Chapter 15

Marc was lying on the same couch he had been resting on for the past few days, ever since he found his father again. He had always been quiet, so often that his father seems to get worried. Today, he knew that he would have to start to do his part on their plan of revenge to Fenton Hardy.

That girl, he thought, remembering the picture his father gave him. She really looked like Belle. There's too much similarity between them, it's kinda frightening. After a few more minutes of thinking over, he called out to his dad, "Hey, Dad?"

Mr. Edwin was talking to someone on the phone and he gestured a "Wait a minute" hand to his son. After a few more words, he ended the call and asked, "What is it, son?"

Marc was silent for a while, then asked, "Remember the picture of the girl that looked so much like Belle that you showed to me the other day ago? Who is she?"

"Oh," Mr. Edwin paused and said, "Yes, her. She's Vanessa Bender. Current girlfriend of Joe Hardy, Fenton's younger son," Mr. Edwin replied, wondering if Marc is now ready to discuss everything.

Marc was just silent, thinking. What are we supposed to do with her? If I'm not mistaken, Dad said that she's going to have a big part on our plan of revenge. Surely, we won't have to kill her to get even with Belle's death? That's too low.

He heard a door bang and saw Chipz enter the room.

"Where were you last night?" Marc asked. He looked at his watch and saw that it was eight in the morning. "I was looking for you more that twelve hours ago."

"Sorry, pal. I was just doing some orders from your dad here," Chipz said, heading straight for the refreshment table, taking a donut and a can of soda.

"Oh," Marc's face looked thoughtful for a while. He looked at his dad and said, "Maybe we can talk about the whole plan now. I'm ready."

"Are you sure?" Mr. Edwin said, looking dubiously at his son.

"Yeah," Marc sat up and said, "C'mon, explain everything to me now. I don't want you to leave me out of this plan."

Mr. Edwin was just quiet but finally gave up. "All right," he said, standing up from his desk chair and went over to the seat opposite to Marc. Chipz, while still munching on his donut, sat beside Marc.

"Hey, maybe you can start at the beginning of the story, sir," Chipz said through a full mouth. "I know less than Marc does."

"Okay…" Mr. Edwin seemed to be thinking where to start. "Four and a half years ago, I led this plan of exporting illegal drugs from country to country by ship. We were pretty successful. No one caught us for months and we were earning a lot. That was until the shipping company that we hired got suspicious of us and asked Fenton Hardy to investigate. The company didn't contact the police first since they didn't have exact proof whether we really were exporting drugs. They were scared also that if they removed us from their service, we might do something to them." He paused then continued, "One night, while we were transporting the drugs from the warehouse to the ship, Hardy and his back-ups barged into us and messed up our plan."

Mr. Edwin continued, saying, "We definitely weren't expecting them. The police outnumbered us. My men, though, got nervous and took their guns and started to shoot the police. One of them, my men, accidentally shot me in my chest. Good thing though, that it became a habit for me to wear a bulletproof vest over my coat, even if it was bulky, but still looked normal enough and just made me look fatter. Anyway, once I was hit, I purposely set myself to fall into the water so that, one way or another, I could escape from the police and hope the police would think I died."

He cleared his throat, then proceeded, "A few hours before that," he looked at his son, who gave his father a firm nod, "Marc accidentally knew about my plans. He never knew about this scheme of mine…"

"But I always thought about it," Marc interrupted, "I felt it in my guts that something big is going on but never bothered to ask you about it."

His father's face looked remorseful. "I'm sorry son, but I did not plan on involving you into that. Never."

He continued, "That same night, Marc and Belle, like what I said, unbeknownst to my plans, decided to look for me, since they have a party for me at home and they're wondering where I was. Marc searched through my planner, which was very foolish of me to just leave in my desk at home, and saw that my plan for that day was at the 'warehouse'. Naturally, my smart boy here looked through my planner for the address of the warehouse and yes, it was there."

Marc continued, "Belle and I rode on my van and went to the address we found where we think we'll see Dad. When we arrived, there were no policemen yet so we went inside but found Dad at the side of the warehouse, the one near the dock. We were definitely surprised, Belle especially, when we saw what Dad and the others were doing. Dad…," he looked at Mr. Edwin, who continued.

"I explained everything to them as best as I could. I was almost finished when the… the police came," Mr. Edwin said angrily, closing his hands into fists. "Like what I told you earlier, my men panicked and started to use their guns. They managed to hit a couple of officers and me. Good thing I was wearing protection, or else I could have died and hunted those boys who hit me. But then, what they did worked to my advantage. Nobody thought I was still alive, although I learned that Hardy had men ordered to look for my body to certify my death, but the fast speed of the waves convinced his men that my body surely would have drowned but the truth is, it didn't!"

Marc could see that his father was avoiding the worst part of what happened that same night. "Chipz would need to know about Belle, Dad. Or do you want me to explain it?" He stared at his father.

Mr. Edwin, staring back at his son's green eyes with his own emerald ones, finally looked away after a few seconds. "You decide."

"I'll do it," Marc said softly, trying hard not to show the pain and anger he was feeling inside. "When the police came, I tried to protect Belle from everything, especially from the bullet. But I wasn't good enough! I wasn't! She was hit! I was shocked at first. I hid the both of us for some time but I… I realized that she was…" Choked with emotions, Marc cleared his throat then resumed. "She was hit on the head," he said softly.

"Oh, man, I'm so… so sorry," Chipz said quietly.

Marc didn't seem to have heard him and just continued. "I was so angry. At that moment, I had no control on myself. I didn't care who shot her. I just took a gun that was left near us and shot on whatever direction and hit a couple of officers. I was blinded with so much rage," he added, almost whispering.

There was silence for a few moments.

"I hate to ask this, but is that the reason why you were in jail? You never told me about it whenever I asked," Chipz said.

Marc gave a curt nod. There was silence again then…

"It's all Hardy's fault," Mr. Edwin said, his voice full of fury. "Belle could still have been alive today, there could still be the business going and you wouldn't have been in jail." He directed his last sentence to his son.

"So what's the plan, Dad?" Marc voiced out, hoping to block the flashbacks of that horrendous night that have become the onset of his nightmares ever since.

"Like what I said, we're going to hurt Fenton in every way. And there's that girl, Vanessa, who'll be very much included in this plan. Poor girl," Mr. Edwin said, looking meaningfully at his son. "Now, here's the whole plan…"