Josey was the one who broke the silence. “Now,” she shifted her glance between Jayden’s parents, Jayden, and Kira, as she spoke, “Florence was a sick motherfucker. A fucking child predator with no scruples. Nothing will ever excuse her palpable actions."

Josey went on, "However, what you don't know is that she had not just woken up one morning, deciding to abuse a child for five fucking years. As sick as she was, this woman appeared in your life for a reason," she looked Jayden dead in the eye. Shifting her gaze to his parents, she inquired, "Isn't that right, Mr and the wonderful Mrs. Benson?”

the lyrics of the above song is perfect for this chapter. perfect song.

All these miles, feets, inches

they can't add up to the distance

that i have been through, just to get to

A place where even if there's no closure, I'm still safe

Jayden whipped his head around to his parents who simply gaped at Josey after her statement. “What is she saying?” he turned back to Josey with curious eyes as he implored, “What are you trying to say?”

Mrs. Benson screeched at Josey, “Who do you think you are to-” but Tess shut her up,

“Zip it, Mrs. Beast. If you knew who your husband really was, you'd shut your ugly mouth up.”

Tess decided to add, “But then again, you know exactly who he is.”

“What?” It was Mrs. Benson’s turn to skeptically shift her gaze to her husband who stood beside her with an arm around her waist. “What is she talking about, Jared?” she muttered undertone, very well aware that everything the girls had been spitting was hardcore truth.

She would bury him alive if he did anything behind her back.

Mr. Benson grew a defensive stance, “What are you insinuating?” he asked Tess, inwardly hoping that she would see the glint of plea in his eyes.

However, Tess could care less. “Would you tell her, or should I do you the honours?”

“Tell me what?” Mrs. Benson demanded to know, pulling herself out from her husband’s hold. Daggers shot through her gaze towards the man she had been married to for twenty years. She trusted this man with her life because he had risked everything to be with her. And there was no way he would be stupid enough to throw it all away.

Josey chose to take over, putting Mrs. Benson’s impatience on hold as she asked, “Jayden, did you know that you’re the product of a raunchy one night stand?”

Jayden simply stared at the girl in front of him who had been filling him with more information. No, he did not. His parents had told him that he had been born out of love; that they had conceived him after being together for six months.

Now Josey was telling him that those six months was actually a couple of hours.

But she wasn’t done yet. There was more.

She dramatically went on, the air thickening with suspense, “A one night stand between an engaged to-be-wed man and a woman who could care less.”

Registering the shocked looks on everyone’s faces except for the subject matters, Josey meticulously revealed, “Your father was engaged to-be-wed to Florence’s little sister.”

“What?” The question chorused through the gathering, soaking in every word Josey vomited.

His father had been engaged to Florence's little sister in the past?

“They’d been engaged for two years, in love, ready to start a life together. But he decided to throw it all away for a few hours of pleasure. He cheated on his future bride with your mother. He called off the wedding six days prior to the d-day; a wedding which they had been planning for over a year. He told his fiancee that he had cheated on her. He couldn't promise that he wouldn't do it again so it would be best for them to call off the entire thing.”

Josey’s words had rendered everyone speechless.

Brie glanced at the man she was crazy about. She couldn’t believe-

Well, who was she kidding? He was doing the same thing to his wife right now.

Did this information from Josey shock her?

A bit, but not that much.

Would it prevent her from getting closer to him, henceforth?

Not in the slightest bit.

“Jayden,” Mrs. Benson was baffled by her son’s complacency, “Are you even going to question this woman who's spewing accusations our way? Are you going to question where she's gotten these false accusations from? Or you’re telling me that you blindly believe this girl who manipulated her way into your pants?”

Jayden decided to give his mother the tiny benefit of the doubt by asking Josey, “How do you know this?”

“We've been doing a lot of digging since Tess was fired. We ended up contacting Florence's sister. Found out where she lived and paid her a very fruitful visit. She revealed it all.”

