Episode 15 — Truth and Lies

Derek sat up against the wall on the floor of a dark room. He takes another breath shaking his brain for some plan, but seeing that he can’t see anything around him, he was at a disadvantage, probably next to hopeless.

He sighed for probably the hundredth time that day, leaning back and hitting his head to keep his sanity intact. It had been a day since he woke up, not sure how long he was out cold in that room, but he was glad that he is alive.

Remembering the first day of his misfortune, not including the orphanage days, of course, he laughs seeing the men who abducted him spread all over the place, glaring at them, they couldn’t be less obvious. Each one with a weapon, each one with an objective: to kill them.

He used to be around weapons, he was familiar with most of them. But none of the Ozawa men knew that they didn’t know half of it when they finally got to tie me up and lock me in a van after putting more than a dozen of their friends in a body bag.

This would have been an easy escape if he knew who he was dealing with, unfortunately, no one has come to talk to me, or even look at me. He took offense on the last one; But then again, maybe it’ll be better to look at it like if looks could kill. He smiles and nods, that’s much better.

His thoughts were interrupted by his stomach growling, I need to get out of here.

He knew the others would probably grandfather Johan’s watch now, and it would be better not to wait for them to rescue him. He wouldn’t be surprised if he wakes up with his Uncle Ashton hitting him on the head awake. Then again, there’s his brother who’d never let him forget about this.

“Hey!” he shouts to no one in particular, which he regretted cause it just burned his dry throat. “How about a little water? I promise not to hit the one who’ll bring it!”

There was no answer. He shrugs and leaned back closing eyes trying to forget his hunger and thirst, remembering how he got in this situation.

He was sitting by the bar, looking around, waiting for the others. Their group got to the meeting place with no sweat. They were expecting the same for Ash and his group but the moment they felt the tremor of the building and saw the chaos outside the elevators, they knew something was wrong.

Jared sat by the window with a good view of the room while Tenshi just got settled at the corner of the hotel’s restaurant. Derek stared at her as she sat there playing with her glass of water, he grins seeing how calm she looks as if she just didn’t smoke the stairwell a while ago. She’s almost like Astrid, just a bit more cautious. Derek was pretty sure the others had seen the fact that he probably has a thing for her, but it was too early to say. She is beautiful and smart, that much he can admit, but she is also Astrid’s prodigy. He didn’t want to die early, whether it was on Astrid’s hand or Tenshi’s.

Then my phone rang.

“Yeah?”

“Hey lover boy gets a picture.” he teased.

Derek stifles a laugh and shook his head, glancing at Jared who was grinning like an idiot. He was covering his mic, Derek does the same thing, not wanting Tenshi to hear them or the others. Jared was already teasing him, it won’t be long until the others join in on the fun.

“Can you blame me?” Derek asks casually. “Allana and Astrid are the hottest girls in school, we’re the hottest guys, we deserve someone like them don’t you agree?”

“But Allana’s taken and Astrid is-“

“On the process.” Derek jokes, he glances back at Tenshi. “She’ll be the talk of NSA when we get home.”

“You two will be.” Jared says, “Just imagine, Derek Johnson, my little brother has finally been caught.”

“If it would be Tenshi, I don’t mind, besides I’m not stupid to cheat on her,” Derek admits. “I hate to know what she’ll do if I bail on her.”

“Castration.” She says. Jared spits out his drink-making Tenshi and Derek laugh.

“Eavesdropper.” Derek teased, hiding the embarrassing fact that they were gossiping about her.

“Pervert.” She says back, Derek caught her looking my way with a playful and sexiest smile he’s seen.

“Well, if you keep looking at me like that, I’ll be more than a pervert.”

She shook her head and ran her hand over her face, as she hid her laughter.

“Hey, no flirting.” Jared says, “This is a common line you know.”

“Well, it seems like we’re the only ones on the line.” Derek sighs and discreetly drop the phone call, but keeping it by his ear so he’d look like he was talking with someone.

“They’re all probably in the conference area.” Jared says, “The whole floor is soundproof.”

