The Girl with Many Faces (Completed)

Regrets Always Comes After

I spent most of my time with Chris to show her my sincerity, but I felt that my presence alone will not break the wall she built for herself.

When Chris told me that her parents requested that she spent her weekends with them, I took it as an opportunity to visit my parents as well.

I was sitting on the porch of my parent's house deeply thinking to myself, my mom called me for lunch. I stood up and proceeded to the lunch table then sat on my assigned chair. My dad just came home, he found some volunteer work as guest profiler at the police station where he used to work.

I was listening to my dad as he happily talked about his volunteering, then it hit me. My dad was once a detective, maybe he can give me some information about what happened to Chris before.

"Dad?" I began.

He stopped talking when he heard my voice. "Yes dear?" he sounded surprised.

"Have you ever heard of an abduction incident that happened like 10 to 15 years ago?" I tried to make it sound as casual as possible.

My dad cleared his throat and composed his thought.

"I believe this has something to do with your next-door neighbor, am I correct?"

I didn't answer.

"I knew, I have seen her face before" my dad continued.

I listened attentively on the words that came out my father's mouth.

It turned out; my father was the one who rescued Chris during her abduction. The perpetrator was their family driver whom her family trusted so much. The driver got so ahead of himself that he became addicted to gambling and lost his earnings as well as some of her family's assets that her father entrusted to the driver. Father told me that they were able to apprehend the driver and thus the case was closed.

I asked my father if I can visit the driver at the prison. I promised I won't get near him or ask any provoking questions that might lead him to run a mock. Fortunately, my father said that was going to have some volunteer work in the penitentiary where the driver is imprisoned.

I listed down all the questions I would like to ask the driver but when I saw him, at first, I was so shocked by his appearance. He looked exactly the way Xian described Max but as he came closer to me, I can see how much he has aged. The Max described by Xian is in his early thirties, the driver I saw looked like he was about to retire from old age. He was thin and frail unlike the be muscled look of Max as described.

When the driver sat down and picked up the phone, without hesitation he asked, "So you are Chris' friend?"

I felt uneasy as I listened on the other line.

The driver smiled calmly. "I am glad Chris still managed to live a normal life and gained some friends even after what I have done to her"

His voice was full of guilt and remorse that I cannot help but pity him.

He told me how much he had regretted what he has done. He had lost the most precious people that treated him as family all because of his greed.

Being threatened to be exposed from his wrongdoings to the family and be killed for his debts, the driver felt he had no way out, so he kidnapped Chris.

He thought after kidnapping Chris, everything will go back to normal. Once he collects the money, Chris will be returned to her family safely and that they won't know that it was him who abducted her. After all, he just did it so that he can get some money to pay the loan sharks. He didn't want to harm Chris in any way. He loves the kid so much, he treated her as his little sister.

He went to the loan shark to assure them that he already found a way to pay them, but it turned out he was drugged.

When he came back to the place where he hid Chris, his mind was so muddled and groggy. His body was heating up insanely, he felt he had to release the heat somehow. Unfortunately, only Chris was around and what happened after that happened.

When he regained his consciousness, he found Chris shaking and was full of bruises. He realized what he had done so he called the tip line and left a cryptic message.

My father was able to read through his cryptic message and got the call traced. That was when he got caught.

He kept repeating "I AM SORRY" as he cried while saying this.

In as much as I wanted to empathize with him, I felt I did not have the right. I have got to let Chris hear this and let her be the judge. I got our conversation recorded just in case I needed it for later.