Chapter 119 - An Overdue Conversation

Jake stood beside Masha in the living room, silently watching Gabriel and Misha climb upstairs with narrowed eyes. Although he had no intention of following them, he still didn't like being ignored. That kind of attitude grated on his nerves, making him grit his teeth and clench his fists.

Just now, Misha had insisted on playing in his room with Gabriel, saying that he had new toys he wanted to show him, and only him. With big, round eyes, the brat tugged on Gabriel's sleeve, acting as though Jake and Masha weren't there. It was as if they didn't exist in the boy's eyes.

Of course, Jake wasn't interested in wasting his time playing with a ten-year-old kid, but his antics did irk him, and not just a little. The boy didn't even try to hide his hostility, openly showing that he hated his guts. Well, the enmity was shared; Jake hadn't forgotten how that little punk had dared to hit him in the nuts at the hospital, rendering him unable to walk properly for days.

Just thinking about it made his blood boil with rage. However, Jake knew better than letting his emotions run wild. He couldn't do anything for the time being, or his mother's plan would go down the drain, and he sure as hell didn't want to pay the price of angering Angela. Whether he liked it or not, Jake couldn't antagonize Gabriel just yet, meaning that he couldn't take revenge on the brat.

'But well, it's a good thing they left in the end,' inwardly sneered Jake, peering at Masha from the corner of his eyes. 'I've got my own agenda for today, anyway.'

"Say, it doesn't bother you that your boyfriend prioritizes your little brother over you?" Jake asked with a smile that wasn't quite a smile, his dark emerald eyes filled with hidden meanings.

"No, not really," Masha shook her head, a small smile on her lips. "I mean, I prioritize my brother over my boyfriend, so how could I be bothered when he does the same? And to be honest, it makes me happy that the two people I love most get along so well. The sight of these two talking and laughing makes my heart go soft, you know?"

"Still, you haven't seen Gabriel in so long, and yet he leaves you alone to play with your brother. I'm sure you were excited to meet him today, alas…."

Jake stopped mid-sentence to let out a long sigh, shaking his head with disapproval written all over his face. It almost made Masha roll her eyes. She forced out a cough to stifle a snort, trying to hide her contempt behind an awkward smile.

Could that guy be any more obvious? Anyone with a brain could tell he was trying to sow discord between her and Gabriel, all the while pretending to care for her feelings.

What a pitiful trick, ah.

"Well, I think my brother was even more excited than I was. That brat sure has taken a liking to Gabriel," Masha chuckled, deciding to play dumb. "Well, Gabriel is surprisingly good at handling kids too. Anyway, they'll come back down soon enough, so let's wait for them. We can watch the TV in the meantime."

"…Alright."

Although Masha didn't want to have anything to do with Jake, she knew she had to keep him busy while Gabriel and Misha discussed. She was well aware her brother hadn't actually asked Gabriel to come upstairs to play. No, he wanted to talk and clear up Gabriel's past once and for all.

Masha just hoped that the truth wouldn't distress her brother too much. But deep down, she knew she would have to be there for him tonight; Misha tended to be too empathic for his own good, even more so when it concerned the ones he held dear.

***

"Although I don't think I need to spell it out for you, I'm gonna say it anyway: I want to know what happened when you were young, including everything about your first coma. And don't you dare lie, or I'm gonna beat you to a pulp. Understood?"

At those words, Gabriel's mouth twitched slightly. It was strange to hear a kid, who looked so tiny and frail, threaten him with such a severe expression on his face. Unfortunately for Misha, his soft voice didn't make it convincing in the least, and the same could be said for his sparkling blue eyes; it only made Gabriel want to pinch his cheeks. Maybe even ruffle his hair and tease him a little.

But now wasn't the time, so Gabriel didn't give in to temptation. Instead, he tapped the bed, beckoning Misha to sit by his side.

"Alright, I'll tell you everything. This conversation is long overdue, anyway, but before I start, you should sit."

Suspiciously sizing him up, Misha seemed to hesitate for a second before slowly making his way to the bed, sitting at a safe distance from Gabriel. With his mouth shut into a taut line, he then peered at the man through a few strands of blonde hair, waiting for him to get the ball rolling.

