A soilder’s comeback (revenge served cold)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

UNCLE COLEEN.

I angrily throw the paper on the table as my gaze goes back to Xander who is standing in front of me. How can he tell me he hasn’t found anything on Nathan since he came back? That boy has been sniffing around my house like a bloodhound and I hate every part of it. I hate the fact that he comes and goes as he pleases, I hate the fact that I have to act all wary around him like he is something.

Anger washes over me as I think about it again. He is stopping a lot of things for me and it is beginning to get to me.

“I am sorry, sir,” Xander bows lightly, “but I will keep a closer eye on him. He just doesn’t have anything we can use to hold him down yet”

“He does not need to have anything” I yell. At that moment, the door to my study opens up and Ophelia walks in.

“Can we talk?” She asks.

“I am a bit busy, Ophelia” I tell her, not sparing her another glance, “Let’s talk when I am done”

“This is important, dad”

I pull my gaze to her and yes, she looks a bit upset. Something immediately clicks in my head and I gesture to Xander to leave. He picks up the documents and makes his way out of the study leaving the two of us.

“Tell me, what’s going on?” I ask as I pick up my cigarette from the table beside me. I decided to stop smoking some time ago but with the appearance of Nathan, I can’t help but go back to it. It keeps me sane in a world full of his s**t.

“Nathan says he believes his father was killed, dad”

My head immediately whips up and I remove the cigarette from my mouth. I don’t know what I was expecting but certainly not this. That boy lost his memory, how can he say something like that?

“What?” I shift uneasily on my chair, “why would he say that?”

“He did not give me full details but I told him I would ask you. You and Mr Han were best friends. Did he have any kind of enemy? Do you also think the same?”

For a few seconds, I remain silent as I continue to stare at my daughter. How can she be so naïve? How can she be so open and accommodating to everyone she meets.

“Stay away from him” I finally tell her, “and I mean it. I don’t know what makes him think that way but people like that can not be trusted”

Her forehead curves into a slight frown as she lowers herself on the chair in front of me,

“Aren’t you supposed to be worried? I mean your best friend could have been murdered, dad?”

“Han was not murdered” I tell her, “it was a coincidence and you know this. We worked on that case for over a year. Why are you suddenly acting like we didn’t do anything?”

“Maybe we didn't do enough” Ophelia answers, concern dripping from her voice, “maybe we didn’t do enough in that case. And I think we should, I mean—maybe someone made sure we didn’t do enough, dad. Thinking about it, how can an army base be bombed just like that? We should reinvestigate this and—

“We have a lot on our hands now, we can’t do that” I cut her off with an air of finality, “and like I said, Han was not murdered. He had no enemy and even if he had, I would have been dead by now. We literally did everything together. So take your mind off of it and focus on your promotional exams coming up in a few weeks. If I didn’t make general, you should at least make it”

“Dad—

“Now now, Ophelia”

Before she can say anything else, I pick up my phone and pretend to press it. I knew that boy didn’t just come back because he was asked to become the general, something is going on and I am going to unravel that.

Ophelia does not say anything again, she only storms out of the room and my gaze follows her. How can my own daughter be this gullible?

Without thinking twice, I dial Nathan's personal phone and it rings. Part of me doesn’t expect him to answer but he does—his deep baritone filters through.

“Hello, deputy”

My jaw clenches so tight. I hate when he calls me that. He is the one who is supposed to be the deputy and that’s a hill I am willing to die on. I have served the country for years but they bring in a boy who I can father to be head over me—insane.

“I do not know your relationship with my daughter but I think you will agree with me if I tell you to let her be. She has her promotional exams coming up and I do not want anything disrupting that”

“So what exactly do you want me to do, deputy?”

“Just stay away from her”

“She must have told you, didn’t she?”

“Your father was not murdered”

“If I remember correctly, you told me you had to clean up his mess. What mess was that exactly?”

“Let the dead remain dead, Nathan” I say after a while, “and focus on being the general”

He remains silent for a few seconds until his voice gets to me again. Cold. Icy and lethal.

“My father’s shares of the company. I want them back, uncle Colleen. My lawyers will be contacting you” he pauses for a while and just when I am about to speak, his voice comes through again,

“And leave Ophelia alone,” he adds quietly, “She is the woman I am going to marry”