Warning: Mention of physical, emotional and mental abuse; Strong Language
Robbie's POV
"What the hell are you doing here?" Fred grumbled the moment I slammed the door to his SUV, "And why did y-"
"Start driving. We don't have time to chit chat!" I said, hmphing irritably
"You're one to talk! You wasted fifteen damn minutes dragging me and the cops here," Fred complained, giving a furtive look at the cops.
"There is a reason for that! So, where is that jacka*s?" I asked in a low growl, also eyeing the two cop cars behind in the rear-view mirror.
"Here," Fred said, placing his cell phone under my nose and stamping on the accelerator at the same time.
I looked at the location. My eyes widened. No wonder Mr. Olsen is confident that no one will be able to locate him. I grumbled agitatedly,
"The ruined mansion of Emaulsen!"
"What? What's that?" Fred asked while quickly taking his cell phone back to navigate the route and gesturing to the cops to follow his car.
"That's Olsen's paternal house which has been abandoned and is in ruins," I replied, leaning back, huffing.
"Huh?? Isn't his last name Ols-" Fred started in a surprised voice.
"He changed his name," I said curtly.
"You know a lot about him," Fred said scathingly, "What are you, his personal assistant?"
"Haha," I replied humourlessly, "Olsen's father and my grandad were friends, and thus, my dad and him being childhood buddies."
"No wonder they even share hobbies," Fred said darkly, taking a sharp turn, throwing me towards the window.
I can't even refute him. I looked down, embarrassed, and spoke in an ashamed tone, "I don't even know when dad became like this. He used to be a law-abiding citizen, though, he was always narrow-minded but not-"
"A child abducting jerk?" Fred finished the sentence, rolling his eyes in disgust.
I couldn't speak. After all, dad did help in kidnapping Twen and is also a conspirator in Tony's abduction. I can never forgive him for this. The reality is harsh and painful.
"Will you even bother to tell what the wedge between Tony and Olsen is?" Fred asked, giving me a frustrated look.
I lowered my head, feeling, if possible, even more, ashamed than before, "He is the father of my ex-fiancée."
Fred slammed the brakes in bewilderment, "Excuse me?"
I saw him looking at me with a creased brow. He accelerated the car again as I told him about the entire matter, in brief, earning me a huge frown and a glare. He spoke in an angry booming voice,
"Old man, if you want to protect your man, keep your enemies at a minimum! You should know that all these powerful people love to boast their power by suppressing the weak."
"I know," I mumbled, feeling even more disgusted by myself.
It is all my fault.
How can I ever look Tony in the eye after putting him and Twen through all this?
"So, why did he change his name?" Fred asked, looking at the cell phone for the route again.
"That's a long story, and honestly, right now, I am not in the mood to speak about it" I sighed.
"Why not? That man must be hiding something. If he is so bold to do something like kidnapping, he must be confident of not being arrested. Such people come with history, and the more we know about them, the better we can exploit it," Fred snorted irritably.
I rolled my eyes. Although there is no logic behind his words, I am also anxious, so I decided to tell the story to distract myself.
"Olsen became an orphan at six. His aunt, a colossal b*tch, took over the entire family business and reluctantly his responsibility. I heard my dad say that he was physically, mentally, and emotionally abused by her and her family. He would often come to school laden in bruises. When he was sixteen, she created a false scandal involving a girl named Charlotte in his school batch from an influential German family who, quite surprisingly, was an Omega. The German family was infuriated by him for staining the name of their family's daughter, and so, they put him behind bars, but since he was a minor, they put him in juvenile. Olsen's aunt took this opportunity to break off all her relations with him, thus leaving him to fend for himself. Dad said that after he came out a year later, he completely disappeared for six whole years, and when he resurfaced, he was a changed man. It was like... like something about him died!" I said, feeling unsettled.
"Woahhhh... it sounds like some movie plot!" Fred said, sounding both fascinated and disgusted.
I sighed, "You can say that again, even I found it hilariously dramatic. He then changed his name, destroyed the Emaulsen family, in other words, his aunt, and married Charlotte, to which, amazingly, their family agreed. He even set up this import-export business which he used for both drug smuggling and sexual satisfaction!"
"Sheeesshhh! He must have a knack for doing illegal stuff," Fred said, shaking his head.
"You got that right!" I breathed out heavily, feeling disturbed, "Since the law never protected him from being abused or did an in-depth investigation regarding the scandal, he lost all faith in it, thinking the law is only for the powerful. Hence, he kept taking advantage of the loopholes of the law, exploiting the weak, predating Omegas and smuggling drugs right under the law's eyes and never getting caught as if mocking the law."
The conversation ended with a heavy, suffocating silence. Fred kept driving and checking whether he was going in the right direction. Frankly, I did pity Olsen for what he went through, but the past is past, and in the present, he is nothing more than a douchebag! Right now, pity is the last thing I felt. I just want to reach him before he does any irreparable damage.
"My dad once said, 'Monsters are not born, they are created' and today I got a living example," Fred suddenly spoke in a dry sour tone.
I looked at Fred, whose eyes were fixed on the road. This guy has a very misleading personality. Sometimes, you will think he is nothing more than an airheaded laidback fool, but other times he suddenly sprouts such heavy, grounded stuff that you will be forced to wonder if he really is a fool.
"We have reached," he said as I saw a black broken gate approaching.
As soon as our cars stopped, I jumped out along with Fred, and before the cops could stop us, we ran towards the entrance. The mansion was exuding a chilling and eerie vibe. It is definitely in ruins. The door to it is hanging, half-broken on its hinges, creepers are growing all over it, and on the entrance, the walls of the mansion are covered in moss, and I can also see some bugs and reptiles crawling around. To top it off, the lights in the mansion are flickering, making it look like some haunted house.
The cops quickly caught up to us and urged us to follow behind them. Neither of us is ready to do that. We switched on our cell phone torches and entered. Behind us, the cops filed in with torches and spread out in all directions. Fred and I started looking all over the house. I heard the cops occasionally shout, 'Negative' 'Negative' after searching through several broken and downtrodden rooms. My heart started beating very fast on hearing the negative response. I started wondering if dad gave me the wrong information. I couldn't help noticing that there doesn't seem to be a single soul in sight, but then again, what is Amanda's cell phone doing here, in these ruins.
I continued to search with Fred right on my toes. We looked through the northern and eastern sides of the mansion. They are completely empty and surrounded by pitch black. We had just made our way towards the south when mine, Fred's, and the cops' steps stopped. We all heard some whispering and footsteps.
The cops and we looked at each other and nodded as if tacitly agreeing to follow the sound. It was coming from the south-eastern corner of the mansion. When we approached, we saw a flight of stairs leading to a well-built wooden door. There was even light coming from under the door. Fred, I, and three other cops quickly walked down the stairs, and to our huge surprise, the door was not even locked. We all looked at each other and together kicked open the door with a 'BANG'.