CHAPTER TWO
1104 Words
The day my revenge started
“Late again, Ms. Mia ?” Dad said from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel. He had a tie loosened around his neck and ink on his thumb from work.
“Your sister saved you rice. Don’t let it get cold.”
I set my bag down and hugged him. He smelled like paper and the faint cologne Mom said he only wore on Tuesdays.
“You’re home late, miss mia ” Mom hurried out of her room holding a towel in hands ,leans down smiling at me.
“ it was my home room teacher ,she asked me to stay ,she had something to important to discuss".
Mom got concerned 'is it serious".
"She just asked if I could join the school intelligence competition, since my last grade got to high"
_"that's my daughter. ” dad ruffled my hair .
Upstairs, my adoptive sister jack was blasting music while doing homework. it been been 8 months now, and she is the most loveliest sister ever. When I walked in she threw a pillow at me.
“Earth to sister Mia! Did you bomb the math test or what?”
“Didn’t bomb it. Just ace it,” I said, dropping onto her bed.
Mom called up from downstairs: “ jack volume down! Mia, dinner in 10!”
That was life now. Good school. Warm food. People who asked where I was and meant it.
I almost forgot that a year ago, no one came for me.
Dad worked at the most richest company in the country .
I sometimes hear him say the name Apex holding.
He worked there as a secretary, everything felt normal.
Dinner at 7. Dad home by 8. Mom nagging him about taking off his tie at the table.
Then one day a man came over, have never met him .not even once.
I was in the hallway when I heard the front door open late that night. Dad’s voice was low, urgent.
The man looked pale. He shoved something into Dad’s hands , a small black USB drive, and a stack of papers folded so tight the edges were creased.
“Keep this safe, Jason” he said. “If I don’t make it to court tomorrow, you know what to do.”
Dad didn’t answer. He just nodded.
The next morning, Mom got a call.
Her face went white.
“Uncle Daniel is dead,” she whispered later. “Car accident. Last night.”
That's when got to know that the Man who walked into our was name Daniel.
That he was dad's best friend
Dad didn’t cry. He didn’t talk.
He just started acting like someone else was living in his head.
He became worried.
He’d come home and sit at the table without eating.
Stare at the wall like he was seeing something far away.
When Mom would ask
“What’s wrong?”
he’d only shake his head and say, “Nothing. Long day.”
I started noticing the USB drive in his desk drawer.
The papers hidden under his shirts.
The way he’d jump if the phone rang.
He never told anyone what was in them.
He never told me why his best friend died the day after giving them to him.
But I knew one thing:
Since Uncle Daniel came, Dad hadn’t slept through the night once.
School ended early that day. It was Dad’s day off, and I was actually looking forward to seeing him.
Myself and jack walked home together, laughing about her failed chemistry quiz.
We pushed the door open.
“Dad?” we called out.
No answer.
The house was too quiet.
Something felt wrong.
We walked faster, down the hall, straight to his room.
The door was slightly open.
I pushed it.
Dad was on the floor.
There was blood everywhere.
A pool of it around him, dark and still.
jack screamed.
I couldn’t make a sound.
Outside, I could hear voices. Shouting.
We ran to the window.
A crowd of people surrounded our house.
They were pointing, yelling.
“Money launderer!”
“He stole from the company!”
Reporter with camera splash our faces "what is going on i thought"
I ran to my dad's body.held his hands,it went cold.
"My dad?
"The man who made me rice when I came home late? he was gone just like that I could remember the way he smiled at me
the way he ruffled my hair.the first time I could feel that love was gone ."
I stood up my brain couldn't take it anymore.
I didn’t understand.
Why people outside would say that about him?
By evening, the house looked like a crime scene.
Police tape. Strangers with cameras.
Men in suits from the company saying the house, the car, everything had to be seized.
We went to court a week later.
Mom barely spoke. jack clutched my hands the whole time.
We won.
The judge said the house belonged to us.
But we lost everything else.
The savings. The car. The money Dad had been hiding to protect us.
That night, I sat on my bed and stared at the celling.
If Dad did money laundering…
Why did he not tell us?
And why did Uncle Daniel die the day after he came to visit him?
this wanders through my head
It was three nights after the funeral.
I couldn’t sleep. The house was too quiet without Dad’s voice in the kitchen.
I remembered the USB drive.
The one uncle Daniel gave him the night before he died.
he hid it under a loose board in his closet and hadn’t touched it since.
My hands shook as I plugged it into my old laptop.
The folder opened.
Documents. Scanned receipts. Bank transfers. Names I didn’t recognize.
Dates.
Numbers with too many zeros.
I didn’t understand most of it.
But one word kept showing up, over and over.
Apex holding
Apex holding
The company Dad worked for.
The richest company in the country.
The same company whose lawyers tried to take our house.
My stomach dropped.
This wasn’t just some random crime.
Whatever Dad and Uncle Daniel had, it was about Apex holding
I closed the laptop fast, like it could hear me.
My heart was pounding.
Dad wasn’t just scared for no reason.
He wasn’t a thief for no reason.
He was hiding something that could get him killed.
And now knew it.
I didn’t know what to do with it.
But I knew one thing:
If the company found out I had this, I wouldn’t be safe either.
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