Chapter 2: The strange wind

Lara returned home, took out the strawberry ice cream and decided to drown herself in it. She was still in the first plate of ice cream when Kate returned.

Kate walked in, the door was unlocked and she walked in suspiciously. Only She and Lara had the keys to this house, and she was sure that Lara went to celebrate her Anniversary with Jude.

Does that mean that someone has broken into their apartment? She wondered and immediately opened her purse and took out her phone and pepper spray, before dropping off the purse on the couch.

She heard the sound coming from upstairs and so she slowly, tiptoed up.

With the pepper spray pointing forward, she went upstairs. Following the sound, she stopped in front of the door of her room.

She placed her ear on the door and listened to the sound, she could only hear shuffling and whimpering. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

“LARA!” she exclaimed, she was surprised to see Lara, surrounded by four bottles of bear and ice cream.

“Jude has been cheating on me, he doesn’t love me. I caught him with another girl” Lara poured out immediately she saw that it was Kate. Fresh tears streamed down the corner of her eyes as she spoke.

Kate dropped the pepper spray and sat down with her on the floor.

Lara rested her head on Kate’s shoulder and cried her eyes out. she was already drunk from the beer she had earlier. Kate tried to console her as she passed her the box of tissue to sneeze on and wipe her tears.

“What did he do now?” Kate asked softly

“I caught him fucking another girl. Kate he was moaning out loud and I watch him, he was using our dick on another bitch”

“But, technically, it’s his dick” Kate chirped in.

“Is that the point, or do you want to side with him?” Lara shot her a hard, bloodshot glare and Kate coughed playfully and said;

“What I meant to say is that, how dare he. How could he use that dick on another slut?”

“I know right, he’s so mean, I hate him” Lara mumbled and returned her head back to its position on Kate’s shoulder.

“I hate to say I told you so, but you know I told you so, right? the signs were really, really obvious, but you were too obsess and in love with the guy that you took no notice that he was toying with your feelings” Kate stated as she caressed Lara’s hair.

Lara remained silent; she couldn’t argue because Kate had warned her. Even on the day of their anniversary last year, Kate had reported that she had seen Jude with a lady at a bar, he was obviously flirting with the lady. But when Kate told her, she turned a blind eye to it. That day she waited for Jude, she was all dressed up in the new silver gown she had bought, she waited for hours but he didn’t show up that day and even all through the night. Despite that she still didn’t ask him about it.

“I need to pee” she said and tried to push herself up. She tried but fell down, her shaky hands and legs couldn’t carry her drunk body.

“Are you okay?” Kate asked as she tried to lend her a hand.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Don’t worry I can help myself” she stopped Kate from helping and finally got up from the floor.

She staggered over to the bathroom and pushed the door open and walked in.

Kate sighed sadly as she walked her friend exit into the bathroom. That bastard has finally broken her heart. she could recall how many months of him chasing after Lara. How he came to her pleading, promising to treat her well and all those bullshit promises. Now he has revealed his true self, a wolf in sheep clothing.

She stood up from the floor. A cold breeze rushed into the room;it was strange because all the windows was closed. The bulbs flickered off and on, she looked around the room, just when it had calmed down, she started picking up the empty beer bottles.

She picked them all up and headed to the door and that was when she heard Lara shrilling scream from the bathroom. She dropped the bottles gently on the floor and rushed to the bathroom to Check on Lara only to see her unconscious on the cold bathroom floor and a trail of blood flowing away from her head.

At that moment, she panicked. She screamed for help and rushed over to Lara.

“Lara! Lara!” she called out and shook her violently but she was out cold.

She rose up to her feet and dragged her up and struggle to put her on her back.

“Stay with me Lara” She mumbled as she managed to hang Lara on her back and move out of the bathroom.

She ran outside and without locking her door she pushed Lara into the back seat and ran over to the front.

She got in and wanted to put in the keys and that was when she realized that she had left it inside. She had to rush in again. Her shaky hands searched through her purse, she found it and rushed back outside.

She ignited the car and drove off leaving a trail of dust behind.

********

Ryan stood with his hands inside his pocket, his eyes stared down from the roof of his pent house, one of the tallest buildings in New York. The tiny lights shined in the dark. It was almost mid-night, but the lights of New York city were still shining brightly.

The door open and the sound of the footsteps walking in filled the room.

“Is it done?” he asked

“Sir, we” the man stuttered and turned over to the other man beside him who kept urging him to speak.

“We attacked and almost finished him off, but then he fell into the pool and his guards came, so we could not kill him like you instructed” he finally summoned courage and spoke.

Ryan’s eyes flashed in anger, but his face remained expressionless and cold like ice.

“Mr. Lee” Ryan called and the man who spoke earlier answered and moved closer.

“Come stand with me here” Ryan’s voice was calm and he turned to face the three men standing behind him, then he faced Mr. Lee and stretched out his arm beckoning him to come closer.

Mr. Lee slowly moved closer and took Ryan’s hand with a nervous smile on his lips.

“Young master, I didn’t mean to fail you” Mr. Lee muttered

Ryan scoffed and in one swift turn, he sent Mr. Lee falling off the building. The screams of Mr. Lee could be heard as he fell down from one of the tallest buildings in New York. Surely he’ll crash to shreds.

Ryan turned to the men behind him and said; “IF YOU FAIL ME ONE MORE TIME, YOU’LL FACE A MUCH MORE TORTOROUS END THAN HIM” he threatened and the men nodded in fear.

He waved at them to leave and they did, immediately.

Ryan sighed. He now has to go see his brother at the hospital, the same brother he wants to murder.

He turned to leave and just then, his phone rang.

He glanced at the screen before swiping the call to connect.

“Hello Mum”

“Ryan. Why would you be so indecisive. We just staged your father’s accident and you didn’t think before you sent men to murder Liam. Are you this stupid?” she snapped at him.

‘Mum, we need”

“What we need is a perfect strategy” she said cutting his words short; the line went silent for a while, he could hear the sound of his mother breathing, she was counting again, each time she gets angry, she counts just to calm her nerves.

“Come home now. I just hope those men off yours cleaned up any loose ends” She added before the call disconnected. He sighed and started walking away.

He was going to make sure he fights for his birth right and Liam was just a stumbling rock that needs to be rolled away.

Before Ryan would get down the building to his car which was parked outside, the police had already gathered around the corpse of Mr. Lee.

Yellow tape stretched around the scene. Cops, onlooker and even journalist and their camera gathered around. The cops tried to clear the scene.

Ryan brought his head low and tried to walk away, but as soon as the reporters caught sight of him, they all swarm over around him.

“Master Ryan, what would you say about all that have been happening in your family?”

“Master Ryan, is it true that someone is out to bring down the Browne family?”

“Master Ryan, what would you say about the recent attempt on your step-Brother, Liam Browne?”

“Please give us a reply sir?”

Different question was shot at Ryan by the reporters and paparazzi, but he ignored them and made his way through to his car.

********

Lara finally woke up, she felt sore all over her body and kept hearing strange voices around her.

“he’s awake” one feminine voice announced.

She groaned painfully, all her body felt sore and numb as if she had been stabbed.

“Master Liam, you have to rest, don’t Try to stand up, you just woke up from a surgery” the man dressed in a white doctor’s robe said.

“Master Liam? Who the fuck is Liam? Which Surgery? I just fell?” she asked different question and tried to recall what happened to her.

She had just entered into the bathroom when a strange wind blew around her. All she could hear at that moment was wish, wish, wish. The strange wind hovered around her and when she tried to run out of the bathroom she slipped and fall, crashing her head on the toilet seat before she blacked out.

She brought her hand up to her head and gently rubbed on it to see if she had broken her head. It felt odd that her hair was short, but that didn’t bother her, what was more odd was why her body hurts much more, wasn’t it her head she broke.

She managed to raise her head up despite the doctor and nurse who screamed against it…

Her eyes first fell on her chest, something was off about it. She rubbed her hand on her chest and immediately screamed.

“What happened to my breast?” she cried out and immediately brought her hand down to her crotch. She felt the thick organ down there and screamed even more.

“What have you done to me? or wait, I might have hit my head so hard. It might just be an illusion caused by the heavy impact on my head” Lara said to herself.

“Why does my voice sound so thick” she wondered.

“Master Liam, you have to rest” The doctor said again and tried to lay her back on the bed.

“My name is Lara, Lara Hamilton” Lara scream and threw a tantrum.

The doctor nodded slightly at a nurse, the nurse nodded too and turned around and tool out a syringe from the table and handed it to the doctor. Lara was still struggling when suddenly the doctor pierced the syringe into her neck.

Lara flinched as soon as she felt the needle pierce through her skin. Almost immediately she felt dizzy and weak.

The door open and a man on a wheeled-chair was pushed in;

“How is my son? I heard he is awake” the old man whose face was almost covered up with a bandage. His voice sounded weak, but he spoke with authority as he asked for his son. This was the almighty Browne. The Father of Liam and Ryan.

His personal security wheeled him in, closer to the bed, where the Doctor managed to tuck the Already unconscious master in bed.

“Sir, you should be in your ward” the doctor said to Browne and walked over to him.

“How is my son?”

“He is displaying some strange psychological behavior. we will have to run some tests in him to understand the situation and rule out any possible brain damage” the Doctor replied.

“My heir is going insane?” Browne exclaimed and jerked up on his wheel chair. He gripped his chest and shuddered and convulsed.

“Rush him back to his ward, he is having a cardiac arrest” the doctor instructed and immediately he was rushed to his ward. The doctor managed to stable his condition and left him to rest.

The hospital returned back to its quiet state. The police surrounded the whole premises to keep off the pesky reporters.

*****

Ryan pulled over just in front of the hospital. He could see his mother’s convoy parked ahead of him. She had gotten here before him.

He pulled out his keys from the ignition and was about stepping out of the car when his phone rang. He answered the call and placed the phone on his ear.

“He is awake?” Ryan exclaimed loudly. He was shocked as to how he was able to survive the staged accident.

“Get me something I need to finish him off then, meet me in 3 minutes in front of my brother’s ward” Ryan instructed and hung up the call.

He stepped down from his car and locked it before making his way into the hospital. As usual the paparazzi tried to get him to talk, but he was in no mood for it so he just went inside.

He asked for the direction of Liam’s Ward and was directed upstairs to the VIPs ward.

He got upstairs and saw Richard standing by the door, he glanced at his watch and it was exactly 3 minutes. Richard walked up to him and handed a syringe to him.

“This is what you asked for, Sir” Richard said.

Ryan took it and glanced at it for a while before raising his eyes up to the ceiling.

“Do something about the CCTV camera’s” he said and made his way to his father’s ward. Richard walked away.

The door to creaked open gently, Ryan’s footsteps echoed in the room, more loud than the sound of his father’s heart beat which is being recorded on the EKG. His father didn’t even shake, he just laid there.

How the mighty has fallen, he thought. He could remember when his father was fierce, not taking any bullshit from anyone. He was the most feared and that was why he was the almighty Browne, but now look at him, laying on the bed like a piece of discarded vegetable.

He closed the door and locked it up and then turned to face the bed were his father laid. In just few steps he got close enough.

His cold, haughty eyes stared and his father’s pale face.

“I have always done everything in my power to please you, but NO, you didn’t appreciate it. You’d always choose Liam. Well, all that is gonna end now” he muttered and uncapped the syringe before emptying all it’s content into the intravenous fluid hung above the bed.

“Rest in peace. It’s time for me to take what is rightfully mine” Ryan chuckled evilly as he watches the yellow content, he injected mix with the white intravenous fluid and flow down into the veins of his father. He watched as his father’s face twitched as soon as the content flowed into his veins.

The beeping sound of the EKG increased, and the beeping raced. He knew it was working, whatever poison Richard had given to him was really working.

He turned and left the ward. That old man was finally out of the picture, all he just needs to do was find a way to end the other obstacle and then it will all be his.