Chapter 11
"Revenge? Cool! To whom?" Chipz asked earnestly.
Marc, on the other hand, remained quiet. He got a feeling what this is all about.
"Fenton Hardy," Mr. Edwin said simply. "Things started already."
"Ah, yeah. I got it. You let me hurt that boy of his last morning. We'll be doing revenge, not directly to him, but to his sons. Cool," Chipz said, leaning back in his seat.
"Smart boy, but no that much," Mr. Edwin commented then continued, "Not only to his sons. Let's make things more exciting by adding all those connected to him. Wife, I learned he has a sister and most specially, his sons' girlfriends."
Marc finally looked at his father and stared at him.
"Yes son, I'm doing this for you. This revenge is all about you," Mr. Edwin said.
"Do we really have to do this? I'm out of jail. You're rich. I have a friend here. Why don't I just live a happy life?" Marc asked, his handsome face reflecting doubt.
"Well, like what I said, we've started already with the help of Chipz here. What we have started, we'll finish. And, wait, how about this?" Mr. Edwin opened the desk drawer and pulled out a picture of a beautiful girl, with long ash-blonde hair and blue-gray eyes.
"What the…" Marc suddenly took the picture and stared at it with a look of disbelief in his face. Then he seemed to have seen something in the picture that made him give it back to his father. "That's not her. Very much the same but I know that's not her." He shook his head, leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms over his chest and sighed.
Chipz looked at Mr. Edwin, to Marc, back to the father, and back to his friend. "Wha..at? I'm confused. Somebody tell me something."
Mr. Edwin saw that his son has no motive to tell Chipz himself. He took a deep breath then said, "This girl in the picture will have a very great part in our plan. Anyway, to answer your question, four years ago, when Marc was still seventeen, he had this girlfriend from high school. Her name was Belle Smiths. She looked just like this girl in the picture," he paused and gave the picture to Chipz and continued, "Tall with ash-blonde hair, blue-gray eyes…"
"… great smile, body, a heart of gold, sincere, sweet, funny, vivacious and she loves me." Marc continued his father's sentence without looking up.
"Exactly."
"And my chum here loves that hot girl," Chipz guessed, looking up from the picture. "So where's the pretty angel now?"
"You already said it, man. She's now an angel," Marc said, his voice slightly shaking but his emerald eyes looking down, straight and unwavering. Chipz couldn't help hearing a hint of anger in his mate's voice.
"Angel…? What do you… oh no.. I'm so sorry, man," Chipz said, suddenly washed over with the truth without telling him.
My angel… Belle… killed… she's dead… my Belle…
Marc propped his elbows on his knees and rested his head on his hands. He suddenly found himself hard to breathe. He stood up and walked to face a wall so that Chipz and his father couldn't see him. He rested his head on the wall as tears sprang to his eyes. Not taking anymore, he punched the wall hard five times with all the strength he has. "I hate this! Why does she have to die? Why can't I forget her? It's been three years! God, make me forget her! But why her, of all people, has to die?!" he cried out loud, tears now rolling from his eyes.
Mr. Edwin and Chipz stood up and ran to Marc who was still punching the wall even though his knuckles were now bleeding. Chipz tried to lower and keep Marc's hands from the wall. When Marc hesitated and kept on punching, Chipz wrapped his arms around Marc's waist and dragged him away from the wall. Mr. Edwin was futilely trying to calm his distressed son.
After a few moments, Marc finally became quiet and was just staring past ahead, his face stained with his tears. Chipz and Mr. Edwin looked at each other and wondered what Marc was thinking.
"Would he be angry if I lead him to the couch? I think he needs some rest," Chipz whispered, afraid that if Marc hears him, he might become irate again.
"All the energy seemed to have gotten out of him," Mr. Edwin replied in the same manner.
Chipz went over to his friend and touched his shoulder gently. "Hey, I think you should rest in the couch or something. You're drained," he said softly.
Surprisingly, Marc stood up and went to the couch. He lied there and closed his eyes, a few tears still escaping from his eyes.
"He kept everything inside for all the years he was in jail," Chipz said, his eyes never leaving his old jail mate. "He never spoke about this."
Mr. Edwin, unbeknownst to Chipz, was seething inside and then said softly, "Damn you, Hardy, for doing this to my son. You're paying. I'm telling you. You're paying."
