Chapter 106

Derek’s POV

Clara settled on the couch. I sat beside her, trying to appear as calm as possible.

"Before I say anything, I want you to know that I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I didn't know about it until much later." He whined.

"You should start talking," I demanded. Clara gave him a cold stare; he rubbed the back of his head, letting out a deep sigh.

"This whole thing began shortly after I last met you, Clara in, at the park that day. I was in a dark place. I was addicted to alcohol, and I couldn't get myself to admit it or even how it was destroying me. I started hanging around dangerous people, and I became hooked on far more dangerous addictions. I didn't see it back then. It only numbed the pain for a little while, and then I'd start all over again. I even did a few bad jobs with them. At that moment, they became my new family." He paused. He sighed again.

It Wasn't until I met an old friend from college that I decided to change my life. He helped me through all of my addictions, but they weren't willing to let me go that easily. They wanted me to pay them back for everything. I went and did a couple of odd jobs. With my friend's help, I gathered the amount they wanted. It wasn't until I returned to give them back their money that I found out about this. The guys had just been paid very well for a job they had recently done. They were born to beat up this guy who had been taken to run Clara over. He became too greedy and too smart. He started demanding more money. He hid some evidence that would incriminate her. They beat him up so badly he was placed in a coma. He was lucky he had no family; otherwise, they would have hurt them pretty badly." He paused.

I hadn't realised how much anger I'd held in. My hands were fisted and ready to punch something. I knew someone was behind that accident. He knew it the whole time and never reported it to the police. It's his fault Clara was was kidnapped. "You knew this whole time; why didn't you report it to the police?" I asked.

"I was a coward back then. I knew I had been a terrible father my whole life, but I didn't want anything worse to happen to Clara or her family. They are very dangerous. Besides, they said they would stop. Someone had been snooping way too much, and they wouldn't do anything to compromise themselves." He answered.

I could tell how deeply Clarawas affected by hearing all this. I wasn't too sure it was best, he continued.

"I thought the whole thing had ended, but I was wrong." He continued. "A couple of days ago, I discovered Clara had been kidnapped. I went and confronted them, but it turned out they were loyal to money. That was when I met the devil herself, Amelia." He paused.

I wasn't surprised that he had named her the mastermind, but I was upset with myself for not knowing this earlier.

"She threatened me to hurt my daughter and everyone I cared about. There was no telling what she would do if I reported her. Besides, I didn't think anyone would believe me. It had barely been a few weeks since I was clean, and I wouldn't have stood a chance against a rich upper-class woman, especially without evidence. It was my word against hers, and frankly, I wasn't sure if I would have walked out with my life that day." He paused. "So I pretended to move ahead with her plan, so I would get some recordings to use as evidence, and so I could find out where she was holding Clara. Slowly, she began to trust me. I told her I would help her. I swear I've never met a woman more sick." He paused. "Everything seemed to have been going okay. I got some recordings, and she said she wouldn't kill her immediately. That is until you showed up." He pointed at me.

Everything became clear, so I was right all along. I wish I had gone upstairs myself. Clara would have been spared from whatever it was that happened next. It was my fault.

"She decided to speed things up. She didn't want to risk anyone else finding out about Clara. She wanted to get rid of her. I did my best to try and stop her, but she was too determined. When I gave her the idea to inject her instead, I replaced one of the drugs with a sedative so that she would appear dead if anything went wrong. She wanted her buried in some shallow ground almost immediately. That way, her family would find her, lose all hope, and wouldn't search for her." He explained. "I rescued her as soon as I could. I hadn't meant for things to get this far. I only wanted to find Clara's location and then hand in all the evidence of the recordings I had gathered."

I couldn't believe this guy's nerves, trying to make himself sound like the hero. He should have told someone. I could have found her a lot sooner before any of this had happened. It was no wonder Clara was traumatised.

"You could have told someone you are just too big of a coward to admit it. That's why you made up all of those excuses." I snapped.

"I know, it's my fault." He sighed. "I didn't mean this to happen to you, Clara. I have known you since you were a little girl. Back then, you were like my own daughter; you still are. I should have never been involved with such people." He added.

As much as I wanted to beat him up until he was unconscious, my mind could only think of one thing. That woman needed to be stopped.

I stood up and paced the room as I thought about my next move. "That evidence you were talking about, where is it?" I asked.

"It's in a safe house somewhere. It was too risky for me to keep those recordings on me." He explained.

"Luke, I need you to go with him and find that evidence and get the police involved. We need to put a stop to this woman once and for all," I asked.

Luke nodded.

We then thought out the rest of the plan. A friend of mine was Meyer, and he had the connections to help us. This was going to be an easy operation.