Hope's mouth filled with a bitter taste as she watched the demeanor of the previously impassive man in front of her crumble completely. His mask of indifference was gone and Hope began to sense what could only be described as genuine fear, but what really got to her was the fact that while he was obviously not afraid for himself, the woman that had been dragged out of there was a different case. To think he was capable of caring about anyone so much, yet he tormented her so mercilessly for years . . .
She chose not to dwell on it for long because this was it. The moment of truth. It was almost impossible to believe that the day she'd waited and hoped desperately for the past couple of years had finally come. She wasn't quite sure how to feel about it. On the one hand, she was glad she was finally getting closure, but on the other hand, it shook her so hard and she wanted nothing more than to run far away from it. If felt like her whole life had been leading to that one moment and once it was over, what next? Would she be capable of handling the truth? Did she even want to know the truth?
She was jerked out of her turbulent thoughts by the impatient voice of the policeman snapping at her kidnapper, "You're wasting precious time, young man!"
"My sister!" he snapped back, his voice steel, sending an unwanted shiver down Hope's spine. Raymond who was standing behind her immediately took an even more protective stand and a grateful smile crept up on her lips. She couldn't be more grateful for him.
The man exhaled, and it seemed to take all his willpower to keep his anger in. Yet, his voice grated when he spoke, "My sister suffered a really bad head injury some years back, and never fully recovered from it."
The policeman didn't as much as blink as his impatience tripled. "Is that what we asked you?!"
"I don't care what you do to me, but I'll kill you if you treat her horribly," he threatened.
"You have quite the nerve to be making demands and making threats after all you've done," the policeman spat.
The man --Philip-- finally turned his gaze on Hope and she almost cowered at the look of pure, unadulterated hate that was directed at her. What could she ever have done to deserve that look?
"My sister's mentally ill . . . " he repeated, his cold gaze not straying a bit from Hope, communicating that every word out of his mouth was meant for her and her alone. " . . . and it's all their fault."
Their? Who was their?
She couldn't voice the questions as it seemed something hard had lodged itself in her throat, leaving it parched and dry.
"W-What . . . " She felt more than saw Raymond's arms wrap around her and she exhaled, tapping the strength she needed from him. "How's that possible? I've never met your sister before today."
He didn't bother answering her as he continued, although his hard gaze never strayed from hers. "Some twenty seven years ago, my mum was in love with this man who meant the world to her. She loved him so much that there was absolutely nothing he could do wrong in her eyes which of course, made her blind to who he really was."
Hope inhaled, having no idea where this was headed, but she knew better than to interrupt him.
"My mother had a rough childhood growing up, you see. Her parents were dirt poor and she never had the chance to go to school. It didn't help that she lost them early and had no one but herself to depend on. That was of course, until she met my father. Imagine a nineteen year old who has never had one good thing going on in her life somehow catching the attention of a well educated, responsible and loving man who was willing to take care of her and send her back to school. That would be a dream come true for such a vulnerable girl, wouldn't it?"
He paused and his intense gaze bored into hers. She couldn't help but look away. Was that a rhetorical question or was she meant to answer? She wasn't given the chance to decide because the next second, he continued.
"It was, and she fell for it, not surprisingly. Things soon got ugly from there, but I guess you might have guessed that by now?" He chuckled, the sound devoid of any form of mirth. "Everything was good and my mum was in paradise until one day, he just up and disappeared from her life. No breakup, no notes, zilch. He just disappeared. She was heartbroken, and as if that wasn't bad enough, she found out later she was pregnant; pregnant for a man that had disappeared without a trace. It was absolute hell for her and when she finally found him, she got the greatest shock of her life. Turned out he was already married with a pregnant wife, a tiny piece of information he conveniently forgot to mention to my mother. Rather ironic, don't you think?