“How do I know you're telling me the truth?” he tested.

Josey truthfully responded, “I will give you her address, her phone number, any information you’ll need to confirm my statements. Why would I come all the way to this house to spread false information? Why would I come here to make statements I couldn’t legitimately back?”

Josey went on, “Your father crushed the young woman’s dreams. He broke her heart and demolished her fantasies of true love.”

Tess took over from here, “Then months after you had turned two and your parents had gotten married, Florence had applied to be your nanny since they had needed one. They didn't know she was Flora's sister. Mr. Benson had heard stories from Flora about her big sister but had never met her since she had seldom been around. And he had known Flora's sister by the name Flora used to call her, 'Fali'."

She went on, holding all of Jayden’s attention, “They hired her, and due to her despicable soul and her personal vendetta against the Bensons, she brutally molested their child, their only joy. The only product of their love. She ruined him inside out, destroyed his soul. Snatched his childhood from his tiny hands."

She concluded, "She was a psychopath, one charged with a mission. A mission to crush the Bensons where it hurt the most.”

Mrs. Benson grimaced even though her heart bled. Everything they had been saying was true. She fixed her eyes on her son, as had everyone else.

Jayden looked as if he was stuck in a trance, gaze on nothing in particular, lips slightly parted but no sound or words coming out.

Agony ripped through the sleeves of his shirt, coiling around his neck, choking him violently.

He cautiously dragged his gaze to Josey whose eyes mirrored slight sympathy for him.

He found his voice, “Are you telling me,” he breathlessly paused, “that Florence decided to pay my parents back, by..." a necessary pause ensued, "sexually abusing me?”

He asked again since both Josey and Tess had sympathetically remained silent, “Sexually abusing me as a child for years was her way of punishing my parents?”

He could hear himself fifteen years ago. The cries, the muffled sobs, the torment, the hospitals, the unending sadness, and the riveting pain.

She glanced at Jayden, who was running around the study with his arm lifted in the air, trying to make airplane sounds.

"Jayden," Florence called, and Jayden immediately turned around. He was the most respectful person ever, and he resembled his dad a tad much at that young age.

"Come over here and let's play a new game."

"NEW GAME? AWESOME." He rushed over to Florence and stood before her.

The door to the study was closed, and they were the only ones upstairs.

She lifted Jayden onto the table and kissed his ear.

He suddenly pushed her, "Aunt Florence don't do that again! My teacher says it's bad."

"Your teacher is wrong, Jayden." She abruptly removed his shorts and shirt and held his naked genitals.

"Aunt Florence stop it!" Jayden panicked, "Aunt Florence stop it please!" He fought her.

"This is a new game, Jayden."

"I told you NOT to say a word." She sounded like the devil, "I will punish you."

"Please!" I cried as she dropped me to the floor and I tried to scramble away from her but I just wasn't fast enough. I was a weakling. "Aunt Florence what did I do!" My sobs drained the little strength my little body had to try to fight back and save the ounce of dignity I felt I still had.

"You were born!" She pulled my trousers off.

His life had ended at the age of 7. His soul had left his body, leaving behind his earthly flesh.

Nothing made sense to him.

All along, he had been the center of a sick, cruel game. The sacrifice. The one to pay the price.

He had paid the price for his parent's mistakes with his happiness, his childhood dreams, his mental health, his sanity, his life, never comprehending why Florence had hated him so much. He was the tribute for a game the adults had been playing. A game he had no knowledge of.

“Jayden,” Kira pressed his arm, reminding him that she was here for him. She couldn't imagine what he was going through right now. Glancing at him, it felt as if his soul had abandoned his body as he was fixed in a painful trance, every word he had heard sinking into his flesh, replacing his vacancy with torment.

She turned to Josey and Tess, “I am at a loss for words. Who in their right mind would destroy the life of an innocent child because of an unsettled issue with their parents? Why not deal with their parents directly?”

