring the storm raging inside me.
Noah's death, ruled a suicide, felt like a cruel joke.
I need answers , and the only lead I have is Vincent.
Now I have no more patience. I want to know the truth instead of useless questions and answers. Now I can no longer pretend, I will have to question him directly, even if my suspicions turn out to be wrong."Vincent", I said , my voice shaking , "I want to know what happened to him."
He hesitated, his eyes darting around , "I .... I don't know what you mean."
"You know exactly what I mean , Vincent", I said, pushing past his denial.
He started protesting , but I pushed on, my voice breaking with emotion.
"Noah didn't kill himself. I know that now but what exactly happened to him !? Why he died?? You have no idea how much I love him and how much his death have depressed me."His face blanched. He looked around, his eyes wild.
"He was your boyfriend?? But Cindy....""Tell me the truth , Vincent", I pleaded.
"I didn't knew", he stammered.
“Vincent,” I whispered, my voice hoarse. “Please, just tell me the truth.”
He looked at me, his gaze sorrowful. "Emily," he started, his voice a weak tremor. "I… I don't hate you. I never did," he said, his gaze dropping to the ground.
"But you did this, didn't you?" I asked, my voice laced with a raw, wounded anger. "You killed Noah. I know you did."
He shook his head slowly, his eyes holding a world of pain. "I know what you're thinking, but hear me out. I'm not the monster you think I am. I'm a father. I loved my daughter more than anything in the world. It's just... I lost her. She killed herself."
He paused, his voice catching in his throat. "You see, a few years back, Cindy was bullying some girls. My daughter, she was new in school. She didn't know how bad Cindy was. She tried to save them, just like you, but it ended badly. She couldn't handle it. The pain… it consumed her.”
He looked up at me, his eyes brimming with tears. "I couldn't understand. I couldn't accept it. I wanted revenge. I wanted Cindy to suffer. Anna, her best friend, told me that Noah was behind everything, manipulating Cindy. But I didn't know about you and Noah. I didn't know he was your boyfriend."
His voice turned into a pained whisper. 'If I had known… I wouldn't have done it. I would have done anything to save Noah, but now it's too late. I'm so sorry, Emily. I'm so deeply sorry.”
The truth hit me like a physical blow, the air around me turning cold and suffocating. The man who had seemed like a monster was just another victim in the twisted game of revenge.
The truth hung heavy in the air, a bitter echo of lost love and shattered trust. Vincent was not the villain in this story. He was another broken soul, lost in the labyrinth of grief and vengeance. But the real villain, the one who had orchestrated this tragedy, is still out there. And I will find him.
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[Love Hits Hard Volume 2] Deception or Truth?
Mystery / ThrillerNoah committed suicide after which Emily's whole life took a turn. She tried to live without him but is this really the end of everything?