"She tried to tell his wife about the affair and all hell broke loose. He denied it completely and his wife decided to take his side so they turned my mother into the witch who had tried to seduce another woman's husband and when she didn't succeed, decided to pin a pregnancy on him. He gave her money for an abortion then cut her off completely. He even threatened her life if she ever tried to contact or look for him again. My mother couldn't have an abortion. She was too scared to and I was the product of that whole mess." His intense gaze was once again intent on hers and Hope found herself struggling to catch a breath. "You want to take a guess on who that couple was?"
Hope sucked in a deep breath, fearing she might faint if she didn't. There was no way . . .
He seemed to realize the train of her thoughts and her heart dropped when he regarded her with a cold smile.
"You're a smart one, aren't you? Yes, that man was your father." He cocked his head and his eyes once again flashed with repressed anger and disdain. "I guess that would make me your brother then? Funny, isn't it?"
Shock was hardly enough to describe what Hope felt at that moment. It was a moment of watching her whole life crumbling down right in front of her. Her brother . . . It could never be. She had no reason to believe the toxic stranger sitting there in front of her. Afterall, he'd tormented her for years and kidnapped her. What was to say he couldn't weave such a huge lie just to see her suffer even more?
But even as she tried to comfort herself with those words, it was like a fog cleared from her eyes as she looked at him in a new light. Hope didn't have much of a recollection of her father from before he died but she'd seen more than enough photos to commit an image to memory and the man sitting there in front of her; the striking resemblance he had with that image she had of her father . . . It was almost glaring now. Hope felt bile rising up in her throat even as she felt hot tears pricking her eyes. If all he was saying were true . . .
"He could have at the very least supported her even if he wasn't going to marry her, but he cut her off instead. My mum had to struggle even harder since she now had herself and her children to feed."
Hope's eyes snapped to his and his eyes flashed at her unvoiced question.
"Yes, children. She had twins. The jokes the universe could play on us attimes, right? You would never for years to come understand how difficult it was for her; for us. He promised her the world only to leave her worse off than he met her."
He paused, as if waiting for her to say something. When she didn't, he smirked, his gaze trained on the sheen of tears present in her eyes. His smile was manic, like he knew he was breaking her and enjoying every moment of it.
"She eventually met another man who was willing to take care of her and her children and put them through school, something she'd never be able to do on her own and that was more than enough for her so she held onto that opportunity without a second thought, even though she knew he was an abuser."
Oh God! Was the awful story ever going to end?
"He'd only married her because he'd been told that the chance of him having children of his own was very slim, a truth that made him very bitter so he took it out on my mum constantly. He hit her at every chance he got and she endured it all because he was the only chance her children had of having the future that she could never give them. Do you have any idea how it felt, watching your mum get abused the way she was but not being able to do anything about it? We didn't even know he wasn't our father the first few years until he made it a point to let us know how we were nothing but bastards.
"It was one of those days that he was beating my mum that my sister ran out, screaming for help and got involved in an accident. It was so fatal that the hospital said there was no chance she would ever recover from the trauma."
Hope recoiled in her seat when his fist banged against the table. His fists were clenched in a death grip at the memory and she had a feeling that if it wasn't for the other people in the room, he'd have strangled her right there and then.
"My mother still couldn't leave and couldn't tell anyone because he threatened not to pay for her treatment even though he was the whole reason she was in that position in the first place. My sister regained consciousness eventually, but would never remain as she was. It took years of therapy and treatments, but it was never really the same. My mother was never able to forgive herself and the guilt killed her slowly until she became a shell of herself."
"What happened to her?" Hope whispered, surprising herself. She'd have thought she'd lost her ability to speak. "And the man?"
For a while, it seemed like he wasn't going to answer her. That was, until he did. "She's in a nursing home. Alzheimer's. For him, all the bitterness, excessive drinking and all eventually caught up to him and he died a few years later of a heart attack. I guess the one good thing that came out of it was that everything he'd had naturally came to us since we were the only family he'd had.
