Soundtrack for this chapter:

Unsteady - X Ambassadors

Mama, come here

Approach, appear

And Daddy, I'm alone

'Cause this house don't feel like home

If you love me, don't let go (hold)

Whoa, if you love me, don't let go (hold)

Chapter 10:

It was damn humid.

Tobey hadn't expected the sun to be as intense as it was when he and his butler had left the mansion that day. It shouldn't have been that bad honestly. It was September. The weather was supposed to be getting colder day by day.

But almost as if to spite Tobey, the weather decided to go nuclear. Boiling him with every step. It wasn't pleasant.

It wasn't helping with Tobey's rotten mood.

It wasn't just the heat exhaustion he was experiencing, no, it was mainly due to the fact he had been summoned to a city council meeting, one of his least favorite things to attend. He hated the small talk with old business men, the politics involved in the discussions. He didn't care for any of it. But, when the council requested his presence, he had to answer.

He felt weird being out however. Doing something other than walking around the factory. Other than…

"Would you like a newspaper, sir?"

Tobey frowned and backed away from the tall street vendor attempting to sell him a newspaper. He flinched away from the man and continued on walking. But he quickly realized his butler was no longer following him.

Tobey turned his head to the side and saw his butler out of the corner of his eye buying a newspaper from the man. Tobey resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The vendor smiled and shook his butler's hand, and then his butler began making his way back over to Tobey.

Really?

"What? I haven't actually bought a paper outside in a while," his butler defended, basically reading Tobey's thoughts.

Tobey kept his face emotionless and they continued their walk towards the large building towering over the rest of the city. City hall.

They were greeted immediately by a few secretaries when they entered the building. It was a strange feeling; being greeted as the owner out in public. He and his butler had always been quiet and secretive about his job since the day he took it. Who on earth would be happy to know that a kid took over the largest factory in the city? No one. Not to mention he had a reputation from when he was a kid and caused mayhem and destruction upon the city. No one would support him.

But since he was an adult now and he had a chance to improve the rep of the factory with Becky's help, he had made himself more known. And he had started that by allowing photographers to document Becky on the day she arrived. By allowing himself to be photographed with her when she arrived.

So there was no reason to hide anymore after that truly. But it was still very bizarre to him. He still preferred his privacy and quiet.

"Right this way, Mr. McAllister!" One of the secretaries directed him in the direction of one of the elevators.

Tobey took in a few breaths as he followed her, mentally preparing himself for the annoying meeting that was about to take place.

"Mr. McAllister. We have summoned you here to discuss the legality of volunteers to your factory," The mayor began, hands folded on the table in front of him. He was sitting up straight and proper looking directly down the table at Tobey.

Tobey, on the other hand, was slouched down in his seat, with one hand laying on the table. He didn't really care to be there and he didn't want to pretend he did. It was an absurd discussion. Hence his silence.

The other council members glanced around at each other over the lack of response from him. The awkward tension was palpable.

The mayor continued, "This council's concern is over…"

"I know what you're concerned about," Tobey interjected. The entire room went quiet. Tobey had to resist showing them any emotion. "You're under the assumption that volunteers go against the factory protocol."

"Well..." The mayor hesitated, "Yes."

"Well I can assure you that I looked into the legality of the situation."

Eyes glanced around the room once more. Tobey took the opportunity to eye his butler. Using his head to gesture to the rest of the room, his butler picked up on the signal. He stood up and everyone snapped their eyes right back to them.

"Gentlemen, the volunteers will only add to the productivity of the factory…" His butler explained, his speech pre-rehearsed, only to be interrupted by the mayor.

"That's not the concern," One of the councilmen argued, "These people are criminals, and someone cannot just take their place."

"Sure, for larger crimes this is true. We won't let someone volunteer on behalf of, say, a murderer. But it doesn't entirely matter if…"

"There is no if! People should pay for their crimes!"

