Hurting

As soon as Prince walked in the front door, an usher of the maids lining up the grand staircase welcomed him.

A woman in her 50's stood with her back on Prince, holding a designer bag, and her hair is tied up in a bun. The head maid explained multiple times that she couldn't come inside the premises, and that she called out for Prince Gomez to come out of his room.

The maids of the side noticed him.

Prince knew it's time to call out. "Hey, what are you doing to my territory?"

He knew who it was: it was Avery's mother, Lara. She stopped fighting with the head maid, gradually turning around, meeting Prince's dark gaze. They're distance away, but the bullets in their untouched calibers shoot right through their chest. But he's never afraid of the De Leon's.

Prince had beaten one of them.

"Mr. Prince Gomez, you're home." Her tone seemed different. She might have it down for the past few days, all devastated with the news of her daughter's death. Lara should have known to kiss his feet, and pay the apology she owed to Prince and Bryce's father.

"What are you doing here?"

It made her swallow. All of the pride she wore for the past few years after Avery and Prince decided to have a relationship washed out. The mask untied on its own, falling down the floor, and a fragile Lara has been revealed.

Prince watched as she crumbled.

The tears came out on her side lids. Prince sighed, ordering for the maids to go back to their post as Lara took a toll on her dramatic scene. He hasn't done anything yet, but she's kneeling down with her eyes.

As the maids turned back to their station, Lara knelt down as soon as possible. She threw in her Chanel bag on the side of the room, gasping for breath, and wept, "Please, forgive us."

Prince scoffed. The time he's been waiting for has finally happened. Lara was asking for forgiveness.

"What else?"

Lara pursed her lips, closed her eyes, saying, "Spare Aria's life. Can you please…"

"You don't even know what her life was in Parela," Prince retorted. Lara turned to him, huffing. She walked with her knees, holding to his legs, but Prince staggered back, avoiding her touch. Lara lunged forward, falling down the floor, while Prince snickered.

"You're unbelievable."

Lara clasped her hands together, begging for Prince for Aria's life. She rubbed it together, but Prince knew it has no effect on him. No empathy would remove the fact her husband, the late Zion Cortez, made his father miserable in prison.

They supposed to fight with each other's backs, and not stabbed on each other's dignity.

"Please, Aria. Don't touch her."

Prince was in possession of Aria, and Lara didn't even know her daughter's whereabouts. He laughed.

"Why are you pleading to me and sought to have forgiveness today when you didn't even give me that back then?"

It made Lara stopped from sobbing. She clenched her jaw. The guilt was all over her face.

"Did you remember the time you accused both Ian Gomez and Nathan Fajardo upon the assassination of your husband, and not even thinking about the children they will leave behind?" Prince threw her a question. All his life, he grew up alone. He didn't even have the chance to have a bubbly childhood, because he kept on plotting the secret code and plan they need to have for the revenge.

"Did you even know how hard it was for me to survive ALONE in this MANSION without even a parent to guide me?! Now, you're asking me to spare your daughter's life?! Did you even take care of Aria, huh?!" Prince was too angry to Lara for taking away his father.

The accusations were groundless, but Lara continuously testified, or even fabricated evidences just to put the blame to her husband's best friend. It was something he could never forgive in his entire lifetime.

Lara was the one who put him on invisible bars that no one can tore off but forgiveness.

"Please."

It's the only word she can say now out of all the sins she has made. Prince couldn't help but to knuckle his fists. He's so close to punching this woman, but he still has a decent respect.

"What you do to my father will happen to your child. It happened, right? And you're in so much pain you couldn't forgive yourself? Feel what I feel, Mrs. Lara Cortez. You should rot in hell for putting us in misery," Prince spat.

Lara whined, still kneeling down, and begging.

"Get out of my mansion or I'll stab you in the neck," he threatened.

…

Prince met up with Bryce on a nearby restaurant.

Bryce held his briefcase tightly, rushing across the seat, and noticed Prince's eyes. He lifted his eyebrows.

Prince poured himself half of the shot glass and drank the clear alcohol, burning down his throat.

"What happened?"

Prince slammed the shot glass. "Avery's mother dropped by on the mansion, pleading for forgiveness."

Bryce got astonished. "What did you say to her?"

Prince has a lot of thoughts rambling inside his mind. Aria's presence in his life made everything so difficult to escape on. With Aria not being dead, the Cortez-De Leon would just keep entering their life like an open door and no one can even close it but him.

Since that day Bryce let him off loose, stress has been taking over his body.

"Our fathers stayed by Tim Espino's side when he was still the president, and when they are urged to run for the elections, they turned against each other." Prince halted for a while, pouring down another half glass, and drank it without hesitation. Bryce didn't say anything nor even hitch the glass away from him.

"Each one destroyed own dignities by secrets. The bribery, the money they pocketed in, the frauds they had to commit in order to clean the former president's tracks, has been used to taint their identities."

Bryce took a hold of the bottle, and Prince looked up at him. He clenched his jaw.

"Finish what you had to say before the alcohol ran out," Bryce reprimanded. Prince scrunched his nose, slamming the table with his fist, and looked out of the window, fighting back the tears. Bryce pushed the alcohol out of his reach as Prince fumed.

"The government was too dirty by the end. They just left the cabinet members on their own, spilling blood in their names, as if they're the one who did that. Funny fact, they all did it in exchange of money, along with our fathers. But I don't… want to accept that Ian Gomez and Nathan Fajardo assassinated Zion Cortez."

When the 2000 elections happened, they tabulated the results of the elected president. Zion Cortez won, revealing almost ¾ of the Vasterian population voted for him, entrusting them with the next steps of Tim Espino's plan.

He had gained a lot of praise on the first week he won, but after a day or a two, he got assassinated.

A lot of theories and conspiracies surfaced about the death of Zion Cortez. A lot of suspects had revealed.

But the real target of the assassination was Ian Gomez and Nathan Fajardo. They're the ones who spread false information about Zion Cortez when they're still on a campaign, and the court justified they abetted the assassination. They became prime suspects for a month, and who knows who, someone dropped off EVERY SINGLE THING Ian Gomez and Nathan Fajardo did in the past administration.

And Lara De Leon, the one who pleaded earlier, testified to all of it as true.

It strengthened their verdict and fury against Zion Cortez, the then-Solicitor General under Tim Espino.

"Prince, no one knew who gunned down Zion Cortez." Bryce still remained his calmest tone.

"That's what I'm angry about, Bryce! Lara pretended she didn't know anything about her husband's deeds under Espino's administration! They're the ones who put our fathers in jail! They should have a taste of their own medicine." The rage in Prince's face and heart was undeniable.

"We don't know what really happened under Tim Espino's administration, Prince. As long as we don't have the evidence that Zion isn't innocent, too, our fathers will still remain in prison."

The appeals were a long way to go. Both of them are prosecutors, so they have to hide under the shadows of their trusted defense counsels.

"I wanted to kill all of them." He reached out for the bottle and it's too late for Bryce to get a hold of it.