"But what was the use of money at that point? My family was already broken, scarred, and it was all because of that man that'd impregnated her and left her to fend for herself. Growing up, I just couldn't understand why we had to go through all that we went through. No matter how much I thought about it, it just wasn't fair. I was so angry at the unfairness of it all and I had to let it out somehow."
"So you chose me."
He chuckled, another humorless sound. "A few years ago, your mum was on tv seeking help for her child who needed a surgery. My mum saw that program and for the first time in a long time, she remembered the woman who'd ruined her life. I did my research and started following your family closely after that. At first, I thought it was karma paying you back for everything that had happened to us, but then suddenly you were healthy again and your sister was marrying this millionaire.
"It made me even angrier. It just wasn't fair that that was the last of it when my family and I have to live with that scar forever. It was better when I didn't know who you were or how you were living, but I just couldn't watch your family be happy after everything that'd happened to us. That was when I realized I could do something about it."
"But why me?" Hope whispered, her voice so broken she hardly recognized it.
"You seemed like the weakest one, the one most likely to be vulnerable and easy to manipulate."
"Why?" Hope repeated, even though she wasn't really sure what she was asking.
"I just needed you to suffer, to feel a bit of the agony I feel every single day. I thought for sure you'd break after a while and go crying to your family about it so I could see all of your family cower in dread, but I have to admit, you're much stronger than I'd thought you'd be."
"So that was why you kidnapped me?"
"Yes. It became obvious that no matter what I did, you were never going to tell your family and I was tired of waiting. If even for a brief while, I needed to see your whole family suffer."
"So do you feel better now?" She demanded. "Do you feel less burdened now that you've put us all through torment?"
He didn't answer, but his conflicted and heated expression was enough of an answer to her.
"I never did anything wrong. My mother . . . Even if my parents wronged you, I didn't deserve any of the things you put me through. And if you'd just come to us like a normal person . . ."
"Come to you?" He repeated on a laugh, the bitter sound loud and grating on every of Hope's nerves.
"My mother is the most amazing and strongest woman I've ever met. She might have made a mistake with your mum, but she's not a bad person. You wanted her to suffer, but if you'd only just talked to her. . . You put me through so much emotional pain for years because you needed someone to blame for your unfair life. As sorry as I am that you had to go through all that, it wasn't my fault and I didn't deserve any of this either. If you hate me so much because I'm my father's daughter, then you should hate yourself and your sister as well.
"You know . . . You go on and on about how bitterly and cruelly people have treated you yet it's the exact same thing you did to me. You're as cruel and bitter as everyone that made your family suffer. You're no different from them!" She had no idea she was screaming until the man's voice rose even louder over hers, reverberating off the walls and causing an echo that kept even Hope silent.
Hope had to give it to him. He remained completely poised and it was as if her words only just bounced off of him.
"Hope."
She'd forgotten then that Raymond and Alex were in there. Alex . . . She immediately turned to him and saw the man staring blankly at Philip. He was usually not an expressive man, but Hope knew all the mention of abuse must have been getting to him, knowing his own history. She suddenly felt all her strength sap out of her.
"My father died when I was only four years old. My mother didn't have it easy either and I spent three years of my life battling a disease that has also left me scarred forever. I have to live on drugs for the rest of my life and everyday I pray that I never develop complications just so I can live a longer life than I'd been originally given. Life has dealt me my own portion and I've never and would never in this life or the next deserve what you put me through and nothing, absolutely nothing will justify what you did to me."
With that, Hope stormed out of the room and out of the station.
It was a wonder she managed to make it out of the station on her wobbly legs because the moment she was out the door, her legs gave out and she sank heavily to the ground as drop after drop of tears cascaded down her face. Still, she tried her best to hold it in and pull herself together. Her plans to put herself together however flew out the window the moment she felt comforting arms wrapping around her.
The dam burst forth as loud despairing wails rushed out of her mouth, finally releasing years of pain and hardship. She wept for herself and the possiblity of how much better things could have gone if only some people had made better choices.