The Other Side

Chapter 19

"Hi. I brought coffee." She greeted once she settled on the seat beside her husband who only acknowledged her with a weary look.

"Caleb and I better be going now. We'll go meet Felicity and straighten things out." My mom grabbed her handbag and rose from her seat and headed for the door.

"Take care Nate. Make sure to drink a lot of water okay?" The worried and caring mother was back. I was always amazed by how my mother switched roles depending on the circumstances at hand. It was heartwarming.

" Yes I will. I love you mom. Take care. Don't worry about me too much. I'll be okay with Mr Clarence here." I reassured her and she relaxed.

" I love you too. Bye." She closed the door behind her as they made their way home with Caleb.

A few minutes later, Donna decided to approach her father as I grabbed a latte to drink. It was still hot and it burned the tip of my tongue.

"Ouch."

"Careful Nate, its still very hot." Donna handed me a paper towel to rub my now soiled tee-shirt.

"Donna, can I ask you something?" I called. I wanted to make sure everyone took responsibility for what happened.

"Yeah, what?" She looked a bit confused.

"Why didn't you tell anyone about the threats you were receiving? Didn't you think that was relevant information? Perhaps all of this would have been avoided." I waved my hands referring to the situation we were in.

" I was scared okay! The person said if I dared utter a word to anyone, he would skin me alive then incinerate me. I don't know how that feels like but I wasn't ready to find out." She said her eyes welling with tears.

"Still, I believe something could have been done. But its already too late now." I relented dejectedly.

Mr Clarence was watching us intently. He saw the look of regret and uncertainty in her daughter's eyes.

"You still question why I made her heiress of the company and not you, or both of you don't you?" He asked her daughter and Donna seemed surprised by her father's question. She only nodded her head.

" She is so kind and tough, even I am not that tough, don't know where she got that character from, perhaps her Nana," he spoke with so much adoration.  "I also know that she loathed the fact that we were so rich, as you all know she bought her bike with her own money. You on the other hand had all the guardian angels you could ever want, your Grandpa, your mother, me, your aunts but she, she has no one looking after her the way you do. Her Nana is her only comfort and solace. Also your Grandpa had a trust fund with loads of money, more than you could ever need, all passed down to you. Your Grandpa thought she was a troublesome kid, said she would plunder all his money in one year, I wished he knew the kind of woman she turned out to be. He would be so proud. So yeah, I didn't know how else to show her that she wasn't alone and that I loved her more than anything else in this world so I made her heiress." He was silently crying.

"But knowing her, she might sell the whole company after am gone and donate the money to charities. She is that selfless. I now understand why she kept doing what she did. Its a defense mechanism of hers, to help he cope with life's brutal shoves. All of my sins have come back to haunt me in the most painful way." He covered his face with the palms of his hands as he cried bitterly.

"Its okay dad. I never understood Nana's obsession with her, but hearing you talk about  Ryn like that makes me feel like the most terrible sister to ever grace the face of earth. Grandpa already told me about the trust fund, I guess am never satisfied like that. I wanted everything all to myself. All this is because I was jealous." She admitted as she rubbed her face repeatedly as if she was trying to erase something from her memory.

"Jealous? But of what?" I couldn't help but question her absurdity.

"Her. She was always a valiant fighter. I adored how she could handle every tough situations in life, even when she didn't have anyone by her side. She would turn everything around and find the good in every situation. One wouldn't know that by simply looking at her exterior appearance, she made sure to hide that. I was jealous that she got anything she wanted, I was jealous that she achieved even the greatest of things and wouldn't brag a tad bit about them. I wished I was her and I did everything I could to always get her out of the picture."

Donna's confession surprised all of us. She was the one in MIT yet she was jealous of Ryn. She was the one always getting the attention yet she envied her? She had everything within her grasp but Ryn always worked hard for what she wanted, how could she be jealous of her?

It  was confusing.

Donna and her mom then went back home to rest and promised to be back with food and I was so tired. Mr Clarence was sleeping by the bedside and I decided to go to the restroom before coming back to the room to rest.

When I came back, I heard shuffling noise and I hurried back to see what was happening. I was shocked to see Ryan with a pillow on Ryn's face, suffocating her.

"Detective Ryan? What do you think you are doing?"

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