Chapter 12: The Father's Crime
Allen hurried his steps to catch the woman struggling to walk on the pavement. She was blind and could not speak. She only used a device her dad Derek created a few years back to communicate.
"Careful, Kendra. Let's sit here." Allen guided his cousin to a bench nearby. Once they were both seated, Kendra begged him again.
"Allen, I meant to leave this place. Please, take me out of here! I begged you!"
"But your dad…. We both know that he would go to any lengths to stop me from taking you away." Allen explained to his cousin. He is bewildered deep down in his heart. He wanted to help Kendra, but his uncle Derek surely would go to hell along with him if he took Kendra away.
Allen knew that one of the many reasons his uncle built these high walls was to hide Kendra. However, Kendra is determined to leave that place.
"I don't care about dad! I heard what you've discussed with him. Allen, I will help you. But in my condition now, I could do nothing yet. But maybe you can do something with my eyes like what you've promised to Grandma Isabella."
Allen was taken aback. Isabella's case and Kendra's are two different things. Kendra needed surgery, but the older lady's case is another thing that is separate from science, which was beyond the ordinary human could imagine.
Isabella mysteriously lost her eyesight after someone sealed off her memories. She will only regain them if it is done by anyone who has the same ability as that Chronomancer, their enemy.
Allen hopes to make the time machine work so they can do something in the past against that man.
Having that thought, Allen heaved a deep sigh, perplexed about what he could do for his cousin. He desired to help Kendra, but he was not a surgeon like Derek. He is only an inventor, and his line of work was in technology, not in medicine.
"Kendra, the best doctor this world had, is your dad. I'm sure Uncle Derek could research how to treat you—"
"He would not do something about this because he is the one who blinds me!" Kendra interrupted Allen's enlightenment. Tears brimmed her eyes as she recounted, "Then after dad performed surgery on me, I lost my voice. I got suspicious of him. He had done something to me, and I could no longer see or speak!"
"What are you saying? Uncle Derek could do that to his beloved daughter!?" Allen was shocked.
"Dad is losing his mind, so please take Grandma and me out of here. This is not what I wanted, Allen. I want to fight! I want to learn how to use the ability that I have!"
"Your ability? What do you mean by that? Can you travel time like Madison and Aunt…" Allen could not continue to talk when a loud voice echoed in the garden, and the voice was getting closer to where they were.
"Kendra!"
"It's, dad! Allen, please! Get me out of here!"
"Why, uncle Derek intentionally turned you a mute?"
"Because…. Because…"
"Kendra? Allen!"
Not long after, Derek appeared before them. He marched toward Allen, grabbed him by the collar, and bellowed.
"What nonsense did you spout and plant lies on my mother's head!? How dare you draw a picture in her mind of the impossible!"
"Did I? Is it you who draws an impossible world in her mind? Do you want her to believe that she lives in paradise? It was you who lied to her, uncle!" Allen retorted, shouting back to his uncle. "What did you do to Kendra? All I remember, she is a bubbly girl! But look at her now? Are you pleased to see your daughter suffering from being handicapped?"
"What suffering are you saying? I did my best to cure her!"
"Is it? Or did you make your daughter assume she is sick and force her to give up her promising career? Isn't you who planted an idea in her head, believing she has no better life outside, but she is safer in this prison you built?"
Allen argued.
Derek didn't answer Allen. How could he refute when his nephew is correct? However, he only does that because he has to keep his daughter away from Howard's interest.
Kendra waited for her dad's response to Allen, but her dad remained silent, so she took this opportunity to support Allen's point.
"Allen is correct, dad. I am not ill! But you deliberately made me lose my eyesight and voice! You rob my freedom, dad! I want to help Allen! But you killed me yourself without me giving a chance to fight!"
"Sweetheart…" Derek opens his mouth, but no words form on his tongue.
He was heartbroken, listening to his daughter's frantic voice out of her anger for him.
He understood that his daughter was upset with him. The crime he committed is unforgivable.
But he also suffered. After he injected a fatal medicine that would harm particular body nerves, the shakes in his hands began and did not disappear. Derek was so afraid that guilt ate him after the crime he committed against his family.
