Conrad took a deep breath and looked up. He looked like he was trying to get lost in the stars, trying to find someone in the vast expanse. Then turning towards David he said,

"June 11, 1995."

"That was the day when Akira's parents got killed."

"But as far as I know, her parents got killed in a car accident. What did you have to do with any of it?"

David asked impatiently.

Conrad jerked his head off, trying to erase the horrid image of the past and said,

"Before coming back to New York, I was in Michigan."

"Yes, I am aware of it. You wanted a simple life and you were a basketball coach in some state-funded school. But let's not deviate from the topic. It's not like we have infinite time in our hands."

Seeing him getting impatient, Conrad smiled and said,

"I was never a basketball coach in my entire life. I never taught in any high school for that record."

"Then where were you all these years? What were you doing?"

"I was serving my time at the Michigan State Penitentiary."

"Serving time? What for? Did you...?"

And the words just stopped.

"Yes. I was serving my time because I was driving a car which caused the untimely death of two people. The two people who were supposed to take care of the girl...."

But before he could even complete his sentence, a flabbergasted David got up from the bench and darted his words,

"You...You killed Akira's parents?"

"It was your car that rammed against theirs, wasn't it?"

Then holding his head between his hands, David sat back on the bench. His legs were shaking, unable to believe what he had just heard.

"Yes, it was my car, David."

Conrad spoke with a voice devoid of any emotions. He looked into the distance like he was recollecting the whole episode in his head. Then he let out a sigh and said,

"It was a mistake David, an honest mistake and nothing else."

"Were you, were you drunk or under the influence of something? Or did you absentmindedly look at something else?"

Conrad didn't reply and preferred to stay silent.

"Will you tell me at least something? Were you alone? What happened that day?"

Conrad looked at his watch again, before narrating his story.

"It was one of the best days of my life which turned all tragical. A bright Sunday morning and we all had gone to the beach."

There was a question mark on David's face and Conrad quickly noticed that and added,

"By we all I mean my son Raymond, my daughter Katherine and ..."

"And?"

"And my wife Rose."

"Rose was your wife?"

"Yes, we were the sort of people drowning in each other's love. I had a small and happy family. I had no desires like my brother who was struggling hard at that time to build back our father's forgotten empire."

"We were happy and so in love. Even the Sebastian that you know now, wasn't like that. He was a cheerful man. He used to stay with us at that time as we were staying in New York. His business had started to grow and he had already bagged a huge project. And to celebrate that we all went to the beach that day. Sebastian said that he would go there on his own so he didn't travel with us."

"We had packed all our food and a couple of toys in my Toyota and we reached the beach. But the biggest surprise was waiting for us at the beach. A brand new Acura NSX was standing there at the beach, waiting for us."

"That was Sebastian's new ride and to be honest, I will not lie, I was a bit jealous to see my kids and my wife marveling the new car. Somehow sometimes I had felt that he had a soft corner for my wife, but I could never confront him. I could never dare to do anything to ruin our trust, but that day when I saw Rose smiling, looking at him, something inside of me snapped. So I was glad when he told us that he had decided to move out of our house."

"You know David, I acted like I was sorry that he was leaving, but deep down I was glad that he would soon be gone because I didn't want my kids to think of me as a failure. I sound too weird right?"

"Ermm... no."

"You don't need to act polite in front of me. You do not work for me, David."

Saying that Conrad chucked and then continued.

"To be honest I loved that car. I wanted to drive it a bit and as if he could read my mind, he threw the keys towards me and said - 'Give it a whirl brother'. "

"I asked him to come with me, but he said that he wanted to walk in the water, so I took my boy along with me for the ride. Maybe a part of me wanted to show my boy that even though I didn't have a nice car, I was an awesome driver."

"I was teaching my Ray how to switch gears. I was teaching him how to steer. The road was pretty less crowded and he was listening intently to all my instructions. Somehow whatever I didn't have in terms of money, I was trying to compensate in terms of the lessons that I was imparting. I just wanted to be enough for them. But that thirst to be the best was raging so high inside me, that I completely forgot that even though it was a town road, it was still a road and not a playground."

"I was totally unprepared. The road was narrow and suddenly from the opposite side, I saw a car approaching us at a speed of 80 miles/hour and I just couldn't do anything."

"You could just have braked."

David blurted out.

Conrad sighed again and said,

"I could have. But it wasn't me who was sitting on the driver's seat."

"Wait, what?"

"A selfish father, in his mad pursuit of proving himself as the best had given the car to his young boy to learn driving."

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[Author here - I have a new surprise for you guys. A new book - The rise of the saviour

Please give this book some love with your reviews and comments. I sincerely hope you will love this new book as well.]