Chapter 55 Chapter 55

Chapter 55 Chapter 55
The room remained painfully quiet after the door closed behind Arthur. There were no guards remaining inside and no Marcus standing nearby either. There was no security watching from the corner of the hallway, and for the first time, the entire night Arthur Romero stood there completely alone with Lydia's father in front of him.
Only the lower sound of the machine filled the silence between them.
The old man now staring from the hospital bed, frozen in place as the reality of who had entered the room finally settled fully into his mind. Fear moved across his face. It was slow and undeniable, draining what little color illness had left.
There Arthur, on the other hand said absolutely nothing. He simply was standing near the door for a moment, his dark eyes still untouched and his expression and the dim lights of the hospital.
And somehow the silence was even worse than anger. Lydia's father shifted uncomfortably against the pillar and his hands tightened slightly against the blanket spread over his lap.
The rhythm of the heart monitor actually went throughout the room. 
"Why?". He started quietly before swallowing hard.
"Why have I come here?" He asked. But Arthur did not reply to him.
He did not have to ask. Arthur's posture was controlled, stillness. He found absence of emotion on his face and it was just killing Lydia's father from the inside. He wanted some kind of outlet from Arthur as well.
 And then he came up with the next question.
"Why am I in this hospital?" He asked, again his voice coming off much weaker now.
"Why have you saved me?" He asked and this question was a realistic one? He wanted to know the reason.
Arthur, on the other hand, walked into the room slowly.
The sound of his footsteps were quiet against the polish floor and he was not rushing. There is no visible threat in the way he moved, no raised voice and not at all in his eyes. But somehow every step made the atmosphere extremely tight, very tight until the night itself felt different breathe throughout.
Lydia's father felt it immediately.
The machine beside the bed continued like a steady, soft hum. While the older man stared at Arthur, like he was watching death approach him. This was making the room much colder than it already was.
Outside of the window, the city lights were glowing faintly in the distance. But far away from the tension track inside of these four walls.
Arthur said nothing, that frightened him more. Because men like Arthur Romero were dangerous, when they shouted. But they were far worse when they were quiet.
"Why did you agree to marry my daughter?" The old man asked, what slipping out too quickly and fear making him reckless.
"I understand that Lydia would be with you as a prisoner, but fighting to marry her? Why did you do that?" He asked, and Arthur's expression did not change, he stopped beside a chair near the hospital bed, looking at him for the moment before sitting down slowly.
One hand is still calmly against the armrest. The movement is controlled, precise and almost casual. The old man's throat went tight and Arthur looked much comfortable here,, comfortable in the silence and comfortable in his fear.
The room felt painfully quiet after that.
Arthur simply sat watching him, his dark eyes unreadable beneath the dim light.
Lydia's father swallowed hard. His fingers tightened around the blanket sheet that was spread over his lap. Fear had already began loosening things inside of him, that should have stayed in.
"I didn't mean for any of it to happen....." He said spitting out everything. And to him it seemed  like the god of death was standing in front of him and, one last time he had to come clean.
Arthur though, remains still, but something faintly shifted inside or behind his eyes.
"That night." He continued trembling.
"I didn't mean to tell them where she was." Hhe rushed through the words, because courage had completely failed him.
"It slipped out.... I swear to God....  it slipped out accidentally. I swear I did not know any of that would happen. I just knew where she was.... A... And it just came out of my mouth." He said. 
His breathing already coming uneven. All came into his mind quickly.
"It was a coincident... bad luck and nothing more..." He said.
Arthur finally moved slightly leaning back into the chair. His eyes remaining locked to the old man. With cold, unreadable focus. There was no visible anger on his face, no reaction at all.
"My father died trying to save my mother that night." He said. The words more quiet, simple spoken without emotion.
But they crushed the room into silence.
Lydia's father froze completely. Because those were the first words Arthur had spoken since entering the room and somehow that made them far worse. Arthur's expression remain calm, but there was something terrifying beneath that calmness. Something cold enough to suffocate the room around them.
Suddenly the old man understood something horrifying. Arthur knew...
Maybe not every detail, but he knew somethings enough.
Enough to see through the lies. And there the real panic set in, almost immediately.
"If you let me go.... I... I... I... believe. I will disappear. You will never have to see me." She said, and Arthur did not interrupt.
So the words continued.
"I will sell everything. The property. The business, everything I own. You will never have to see me again. In your land." Arthur watched him quietly, just thinking to himself. Why was this the first statement he said.
"You will take everything with you? And leave forever?" He asked and the old man nodded his head immediately.
"Yes... everything. My money, my belongings, all of it." He said.
"Karma has already found me and I just wanted peace for whatever life that was left." He said and Arthur studied him quietly for sometime, and then he asked.
"And Lydia. She is your family after all. Will you take her and leave?" He asked, wanting answers and the room felt silent almost immediately.
Fear now fixed with greed in the old man's expression.
Now it made the room feel ugly.
"You can have her." He said, quickly almost too quickly.
"She's my daughter." The old man continued nervously.
"But you can have her. She does not need to come with me. She doesn't have to come with me anywhere." He said it one more time, far to casually like Lydia was something that could simply be handed over, during the negotiation and something inside of Arthur snapped.
Very quickly. 
It was not loud and not even very dramatic. But it was enough to be the end.
Arthur slowly rose from the chair. His eyes never leaving the old man in the hospital bed.
The older man immediately went back into his pillow, the fear finally flooding fully across his face now.
"She's all grown now." He continue to weekly.
"You got married her. She belongs to you.... you can do anythin............" He didn't even get to finish, and immediately Arthur reached for his coat, and the words died instantly. The gun approached calmly in Arthur's hand.
Black metal.
He lifted it with terrifying steadiness and pointed it directly at him. The terror on the old man exploded across his face, his body pressed hard onto the bed.
"Arthur..." He called out for him, but Arthur said nothing.... absolutely nothing.
Because sitting there terrified in the hospital bed. Lydia's father had managed to do something almost impossible.
He had made Arthur angry enough to forget restraint. Something Arthur was always known for.