Since then, he could no longer perform any human surgery.
Derek placed his hand inside his pocket when it trembled nonstop, and Allen noticed it.
"Kendra, sweetheart…. Dad did that for your own good."
"So you really did that to me?" Kendra widened her eyes. Even though she had no eyesight, she tried to meet her dad's gaze through his voice. She was in disbelief that her dad would admit his crime so readily.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart."
"How could you do that to me, dad? You deliberately blinded me and turned me into a mute because you thought it was best for me? Why didn't you kill me instead, so it ends your worries or whatsoever!?"
Allen supported Kendra when she got up from the bench, but she had difficulty standing on her feet. Her legs are shaking from the emotion that explodes throughout her system.
"I hate you, dad!"
Derek could not bear to watch the hatred appear on his daughter's face. She cried, and it was painful for him to listen to her muffled voice through the device he had created so that she could still talk to her other siblings and grandma.
"I want you to understand. It is dangerous out there! When you step out through that gate, you are considered dead!"
"But you killed me a long time ago already! When you took my freedom away!"
~
Riku hurried to get out of the car when the gate was open. It surprised him to see the woman Allen carried in his arms out of the high walls.
"Allen! Who is she?" Riku did not see the girl's face until Allen placed her in the backseat.
"Is that your cousin Kendra?"
He asked Allen after the car door closed.
Allen nodded. "We will take her back to Mainland City."
"How about Uncle Derek? How come he allowed you to take his daughter?"
"Kendra begged me to get her out of here."
"Oh. Then your uncle would not come after us? I'm getting worried that there might be flying armed robots suddenly chasing us."
Riku sighed with relief.
"That would not happen. Kendra, who wanted to leave her dad behind."
"Well, I'm glad you got out alive. Are we heading home now?"
Riku was more at ease now.
"Not yet. Let us drop by in France first. I want to visit Uncle Levi."
~
Montfort Chateau, France
Charles Montfort, the eldest son of Lord Levi Montfort, was in a hurry to put a tie around his neck. The board called him for an emergency meeting, so he must be in the company soon.
[Lord Charles, a guest requests to enter the premises.]
A male AI hologram appeared inside Charles' wardrobe to report.
"Is dad expecting anyone today?"
[No, milord. It was a surprise visit.]
"Then who is it?"
[It was Doctor Allen Williams, the young lord from the Williams family.]
Charles paused from putting on his coat. He looked at the butler they named Pete and queried, "Did he send me a message, but you missed showing me?"
[No, milord. The lord did not notify his arrival.]
"I see. All right. Let him in."
Charles hurried out of his room and headed to the chateau's entrance. On the steps, he waited for his cousin. He watched a black car pull over into the driveway.
"Allen!"
Charles descended the steps and met his cousin with an embrace.
"Hey, Charles."
"I didn't know you were coming, so I haven't arranged my schedule for the day. We should hit some pubs tonight.."
"No, it's okay. I am not staying, anyway. I'm only dropping by to see Uncle Levi before heading back to Mainland City."
"Oh, well… you know where dad spends his entire day," said Charles gloomily, and Allen understood.
"I would not be surprised. Uncle Levi and Papa were doing the same habit."
Charles formed a small smile on his lips. No one could relate but the children who witnessed their parents' wonderful marriage but were then separated by death or was sealed off to a different dimension because of the doing of that man.
"Well, I have to go. The board is waiting for me." Charles bid farewell.
"Sure. I know my way to the mausoleum."
Charles patted Allen's shoulder before he walked to his. As for Allen, he strolled through the back garden stepping stones until he reached the mausoleum erected at the cliff edge.
The scenery from that height is no longer breathtaking after tall skyscrapers were rapidly constructed throughout Paris.
Allen pulled his gaze away and entered the mausoleum garden. As expected, Levi was seated in front of his wife and daughter's tombstone. He would not move even if the rain were pouring heavily or under the sun's scorching heat. Witnessing his dad like this, Charles built this mausoleum.
"Uncle Levi…"
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone