Pete's POV
"Take these keys with you..."
Grandma said.
"...How can this be possible...?! Grandpa...grandpa is the white bishop and you grandma... you are the white queen?!"
"Listen Pete...we tried to stop them from hurting Venice...we tried...I'm so sorry, Pete...I'm so sorry..."
"Venice?!" I place my hand on Venice's face and his heart... "VENICE?! VENICE?! They hurt my son?!Where?! Why?!"
"Pete?!..." A turn suddenly pointing my gun to the shadow behind me while holding my motionless son.
I hadn't realized that armed men had entered the attic.
"Lian...?!" My grandma says surprised.
"Aunt Jui..."
"Dài tāmen huí jiā. Qǐng bǎohù tāmen...Lian." (Take them home. Protect them, please.)
"Shì de, Juì Fèng āyí." (Yes, Aunt Jui Feng.)
Although confused, I can understand what they say...this is mandarin.
Grandma holds my hand one last time and closes her teary eyes.
"Grandma?!Wake up!"
I look at my grandparents and my unconscious baby.
I feel my throat burning...and tears welling up in my eyes.
But I keep pointing the gun at the white king... "Don't come near." I say firmly.
"You can shoot me, Pete. But I just made a promise that I will fulfill."
Wang's bodyguards put my grandparents on stretchers and cover them with dark blankets.
"Pete...give me Venice." Assistant Lee covered in my grandfather's blood approaches.
My mind is confused. I don't want to let go of him.
"Give me Venice, Pete!"
"...He's cold...he's cold... I need to warm him..." that's all I can say repeatedly do Assistant Lee.
Assistant Lee checks him out.
"Pete..." Assistant Lee says my name but looks at Lian Wang.
"Take him, Lee." He commands her.
"We need to get him to Dr. Top." I drop my gun and stand with Venice to quickly get out of there. "Get us to the hospital now!"
"Pete...give Venice to Lee...she will take care of him." Wang says, calmly.
"Pete...give Venice to me." Assistant Lee holds out her arms to catch Venice.
"No! I take him!" I give a step back.
"Pete...don't you understand...?!" Assistant Lee says with sadness in her voice.
...
Vegas' POV
When we entered the island it was still possible to hear the bombs exploding... the noise was coming from my uncle's factory...
The fire had spread so quickly across the island that charred bodies could be seen along the path to Pete's grandparents' house. The screams of people running away could be heard.
But attentive eyes could see that it could be all a farce. Armed mercenaries were on the island. Probably started the fire. But why hadn't we found any Main Family security on the island?! Why weren't the rescue boats out to sea?!
The mercenaries attacked us on the way. According to Arm, they were the same ones who attacked them in the Minor family's mansion.
My eyes intently shot every target that came our way, but my mind was focused on getting to Pete and Venice.
When we entered the property, fire was intense. Grandma Jui's once beautiful garden was summed up in burning flames and ash.
Suddenly a group of armed men, dressed in white, surrounded us.
The four of us huddle together, linking our backs and pointing our guns at them.
"Hey! I know you!!" Macau said, looking at one of the men. "Why are you doing this?! Why are you attacking our home?!"
There was no response from the other side.
They kept pointing their guns at us.
Those were the same bodyguards who accompanied us in the helicopter with Assistant Lee.
"Where is Pete?! I'm going to see him and Venice and I'm willing to die for it."
I position my rifle to fire.
"Calm down, Khun Vegas." One of the men, wearing a white garment different from the others, approaches empty-handed. "We haven't attacked this island. We just came to help."
"Is Pete inside?!"
"We believe so."
"So let me pass."
"Wait here please, Khun Vegas. We have orders not to let anyone in."
"Nothing and no one will stop me from finding Pete and my son."
I point my gun to his face.
Suddenly more men in white rush out of the house carrying two covered stretchers.
My heart beats faster.
My heart aches.
The propeller of the huge helicopter that was nearby suddenly starts to move.
The guards that were surrounding us form a protective corridor for those leaving the house.
"Pete!Pete!" I shout.
Soon after I see Assistant Lee coming out of the house carrying something wrapped in a blanket.
Her forehead is wounded, and her clothes are covered in blood.
Guards try to help her, but she won't let anyone take the blanket.
She looks at me. I see her worried countenance. She rushes to the helicopter.
I immediately drop the rifle I'm holding and run towards her.
Arm, Macau and Nop keep pointing their guns to protect me.
But before I get close, Pete comes out of the house, supported by Lian Wang.
He looks quite injured.
"Pete?!?!PETE! God...you are alive."
For a few seconds I felt totally relieved to see him alive in front of me.
But before I reach Pete, something in his facial expression makes me instinctively stop.
He lets go of Lian Wang and walks towards me.
His white shirt, the same one he was wearing when we last saw each other that afternoon, was soaked in blood... as well as his face... his hands.
His condition was deplorable.
And worst of all...he wasn't holding Venice in his arms.