“They’ll be here soon,” Tenshi says as she took a drink.

“Well, might as well start a small talk.” Jared says with a sigh, “How come you have a Japanese name if you are from a house in China?”

“Japanese mom.” She says, bored. “My father took her from her family as a sex slave. But he fell in love with her and blah blah blah and all that bull.”

“Well, if he was in love with her why did he hurt her?” Jared asks.

“Father has a one-track mind, and that’s all gangster.” She sighed, “His mother was killed by his father when he accused her of cheating. He had the same thoughts of a mother, so she wanted to kill her and have me wed to one of the other gangsters he wants to take over on. Mother already lost my brothers to him and she didn’t want me to be on the same life they were in. Where there is a possibility that I will be killed after giving an heir to whomever I’m supposed to be married to.”

Derek frowns, it was like she was way older than they were, she’s supposed to be sixteen, right?

“So, she asked for help from one of her maids, the maid said she knows away but it will not be cheap.” She continues. “I can still remember that day, it was the first time I met An- Uhm, Astrid. She sat across us, listening to mother. When Mother finished, she looked at me with that poker face and dead eyes. It was just blank, it scared me to see someone colder than my dad, remembering what the maid said about her, how she can kill the whole Ozawa house with her numb heart. I was thinking maybe my father already hired her to kill my mother. But I was wrong. When mother offered her half the money she shook her head and handed the money back, saying she will do the job, there was nothing to pay for.”

“She did it for free?” Jared asks.

“She said she understood what it felt like, that she will take me in case anything happens.” She said. “She swore to mother that if she fails to kill my father, she will take me and mother away and protect us no matter what happens.” There was a pause and the boys look toward Tenshi and saw her staring at her empty glass. “I was 8 years old then and seeing how confident Astrid was of herself made me jealous of her, I can never be that brave. She insisted that she does the job that very night, so she told my mother to tuck me in bed at around eight and stay in my bedroom and read me a book. She asked where my room was and that she’ll keep that area clean of any guards who were loyal to father. Unfortunately, father had the same thing in mind for mother, he hired Kale to kill her.” she stifles a laugh. 

“It was hilarious when Kale jumped into my room guns in hand and stood over us, she was staring at me after he just shot my mother, which was when Astrid arrived. She saw Kale and beat the daylights out of him, afterward she demanded that he looked after me for her, that I will not be touched by anyone at his house, she even said that she doesn’t care if it was Michael or his father, who was then the master of the Jetsons, she will kill whoever touches or harms me.” then she sighed, “I guess it’s true.”

Derek looks away hating the fact that she fell in love with such a douche like Michael Jetson. He was cocky and an all-time asshole. He used her innocence and took it as his so he can manipulate her using her feelings. He did succeed, he just never saw Astrid coming into the scene.

“Michael’s father knew of the setup.” she continued, “Astrid spoke to him herself, why she can’t take me to the Duchovny and why she trusted the Jetsons to take care of me than her own house. Father Martin was a peaceful man, he sees the same way as Astrid does, and hearing what happened at home, he instantly agreed. He watched over me as if I was his daughter, he named me Jasmine of the Jetson house. He asked Father Charles to have Astrid train me, as Astrid had secretly requested, saying he thinks it will be a good idea for both of our houses to have a serial assassin in handy.”

“So that’s why she says she knows the Jetson’s house by heart?” I asked.

“Yes, she spent three days a week there, sometimes four or five when Michael wasn’t around.” She said, “I wish I saw that he was interested in her and not me.”

“I bet he just wanted to get in her pants,” Derek scoffs, “and you call me a pervert.”

She stifles a laugh, “Well that’s my story.”

“All I asked you was your name, little princess.” Jared teased her as well.

“But we’re glad to know that you trust us with these kinds of things.” Derek nods.

“Well, we’re family now, aren’t we?” she said, glancing my way and smiled.

Derek smiles and gave a weak nod. “Yes, we are.”

That peaceful exchange didn’t last long though, when a group of men came in, moving toward Tenshi.

