“How have you been, father?” Rachel asked after Arthur Reeves came out of his prison cell to see her outside. Her mother, Amanda sat beside her, looking slightly pale and downcast. Her eyes were red from crying and under her eyes were a bit dark from lack of sleep.
Her mother had decided that they had to tell Arthur everything that had happened so far. He deserved to know on time, so he would have enough time to process the shock and get prepared for ‘justice’.
The moment her father walked out and she took one look at him, she wasn’t sure if she could bring herself to actually break such terrible news to him. After spending almost six years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit, how was she supposed to tell him that the person behind his ‘pain’ was the man he used to call his ‘dear friend’.
Surely, it would break his heart. At his age, Rachel did not want the shock of this message to hurt him too badly and affect his health. Most elderly people experiencing ‘shock’ could have a stroke, haemorrhage or high blood pressure. She didn’t know what to expect at the end of revealing the truth to him.
She caught sight of the extra hair on his head that had turned grey since the last time she saw him. His facial skin was sagging a bit more and his smile seemed to have finally faded away for real this time. She was worried for his health. If he died anytime soon, her whole investigation would be a waste. Holding a court case in order to get justice would also be a waste because the ‘main’ victim would already be dead. He had to stay alive and healthy.
“This is the first time in a while that both of you are coming together to see me,” Arthur replied after he settled on a chair close to them. “What is the special occasion today?”
“Father, how have you been?” Rachel asked him again.
“You know…. it’s the same old thing. I am simply surviving”
Arthur glanced at his wife, who had been sitting quietly by his side. He leaned closer and noticed the redness of her eyes and the sadness in her expression. He observed that a similar ‘expression’ was on his daughter’s face too. With a worried look on his face, he asked both of them “Is something wrong? Why do the both of you look so sad?”
Rachel folded her sweaty palms together, trying to compose herself. She could see her mother wasn’t ready to talk yet, so she decided to be the one to break the news to him. “There’s something we have to tell you. I want you to prepare yourself and remain calm through it all. I don’t want you to suffer any of those health issues that come from shock. Okay?”
“Alright, I understand” Arthur nodded and frowned a little, confused by the ‘drama’ in front of him. “What is this news about?”
“It’s about your drug trafficking case and the real culprit behind everything…” Rachel answered calmly.
Arthur’s ears perked up immediately at the sound of that. He turned to look at his daughter “You are through with the investigation? You have found the person?”
“Yes, father”
Arthur gasped, his eyes wide-eyed with fear and delight. How could he feel two opposite feelings at the same time? What was he afraid of? Based on the expression on his daughter and wife’s face, he knew that the person behind everything would be someone he never imagined in the first place.
Breathing out, he calmed his body, preparing himself for what was to come. He muttered in Rachel’s direction “You can tell me about it.”
Rachel reached for her bag and brought out a printed file. She had printed the pages of the encrypted file that Sophia had unlocked, so her father could see them with his own eyes. She gave the documents to him.
Arthur stared at the file in his hands, a bit confused “What is this?”
“It is the physical evidence of everything regarding your case. The mastermind and real culprit behind this whole thing is….” Rachel’s voice broke at the end when her father’s eyes widened in anticipation. She couldn’t bring herself to say it just yet.
“Who is it? Tell me. I’ll accept the truth no matter how I feel” Arthur responded as he opened the file, getting ready to skim through it.
“The person is Morris!”
Rachel jerked up on her chair at the sound of her mother’s voice. She had been quiet for so long, she wasn’t even expecting her to say anything at all. She glanced over at her father and watched his body stiffen as the shock rippled through his body.
After a short moment, Arthur grasped the document in his hand tightly and laughed a little. He glanced sharply at his wife “What did you just say? Who did you say is behind all of this?”
“I said Morris Scott, your co-partner at Imperial Hub Limited is the one behind everything. He is the monster!” Amanda’s voice broke as her angry tears spilled down her plump cheeks. Not being able to control herself, she allowed the tears to flow, not hiding it anymore.
Arthur remained quiet for a long time, his shoulders slumped over in ‘defeat’. He closed his eyes and breathed sharply over and over again. It was obvious to Rachel that he was trying to regulate his emotions so that he doesn’t destroy his health.
The tears gathered in Rachel’s eyes as she watched her father break down…. She still remembered the day her father was suddenly arrested. It was still fresh in her memory. It had traumatised her….
It made her very angry to think that her father’s life had faded before his own eyes for almost six whole years while the monster, Morris Scott was wining and dining with the money and resources that her father worked so hard for. Her father was the one who saved that company, he was the one who made Morris Scott what he is today. Her father, Arthur Reeves deserved better than what he received right from the start, but of course, life had its own surprises.
“How did you find out he is the one?” Arthur muttered quietly, his voice barely audible. He fixed his gaze on the grass covered ground.
Rachel sighed and answered him. “A friend of mine, a top detective in this area, hacked into the company’s backend online portal. She actually did it without expecting to find anything. But she found a hidden file that contained two documents. If you look at the bundle of papers I gave you, check the second page…”
Rachel moved nearer to her father and flipped the pages of the document in his hand. She traced her finger over a section “Over here. The first file indicated that the second file contained the evidence of your case from five years ago. It also stated that the code to open the second file is the name of the person behind everything. Take a look at everything.”
Arthur Reeves flipped through the pages of the document and with every page that turned, he got angrier. What exactly did he do to deserve this? “So what was the code to break into the file?”
“It was ‘the jaguar” Rachel answered and watched as her father gasped in shock.
“He is really the one!” Arthur muttered, anger flashing across his eyes. “I can’t believe this. How dare he do that to me?”
“Have you heard that name before? The jaguar?” Rachel’s mother asked.
“Yes. A few of the board members used to call him by that name before he ordered them to stop. That was a very long time ago”
“And to think that Morris and his family had the guts to reach out to us back then to help us financially when they were the ones behind it all from the beginning? How dare they make fun of us?!” Amanda yelled angrily.
“Dad, when you still worked at Imperial Hub Limited, did you notice anything strange or weird about Morris Scott? Maybe in the way he treated you?”
Arthur paused for a moment. “I thought I was imagining things or overthinking back then. But I always felt like Morris was jealous of my success with the company. While I was there, so many board members joked around about how I was the one who saved his own company, not him. Some said I should be the CEO instead of Morris…”
“Really?” Rachel asked “I am sure you were uncomfortable. So why did you stay there?”
“At one point, I started getting uncomfortable, so I told him to cancel our agreement, I made it clear to him that I didn’t want to be part of the company anymore. I was already planning to leave before I was suddenly arrested.”
“But it makes no sense. If he was jealous of your presence in his company and you were finally leaving, wasn’t he supposed to be happy? Why did he do this to you at the end?” Rachel asked her father, genuinely confused.
“I really don’t know…” Turning to his wife, Arthur Reeves whispered “… I remember you didn’t like him from the very start and you told me not to take up his second offer when I wanted to leave the first time, but I didn’t listen to you. I guess I am paying the price for my terrible decision”
Amanda looked at her husband with tears in her eyes. “It’s not your fault. I know you took his offer because of us, your family. You are not the wrong person here, Morris is the one who needs to be brought to justice.”
They talked some more about finding a way for Arthur to get his freedom. Rachel noticed how her father tried to act strong, controlling his feelings.
But when she turned to leave with her mother, she noticed the tears that trickled down his cheeks. Tears of pain. Tears of betrayal.
Clearly, he was very heartbroken by everything. Morris had hurt an innocent man and he would pay for it.