THE REJECTED SON-IN-LAW (Birth of the Mafia)

Chapter Seven

“She is Charles Fiancée,” he said. “She and Charles had planned all this up, he married Hanna and took over the Coopers empire.”

I looked at him feeling a little confused.

“Why did they want to do that? Practically, Jennifer doesn’t know Mr. Cooper,” I assumed, because I hadn't heard her mention him before, or was she keeping him a secret from me?

Jack clicked on the mouse and a different image showed on the screen.

“This is Cooper at an event, and you see the lady he was talking to.”

I looked closer. It was Jennifer standing beside him, both were talking and laughing.

“Yes, I see her,” I squeezed my face. She was indeed a monster like her mother. That fake smile she always put on when she was meeting you for the first time.

“This Jennifer and Fredrick Your guy—“

“He is not my guy,” I said, my voice sounding deep.

“Right, point taken, not yours, it turns out that both have been dating for five months now—“

“Wait five months!” I shouted.

Jack looked at me confused as to why I shouted.

“What is going on, man?” He froze, looking at me.

“Nothing,” I replied, sitting down on my chair.

“You said nothing, but you were flaming up earlier.”

“I just said nothing.” I yelled, my fists tightened.

“Okay, if you say so,” he said calmly, turning back to the computer, scared at the same time. “Back to what we were saying, the camera at the crime scene proved that Jennifer was the last person with Fredrick the night before he died.”

My eyes turned to him at him, it all looked clear. The murder Miss Raymond, Jennifer and Charles were talking about at the dining table when Charles first came to the house was all about Fredrick Cooper. I blamed myself for not seeing this coming.

I took a deep breath. “What do they need Hanna for? Charles and Jennifer could get her father's wealth easily, but why take her?” I asked.

He didn’t reply immediately, he was calm, like he wanted me to spill more, but I didn’t. My focus was on getting rid of Charles.

“After the death of Hanna’s mom, Cooper thought it was wise to will all his assets to his daughter,” he said, clicking on the Mouse and a different image appeared on the screen. “That is a document which legally states that Hanna could take over her father's wealth once she is married.”

I raised my eyebrows. That really explains why Charles kept her alive. The urgent marriage was all for the wealth and power.”

Now everything seems clear to me, Charles and Jennifer really kicked me out just for them to be together. I walked to the window, smiled at myself. Now, they won’t see me coming. I would make sure they pay dearly for what they did to me.

I took my phone from my pocket and dialed the number of the man I met at the café. He picked instantly.

“What, do you have some good news for me?” he asked.

“Yeah, I found out who CJ had been working with.”

“Jennifer Raymond,” he said.

“Oh, you know?” I asked, curious why he didn’t tell me about it.

“Yeah, I knew she was the girl Cooper was with during the night of his murder,” he said, sounding calm. “I knew about you too, your ex-wife.”

I immediately put the phone on hold and turned to Jack. He had covered his ear with a big headset, his hands were busy clicking on his computer. I assumed he wasn’t listening. So I told jack I would be going back to my room. He didn’t reply because the headset didn’t allow. Before I could open my door, I put the phone back on speaker.

“How did you know about this?” I asked on the phone.

“We searched the mansion, found an old wedding photo inside a trash-can in the basement.”

“So you are telling him you have Jennifer with you.” I swallowed hard.

“She escaped before we could arrive, her mom too.”

I paused immediately when a doorbell rang. I looked through my door.

“I would call back, someone is at the door,” I whispered before ending the call.

I rushed to the drawer, took out the pistol and walked slowly to the living room. I met Jack, he looked curious and confused.

“Did you invite someone over?” he asked, holding a hair dryer.

“No I didn’t, I thought you did,” I asked, walking closer.

“No, I didn’t,” he said, placing the dryer beside his cheek like a gun.

I walked closer to the door, opened the curtain, and I saw a man wearing a red T-shirt and a red face cap.

“Did you order something because there is a delivery guy standing at the door?

Jack shocked his head.

“I did,” Hanna said, walking out of the room, she opened the door, and went back inside with a package.

“You ordered pizza, and you didn’t get to tell me about it?,” I asked, walking behind her.

“What do you have me do? I was hungry and needed to eat. You two never said anything about dinner,” she shouted, holding the package with both hands.

I knew she had been through a lot lately, especially after her dad’s death, but she was acting reckless.

“Hanna, we are all trying our best to survive here. Charles and his men are practically looking for us,” I said calmly. “Doing this might blow our cover.”

“Oh no, Sam,” Jack called, holding his phone. “They are already here.”

“What do we do now?” Hanna asked, panicking, the package dropped from her hand.

“Follow me,” I whispered. “We should make it out through the tunnel.”

I turned back but couldn't find Jack,

“Jack, where are you,” I shouted, looking upstairs.

He ran down holding a flash drive. “Let's get out of here,” he said.

We ran out through tunnels, and minutes later we were on the street. I spotted my car, told them to get in. When they did, we hit the road.

Jack laughed. When we were finally out of the area, we kept looking behind to confirm we weren’t followed.

“That was a bit of an adventure,” Jack said.

Hanna turned to look at me.

“I'm sorry for what happened back there. It was all my fault,” she cried.

“No, it's not yours, you were just doing the right thing,” I said, holding the steering tight.

“So where are we going,” Jack finally asked what was in my mind. “My Safe House has been destroyed. I could literally smell the smoke coming down out of there right now.”

Hanna and I turned to him sitting in the back seat.

“What do you mean by destroyed?” I asked.

He sat up and drew his face closer to us.

“Well, when I went upstairs, I didn’t just go for a drive, I set a self-destruct code on my computer. I Am sure this Charles of a guy won't make it out there alive.”

I stepped on the brakes and the car made a loud noise before stopping. I turned to him and this time my face was facing him.

“Are you sure about this?”

“Am sure my figure doesn’t lie.”

I smiled, but kept the joy within myself.

Finally, Charles was dead, and now I have to deal with Jennifer next.