To Split The Family

Dark, emerald-hued blood spilled from the infant's lips, prompting Maiko's furious gaze to lock onto Victoria, who gasped in shock.

Swiftly, he retrieved a knife from his pocket, slicing through the lifeless baby's skin; the blood turned green.

As onlookers stared in disbelief, their widened eyes and agape mouths filled the baby's room. 

Maiko's lips curled with horror and denial, muttering, "It can't be... It just can't be!" He raised his voice as his hand kept trembling.

In the unsettling moment, Mateo cautiously approached; his hands froze when he saw the color. "Explain!" he stuttered, pointing at it.

"Explain?!"

"Yes!" Mateo's tone was demanding for answers.

"I-I don't know," Maiko stepped back from Victoria, who was holding her baby.

"This…" Mateo whispered through his gritted teeth, clenched jaw, his mouth was still forced to talk, "unbelievable! All this time, hahha!" His pupils turned bigger, "all this fucking time, I was accusing the wrong child! All this fucking time?!" He repeated himself hysterically.

His voice squeezed, sounding thinner as he felt something washing over him. "For five years…five years that madman drove me crazy with his fucking revenge, and all you tell me is that it was this baby?!"

Maiko didn't say anything, nor did he have to say any words.

 He was also shocked, mind paralyzed, accepting all this time that it was Barbara's fault for giving birth to the traitor, father's mocking and torturing her, his own abuse against the twins. 

"No…" He murmured, "it cannot be…" he said it again.

Meanwhile, Karyan listened with a wide smirk on his face, "this should save Karlin some trouble and give Barbara some peace."

He owned them.

 He owned them a lot. Not because Karlin was falsely accused, but because he used the opportunity to be reborn through Barbara.

Five years ago, when Barbara came to visit him in prison and begged for forgiveness, Karyan already had a plan in mind. 

He knew how the semen worked and how he needed a woman to get pregnant fast, but what he didn't expect was that Barbara would be giving birth to the twins. 

So technically, Karlin was his own son.

While she paid the guards to be able to see him, he invited her into his cell, owing her life to him; she allowed Karyan to do anything with her body.

The medicine he was studying and the ointment he gave Barbara when he released a Cobra's hypnosis to make her forget things worked as a fine wine. 

She really couldn't remember what exactly happened back then.

Karyan also didn't expect that Mateo would beat his own daughter for that, "crazy bastard…" 

But now his depth was paid. "He will forgive you, but your job is not to," Karyan stated as he spoke to himself.

He couldn't clearly see the scenario, but reactions and emotions worked just like he had expected. 

Sera's venom had an ability to change color; what Karyan did was to change it into green after just a couple of hours inside the body. "Now, with that, let Karlin rest."

"It was you! Your child, not Barbara's!" Mateo yelled again.

Terror cut Maiko's throat; it looked like he was born mute, words muttering and stuttering but nothing could've come out from his mouth.

 "I can't believe it…I can't accept it!"

"Fa-father," Victoria tried to reason with him, but his denial of things was stronger than ever. 

He was simply blinded by disbelief, treason of the situation, and now a never-ending guilt of torturing his innocent daughter.

"Karlin…" Mateo whispered, "I need to find that child! He's not a snake but a child!"

A forced smile appeared on Karyan's lips, 'now he's a child you say…'

"Barbara, I'm so sorry! I'm sorry!" He fell to his knees and tried to apologize.

 But she lay on the cold ground, her face marked with angry bruises – dark, swollen patches adorned her face and body, telling the tale of a merciless beating.

"I'm sorry, please! All this time it wasn't your children who were cursed, and Karlin! I tried to burn him, and Ka-Karyan too…" his words were no longer making any sense to her. 

Whatever Mateo was trying to say or explain, she wasn't able to hear him. 

Her mind traveled far from the moment; the only thing she would have thought of was an escape from here.

 Escape and revenge on him and this torture.

How could a father beat his own children without questioning them first, without proper evidence.

"Fa-father," Maiko finally spoke with a shaking voice.

"Shut your mouth!" He replied while trying to lift Barbara's body, "giving birth to a traitor…it was you!"

"How could I know? All this time, I thought it was Barbara who-"

"Shut up! Shut up, you disgusting and disgraceful thing!" Mateo sneered while holding Barbara into his arms.

"Fa-"

"Don't ever come near me, you traitor!"

And there it was. Karyan's plan to break the family from the inside, to cut their bonds, love, and respect for each other, their trust will no longer exist here. 

It was over.

"But I just started," he spoke to himself again while his hands were wrapped around his chest.

"Ssshhh," Sera came behind his neck.

"Ssshhh."

"What? Mateo owns all four element books?!" Karyan's eyes widened.