chapter 7

They killed my sister… the only family member I had" he said with a sardonic smile.

"What!" Beatrix exclaimed as she stared at Ricardo and her eyes welled up with tears, "I'm sorry, it must have been so hard.."

"I need a drink for this," Ricardo said as he got on his feet and went to the mini fridge located at the corner of the room.

He took out a bottle of whiskey and handed one to me, "I don't have anything else, so I hope you drink whiskey" Ricardo said as he took his seat again beside Beatrix.

After a deep sigh left his lips, he turned to Beatrix, who was sitting next to him. She had a worried look on her face

"Are you okay?" Beatrix asked as she took his hands in his, rubbing circles on his palm in a comforting manner

"Nah, not really. Even if it happened months ago, I couldn't stop thinking about the way I found her. Her dead body is still etched in my mind." Ricardo explained

"I'm so sorry to hear that. Can I ask how she died?" Beatrix asked, and Ricardo's eyes hardened as he looked down at his drink before he took a gulp and moved his gaze back to Beatrice, who was still rubbing circles on his hand.

"She was killed by a very well-known mafia group. It was a few months back, but it felt like yesterday." Ricardo answered as the ache in his heart for the loss of his sister came back. He swore to protect her, but he failed.

One thing is for sure he won't fail to take revenge on those who had hurt her, Ricardo thought to himself as he took another sip of his whiskey. The memories from that night came flooding back.

"That's terrible," Beatrix exclaimed.

"She wanted to be a journalist because she wanted people to always know the truth. She was just at the right place at the wrong time, those bastards killed her because she saw them kill someone and that person was her boyfriend, " Ricardo explained as Beatrix's eyes welled up in tears.

"Why would someone do that? She didn't do anything wrong, so why?" Beatrix muttered as she wiped the tears off her face

"The heart-wrenching thing was that she and her boyfriend were killed in the comfort of the boyfriend, Jace's hostel, and the police closed the case like it was nothing."

"What! Wait, I don't understand. "

"They didn't meet their end on the road or in some dark alley," Ricardo began, his voice filled with anguish. "Those men, they followed him to the hostel where my sister was waiting for him. And they killed them both because he witnessed something he never should have."

"I'm at a loss for words," Beatrix replied, stunned by the story of the death of Ricardo's sister, he and her were not so different after all, and maybe that is why she was drawn to him.

Ricardo continued, his anger and grief evident in his trembling voice. "They left a gruesome message, you know? A warning to anyone who dared to cross them or tried to get revenge for their deaths. I've been relentlessly pursuing justice ever since. Those responsible must pay for what they did to her."

"It must have been so hard for you, I'm sorry, you didn't deserve it," Beatrix said, her voice breaking because of the fact that she had been crying.

"Don't cry for me. It's all in the past, and I've gotten through it every day. Honestly, the only thing pushing me to live each day is my revenge, " Ricardo confessed as a pained smile formed on his face.

"Don't talk like that. You must have something else to live for?" Beatrix asked as she stared at his pained expression, "what about your parents? They must give you the will to live at least"

Ricardo's voice quivered as he confided, "My parents are no longer with me, and it feels like I'm drifting in my world, struggling to stay afloat. Each day, this growing sense of anger consumes me, and I don't know how to make it go away." A sad smile tugged at his lips as he stared into space, and Beatrice, sensing the deep pain in his heart, nodded in understanding.

"Ricardo," Beatrix attempted to speak, but her voice failed her. She struggled to find words that could soothe the raging storm within his heart, for she had once stood in his shoes, and she knew all too well that nothing at that moment could ease the pain and fury he felt.

"I've spent countless nights," Ricardo's voice shook with emotion, "trying to piece together the puzzle, to uncover the names and faces behind this horrific crime against my sister, to just try and make sense of this situation, because why did they need to kill her? She was fucking innocent."

Beatrix couldn't help but notice the difference in him. The confident, snarky man she had first met seemed like a distant memory. She wondered if this was the real Ricardo, hidden beneath all that hate.

As her tear-stained face gazed at him, she realized how deeply this meeting had changed the relationship between them and if he could trust her with his secret maybe she could trust him with hers.

"You know, Ricardo," Beatrix said, her voice trembling with emotion. She looked up and found Ricardo gazing at her, his eyes filled with pain that resonated deeply within her. "We're not so different after all."

Ricardo furrowed his brows. "What do you mean, Beatrice?"

"My life hasn't always been easy either. It started with losing my mother to cancer," Beatrix confessed.

"I'm so sorry to hear that," Ricardo said with genuine sympathy.

"That's not even the worst part," Beatrix continued, her voice cracking. "I lost my twin sister to an overdose because she couldn't cope with our mother's death."

Ricardo struggled to find the right words, his own pain now mirrored in Beatrice's story. I guess she was right, we weren't so different after all.

"Then finally the one that broke me to the point where I almost ended everything, if not for Sensei Tanaka I wouldn't be here right now"

"What happened?"

"After enduring so many losses, I moved on, but the world cruelly took the final beacon of happiness in my life – my father, my guiding light, and the last remaining pillar of my family and it was all because of one man's greed."