“Tenshi heads up,” Derek says quickly. She doesn’t move, but tips her head a bit sideward, probably checking her peripheral view.

“Miss Ozawa?” one asks, with a heavy Chinese accent.

“Am sorry?” Tenshi asks.

“不，她不是。 (Please come with us.)” He continues.

“Am sorry, but I don’t speak Chinese.” She says with a smile.

“Master says you lying.”

“Master?” she asks, amused. “Is this some crazy pick up line?”

“Master says you coming with us.” He grabs her by the arm, but she roughly pulls out her arm from his hold, stood up, and stepped away.

“Shit…” Derek says underneath his breath, he knows she can handle this, but he can’t just sit there while a dozen of armed guys eyes her like that.

“Don’t dare touch me again.” She snaps, “my fiancé happens to own this hotel and I’m sure Derek will be happy to have you thrown out.”

Me? Derek asks surprised.

“That’s your cue fiancé,” Jared says, glancing at the chaos that was unfolding, standing from where he was resting, unless necessary.

“On my way.” Derek stood up and casually made his way to Tenshi. “Hey, baby, are you ok?” 

Derek reached for her and ran my hand down her back, slipping a gun in her pants, she moves closer to him, reaching for his hand and holding it tight. Derek frowns feeling her fear, he glares at the army in front of us. 

“What’s going on here? What did you do to her?”

“She Miss Ozawa?” he asks.

“Ozawa?” 

“她是 小泽吗？(Is She Ozawa?)” the man demanded.

“不，她不是。(No, she is not.)” Derek answers, “她是我的未婚夫，茉莉花友。(She’s my fiancée, Jasmine Matthews.)”

“ID.” The man held out his hand.

“She does not need to prove to you anything.” Derek slaps his hand away, pulling Tenshi behind him. “Now leave the premises if you are just to stir up trouble here.”

“Seriously? Matthews?” Jared chuckles.

“The girl is coming with us.” The man says again.

“She’s not the girl you’re looking for.” Derek snaps again.

“Master says you die.” He sneers.

“Well tell your master he still won’t be touching my fiancée.” before the guy could pull a punch, he moves away with Tenshi. 

Thus the chaos began, somewhere in the chaos Tenshi and Derek got separated, and Jared joined in. Derek kicks one of them away and looks around, the restaurant was a mess, but it cannot describe the possibility of a mess they would be in when their parents find out about this.

Suddenly another man steps inside looking around as if what he is seeing is the most natural thing. His eyes fell on Tenshi, he smirks and pulled out a blade. Derek quickly made his way back to Tenshi and kicked away a guy who was about to grab her from behind. He glares at the guy who stops on his tracks, Derek glares at him as if daring him to come any closer. He smirks at Derek and walked up to the high schoolboy.

“Chibi…” Tenshi says behind Derek.

“Stay near, Tenshi.” Derek whispers.

“Don’t Derek, I’ll take care of him.” She says.

“No,” Derek shook his head, “I can’t let you do that-“

Derek pulls out a gun underneath his coat, but someone pushed him down and threw a bag over his head, then everything turned black.

Pretty pathetic I know, but man, does my head hurt. He tells himself, feeling his stomach groan.

“Hey!” Derek shouts again, “Can I get some water!”

Finally, there was a buzz outside the room, then the once non-existent door opened and the room lit up. Derek squints against the light making it hard for him to put a face on the person who entered. He hears a tray set down in front of him as someone else untied his hands.

“Master says eat and he’ll talk to you afterward.” a woman says.

“I thought all your masters were dead?” Derek smirks; the one who was untying his ropes hits him on the head.

“停止 ！父亲说没有人触及或伤害他 ！(Stop! Father says no one touches or harms him!)” she snaps.

The man grunted and left, Derek looks up at her finally seeing her face, she frowns and looks back at him sadly. Derek felt guilty in an instant, he never thought of it before, they might have tried to kill us but still, they could have been someone’s boyfriend or husband worse a kid’s dad, right? She quickly stood up and turned to leave.