My eyes instantly scanned Assistant Lee's path to the helicopter.
In that span of seconds, I see Pete's clenched fist coming towards my face.
I widen my eyes in surprise before taking the hit. By reflex my eyes close, but instead of a punch I feel a slap on my left cheek.
A slap so hard it makes me lose my balance and fall to the ground.
The impact on my face makes my lower lip crack and bleed.
When I pull myself together, I realize Pete is firmly holding his gun, pointing it to my head.
By his swollen eyes and I know he cried a lot. But there are no more tears.
There's something else in his eyes.
There's hatred.
"I told you, Vegas. I warned you in that warehouse that your revenge would only bring us more pain."
"Pete...what happened?!...what happened?! Where's grandma and grandpa?! Where's Venice?!"
"..." Pete stays silent and held the trigger back. He holds the gun very tightly.
He is different from how he was at that warehouse. He's so ready to shoot me for real now.
I look at him feeling confused. My stomach aches from apprehension. My heart aches from despair.
My eyes get wet.
"Pete...please...where's Venice?!"
He looks at me fiercely.
"You should die too..."
"Pete...!?"
"I hate you." Pete says with the same conviction he always told me he loved me.
Suddenly Pete's left hand holding the gun shakes and he places his right hand on his stomach.
He bends and Wang reaches out to catch him before he hits the ground.
I rush over to Pete to grab him too.
We both hold Pete down, who is unconscious.
"Pete?! Pete?!" I pat Pete on the cheek to make him wake.
I hear Macau call for Pete too, distressed, asking Arm about Venice.
"He lost a lot of blood, Vegas."
"He was hit...he was hit by a bullet this afternoon..." I say feeling terrible guilt.
"Let us take him. We must hurry to get out of here to a hospital." Wang says, commanding his men to take Pete to the helicopter on a stretcher.
"I'm coming with you."
"Vegas..."
"I'm coming with Pete and Venice." I shout resolutely.
"You know what happened here..."
"Why?!"
"You know why. You both know why. Pete's assassination order has been replaced, Vegas... by Pete's grandparents and by..."
"How do you know?! How do you know it, Wang?!" I ask him aggressively.
"Because they belong to the white clan...you will understand it later."
I squeeze Wang's arms that hold mine. Tears already pour profusely from my eyes.
I stare at the floor, but I see nothing but an immense despair taking over me.
"I failed all of them. I brought this to all of them. I've sent Venice to this island...this is my uncle's feat, isn't it?! I provoked my uncles ire...Pete warned me...he was so disappointed at me...I left him wounded in that abandoned warehouse...this is my fault. I brought them death."
I feel like reliving all hopelessness when my father died, and I wanted to kill myself.
I feel like dying too.
"They don't need to kill Pete anymore, Vegas...you see it now, don't you?!"
I turn to face Wang again.
"Now he is already dead...all of them..." I say with a cracked voice.
"And so are you."
...
Lian's POV (Taipei - Wang's hospital)
"I'm pretty sure I switched the drug Jenny injected in Venice for the antidote." (1)
"Venice's treatment at that Thai hospital... how much do we know about that, Lee?"
"I'll have it investigated."
"The antidote should have worked in Venice by now. He should have woken up."
"I know. By the way, will you talk to Pete now?!"
"Is he already awaked?!"
"Yes...He's in a room in the private wing of our hospital. I positioned two of our bodyguards at the entrance to the room. (2)"
"I'm going to see him now."
"Is that what he wanted, Lian?"
"One way or another Khun Kan got what he wanted, Lee..."
"Vegas and Pete are no longer together."
...
Author's note:
Reference:
(1) In the fanfic "The Way You Taste" sanya sends hir spy nanny Jenny to poison Venice with a drug. This drug is produced by Lian Wang Pharmaceutical Company. Doctor Top treats Venice after-effects due to the alleged drug. But actually in this chapter the assistant Lee reveals that she had switched the drug that would leave Venice with epilepsy for another medication. What this medication is for will be explained in the next chapters.
(2) Chapter 18 (From ashes, from broken pieces) continuation.
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Please don't hate me yet.Soon I will write the next chapter.I remember that in one of the chapters...maybe chapter 18...some readers complained that, like many other fanfics, bad things happened to Pete and nothing happened to Vegas. That Vegas never had a punishment for his actions. Not even in the original story. Not in fanfictions.Well... I don't know if I wrote it right. If the way it is written it is possible to feel the pain of Pete and Vegas.It's hard to describe emotions.And it's also very difficult for me to write what I imagine in my head, especially in a language I don't speak as a native.But I can say that Vegas is suffering a lot at the end of this chapter.But yes, we will have a happy ending! never lose hope.I know what I'm doing. And I'm not going to make anyone sad forever.
I know that when I say this I kill the suspense, but I also know that dwelling on a bad event is not good for the reader.
I'm also sorry if I wrote something wrong in Chinese. I used google translator. So I don't know if it's the best translation.
See you in the next chapter.
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Thank you so much!
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