Jack’s eyes were filled with rage that had quickly disappeared into a pool of calm when he saw me. He probably didn’t expect to see me under such circumstances. “Aren’t you surprised to meet me again like this?”
It was I who had personally sent him to jail, causing his family’s destruction.
Jack lifted his head slightly as a flurry of emotions fleeted through his eyes. Then, it was quickly replaced by his usual aloofness.
He sat down lazily. There was only a table in between us. The atmosphere was inexplicably tense.
“Was I surprised? Probably, but I’m more so confused and regretful.” His voice was low and hoarse. Every word he uttered seemed to be squeezed out from the depths of his heart.
“I didn’t understand why you had to do that. Isn’t there even an ounce of sliver of familial love in between us?”
I laughed quietly. Too much bitterness and helplessness was encapsulated in that laugh.
“Familial love? The moment you betrayed our family and betrayed my mother, that familial love doesn’t exist anymore. I’m just doing all these so I’m answerable to my mother. I’m also doing this for myself, so I could get an answer.” Jack’s gaze suddenly turned steely as he shot up to his feet. His hands were tightly balled into fists as if he were trying to break free of his restraints.
“Your mother? What could she know? She’s just a woman blinded by love, who thinks that marrying for love meant she could have everything. In reality, what has she gotten? Nothing but endless waiting and disappointment!”
A sharp pain pierced through my heart upon hearing this but I still remained a calm facade. However, when I remembered all that he had done to me, I felt like all of this was very ridiculous.
“If you were even a bit kinder to my mother, things wouldn’t end up the way they did. If you ever treated me as a proper human being, you wouldn’t end up in prison.”
He treated me as a bargaining chip time and time again, and every time he did, it hurt me more.
“You’re wrong. My mother had never regretted her choice. Even if the outcome was not like how she wanted, what she regretted was that she couldn’t fulfill her dreams, she couldn’t see many more masterpieces being admired by the world. “As for me, I’m here to fulfill what she couldn’t.”
Jack looked at me as the rage in his eyes slowly died down. Weariness replaced the rage in his eyes.
“Did you think that you have known everything? Did you think what you’ve uncovered is just the secrets
of the art gallery? No, you’re wrong.
“There are more complicated and darker matters behind all of these, worse than what you could ever imagine.”
I frowned. A sense of foreboding filled my heart.
“What do you mean?”
Jack sat slowly and closed his eyes like he was reminiscing the past too difficult for him to revisit.
“The art gallery is just a smokescreen used to cover the real secret. You and your mother are just pawns of a huge scam.”
My heart dropped. A chill went down my spine and headed straight to my heart.
“Scam? What scam?”
Jack opened his eyes again, tenacity filled his eyes.
veine
“I can’t tell you too much, but you have to be careful. Those people may have given you hints, but they have the purpose in doing so. Im this world, no one would help another out at no cost, and there’s no such thing as unconditional kindness in this world.
“If you want to survive, you have to learn how to protect yourself.”
I stared blankly at him as doubt and fear clouded my heart. I also
ved.ne
understood that what Jack had said
BUMS
was not just something to scare me with.
The moment I decided to involve myself in this whirlpool of things, I no longer had a way out.
“I’m your father. Why did you have to send me to prison?”