“I’m sorry,” Derek says. “我不是故意要在家里我主机的粗鲁。(I didn’t mean to be rude in the house of my host.)”

She smiled at me, “You are entitled to behave like this, we did take you against your wishes.”

Derek stifles a laugh and looked down on the tray of food. “Thank you for the food.”

“We are only heartless when we see that it is necessary.” She bows her head.

The tray consisted of a big bowl of ramen, beef, rice, and fruits. They were not that bad. But of course, being who he was, Derek had doubts about eating it. They can drug him, we have done it at Russia after all.

“It is clean, young master,” she says, “I promise you that.”

“Well, can you blame me?” Derek raised a brow, “Your friends tried to kill us.”

“You mean my brothers.” She mumbles.

“I’m sorry,” Derek says again, lowering his head.

She shook her head as she settled across me, “I heard you are my sister’s fiancé?”

“Well…”

She smiles, “I’m glad she is doing well.” She says before I can answer. “She and mother had always been different.”

“What do you mean?” Derek asks.

“Father said they were not one to be caged, that they were too spirited for our lifestyle.”

Derek frowns, “You said your father wanted to see me after I ate?”

“Yes.” She says with a nod.

“Am sorry, but I was under the impression that he was dead,” I said. “That an assassin killed him the same night that your mother was killed and Tenshi was taken.”

She sat up, confused. “But I have been here all along.”

This took him by surprise again. “Wait, you’re Tenshi?”

“Yes.” She says.

“Then the girl with us, who is she?” Derek asks.

“She is Hera our older sister.” She said.

Derek looks at her more confused, he then picked up the bowl of ramen and drank the soup, and grabbed the bottle of water. “I need to speak to your father.”

The real Tenshi ushered him to her father’s study, Derek took another sip of water, finally consuming the entire content of the bottle, by this time Tenshi nodded to two guards who slid open the door they were guarding.

“He is here father.” Tenshi bows in front of a man who’s about as old as Grandfather Johan.

“Thank you, Tenshi.” He says, his eyes were full of love and pride for his daughter that it was hard to believe that this was the same man the Tenshi at home was talking about. “Please have a set young man.”

Derek gives a low bow, “Thank you, sir.”

“Please, call me Han.”

“Please call Me Derek, all my friends do.”

He raised a brow, “So are we now friends, Master Derek?”

“I’m hoping we are Master Han,” Derek says, “But either way, I would like to extend my thanks for the wonderful ramen and, well, I would thank you for the accommodation but…”

He laughs and shook his head, “Sit down boy, and I’ll make sure that you will be given a better accommodation that suits your status.”

“I’d prefer if you’ll let me go home, as I don’t even know what your intentions are for taking me here.”

Derek sits comfortably across the man who, his very presence, demands respect. But he needed answers, he needed to know who that girl he was crushing on.

The leader of the Ozawa clan frowned and turns his look down his table. “Unfortunately, I can’t do that.” He says. “You have killed my sons, and eye for an eye, young Master.”

“So you are to kill me too?” Derek casually asks; a lump building in his throat, pretty scared of the answer he’ll get, but he masked it all until he was relieved of his fear with a shake of ahead.

“I can’t do that, that will be going against my principles.” He says.

“Well, didn’t you go against your principles after you had your wife killed?”

“What did you say?!” he snaps.

“She told us everything, your other daughter, she said that you were planning to kill her and have your daughter marry some other gang leader to widen your land or something.”

“That’s a lie!” he shouts, “I loved my wife, I have taken care of my children as I have promised her I would.”

“Then make me understand what is going on here.” I said, “I was told that the daughter you have here is the real Tenshi, so who is the woman who was with us all this time?”

“Her name is Hera.” He says, looking as confused as Derek. “The quadruplets were all given American names, except for Chibi, who I think is still mad at his mother for naming him, baby.” He chuckles at the memory. “The woman you are with is my eldest child, like the first two boys and we gave her none traditional name. She was sickly and very small for her age, she was 13 years old when she was taken away, but seeing her, you would have thought she was just seven or five even.”

