"You had what?"

David almost screamed when he heard the statement of Conrad.

"How could you?"

"I told you, David, I was just trying to prove myself. I didn't want my kids to tell me on my face someday that they wished Sebastian to be their father."

David stayed silent after hearing him speak. He was still trying to process the information. He was still unable to believe that it was Raymond whose hands were stained in blood. Now he understood, why Sebastian was so hell-bent on preventing this memory of Raymond from resurfacing.

"My mad pursuit turned my son into a murderer. It was not his fault, not at all his fault. It was all me. Everything was on me. My madness resulted in nothing but chaos."

Saying that Conrad got up from his seat.

David could see that his hands and legs were trembling as he stood up. So he immediately got up from the desk and gave him support by holding his shoulder.

He pressed his shoulders gently trying to comfort him and said,

"It's all in the past Conrad. It's all in the past. There is no point in thinking of what had happened. Raymond doesn't remember a thing about it. I know if for sure. It's a memory that has been completely erased from his mind. So you do not need to overthink."

"That's not the truth."

"What do you mean?"

Conrad turned towards David and said,

"That day when you saw Raymond waking up in the clinic."

"Yes, I remember that."

David interrupted.

"That was not the first time that Raymond had gotten up from the coma."

"What do you mean?"

David asked with his voice filled with astonishment.

"What I mean is, the very first time that Raymond got up, his first memory was the memory from that crash which had happened. Because the first person that he called for was me."

"He screamed and asked people to get an ambulance. He was yelling that he had killed a couple. He went all frantic and went into a shock. And it was because of this shock that he couldn't recollect anyone's face afterward. Probably a kind of safety mechanism that his brain had built for him."

"What, How, Why? I have no idea."

David was stunned after hearing his statement. He had stood up earlier to comfort Conrad but right now, he was in dying need of comfort himself.

He sat down on the bench, trying hard to build a timeframe in his head.

"Mr. Conrad, so let me get this right. What happened that day, Raymond had no memory of it since childhood days. But after that accident when he woke up, his mind was stuck in that memory which sort of pushed him to the edge. So right now, that memory is blocked again. Is that right?"

"No, it is not completely blocked. He is going to slowly remember everything back. As I heard from Sebastian, he was able to remember the face of Rose. So that is just a beginning. The more he remembers, and is able to recollect faces, the more he will be able to tap into his faded memories. And if he remembers that, then he will lose it all."

"I served the term for the mistake I did. I lost my family, my love, my career, everything. In the eyes of the whole world, I was the one who was driving. My son had gone into trauma and my daughter couldn't bear to see me serving the term. She started retracting from everyone. There was chaos everywhere and my wife was unable to handle it alone."

"While Raymond was getting treated from the trauma, my daughter was getting bullied in her school because of me."

Saying that Conrad wiped the streams of tears, gushing out from his eyes.

"My daughter shunned everyone and stopped speaking with everyone. My brother wanted to help out, but that big ego of mine didn't let me take any of his help. I pushed Rose to handle everything on her own in the merciless world outside. But how much she could have done. No matter how hard she tried, my family was splitting apart."

"Is that why Rose married Mr. Sebastian?"

Conrad chucked, even though his heart was brimming with pain.

"One fine day, my daughter got so much bullied that she decided to end her life. It was then that Rose decided to take the help of Sebastian. And my magnanimous brother accepted them all with an open heart. He helped in Raymond's treatments and got Kat into a private school. He used to drop her every single day to school without fail and I don't know when and how she started looking up to him as her father. She even started calling him 'father'."

Saying that Conrad went into silence for a while.

"My kids were young and their mind was like a bare slate which was filled with happiness and comfort by Sebastian. He was close to them, so in no time they accepted him and slowly started replacing me. It was all working out fine for them, but I had no idea that all this was going on outside."

"Slowly Rose started avoiding our conjugal visits with some reason or another. The frequency of our meetups also reduced. Sebastian was on the verge of building his empire, so he stopped visiting me altogether. I think he was worried about his reputation. But all that started pinching me. I started feeling like an unwanted page in their lives. It pinched me big time. But what hurt me the most was the day Rose had visited me along with my daughter. I cannot tell you how bad it hurt me that day David."

"Even though I was in prison, I stayed alive because my hope was my family, which I thought was waiting outside for me."

"What happened? What did Rose say to you?"

"It wasn't Rose, it was Kat. She came close to me and when I was about to hug her she said - How are you uncle?"

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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.]