Older Brothers | ✓

32 | Debt

The moment I woke up, I was in a completely different room than the usual dark ones I have become familiar with for the past few week. Rather, it was completely white.

Have I died already?

I turned to move a bit but then the pain shot through my head. I looked at all the machines attached to my body.

I was in a hospital.

Was I saved? Did my brothers arrive on time? Was the bullet taken out of my body?

A lot of questions crossed my mind at once but the most important thing was that there was no pain in my abdomen where I thought I was shot.

I pulled up my shirt but to my surprise there was nothing but just a scratch on my stomach while my head was bandaged.

What was actually going on?

While I was busy thinking of a possible answer to my questions, the door opened and Xander entered.

"You're awake," He said in a calm voice.

Maybe this is the perfect moment to get answers.

"I-I was shot, right?" I hesitantly asked while he looked away hearing my question which increased my suspicion.

"What happened?" I once again asked.

"No."

When I thought that there was no use of asking, I heard a faint no.

"Huh?" I vividly remembered Mia pulling the trigger and I was the only one in the room at that time. And Mia clearly said the map hid the room we were in so there was no way anyone would find us.

"He took the bullet for you."

My eyes widened and heart started beating unusually faster. I desperately wanted to know the answer but at the same time wanted to avoid it too.

"Who?" After a long internal battle, I finally whispered.

"Daniel."

~

Daniel had been living in guilt ever since he had helped his brother, John and Mia in kidnapping Lila.

Everytime he thought about giving up and going back to his town, he would remember his brother's words which would fuel the rage burning inside him.

She was the reason your dad died. If not for her running away, why do you think that father would have gone out so late at night and died in that terrible accident?

And now that he had already given Lila to them, he couldn't help but be regretful and guilt-ridden.

But what was the use of crying over spilt milk?

He didn't know what his brother and Mia were going to do to Lila. He didn't know where she took her to. All he was told that John was going to take revenge for their father.

When he back home, he cried for hours thinking about what he had done after all Lila was just ten when everything happened. How could she have known about the accident?

Only if the poor boy knew how sickeningly his own father and brother had played with his mind and twisted his thoughts just to fulfill their devilish desire for revenge.

But after he came back to his senses he was determined to help Lila.

So he started spying over her brother's house. And once he knew that they had finally got some hint, he as usual followed them to some abandoned warehouse.

While everyone was busy fighting with each other, he secretly started searching for Lila disguised as one of the man working there.

Looking around here and there, he finally saw some men exiting a shabby and dark room.

Even though their faces were not clear due to dim lights but he saw the familiar frame of one of the men.

That was the person he could recognize at any moment of his life. That was the person whom he had been mourning for the last four years. The person who was responsible for all the terrifying bloodshed here.

Patrick. His dad.

His jaw dropped to the ground as he literally couldn't understand what was actually happening.

How can his dead father suddenly be alive?

But that was now not his priority now. It was to look for Lila and help her after all the reason he was angry with her all these years was completely fake. It was made up.

After those men left and went in the opposite direction, he entered the room.

And as he had already guessed Lila was there along with Mia.

He silently waited for the right moment to enter. When Mia dragged Lila to some secret room, he quietly followed listening to everything.

It was only when he heard a shot firing, he entered to see what happened.

When he saw it was Mia who pulled the trigger and Lila was about to be shot, he jumped in front pushing Lila aside.

He took the bullet for her instead.

This was the payback for his mistake. This was the redemption for his guilt. And this was clearance of the debt he felt he owed to his childhood bestfriend by helping in her abduction.

Now everyone was even.

It was when Victor Alfonso was busy handling a gravely injured Patrick that the sound of a gunshot resonated through the walls of a now quiet warehouse.

All the Alfonso brothers stopped dead in their tracks and the same thought crossed through their minds.

Lila.

Victor who at that point had completely lost his patience and sanity took out his gun and pulled the trigger sending the bullet straight through Patrick's head.

Most of his men were already killed here and the Russian Mafia was almost wiped out.

Then he ran after his brothers in the direction from where the sound came from.

The sight before them was shocking to the core.

Their sister laid on the floor with blood gushing out of her head. What was more surprising was the boy who laid near her in a pool of blood tightly clutching his stomach.

The brothers looked at a dumbstruck Mia who had a gun in her hands.

Quickly sending those two teenagers to the hospital, they held Mia at gunpoint.

When Mia realized what exactly happened before her, she was already surrounded by guns.

She knew this was the end now and there was no way to escape now. But what horrified her the most was that girl she grew up to hate, the girl she had planned to kill her whole life was still alive before her eyes.

It's not possible. I had planned everything. It has to end today. I need to end this.

She repeated the same words in her mind, over and over again.

Unable to accept her defeat, she stared at the gun in her hand, placed it on her temple and pulled the trigger.

The game was finally over.