Thirteen meant she was the same age as we are.

“Seeing how sickly she was, her mother barely left her side, she was taking care of her twenty-four seven.” He continues, “That night that my wife was killed, she was with her. So we thought whoever killed her was also the one who took Hera away. I have been searching for her all this time only to find out that she was taken under the Jetson’s wings, we knew how dangerous they were, and not to mention have the Duchovny house with them almost always.”

“What do you want with her?”

“She’s my daughter, she is the heiress of the Ozawa clan, and with the death of her brothers, I need her more than ever.” He says. “Her place is here, this is her home.”

“She said you are to marry her to one of your partners…” Derek asks, cautiously.

He smiles and shook his head, “I would have if that was what she wanted, but seeing that she pretty much announced that you are her fiancé, and you have tried to protect her, I can’t say I have the heart to take her away from you.”

Well, everyone was coming clean, Derek sighs, “I’m not her fiancé.”

“What?”

“You have a few things right, she was indeed taken by those who killed your wife,” he closes his fist, angry. “But please give me a chance to speak for them. There seems to have been a misunderstanding.”

“What do you mean?” he raised a brow.

“Your wife spoke to my friend, she hired her to kill you, telling her that you have been beating her and Tenshi.”

“Me?” Tenshi asks coming into the room with snacks.

Derek shakes his head, still trying to understand what is going on.

“No… no, that is part of the misunderstanding. Your wife’s instructions were to have you killed and in case that fails she must take away her daughter. She never mentioned another daughter,” Derek glances at Tenshi, “So I am assuming that she thought it was Hera who she was talking about. That night she did come for you, at the same time someone from the Duchovny house arrived to kill your wife and when Astrid saw that she was dead, she took your daughter as she had promised to keep her safe.”

He shook his head, “There was no night like that. I remember no attack or anything.”

“That is what I know.” Derek holds up his hands as if giving up, “We all thought we were with Tenshi the whole time. She must have taken your identity to cover up her real one.”

“I can’t believe this…” Hans says holding his chest, “my wife… Hera…”

“Papa…” Tenshi runs to his side and put an arm over him, comforting him.

“I would not say that Astrid is clean of whatever fault, but I do plead that you hear what she has to say when you do confront her.”

“What makes you think that father will do such a thing?” Tenshi asks, voice rising. “As you can see he is no barbarian as you were told.”

“Tenshi…” her father warns.

“That is why I know that he will hear what my friend has to say…”

“You’re a friend and the one who had taken Hera…” he asked in awe, “She’s the Angel of the Duchovny house?”

“Yes.” Derek nods, hoping that that would put some leverage on his life.

“Was she the one who my wife asked to kill me?” Derek frowns and gave a weak nod. “I should have known…”

“Why would she have you killed, Master Han? Like what your daughter said, you are no barbarian, but I’m in no position to agree, I have only known you for a good 10 minutes.”

“My wife, she was, well…” he slouches and shook his head, “She was hard to please. At that time, we had problems on the eastern side of our territory; it was the richest among all the territories I was overlooking. Financial troubles began then, her being my wife, I told her about it, and I guess she was scared that we will go bankrupt, so she started seeing this man. Someone from another organization, she was to run away with him that night. I have had her watched for months, and I knew about her plans, I would have let her go, as long as she leaves my children with me. But then again, she was killed that night and my daughter was taken.” He reached for Tenshi’s hand and wrapped it with his big hand, “If it wasn’t for the quadruplets I would have given up then.”

“But you said you did not have her killed, right?”

“I loved my wife with my life.” He said, sadly. “She was the reason that I do not fear waking up in the morning, with her beside me I felt I was invincible. I would have probably done everything for her, even let him run away with another man.”

“This is getting more complicated.” Derek says, “We need to get to the bottom of this.”

“Why is that?” Tenshi asks.

“Because, there might be a possibility, that we have a rogue assassin back home.”

Tenshi and Hans Ozawa exchanged looks before Derek leans forward.

“You said, quadruplets, so those three guys were younger than we were?”