2. Work for me

"Quit NIF, and work for me, as long as you don't tell me the culprit, you are my culprit."

"But Caleb… I have worked all my life to join that … to join NIF" Crystal responded, fresh tears welling down her eyes. "You understand… I can-"

"I need answers Ms. Alwack, If it wasn't for you, my brother would have been here, among us. Because-" Caleb couldn't complete his statement. He sniffed softly and left the room. Before leaving he turned once to look at Crystal, "Either the culprit, or it's you."

"Caleb for God's Sake please lis-"

A loud slam at the door silenced the room once and for all. 

Work for him? Over my dead body! Who told him I am going do to that? Crystal looked around scanning the dark room. 

This is easy, I can elope this place, run away and be happy for the rest of my fucking life. If Edward wasn't his brother I would have never let him touch me let alone hurt me like that.

Crystal kicked the table and hurt her foot. 

Upstairs, the entire room was under surveillance and Caleb watched as he looked at angry Crystal on the screen. His fist curled up in a ball. 

I loved this woman, this fucking killer of my brother. I thought she was innocent. She was a little charming lady but who could have thought? They are both alike.

Caleb slammed a vase on the floor. 

Both she and her sister are alike, after rich men, after money. Bloody spineless cowards. Caleb was pissed, as emotions welled up within him. 

Just then his cell phone rang. The sun was brightly lit outside, he picked it up. 

"Sir the Samana Complex is now under The Fitzgerald Corp." a stern voice informed Caleb.

#

Two days passed slowly, with every second a reminder of Crystal's time with her family and how things turned out over time. She missed her sister who had to marry Edward Fitzgerald five years ago, in her place. 

Crystal believed before this that Edward was the root cause of why Shasha committed suicide, however that was also taken away from her. Edward shared with Crystal several files that turned her thoughts drastically. 

How the fuck can that be the case? If what Edward said is true, then Shasha was the actual villain. That just can't be. How can she hurt? Betray? Shasha? No! Edward has to be lying.

Crystal felt her nerves twist into immense pain. Crystal was however more puzzled with everything that happened over the past four to five days. 

She had just graduated from Malorna University when she found Max standing in the audience tense and defeated. Crystal had loved him for several years now. They hadn't met over five years but she was glad he found her. 

As happy as she was, even Max was bad news at the moment. She cheerfully went and hugged Maxmillian, infusing her happiness however tears from his eyes created blots on her shirt. She expected them to be out of love and care. 

"Max, I am so happy you are here. How did you know I was here?" Crystal asked, excited to see him.

"Crystal… I " he sobbed, "I have been looking for you for ages. I've missed you. As much as I am happy for you, I need you to come home." 

"I am not going back there. You remember how daddy was adamant on wedding me to some rich jerk because he was torturing him." Crystal debated.

"I remember Crystal, I remember everything. To be honest, for some selfish reason I am glad you ran off from the wedding… but" Max tried to put words to everything.

"But What? Max. I am happy and now that I have started my business and secured a reputed job in NIF, you know what that means right?" 

Max edged closer and softly caressed her chin. "I know it means a lot to you and it means a lot to me, but your family needs you. It is not about us. It is about Shasha…"

The twist in the doorknob and the large creak sound brought her back to the present. "Here, have something to eat," a young man dressed in a black polo and jeans reached out to her.

Crystal's thoughts shifted from her past to her stomach which made a large growl announcing her hunger to no one in particular. 

She looked up blankly at the man. He was the one who was slammed against the wall yesterday. She noticed his bandaged head, as he retrieved towards the exit.

She looked at the bottle placed adjacent to the food. She tried to open the water bottle which was sealed but wasn't able due to her weakness. The bottle tumbled down and rolled on the floor. 

The young man turned around and picked it up. On a closer look, Crystal realized how young he was. He opened the bottle and handed it to her. 

She tried to hold it but had little power in her. The young man arched his brows, noticing how weak Crystal was. He helped her drink water from the bottle. 

"Here, let me help you." He dragged the same chair Caleb was sitting on and sat on it. The screeching sound of the chair affected Crystal. She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. "I am sorry, sorry, here" he pulled up the chair and placed it softly near her. 

