Chapter 102 - Butterfly Effect

"So…"

Gabriel barely had the time to open his mouth that Misha already told him to shut up, his eyes shooting daggers at the man by his side. His beet-red face was still buried in his hands, but he had spread his fingers just so he could glare at Gabriel, a myriad of emotions twirling about in the depth of his eyes.

"Let me self-loath a little longer, ok?" Misha quickly added in a smaller voice, as if afraid to be misunderstood.

"Sure…"

Thus, Gabriel did as asked and didn't speak, silently sitting on the bed like an obedient child. He knew Misha had a lot to digest in one go and rushing him wouldn't do any good. He himself had several things to ponder over, so he took the opportunity to replay the message in his head and review what he had learned. Misha's ranting revealed a few pieces of the puzzle that was the first timeline, and what Gabriel understood from it didn't make him smile, on the contrary. He knew Mrs. Brown had died, but he hadn't expected that it was only the beginning. So many things had gone wrong, starting with Masha's death.

And to top it all, there were those last few sentences, but Gabriel wisely decided to pretend that he hadn't heard them. It was already awkward enough between him and Misha, and he knew better than rubbing salt into the wound. That boy's temper was nothing to laugh at, and he didn't want to handle an angry Misha right now. They had too many things to discuss and not enough time. He also valued his life.

After a while, Misha peeked at Gabriel. He seemed to hesitate for a second before ultimately grumping in a plaintive tone, "So? What did you want to ask?"

"Well, first of all, how old are you?"

"Around 25, I guess? It's a bit hard to tell with that transmigration thing and all…."

"In other words, you're older than me?"

"You got a problem with that?"

"No, of course not. I just haven't expected you to be so old."

"You might as well say that I've got a bratty personality!"

"Can you deny it?"

There was a short silence before Misha conceded, "No…."

They bickered a little longer, which helped break the awkward atmosphere and put Misha at ease. Although the boy stayed curled up in the corner of the bed, he lifted his head and stared into Gabriel's eyes, his mouth distorted into half a grimace and half a pout. In a way, sharing his secret with someone lifted an enormous weight off his shoulders, though he hadn't realized it for the time being. He was still too shocked by the sudden turn of events.

"I know you probably don't feel like it, but can you tell me what happened in the first timeline? There are many odd points I would like to clarify with you. For instance, it seemed like you didn't know that Stephan is my childhood friend, which is a little odd considering his personality. He should have popped up in your life when you were still young. Stephan is not the kind of guy who gives people space, so he should have come to your house to bother your sister or me a few times. The fact that he hasn't leaves me perplexed."

"Well, I met him when I applied to work at his bar. I was around 24 at the time, and I don't really know what he was up to before that." As he spoke, Misha frowned, trying to remember something, anything, that could be of help. "He's not really the guy to talk about his past too."

"Don't worry, take your time."

Misha responded with a nod, thinking back on his days at the bar. He had worked for Stephan for almost a year, so he must have heard about something of value. Yet, nothing came to his mind. As Misha rummaged through his memories, a headache slowly started to throb, quickly turning into a migraine. He ignored it and persisted, and after a few minutes, something finally popped into his mind. Once he remembered that peculiar conversion, he couldn't help but glance at Gabriel with uncertainty.

"What is it?" gently smiled Gabriel, encouraging him to speak with a tilt of his head.

"There was that one time where a customer came to make trouble in the bar. He asked me how it felt to work for someone who drove his father to death and r.a.p.ed girls and boys alike. I didn't pay much attention to it at the time 'cause, you know, we had many jealous clients who came over to pour dirty water on Stephan, spouting nonsense all the time. That guy's a playboy, after all. It's just that that customer was very adamant about his claim and was being a real pain in the b.u.t.t. Dereck even had to throw him out in the end."

"Dereck?"

"Yeah, Dereck. He also worked for Stephan, guarding the door as the bouncer. He grew up into a tall and muscular man," chuckled Misha. "Surprising, isn't it?"

"…I won't say it isn't. Back to the matter at hand, do you remember that costumer's appearance?"

"No, I only have a vague image of it. Why?"

"For nothing. I was just curious."

"Don't lie. You know I'm not a kid, so you better stop treating me like one and tell me everything that's going through your head, or else, I swear I'm gonna beat you to a pulp," snorted Misha. "You lied to me for years in my previous life, and that resulted in a tragedy. Don't you dare do the same thing this time around! I have enough of tragedies!"

