Chapter 37: Unknown

KRIS:

My dad!

He knows something about my dad.

What could it be?

Out of curiosity, I found myself replying with, Me:

What are the conditions?

My phone beeped with a reply almost immediately.

Unknown:

Good.

This has to be between you and me. No third parties.

Whatever info I send to you, report it to the police.

I didn't like his condition.

It felt like whatever he was about to reveal was top secret or something.

But again, curiosity got the best of me.

Me:

What if I ignore your conditions?

Unknown:

Your mom will be next.

My heart dropped at his reply.

This...could only mean one thing.

My mom will die.

As much as I was curious to know what it is, I love my mom and I couldn't risk it.

Me:

Then I'm not interested in whatever it is you know.

His next reply made fear seize me.

Unknown:

It's too late to back out now. Either way, your mom will be gone so be a good girl and make the right choice.

My heartbeat accelerated.

Oh God.

This is not good. I should have backed out from the start.

With shaky hands, I sent a reply.

Me:

I'll comply.

Unknown:

Good.

I waited for a while for any text from unknown but nothing came.

I kept praying in my heart that I was making the right decision.

I didn't want anything to hurt my mom.

She's the only family I have left.

The door opened and Lucian came in, interrupting my trance.

He placed a tray of food between my legs before sitting on the bed.

He must have sensed I wasn't okay.

"Babe...are you feeling better?" His palm grazed my cheek and I leaned into his touch.

Unable to form words, I gave a small nod.

I ate as much as I could, at the same time, trying to suppress the urge to check my phone for any texts from unknown.

I didn't want Lucian to know. I wanted to tell him but I was scared of losing my mom.

My only hope was that I was making the right decision.

______________________________________________________

It's been two days since I had that conversation with unknown.

I haven't received any more texts. I could have been convinced it never happened but the texts in my phone proved otherwise.

At some point, I was tempted to place a call but I knew that'd be a wrong move.

Although, a part of me wished he'd forget since whoever is behind it was blackmailing me to comply.

Sitting in my English class and listening to the teacher felt like I was fighting a war against concentration.

I kept struggling to focus but my mind kept drifting to the blackmail.

While I was more concerned for my mom's safety, a part of me kept wondering what I was about to discover about my dad.

Sitting beside Lexi, I worked on keeping a straight face so she doesn't pick up on my anxiety.

The last thing I wanted was for anyone to know thereby endangering my mom.

I endured the class till the end. Once the teacher left, I strapped my backpack to one shoulder trudging out of the classroom tepidly.

Right after I stepped into the hallway, my phone vibrated in my pants pocket.

Eager to know who it was, I pulled it out and checked to see a video sent to me by an unknown person.

I was about to open it but a thought came to me not to.

It could be the video of anything and a school's hallway is not exactly the right place to watch something like that.

Ignoring my class, I hurried to the girls’ restroom and locked myself in one of the stalls.

I mentally prepared myself for whatever I was going to see.

With shaky fingers, I clicked on play.

But If only I was as prepared as I thought for what I saw.

It was a video of my dad, the day he died.

How he was murdered.

Tears streamed down my face at the sight. I didn't have the heart to watch it completely so I decided to pause it but something caught my attention.

His murderer's face came into view.

I dropped my phone at the sight like it was on fire.

I watched it shattered into pieces.

My heart suddenly became too heavy to carry.

I wiped my eyes furiously but the memory of the video was etched in my head.

His face clouded my vision. It felt like my head and heart were going to explode.

Suddenly, I felt cold take over my entire body.

I didn't know if it was from shock but I was shivering with goosebumps evident on my skin.

I tried to tell myself I had seen the wrong thing but somewhere deep down, I knew I didn't.

He killed my dad.

Lucian did.