"Hm, where should I start?" Gabriel wondered aloud, intertwining his fingers together to form a single fist. "It's a bit of a long story, but I'll try to keep it short."

"No need to keep it short, you can go in detail."

"And let Masha entertain Jake for longer than necessary? Do you want her mental health to collapse?"

"…Short is good too."

"Isn't it?" Gabriel chuckled, laughter in his eyes, though the sparkles didn't last long and quickly vanished, replaced by a dark cloud instead.

There was a moment of silence as Gabriel took the time to organize his thoughts, seemingly trying to find the right words, ones that wouldn't rub salt into the wounds and hurt Misha unnecessarily. Just as Misha had downplayed it when he talked about his father's abuse and his sister's suicide, Gabriel thought of doing the same. But it wasn't an easy task, considering what he had to say.

"Well, let's start with the coma," Gabriel sighed after a while. "But unfortunately, I can't tell you much because the events are a little blurry in my mind. All I can say is what the doctors concluded back them. According to them, I ingested something bad that had been mixed with my food, probably sleeping pills of some sort."

"Sleeping pills? How could that have caused a coma…?"

"It's like any medication. Take too much of it in one go, and the consequences can be tragic, especially if you're a child or in your early teens. Frankly, I lucked it out by only falling into a coma and waking up a few days later, and all that without any sequels. It could have been far worse."

"But why didn't you notice there were sleeping pills in your food…? I mean, any kind of pills scattered in your plate would have looked suspicious no matter what."

"Indeed, and that's why they had been crushed and mixed with the food. It was impossible to detect it with nȧkėd eyes, and the taste wasn't that different from usual, from what I can remember. And, you know, a thirteen year-old-kid won't suspect their food to be poisoned just because the taste is a bit off. Hell, even ȧduŀts won't necessarily think of that."

"Y-you're right, sorry." Misha paused to bite his lips before spitting out, "But what kind of monster would poison a teen?!"

Hearing this, Gabriel smiled sadly, stretching a hand to pat and stroke Misha's back to soothe him. It was only the beginning, and he was already about to blow up. The boy's cheeks had turned bright red with anger, and his breathing had become heavier, his ċhėst rising up and down with every breath.

"According to the police officer's report, it was my mother."

"W-what?"

"They said that she wanted to bring her son with her in her death. In their eyes, she committed suicide because she was emotionally unstable. They considered her to be quite the mental case. Moreover, my mother was the one who prepared the food that I consumed, making it all the easier to poison it with her own sleeping pills, or so they say."

Misha opened his mouth but soon closed it, not knowing what to say.

"But the police had no concrete proof. It was mainly baseless theories; the maid had thoroughly cleaned up the kitchen before the investigation, destroying most of the evidence. According to the maid, she just did her job after I was sent to the hospital, not knowing that she was tampering with a crime scene. After all, at the time, they didn't know why I had fainted, though many thought it was probably due to the sight of my mother's corpse. Who would ȧssume that the young master had been poisoned?"

Gabriel let out a scoff, shaking his head.

"And of course, there was no food left to sample and analyze because the maid threw it away. She told the officers I ate it all, but I hadn't."

If he had, he wouldn't be alive to tell the story.

"All in all, the police officers could only base their investigation on what the doctor told them and the testimonies from my family and the house staff."

"But their testimonies aren't worth shit!"

"I know. But who would believe a young teen who went through a traumatic experience over a bunch of ȧduŀts with silver tongues? What child would want to accept that their mother tried to kill them? So in the end, whatever I said wasn't taken seriously, even when I told them that my mother didn't commit suicide."

"…How do you know? That she didn't."

"Someone pushed her to her death. She didn't jump from her room of her own volition, but I had no proof back then. Besides, I didn't see the culprit's face, just their arms. I also wasn't aware of many things when I was younger and didn't know who to accuse, unlike now."

Tightening his grip around his hands, Gabriel closed his eyes as the memories of that fateful day flooded his mind. Though some pieces were missing, some were still as clear as day, and that included his mother's last moments.

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