As the room went back and forth debating the ethics of punishment and criminal activity; politics Tobey refused to engage in, Tobey drifted his eyes to the ceiling. Interesting how all of this began with one girl. One girl who only wanted to save her dad. A girl who had made a selfless decision. And yet there they were, debating if it was legal and ethical of someone else to do so. It almost felt like the whole argument was disrespectful towards...

Tobey gritted his teeth and held back a frown from appearing on his face.

"I still don't know why we are letting a child make decisions like this."

Tobey snapped his head back down to the rest of the table. He made direct eye contact with the council member that had questioned him. The urge to narrow his eyes was intense.

Not only was it annoying that the man had called him a child, despite his 21 years on the planet saying otherwise, but the accusation that he wasn't equipped to handle the responsibilities? Like it wasn't what he had been doing for 5 years?

It wasn't like this whole thing had been forced upon him and he had to learn to adapt whether he liked it or not.

He missed school. As crazy as that was. Who knew he would miss a place where the kids only made fun of him behind his back and the teachers gave him suspicious looks every time he got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of class.

But he did. He missed the few teachers that had taken an interest in his school career. His robotics teacher Mr. Drakeley, who let him eat lunch in his room every single day without fail. Or his English teacher, Mr. Heirdent who had an uncanny habit of giving Tobey space when he needed it. He could basically sense when Tobey was having a bad day and was always respectful of Tobey's mental health.

Then of course Becky Botsford had still kept his interest. Regardless of the fact that Tobey had given up on being her friend a few years prior, he still found her presence intriguing. It kept him going a lot of the time. Whether it was out of anger or just pure curiosity, he had no idea.

But that had all been stripped away from him. Now he was isolated. He had once believed all he wanted was to get away from everyone else. To work on his own, at his own pace. But there were still social interactions he missed.

Now it was just constant meetings, and his butler teaching him the lay of the land of the factory. He had to meet all of the backers and donors and begin making connections with them. Tobey was required to learn ins and outs of the hiring process for his own staff, let alone the "employees" that were being sent to the factory.

It was a sudden jump from doing an essay analyzing "Great Expectations" for its perspective on class and ambition to doing paperwork for the city government on the sustainability of progressive in the factory. It was almost too much to handle.

Tobey didn't know whether to break down and cry or rage.

"Sir, the authorities are here," His butler informed Tobey as he carefully stepped into the room, forcing Tobey to snap back to reality. Tobey instantly sat up in his chair and cleared his throat as two officers entered his office.

"Any news?" Tobey questioned, with a hint of eagerness in his tone. He had been waiting for their visit for days.

The officers glanced at one another almost subtly before the one on the left responded to him, "The investigation has hit a dead end for now."

Tobey's heart dropped, "What does that mean? How can that be?"

"The security footage from the area was...misplaced."

Tobey's fingers twitched on the desk, as he was trying to keep his emotions in check. The panic and anger was starting to well up inside him over hearing this news from them.

"Misplaced? Would you care to explain to me how that happened?"

"Well…"

"Your department claimed you would be able to figure out who hit my parents. That this case should be easy," Tobey remarked, with a slight growl to his voice.

"We understand your frustration, sir…." The officer on the right interjected slowly and calmly, attempting to bring the tension back down.

Only to have the reverse effect.

"My parents are dead. And your job is to find out what happened to them. Who did it. Why they did. I was promised answers!" Tobey could feel the panic welling up in his chest as the sorrow and rage was overtaking him. He was losing control of himself and he couldn't stop it.

That day had been the first day he had started to feel okay. He hadn't been feeling the need to cry, nor the lack of concentration that had been plaguing him for days. He had an appetite again as well as a higher energy level. He had felt like he could have slowly been recovering.

But also like a switch had been flicked, it all had come rushing back in.

"Their murderer is still out there and your department misplaced evidence?!" Tobey shouted, his voice dropping with pain and vexation.

The two officers made eye contact once more, unsure of themselves. Tobey narrowed his eyes at them and snarled, "You know what. Don't come back here until you have evidence of my parents murder, thank you. Tell that to your entire department."

