THIRTY

Mark seemed happier than usual now Ms. Gonzalez was having a baby, don't get me wrong, he was nicer to me as well.

Five months later, Ms. Gonzalez's belly began to bulge and I could finally hear the twins kick, that's right, twins.

They were both boys and Mark had bought more supplies for the second child, no expenses spared. They were trying to figure out names for both of them.

"What about Mack and Zack?"Mark asked.

"Or maybe Edgar and Egdor?"

"Or Jaden and Jason?"

They were both so excited about the babies and I couldn't wait for them to be born in about three more months.

The Summer Vacation was almost over and we were at Honolulu for the vacation, in a five star hotel.

I felt unsafe because Mr. Nelson hadn't struck in over three months, it was too peaceful, like he was devising a gruesome plan.

In the meantime, Mark had found the father of the baby and roughened him up before letting the cops take him to the police hospital, then to jail for interrogation.

I was bathing in the warm Summer sun rays before the crystal clear, blue sea when Ms. Gonzalez started getting contractions.

We rushed her to the hospital since they were coming too fast.

She lay on the bed, happy she was going through labour when the doctor came in and said,"Madam, we found large amounts of castor oil in your body."

"So?"

"... you have a miscarriage."

All three of us almost died as I saw the tears running down Mark's face. The babies were dead.

"We have to surgically separate the foetuses from the mother or she may also die."

Mark eagerly signed for the foetuses to be removed and I still couldn't absorb the prospect. My nephews were dead.

Mark was still the same funny, annoying yet responsible little brother after that but I knew he was torn apart on the inside.

He tried everything in his power to find out who gave Ms. Gonzalez the castor oil.

But during all this time, Ms. Gonzalez had been crying, not eating and rubbing her belly, hoping another pair of twins would magically appear in her womb.

I knew I wasn't being paranoid, it was most definitely Mr. Nelson, and Mark seemed to know as well.

Mark ran into Lightning flash through the guards and started yelling,"How could you?! Clark how could you be this heartless?!"

The guard came and held him back, Mr. Nelson descended the elevator and looked Mark in the eye and said,"That's just business... take him away and give him some attractive colours like black and blue."

Mark was furious and wanted to kill Mr. Nelson with his bare hands but the guards were too many. He beat most of them up but since they were numerous, they managed to hurt him badly.

I met him in the hospital with tears in my eyes and he said,"Tommy, it's okay, you don't have to cry."

"Why did they do this to you?"

"Because I attacked first, just go home and be with Cathy, she needs your support more than I do."

I nodded and went to my driver and when I got home, I saw the place out of order, furniture upsidedown, the chandelier crystals shattered to a million pieces, the TV broken, cracks on the walls and the kitchen walls spluttered with paint which wrote ' You're dead kid'.

I was terrified and ran to Ms. Gonzalez, she was hiding in the closet and I went and opened it, she almost scratched me with her nails then stopped and hugged me.

"Tommy, I'm so glad it's you!"

"What happened here?"

"They threw grenades into the house, from the windows, skylight, everywhere."

I slept with Ms. Gonzalez that night to make her feel safer.

A few days later...

It was one day until Mark was discharged and there were no visible scars on him, he heard the door click and saw...

"Lucy? What are you doing here?"

"Huh, I didn't know you also had the IQ of a gold fish, why else will I be here?!"

"If you came just to insult me, you can leave."

"I didn't you idiot...I got you these."She said, handing him some flowers, dark chocolate and a get well soon card.

He looked at them, back at her, cleaned his ears and eyes then said,"What?"

"Don't rub it in, if you know the amount of hatred of you I had to dispel before getting you these, you'd flip."

Mark rolled his eyes and she continued,"...and I'm sorry for your twins."

"It's okay."

Lucy then left.

The next day...

Mark was discharged and the first thing he did was give Ms. Gonzalez and me a hug. He told us how much he doted us and we replied.

Clark was in his office when Oleh came inside and yelled,"We had a deal! Why did you hurt Marcus?!"

"Just to make it more believable."

"Don't hurt him again, for the others, do whatever you want with them."

"Oh I plan to."

Mark and I were playing basketball while Ms. Gonzalez watched and cheered for both of us, the score was 123 to 34, for Mark and me...it was his height that helped him.

When I gave up, Mark celebrated his inevitable victory by giving Ms. Gonzalez a kiss and that was literally my first time ever seeing him in something other than a tuxedo.

I turned my eyes and yelled,"I'm still here!"

They apologized and left...I felt scared to be alone so I followed...

After they had locked me out of his room, Ms. Gonzalez pulled away from the kiss and said,"Mark, there's something I need to tell you."

"Sure babe, anything."

"...I think...I think we...have a really strong relationship, look in like seven months, we haven't fought once."

"I know right? It's so crazy. I thought we'd disagree on one topic or the other, but it never happened."

She gave a weak smile.

How can I tell him?

I can't say something like that to those eyes...

Sigh, this is a lot harder than I thought.