Crystal chewed softly, "Are you better?"

"Hmm?" the man asked as he looked at her looking at his wound, "Ohh, perfectly. Caleb can be a little over the top sometimes. You know" he replied, "I am Norman by the way." 

Norman smiled at her. She was still observing him. "You are young, very young, and might do wonders in academics, or your field of passion. Why are you here?" Crystal asked in a soft voice.

"Hey, I am not dumb. I am a Software Engineer, though much like white hat, but you get my point."

Crystal gasped, clearly not expecting that to be the case. "Why are you here then? I saw how Caleb treated you the other day."

"And he applied the medicine too, no I am not justifying his bad aggression, but he is also like a brother to me. He has been there for me when we, me and my father were at our lowest. In a family, you don't fight back, you help each other grow. Edward mattered a lot to him. He wasn't only a brother, his guide, his everything, I am sure you know how it is…"

Crystal thought of how she felt when she heard about Shasha and can totally relate to the feeling. "Yeah. I understand, and I promise it wasn't me."

"No. no. that's not what I meant, if you know something, please just tell h-." before he could complete, Crystal debated. "Honestly Norman, the thing is that night everything was blurry, as Edward told me stuff, I was blurred out with memories and questions. It was all very hard on me. I didn't even see anyone stab him, it was the other day when the officer mentioned that someone had confessed the crime, I realized that Edward was stabbed."

"That must have been hard to handle. But honestly, you can at least help him out to find the criminal. We all know your investigation acumen, you have an excellent record of solved cases." Norman replied.

"I know, but NIF has been like my dream place, my family, we all would be in a better place Norman. And you know I can still work from there to find his culprits, I'd even have better aids and people at my disposal. My team, William, everyone is very intelligent."

The expressions on Norman turned from sad to shocked like litmus paper in strong acid. "Actually? Do you know who confessed the crime in your place?" he managed to say. 

"Of course not, the police said it was the criminal but I definitely don't believe it. While I was shocked myself, my guesses -" Crystal tried to give a hypothesis, but Norman cut her in the middle. 

"It was William," Norman told her. 

"Wait, what?-"

#

Early the next morning, in a hospital, the sound of a monitor beeping filled the room. It was eerily quiet, an old man was lying on the hospital bed. A young man was sitting on the adjacent bench. 

The sunlight was falling through the open windows. The old man blinked open his eyes and tried to make sense of the surroundings. He lifted his hands and as if on cue the young man stood up. 

"You need something dad?" the young man said. The old man gestured at a jar placed next to his table. The young man helped him with the water. He sat upright and looked around. "What were you thinking? We need to be discreet at all costs." The old man tried to speak as loud as he could. 

"Yes sir, but we had no other options, the people there already called an ambulance and for the sake of avoiding attention, we didn't create much scene with the medical help," he replied with his head down.

The silence returned to the room. "Is it done?" the old man asked. "Yes. She is in the Colebridge Prison. Soon, we'll figure out a way to trap her dad, she will be back in a cage laying golden eggs."

"Good… good Max, I am glad you can at least handle that." the old man contemplated, "And the documents?"

"Burnt them." Max flinched.

"Just like they should be," the old man said. "However I think, I shouldn't be here." he said a while later, "Call Bridger and tell him to arrange me a flight to Vicenza, no, no… make one to Italy, I'd take some other route from there. I would lay low." 

"Keep her in the trap. She shouldn't be suspicious." the old man warned him.

"Yes Dad, I'd be vigilant." 

Just then the door, and an old woman in her later fifties walked in. "Good lord Honey!" she screamed and walked to the bedside. "Rebecca…" the old man said. 

"Thomas, you should have told me, at least give me some heads up. You know, how much I love you. I am happy to see you out of danger." Rebecca cried and held Thomas' stable hands. 

"Rebecca..." Thomas was happy to see her, "I am fine, I am glad you came."

"I just didn't come empty handed, I have some potential threat." Rebecca said in a sharp raising voice. She glared at Max.

"That insolent little brat, that Crystal is out of the Prison." Rebecca said in an accusatory tone, looking at Max.