hapter 37 C
The next morning. I took the day off. After dropping Selena off at work, I turned the car around and floored it, heading out to the outskirts of town. Finally, I slammed on the brakes, stopping in front of a construction site.
I slowly rolled down the window, lit a cigarette, and stuck my hand out, watching the smoke rise and mingle with the dust kicked up by a nearby bulldozer. I flicked the ash out the window, my eyes landing on Timothy, who was working at the site.
Timothy used to be my parents‘ business partner. They worked together for over two years before he double- crossed them. In the end, my parents owed him fifty thousand dollars.
Back then, the business had just failed, and I was still in middle school. My family was barely getting by; there was no way we could pay off that debt, not even the two thousand dollars we initially owed him.
In an attempt to pay it off, my parents moved us to Ashenford for work. But Timothy kept hounding us. Desperate, my dad signed a loan agreement with him and agreed to ridiculous interest rates.
As the debt grew, my parents watched helplessly as the interest ballooned out of control. They wanted to sue, but there was no evidence, and Timothy had ties to the underworld.
When a person was broke, even five dollars felt impossible, let alone fifty thousand. Worried sick, my parents ended up working at a shady factory, hoping to pay off the debt. But an accident happened at the poorly–equipped factory, after which the owner skipped town with the money.
It was all Timothy’s fault that my parents died tragically in vain.
When I was in university, he would show up at my school all the time, demanding more and more. He didn’t stan for the entire duration of my undergraduate and master’s years. It was torture.
In the first year after I graduated, he still wouldn’t let up. When I got my first paycheck, I gave it all to him. But after that, I didn’t hear from him again. It was like he disappeared off the face of the earth.
It wasn’t until a year ago that I found out from a friend that he had gotten into gambling while trying to start his own business and ended up deep in debt. With nowhere else to turn, he was back working on construction sites.
To me, it seemed like karma.
I closed my eyes for a moment. Even now, I wish it hadn’t been Jessica who helped me back then. I had completely given up on her. But now that I knew about the matter, I didn’t know what to do.
I sat in my car quietly at the side of the road. After a while, groups of construction site workers walked hauling sand and gravel over to where I was. Timothy was at the back, pushing a cart of cement. Even though he
past, was technically the contractor, the work didn’t come easy.
I hadn’t seen him in a year, but it looked like he had aged ten years. His face was rough and weathered, covered in wrinkles. As he passed my car, he paused for a moment. He tilted his head to look at me, then suddenly leaned in and grabbed the car window.
“Mr. Grant, are you passing through here?” he asked, his tone humble and respectful.
I shook my head. The cigarette I held fell from my hand, burning the back of Timothy’s hand. He hissed in pain, but didn’t show any anger and just calmly rubbed his hand, knew he understood all too well that this construction site was a joint project between my friend and the company I worked in. A word from me, and he would lose his job Immediately.
“I came just to see you,” I said coldly. “I was thinking about the past, and it doesn’t sit well with me.”
+15 BONUS
Chapter 37
The words seemed to scare him,
“Well… what do you want me to do?” Timothy stammered. Should I apologize?”
Seeing that I didn’t respond, he raised his hand and began slapping his own face repeatedly.
“I was foolish, I’ve offended you… I’m a scoundrel! I’m not human!”
I watched him in silence, his face turning red and swollen from the strikes.
Finally, I waved my hand for him to stop.
“Do you know who you’ve wronged?” I asked slowly as I stared at his trembling face. “You’ve wronged my parents. You betrayed their trust. And you’ve wronged the girl you forced to jump into the river four years ago. She’s now unable to have children for the rest of her life. I could have you arrested by the police right now, and it would be completely justified.”
As Timothy’s entire body shook with fear, he suddenly dropped to the ground.
“That girl, Jessica… I never meant to hurt her. After she gave me the money, I forgot to give her the receipt, so I chased after her. I didn’t expect her to think I was going to hurt her. She’s so stubborn that she jumped into the icy river herself. I didn’t-”
I cut him off, asking, “When did this happen?”
It really was Jessica. My legs felt weak at the thought.
Timothy hesitated as he tried to remember “I think it was.. December 5th, 200