The officers were taken aback slightly, but Tobey continued to turn away from them and walk towards his windows.

"No, you know, what?" He growled, "Tell that to the entire city council. No one disturbs me here until I have answers. Got that?"

As he looked up at the setting sun, he waited for a response he knew he wasn't going to get. The officers said nothing, but he could hear his butler escort them out of the office. Their footsteps echoed through the long hallway, as well as their hushed whispers on the way out.

Fine. Let them talk. He needed to be alone anyways.

The tears quietly and slowly fell down his cheeks. He had been crying so much lately he was surprised he even had any tears left. He shouldn't have been surprised at that point honestly. He was over feeling that way.

"Sir. I know you are upset, but there might not be anything else they can do…" His butler said from the door.

But Tobey didn't want to hear it, "I request privacy at this time."

He waited until his butler was gone from the room before he took in a deep sigh and rubbed the tears off of his face.

He didn't care anymore.

What was the point in caring after all? All it caused was pain and suffering. He was sick of feeling. He was tired of other people being the cause of the emotions that were plaguing him...

Maybe it was better to put up a wall around himself. Not allow those emotions to escape or get the better of him.

No matter what, he wouldn't let anyone breach his walls again.

"A child huh?" Tobey inquired, as he stood up to look down on everyone at the table, "Well, maybe a child wouldn't have had to take over if his parents hadn't been murdered. A case which, by the way, has remained unsolved to this day, so if you please, do not proceed to insult my intelligence by calling me a child, nor by claiming I am unable to run my parents legacy."

The room was so quiet, one could hear a pin drop in the hallway.

Tobey took the silence as a victory. He was sick of the discussion anyways. He was putting an end to this waste of time. If they didn't respect him, he wasn't going to show them any.

"Anyways, if you have a problem with how I run things, I'd love to see any of you try. Any volunteers?"

Silence.

"Good. Then if you don't mind, ladies and gentlemen, I will be taking my leave. And I will continue to run my business the way I see fit. Understood?"

Before anyone even had the audacity to question him, Tobey excused himself from the room with his butler in tow.

She was the last person he thought he'd run into outside of city hall.

And he felt like he would have rather been dipped in boiling lava than have to talk to her at that moment…

On their way out, Tobey and his butler had been discussing the strategy moving forward with Becky and the factory when Tobey ran smack into a blonde haired girl on the front steps.

"Watch where you're…" He began to scold, before he realized who it was.

"Tobey?" Violet Heaslip inquired. She almost looked like she was seeing a ghost in front of her.

Tobey couldn't blame her. The last time he had come in contact with her had been in the 9th grade in their history class. Even then they hadn't really talked. They had never ever really spoken to one another their entire lives except for when it came to Becky…

Despite her usually kind and sweet demeanor, she whispered confusedly, "What are you doing here?"

"Leaving a city council meeting. What are you doing here?" He shot back. He still felt caught off guard and not over the momentary surprise at seeing another blast from his past. But honestly...it was more that all she was was a reminder of Becky.

"Heading to my work," She answered quietly. She proceeded to look at him, almost like he was an equation she was trying to figure out. Like she was searching for an answer. "Is Becky okay? How is she?"

"She's…" Tobey hesitated, "She's fine. Adjusting."

Violet nodded slowly and looked down at the ground.

Tobey knew that look in her eyes. Longing. Wishing for another moment with that person. The yearning to see their face again. It was written all over her face. Tobey knew that feeling well.

"Do you think...I would be able to visit her?" She asked, slow and steady, as if she was traversing muddy waters. Tobey could tell she felt on edge. "Not behind a window, I should add."

Tobey knew if it had been two weeks ago, his response would have been automatic. In fact, a slew of insults came to mind. But he...watching how Violet longed to see Becky again, and that he could actually help not only her, but Becky…

"Maybe. Let me see what I can do."