Agony

"NO...NO...this cannot happen...nothing will happen to her" Adam tried to calm himself while catching his breath.

"Son calm down. Nothing is going to happen to her. First let's check the surroundings to get any clue about her whereabouts" Stuart said to calm the situation.

"This is all because of you, You unfaithful man...if you had shown a little love to her that she has been showing you and cared about her... then this wouldn't have happened" Adam flew into rage as he recollected the earlier event in their house.

"Son, I understand your anger. But this is not the right time to argue. First we have to find her before it's too late." Stuart knew he was wrong.

They both alighted and decided to search the place by splitting in two directions. Adam took the left and went down the slope and disappeared into the bushes.

After rummaging through the area for about 10 minutes, something caught his attention. He went near a tall bush and bent down to look at it. It was a small piece of torn cloth which was red in colour.

"Dad, what colour did she wear today?" Adam called and asked his father.

"Red" Stuart answered shortly and then asked " Did you find something son?"

But Adam didn't answer and hung up the phone. His hands started to tremble thinking about the worst outcome.

He then looked in front of him. There was huge rock and thick bushes covering it. He slowly got up and with slow and unsteady steps, he went to look behind the rock.

"NO...NO...NOOOOOOOO.....MOTHERRRRR" he shouted as he saw the site in front of him.

At first glance, anyone could say that it was a human body. But when they see it up close they would close their eyes and mouth in horror.

The body in front of Adam was completely naked and did not have an intact skin at all. Instead it had been corroded and turned into black substance from which blood oozed out continuously.

"NO... mother you can't leave me like this...." Adam shouted at the top of his lungs hugging the charred body.

Stuart who heard the shout came running to see what his son found. When he saw the condition of his wife, he dropped to the knees and started crying incessantly. He was an utter loss of words. Even in his wildest dreams did not come up with this outcome. He felt even more terrible when he thought about his actions earlier.

After about 15 minutes of crying, Adam was out of breath and was finding it difficult to breathe. When he saw his father behind him kneeling and crying, he flew into a rage.

"You...you unscrupulous man ....you are the reason for her death....I swear I will never ever call you my father....you are not even a man in front of my eyes." Adam shouted as he punched his father in anger.

Stuart couldn't open his mouth in response or deny it as he knew that he was wrong. If he had shown some concern about her they would have come to her rescue much earlier.

"I need to find the son of a bitch who did this to my mother. Once I find him....I will give him a life that's worse than death....he should feel the pain which my mother has gone through....I wil never ever leave him alone."

After moments of grief, both father and son went to the nearby police station to complain and get some footages of CCTV to find the person. But there were none. No evidence was present as the body had been burnt by acid. There were no witnesses. Nothing.

They came to a conclusion that they had been planning this for a long time. Then they went to the office to find out the parking lot CCTV only to find it was tampered on that day.

When the postmortem report came in everyone had tears in their eyes. Adam,Stuart,Lissie and even the police officers had tears in their eyes because the report stated that on the day of incident, Linda was first dragged by her hair to that rock and was raped by atleast 6 to 7 people before they poured acid over the living body to cover their tracks. The cause of death was excessive bleeding.

This report further infuriated Adam. He decided, whatever happens he must find his mother's killer. But the problem was he did not know where to start as there is no solid evidence.

Time went by and it was 3 months past Linda's death when another bombshell fell on already devastated Adam. It was about Lissie.

She got into an accident near the university and had an transverse comminuted fracture. The doctors had stated that there were no possible treatment at this time. So she was wheelchair bound for rest of her life.

Lissie came back to their house as she got special permission to attend the classes from home and only had to come to university for attending the exams. Since then Lissie was at their house. Adam showed his utmost care and love for his sister. Since their mother was gone they were depending on each other for care and comfort.

As for Stuart, he started getting addicted to alcohol and lost his control over his actions and desicions.

Using his vulnerable state, Elisa started to woo and seduce him whenever possible and put in some sweet words that she will take care of his children and that she will be a good wife and stepmom if he accepts to marry her and other things like that.

Stuart who was already infatuated with her beauty added on with his vulnerable state and her false promises, decided to marry her.

This is was the next blow to Adam. He hated his father even more for this. He thought that his father had never loved his mother.

Stuart and Elisa got married after around 5 months following Linda's death. Since then Elisa and Adam would get into fights. Elisa would act as if she was a good stepmom in front of Stuart and was able to withstand Adam's opposal. This act actually convinced Stuart who started to look his son in the bad light. He did not care about Linda's promise to protect their children and often would use harsh words against Adam in his drunken state and always tried to appease Elisa.

Adam started to loose faith and patience. On one side he still couldn't find his mother's killer and on other side his father had lost his way and became a slave for Elisa. Every passing day was becoming more difficult and his will to live reduced day by day.

The only thing that was going good was his relationship with Julie. He would often cry on her shoulders to vent out all the frustrations and anger. She was looking like an angel to him now as he was able to get warmth and love from her.

As they say good or bad usually don't last long enough.

After a month, one day Adam got a little violent with Elisa when she said something bad about his mother. Stuart who was little drunk decided to cut all the economical support which Adam had. He froze all his cards leaving only money for his tution fees.

Because he had no extra money, he couldn't buy proper gifts for Julie's birthday or the valentine's day as usual. Even he couldn't take her to any fancy restaurants for meal. This slightly created a rift between them. Adam explained his condition but still there was crack which was growing day by day. With other rich guys trying to please her, Julie started to refrain from Adam and little by little she started distancing herself from him.

Adam who didn't have any idea about Julie cheating on him from that time, tried to show his utmost care for her. Since Julie didn't break up with him, he thought that she still loves him and will not leave him. Yeah love makes all of us blind right.

These disasters intertwined with each other till there came a day in which Adam left his house because of his evil stepmom only to find his girlfriend cheating and. lost his will to live....

PRESENT

Thinking about the past, Adam did not know how he reached his house just by walking. He saw his house in front of him and thought 'My last visit to this house'.

Then he jumped up the compound wall and entered his father's room through the window without getting caught in CCTV.