Chapter 7

9 0 0
                                    

The hall was silent before the rush of footsteps flooded the empty space. Suddenly, a barred door was opened and in swooped dozens of prisoners, all looking miserable and wearing a yellow strap over their bodies.

Marlo was one of the last to enter, it wasn't hard to recognise him. Over the last twelve years, he had aged but not too much, his eyes were a deep blue and his hair greasy and still long. His handsome smile had dissapeared and was replaced by a misery ridden grimace. 

"Who are you?" He asked, obviously unable to recognise us after twelve years.

"Where is Daniel?" He asked again, stubbornly.

"I don't know if you can remember, Marlo. But it's me... Dylan," I responeded, glaring at him.

The shock took him a while to recover from, his mouth and eyes widened. 

"Emma?" He asked, taking the attention to Emma, "where is your leg?" 

"I left it at home... where do you think?" She hissed. 

"We want answers Marlo." I forced out these words in an overpowering manner. Callum was slowly beig rocked in his pushchair, next to Yasmine. 

"Answers about what?" He gulped.

"You know what," I shook my head, "Joe goes missing, then my kids too? Of course you know. I'm talking about Daniel."

"Daniel," he repeated, "and what about him? What does he have to do with Joe or anyone?" His Spanish accent still lingered in his voice. 

"Cut the crap, Marlo," Yasmine suddenly snapped, "you know what we mean? Give us some answers will you!" 

"And what do I get in return?" He questioned, rasing his thick bushy eyebrows.

"Twelve years ago, Marlo, we were on the deck of that boat. After everything that happened, we were interviewed by police. I told them you shot Megan. Emma was too ill to remember, she was passed out on the deck. Her leg had gone septic. Jessica was stuck in the cabin, so she didn't know what happened on deck. Robert and Yasmine said they were in so much shock, they couldn't recall what happened. They still can't to this day."

"What are you talking about? You're rambling on!" He urged, creases showing through his forehead.

"What I'm trying to get at is, I'm the only one who actually said what happened on the deck. I can retract my statement. I can get you out of here."

This seemed to shock Emma and Yasmine as they gulped. 

I could see the hard concentration in Marlo's face, the sadness and misery shone through.

"Daniel wrote to me. Only twice and its been recent. I've never had a visitor and that's the only person who I've had a letter off. He said he was trying to get revenge on you all or something. His boyfriend is helping him," Marlo began, staring at us. 

"Boyfriend?" Emma asked, "he was with Megan though?" 

"That's what the trick was," Marlo sighed, "the whole plan. I'll start from the beginning. After Kevin was sent to prison, when he shot Megan in the leg, years and years ago..." he tried to recall our memories. I had written all this in the first book.

"Anyway, he pretended to be ill and was taken to hospital. There, he escaped, ran off. No one noticed. He was coming after you and he found out where you lived apparently. He ran over that girl in the car-" 

I interrupted him sharply, "he killed Darby?" 

"Yes," he remained calm, "lower your voice. After all this, he demanded more revenge. He was planning on taking you all and torturing you. But he needed you out of the way. So he got in contact with me, my dad is good friends with his, and he asked me if I could sort some sort of deal with a few hotels or villas. Then he got Daniel to feed the ideas to Megan secretly. But she found out a week before the trip and he couldn't risk everything he'd prepared for. Daniel hit her and made her shut up. Then you went on the holiday and he planned to get you all together, using my help. I had to get to know you, Emma, so you would gain my trust. I am so sorry." He began to sob genuine tears, covering his face in his hands.

Emma was looking down, staring at her nails. I looked over at Yasmine, who stared sympathetically at him.

"Do you know where he lives?" Yasmine interrogated. He replied with a shake of his head.

"Daniel, Kevin and Mathew were bothers. But they had a sister, what's her name?" I questioned.

The sobs stopped, he looked up at me, his eyes holding secrets.

"Her name," he gulped, "is Gina."

Lost ForeverWhere stories live. Discover now