Chapter 197: Shawn's downfall

Chapter 197: Shawn's downfall
Antonio looked at his phone again to confirm the address. His brow furrowed, looking back at the isolated mobile house that was almost at the outskirts of the town.

He swiped his phone to dial Zade's contact, who picked up almost immediately.

“ Are you here already?” Zade asked eagerly over the phone.

“ What are you doing in a nowhere place like this?”

“ It's a surprise.” He grinned over the phone. “ Come on in.”

Antonio inhaled, shaking his head before hanging up the call and going inside. Before he got inside, he received a text message from Ghost that he had successfully uploaded the tape online and also sent it as an anonymous message to a media house.

He smiled. “ My baby would love this.” He grinned and tucked his phone into his suit pocket before walking inside the house.

The moment he stepped in, he was welcomed by silence and dust. The house looks like one that has been lonely for years, abandoned by the owner who probably never wants it again.

The look of displeasure wore over Antonio's face as he looked around.

“ Zade.” He called, not wanting to spend more time in the environment. But he got no answer.

“ Zade!” He called again, his voice echoing through the house.

Then he heard the creaking sound of the floor. Thinking it was Zade that was approaching, but shocked to see Shawn.

“ Shawn?”

“ Hello…cousin.” He waved, grinning, with a gun in his hand.

Antonio stood, looking unfazed by the gun, but the look of worry crept in as he asked. “ Where's Zade?”

“ Of course, relax, I did not do anything to him.”

“ Where's he?” He demanded, his voice laced with anger.

“ He told you to relax, here I am, not lost.” Zade stepped out, looking nonchalant.

“ What is this man doing here?” Antonio demanded answers but Zade and Shawn only laughed at him like he was stupid for asking that.

“ I'm here to kill you...” Shawn said proudly. Antonio scoffed. “...And your brother here, had just helped me with that by bringing you here.”

Antonio’s face dropped. His eyes moved to Zade only to see him smiling.

“ Is he telling the truth?”

“ Hm.” Zade nodded.

“ Did you realize you're helping the man who molested our mother?” He asked, his voice getting tense with intense anger and disappointment.

“ Yeah.” Zade shrugged. “ But he's also my father. I would be a bastard if I betray him.”

Antonio’s jaw dropped. He looked at Zade in disbelief.

“ You've hated me all your life because of that, haven't you?” Shawn asked, smiling. “ Because you saw me trying to have my way with her. But can you blame me? Your mother was insanely gorgeous, God, that woman was a goddess. Who can resist someone like that? And moreover, I liked her first. Drugging and having my way with her was the only way I could think straight and be myself.”

Antonio's jaw clenched so hard it hurt. His knuckles reddened from the pain of how hard he was resisting and clenching his jaw.

Zade's head was hanging, the veins in his neck nearly popping out as he hid his clenched fist behind himself.

“ So you admit to drugging my mother and repeatedly assaulting her?”

Shawn shrugged. “ I am human with feelings…”

“ She's human too.” Antonio fired. “ She is human with feelings! She didn't even know she was being drugged each time, she didn't even know she was carrying a child that wasn't her husband's. Do you know how broken she was when she found out? She stopped seeing everyone, she started locking herself in, You ruined my mother!”

He trembled as he fired, his eyes red with pain and anger he's lived with all these years. “ Do you know how much I hated myself for not being able to protect her? How much I feel disgusted at myself for failing her.”

Zade opened his mouth to speak but Antonio's gaze stopped him. Zade clenched his fist harder, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall.

Antonio inhaled sharply. “ Each time I see you, I want nothing but to see you dead. But grandmother took you under his wings, because after all, you're her son. I almost hated her for that.”

“ She can never forsake me.” Shawn said proudly, “Because I already asked for forgiveness when your mother died.”

Antonio scoffed at the absurd statement.

“ And you? You've been hindering my progress in life since then. I've not been able to achieve my heart's desires, and I won't be able to as long as you keep existing.” He said and pointed the gun at him.

“ Were you the one? That blasted the plane I was supposed to take a few days ago?” Antonio asked.

“ Oh, that newly invented plane? Yeah, and you should have died then. Why on earth did you not board the plane?” He asked, feigning curiosity. “ I wouldn't have stressed myself like this just to take you out. But I think it's still better, but see the one you love and cherish.” He pointed at Zade, grinning, waiting to see Antonio break. “ Happily betraying you.”

“ No matter what you do, Shawn, you'll always be a failure,” Antonio said plainly, looking at him pitifully.

“ What?!” Shawn exhaled in confusion. That wasn't the reaction he was expecting. “ Do you have an idea what's going on?”

“ Yeah? You're pointing a gun at me like a fool and expecting me to tremble because a brother of mine betrayed me.”

Shawn scanned his body language and wondered why he wasn't seeing any part of his body tremble.

“ But you can't make me tremble, Shawn. You don't have what it takes, and you'd never.”

“ Don't provoke me,” Shawn yelled.

“ You can't kill me, because once again, you've failed.”

Like a trigger, the statement spun Shawn's head making him pull the trigger twice without thinking twice.

Antonio slumped.

A joyous grin curved at Shawn's lips.

Just that the grin did not last a minute.

Oliver and the cops barged into the house, pointing guns at him.

Zade and Oliver rushed to Antonio's side.

Everything happened so fast Shawn stood transfixed on the spot. His heart was racing faster than a horse. Sweat broke out on his head.

He could hear the ambulance outside.

‘ How come? Who brought the ambulance? How did the cops get here?’ questions ran across his mind before his gaze fell on Zade, only to see Antonio, Zade, and Oliver, smiling.

Antonio wasn't dead. He didn't even look hurt. And Zade was smiling.

That was when it dawned on him.

That everything was a setup.

He started struggling with the cops. “ No wait, I'm innocent, this is a setup, look at him, he's not dead.”

But no one listened to him, the paramedics came in and rushed Antonio out into the ambulance.

The moment they closed the van, the agents bowed in respect to him. He sat up and opened his shirt.

He was wearing a protective vest under.

Zade sighed in relief.

“ You gave me a scare there when you slumped.” Zade hit his chest.

Antonio chuckled and patted his shoulder. “ You did well.” He complimented.

Zade smiled.

Antonio turned to Oliver. “ Thank you.”

“ Anything for you bro. I'll edit the tape, cut out other conversations, and Zade's involvement as we planned.”

They nodded.

“ With this, he would either get life imprisonment, or death by hanging,” Oliver added.

“ I think we've done a good job.”

“ We have. We'll add embezzlement to the crime list .” Antonio said and they all supported.

Antonio looked at Zade, and for the first time in years, he felt fulfilled. To have finally conquered Shawn.