Deserving | ✔

Chapter 45

*Daniel's POV*

*January 12, 2016, 12:00 noon*

"Dan, I'm 60 years old. I'm not worth all this trouble. They've already killed your father. There's nothing else left for me in this life anyway. Don't give in, hun. You don't have to do this," my mother Jessica Lawson pleaded to me over the phone.

A single tear slipped my eye as I cleared my throat. "Wouldn't you like to stay for me, Mom? Even if you don't, I cannot just let them have their way and watch it. You're my mother: the woman who gave me life. I will not watch anyone take your life away and right now, the only way that is possible is to obey them. If you're gone, mom, then I have nothing in this world to live for. I'm a bad officer, I'm a bad lover and I'm a bad citizen. Let me at least be a good son to you like I couldn't be for Dad."

"Listen to me, Daniel. You were a good son to your father. You still are a good son to me. And not obeying them will make you no less of a son to me. Don't think that they'll spare me, Daniel. I'm just temporary. I will be gone one day, and then they'll just find another leverage to operate you. Giving in is never the option, son. Don't do all of this," she pleaded, but I couldn't reply anything because of the guilt blocking the air and the words I wanted to let out.

And then, I heard a shift of phones and visualized the men having her under house arrest grabbing the phone from her. Why was this happening? Why did my mother become the captive? How did I let shit go down like this? 

"Your mother is right, Lawson. She won't be spared if you don't do what we say. I hope you didn't forget the small demo session we had last year. Oh, who am I kidding? You wouldn't forget such an important lesson!" The edginess in his voice alone flares up my anger. This was all his work. He single handedly trapped me in a cobweb I can't get out of. 

Despite the mockery in his tone, I still remember that day very well. The day he shot my dad. One moment, he was there just to taunt me into submission, and the next moment, my dad was on the floor, a bullet lodged right through the temple of his forehead. The bullet was small, just a .22 LR. It was one of the first things I learned during training for shooting. A .22 LR bullet is small sized, but can easily pierce through any bone, even the skull. And when hit in the right place, can cause immediate death. And he knew where to hit, that bastard.

That bullet changed my life. I was no more the Daniel Lawson I was before. I had become a mere pawn, a puppet, a toy. 

He had never given me any options from that day. The last time I was given any option was the day he killed my father. He told me that I could either tell the cops that I killed my own father, or I could tell them that my father shot himself with my gun. The bastard had planned the shoot - out. He had stolen my gun and used that to kill my father in front of my own eyes and he had left no trace behind that led to him. Except, he could turn himself in as an eye witness if I chose neither options. If I tell the cops that neither I shot him nor he killed himself, he would turn in as an eye witness to me killing my father. I was caught, caught in a big trap. And there was no way out but to forfeit.