Chapter 10

• Jenny’s POV
• My father had no hand in killing Isaac Snow, not directly. He was still very much aware of Isaac’s looming fate. He was set up by the drug lord my father was conspiring with to push out the Snows out of town and take over the town himself. He knew that something was happening to kill Isaac but he didn’t know when or how it was going down.
• And for that greediness, that drug lord; whom he mysteriously addressed as Lord Z, double crossed my father and set him up for the murder of Isaac Snow to get rid of both of them at the same time and take control of the town himself.
• It was a hell of a smart move by that lord whatever, I’ll give him that.
• He threw the fuse of animosity among the town people, and sat back to watch them kill each other, making his job easier to control the town afterwards.
• My father tried to explain all of this to Alex Snow when he showed up to kill him that first day, but Alex refused to believe him.
• So we spent three days locked in our own rooms and fearing an attack on our house at any moment.
• I checked my watch again and saw it come closer to 3:30 a.m. When I felt my throat dry, I sat up and grabbed my glass of water that was left on the night stand. It turned out to be empty.
• So I got up slowly from my bed, opened my bedroom door and took a step outside to head for the kitchen.
• I looked up suddenly as the corner of my eye caught a movement in front of my father’s office door; which was to the right side of my own room.
• My hand almost let go of the glass I was holding from the unexpected sight that appeared in front of me, but I quickly raised my other hand to support it and prevented it from smashing to the floor with a massive breaking sound that was probably going to get me shot right on spot.
• My eyes widened and my breath got cut off as I stared at the huge man standing in front of my father’s office door.
• I inspected him quickly from head to toe. His brown leather jacket and face had little tiny droplets of blood on them. His expression was cold, almost numb. It brought a tremor to run through my whole body.
• I looked down and saw his hands at his sides, I could not miss the long gun held in his right hand.
• I looked back up at his face as my mind began to register several things.
• He was standing outside my father’s office door, already splashed with blood, which means that my father must be already dead inside.
• I’ve never seen him before in my life, but a very compelling intuition told me that he must be one of Isaac’s sons.
• If I know them just a little bit, they would never let someone else take their father’s revenge for them. He was definitely one of the sons, but which one? Could that be Alex? The older son? No, I didn’t think so. From what little I heard about him, he doesn’t kill people that quietly, it wasn’t his style. That must be either Jacob or Lucas.
• As I stared up at him, I was half expecting him to kill me too. I just caught him red handed and saw his face. I will be able to identify him to the police and the rest of the clan when they come asking questions. There is no way he would let me live to tell the tale.
• I wanted to beg him not to kill me, swear up and down that I wouldn’t open my mouth to anyone.
• But my body refused to do a damn thing other than shake uncontrollably.
• He could clearly see and sense my fear as he looked at me from head to toe.
• We stared at each other for like two whole minutes, during which I was constantly repeating a prayer in my head: Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me…
• Just as he started to take his first move, I felt my heart actually stop beating as I feared he was coming for me next. But surprisingly, he went in the other direction and disappeared into the darkness quickly.
• I sighed heavily as I felt the blood return to my body and I leaned against the wall behind me for support as my legs buckled from under me, my entire body still shaking from the depth of my fear.
• How the hell did he get inside the house with everyone stationed outside? And why did he let me live despite knowing that I can identify him now?
• After a few minutes, I gathered my courage and went inside the office to see if my father was dead.
• He was dead all right. He was laying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. His eyes open, empty and staring at the ceiling.
• As much as I have wished for his death every single night before going to sleep, reality was a completely different story.
• It was a completely horrific and scary death.
• My hands could no longer hold on to the glass of water as it slipped from my hands and crashed into a million pieces with an extremely loud sound.
• I could no longer look at his body as I stormed out of the room and collapsed against the wall, trembling and on the edge of throwing up.
• I heard my mom’s footsteps approaching, probably after hearing the glass shattering inside.
• She went inside and after just one second, I heard a loud long scream erupting from her.
• The next few hours after that were a complete blur.
• As my uncle, cousin, and some police officers including the sheriff roamed inside the house, asking questions and inspecting the scene of the crime, I stayed right where I was.
• At some point, my cousin Simon, bent down to lift me off the floor where I collapsed after seeing my father dead in his office.
• I flinched away from his touch and got up on my own.
• As much as I hated my father, Simon and his father take the second place right under my father in the hate category.
• Something about Simon ever since we were little kids always creeped me out about him. He was three years older than me. He would always look at me strangely, almost like he was devouring me with his eyes, it always brought a wave of nausea to settle in my stomach. I hated him and always tried to avoid being in the same room with him.
• Everyone gathered around me after that; as I was the first person to discover the body, and asked me if I saw anyone inside the house.
• I found myself instinctively shaking my head. I had made a decision right there to protect that man’s identity.
• Because simply, I owed him my life. Not just because he didn’t kill me after catching him, but because he helped get rid of my father. He was the wish that came true that night. He gave me and my mom our freedom, and I’ll be damned if I rat him out in return of the huge favor he just did for me, even if he didn’t actually do it for my sake.
• I lied about the whole encounter. I simply went out of my room to fill my glass of water, found the office door open, went inside and only saw my father laying dead on the floor.
• Even my mom didn’t know the entire truth.
• Because of that man, I was a free person, free to do everything I always wanted to do with my life.
• I was finally going to start my life as if I was just reborn into this world.
• My life was going to get so much better from now on.
• Did that sound too good to be true?
• Yeah… I thought so too.