The Outcry

Harboring new feelings and love in their hearts, both Oriel and Collin returned home. Their eyes were not letting the other one off sight.

Roger was looking their way, waiting for them to turn their eyes to him. "Oriel, what am I listening?" he asked in a tone unfamiliar to her."

"Dad!" she exclaimed and her hand separated from Collin's.

Collin protectively blocked her front and faced Roger fiercely "You can't blame her for anything, I was the one who did that to Paul."

"Do you have any idea what you have done?" asked Roger. dashing towards them in fury.

Oriel stood trembling in fear, it was the first time when Roger had raised his voice on her. "Dad! Paul tried to abduct me, he was taking me away against my will," she said.

"I don't want to hear anything from you. You have heavily disappointed me. Not only have I lost the last chance of retrieving my company but I am on their target for doing that to Paul. You don't know what those people will do, Paul is their only son."

Oriel grasped on one corner of Collin's shirt. He reached to hold her trembling hand and held it in his warmth.

Roger grabbed Oriel's hand and pulled her away from Collin's embrace. "Let go of that hand, you shall follow me," he dragged her upstairs, separating the two.

"Dad! I don't want to see Paul," she pleaded, though it went unheard by the unstoppable Roger.

"Uncle! you can't do this to her," retorted Collin.

"Oriel is my daughter and you don't get to tell me how I treat her." Roger was still forcing her to follow him upstairs. Seeing Oriel struggling to free her hand, he stopped for a moment and said, "I am going to tell you the truth that was concealed from you, the truth about your real father and the unjust demise he suffered."

The fainted remnants of the memories about her father George Baker, suddenly surfaced in her mind. The mystery that was forgotten by her, suddenly showed up with an answer. "My real father?" she asked, no longer minding the hostile actions of Roger. "Yes, my child. The person that you trust the most in this world has been fooling you ever since you have met him."

She invested her concern in Roger's accusation. "You may not remember the day when you lost everything because of him but I have vivid accounts of those days. What if I say that George Baker, your father is still alive?" He said snapping her from the confusion to bewilderment. "Well, George Baker is apparently still walking the roads, but it is not your dad. The criminal father of this boy here, had stolen the identity of your dead family and kept you in dark all these years, knowing all."

Oriel stumbled on her feet, she lost herself to the confusion and shock. "Is it true?" she asked looking at Collin.

"Oriel! Don't listen to him. Give me a chance to explain myself," Collin begged, heading in her direction, reaching to hold her hands. "I promise that I will tell you everything."

Oriel shook Collin's hand off her body. "I just want an answer, is it true or not?"

Voice couldn't depart Collin's mouth; he stood there silent, affirming to her question. "Oriel!"

Collin's silence had told everything to her. "How could you?"

Oriel's gaze showed loathe towards him. "Please give me a chance to explain myself," begged Collin.

She turned her face away, avoiding the pair of eyes pleading apology before her. Oriel uttered nothing more and went running toward her room, shutting the door with a loud slam.

As soon as she left, someone came barging inside the villa. Roger and Collin turned to the brusquely entered intruders and found Paul to be there, along with a group of men with cuts and piercing on the faces. With puffed up eyes, and a swelled mouth, Paul ordered the men to head forward, "Where is she?" he looked for Oriel.

Collin got overwhelmed, seeing the number of tall and heavy men rummaging the house in trace of Oriel. "Finally, I am seeing the fright in your eyes, I can't say how good it feels."

The men surrounded Collin from all directions, one of them also closed the door that they had come through. "I will make sure to conceal your identity, all you have to do is to give him double the bruises I have," instructed Paul, brimming with wrath.

Roger ran upstairs and warned Oriel to not open the door of her room, "Oriel, no matter what happens you must never come out of the room!"

"Is everything alright?" she asked, banging on the door that Roger prevented from opening.

Downstairs, Collin had a hard time dealing with the five strong men coming at him with hits. He dodged their attacks and tried to push them away, in order to escape and call for help.

"Keep up, boys. Let's show him his real worth, I will be upstairs to get my reward." Paul stepped upstairs to her room, whistling with calm.

Collin followed his footsteps to stop him, but then came a heavy blow from one of the men that he received with an utterly paining jaw. But the punch worked like a wake up call and rage blazed in his eyes. He knocked out all three of them at the thought of Oriel being alone and scared.

All three of them lay passed out on the floor, and Collin panted from exhaustion. He gasped, wiping the blood from the side of his lips and went upstairs.

The corridor, at the end of the stairs was surrounded by a strange silence. There were supposed to be three people present there, but none of them made any noise. Collin walked faster, all tensed.

He noticed blots of blood all over the floor and shuddered seeing them everywhere. "What the hell is that?"

His eyes followed the trail of the splatters of the blood and found Paul's dead body lying in middle of a pool made of blood that was making its way from his bleeding head. A decorative showpiece stone lay beside him with stains of blood on it. It was apparent that he was dead as his eyes remained wide open. Roger sat beside the body with his clothes smeared with the same blood. "I didn't do this!" he repeated several times.

"Did you kill him?" Collin asked, lowering his voice to a whisper.

"I told you I didn't do it." Roger's bloody hands trembled in fear.

He didn't know what had happened there. Oriel's room was closed and the noise of banging was also not audible.

"Oriel," he shouted at the closed the door.

No sound was heard. He shouted again, "Oriel, come outside, it's fine."

Suddenly, Roger got up on his feet, disturbingly repeating his words, "I didn't do it. I didn't do it." He continuously repeated and abruptly left the place, to never appear again.

Collin was left to deal with the body and passed out men lying in the living room. He didn't care about the chaos around and decided to see Oriel first.

No later, a shrill siren of police car was heard. Collin was shocked to find the cops at his door at that moment. They came inside but mysteriously the found no injured men lying in the corridor all they could find was a dead body in the corridor upstairs.

They pointed their pistol at Collin, lost in his daze. One of the cop cuffed his hands with the clanging noise of metal handcuffs. "We're taking you under arrest, on the complain filed by Miss Oriel Baker. You are the prime suspect of the murder of her friend Paul Nicholson. You have the right to remain silence and to hire an attorney."