Alden got home at around 10 in the evening after he drove Maine to her house that night. It had been a busy day for them as they made the initial preparations for their wedding.
The light wasn't on by his front door so he had a hard time getting the key into the knob. He took his phone out to get some light and he noticed three missed calls from Jerald, all of them within the last 30 minutes.
Why have I been missing too many calls lately?
He finally got the door unlocked and as he walked in, he noticed a box behind one of the huge plant boxes he had on the front door. He remembered the fan mails that Fe mentioned so he picked it up. He could see that the letters were already placed on top.
He walked into the house and placed the box on top of the coffee table as he went and gave Jerald a call. There was no answer. He tried again twice and once more the phone just kept ringing.
Great. I wonder what he needed.
He sat on the sofa and began opening the letters. Weirdly enough, the first three that he had opened were decorated differently but the messages were the same and all of them written with letter cut outs from magazines and newspapers. The message read: "congratulations on your new book and hopefully, your engagement"
He opened the fourth one and noticed right away that it was different. The card that was used was plain red in color - no designs, no pictures out front. When he flipped it open there was a scribbled message in the middle, but the hand writing was small and was hardly legible that he had to look at it very closely to actually read what it said. His blood turned cold when he finally did.
You got me locked up but you seemed to have forgotten how powerful I am. You've had several chance to kill me. Soon enough you're gonna wish that you just did.
PS: Congratulations on your new book... You chose a really great picture of my girlfriend on the cover. I'm excited to see her soon.
Alden laid the letter down with trembling hands and he gave a little jump when his phone started vibrating again. It was Jerald.
"Jerald," he said quietly as he picked up on it's second ring.
"Alden we have a problem," Jerald said urgently from the other line.
"Tell me about it," Alden answered through gritted teeth.
"You knew already?"
"What exactly should I know?"
"Brent got himself out of jail, paid 2.5M worth of bail money." Jerald said.
"What?!" Alden exclaimed. "He was in there for illegal detention and attempted murder. Attempted murder is un-bailable!"
"But it's available at the discretion of the court and the police officer in charge. It looks like Brent was able to pull some strings." Jerald explained.
"What the fuck is wrong with this system?" Alden almost yelled. He was pacing back and forth in his living room as he talked. "When did he get out?"
"Two days ago."
"Shit! And why am I only finding this out now?" Alden demanded.
"I just got hold of Marco tonight. He had been trying to call me since the other day but I was unavailable due to work." Jerald explained.
"We were the ones who filed the case against him. Why didn't they contact me?"
"I don't know, man."
Alden ran his fingers through his hair anxiously. "Do you know where Brent is now?"
"I don't. But he could be back in Manila already." Jerald answered grimly.
"Fuck."
"Alden, what's your plan?" Jerald asked.
"To be honest, I've got nothing, Je." Alden said, and he had to sit down as he felt his knees go weak with anxiety.