"…All right. I just thought that maybe, just maybe, someone framed Stephan as a rapist to get rid of him, someone like Angela. He has always been a Don Juan, which makes him relatively easy to set up. She could have very well brided someone to sleep with him, then pretend to have been r.a.p.ed. If she hired a few persons to do that, the accusations would pile up and become almost impossible to whitewash. **** is often difficult to prove, but it's as equally difficult to prove that it hasn't happened. And when many witnesses gather together to say the same thing, their voices grow stronger and stronger, drowning their victim's voice out."

"What the hell! That's disgusting! Why would that bitch do that?!"

"In the timeline that I come from, Stephan and I suspected that someone fiddled with his car to kill his father and him, trying to disguise their murders as a car accident. It looks like his father learned about some of my father's or Angela's dirty secrets, and someone wanted to silence him. Maybe in the first timeline, they succeeded, and Stephan's father died. Some people could then speculate this or that about the car accident, and knowing my family, they wouldn't miss this golden chance to tarnish Stephan's name with half-trues and half-lies. They are the cautious kinds, meaning that they wouldn't let him alone as his father could have told him their secrets. They would want to eliminate him any way they can."

"Wait. What? But if what you say is true, how come his father didn't die and Stephan wasn't arrested in your timeline?! They weren't, right? I don't get it!"

"Well, the second timeline was somewhat different, I believe. Usually, Stephan sleeps in as he's not a morning person, but in my timeline, I bought Masha a cellphone because of her new physical conditions. I wanted her to be able to contact someone whenever and wherever, just in case something were to happen and she needed help. But she kind of misused her cellphone and bothered Stephan whenever she felt like it. That day, she sent him several text messages in the morning, which ended up waking him up."

Knowing that Masha had contacted Stephan to flaunt about having taken a bath with him, Gabriel didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Who could have guessed that it would save Stephan's father's life? It was only a few text messages, taunting ones to boot, yet it changed a man's destiny.

"And so, Stephan got out of bed and left his bedroom, probably to go to the toilets, and that's when he came across his drunk father and decided to accompany him to my family's house. Although he acts like an idiot most of the time, Stephan does have a brain, and he noticed something was off about the car right away when they were about to leave and called me to pick him up. However, it seemed like the rest of the year hadn't been easy for him and his father afterward."

Listening to Gabriel's deductions, Misha blinked, unable to keep up. But if he was right, then Stephan probably didn't have it easy in his previous life. He never showed it, though, always acting like a fool, doing stupid things and whatnot. Misha couldn't help but silently cry, wondering why everyone around him was so good at pretending to be okay when they weren't. Couldn't they be like him?! An open book?! Life would be so much easier that way!

"…Gabby, there's something very different about someone in this timeline compared to the previous one," mumbled Misha after a while, wondering if Gabriel, whose brain was obviously better than his, could help him figure out what went so wrong. "You know, I was supposed to meet Vanessa later, a bit before my 24th birthday. But I met her a lot sooner in the hospital, and she somehow ended up in a car accident and came back to live in Canada when she was supposed to live in the USA until she turned 18. I just don't get what happened. I was only hospitalized for a few weeks because of my fever! How could it lead to this!"

"I think I may be at fault here."

"Ha? How come?!"

"Do you remember the old lady that shared your room?"

"How could I ever forget her?! She mistook me for Vanessa all the time!"

"Well, I helped taking care of her, didn't I? With this in mind, there is that particular day that I believe was the turning point. I noticed she seemed more restless than usual, so I notified the reception, asking them to keep an eye on her. She was very adamant about returning home, but what would happen if she did so? If she took off the nasal cannula that delivered the oxygen to her lungs and wandered about, trying to find the way home? And what if she managed to sneak out?"

"…Wouldn't she be at risk of dying?! She was very frail from what I remember!"

"Sadly, yes. I think she would die, and if she dies, why would Vanessa come to visit her a few days later? There would be no one left at the hospital for her and her father to visit."

"…Oh my gosh, you must be kidding me!"

"Don't make that face, it's only a few hypotheses without any solid evidence. I could be wrong for all we know. But there's one thing I'm sure of: what drastically changed from your past life to this one was my presence beside Vanessa's great-grandmother. It would never have happened hadn't it been for your fever, and I think that played a major role in Vanessa's car accident."

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