Josey responded, “Because she wanted to hurt them where it hurt the most. Their child was their bundle of joy. Pampered, well-educated, loved, blessed with happiness. She turned his world upside down, thus somersaulting theirs. Ripped his smile off, stained the glint of happiness in his eyes with a hue of redness from his profuse cries, and mentally and physically churned him into a tortured monster.”

A tortured monster.

Jayden shook his head, unable to carry the memories that flooded in like waves of fire. He had presumed he had been over it. He had thought it wouldn’t affect him anymore. He had thought he was past this. It had been fifteen years, so why? Why was his chest burning with anguish? The memories resurfaced, and they felt just like yesterday.

His vision blurred, his chest tightening- He couldn’t do this!

“I can’t,” he murmured, tearing his arm out of Kira’s hold. “I can’t be here.” He swallowed a lump in his throat.

“Jayden-” Kira tried to say but he cut her off,

“This house. These,” he shifted his troubled, pained gaze to his parents, “These people. I just can't. Even before Florence, you neglected me," he said to his frozen parents, "You had no time for me. Work was always more important. You assumed the toys, the gifts, the games would give me the happiness I needed as a child. When were you ever going to realise that I needed your presence and not your presents?”

He glanced around the gaping maids, Kira's hand aching to provide him with support, Josey’s worried eyes holding his troubled ones.

He was a troubled monster. An angelic devil. A twisted ray of torture. A painfully molded sight to behold and be frightened of.

He was destroyed beyond repair. How silly was he to think that he could put a lid on his past when his past defined every aspect of his God-forsaken life? There was no way he could run from it. No matter what, it would haunt his living soul. As long as he lived, he would be eternally haunted.

“I can’t be here right now,” he muttered. He needed to get out of the house that reminded him of all his bad years which were twenty-two.

Storming out, he shoved out of his way the custom-made balloons which read, ‘Happy 22nd birthday!”

He abandoned the hall, thus swiftly leaving the house.

He needed to breathe.

Needed to live.

Needed to not live.

Lara, Kira, and Josey instinctively rushed after him, none staying behind after seeing the other two move.

Numerous seconds after the girls had rushed out after Jayden, Mrs. Benson snapped at Tess, “Are you happy now? Happy with what you’ve done?”

"No," Tess said, "but you're not going to be when I tell you what I have for you."

"And what is that? What more is there? You've ruined my son's birthday celebrations. Everyone finds pleasure in ruining him but at the end of the day, we," she referred to herself and her husband, "receive all the blame."

"Are you willing to share the blame with your husband for what next I'm about to tell you, then?"

Mrs. Benson stealthily approached her, "What is that?" she questioned, daring her to go on.

Tess shifted her gaze to the woman's husband who stood still at his spot now a few feet behind his wife. He visibly stiffened, eyes full of warning.

Don't you dare, his eyes warned.

What he didn't know was that the new Tess listened to no one but herself.

She returned her gaze to the woman in front of her and said, "Are you that naive? That stupid?"

Mrs. Benson raised her hand threatfully, warning the girl that she wouldn't think twice before turning her head 360 degrees with a dirty slap.

Tess advised, "Save that slap for your sorry excuse of a husband."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Do you know who your husband really is?"

Mr. Benson's deep voice threatened, "We have had enough of you, today. Get out or you'll be sorry."

Tess paid no attention to him and his baseless words as she maintained her gaze on a curious Mrs. Benson. "He's been playing you like a damn fool."

She went on after piquing the woman's urgent need to understand what she had been saying. In a cold, riveting moment, Tess' mouth had dangerously worded, "Your husband... is cheating on you, Mrs. Benson."

Brie viewed the conversation from the side where the maids stood. She did not bother that Tess had revealed it. If anything, a weight was taken off her shoulders. Now, she could face the woman head-on. From female to female, not from maid to boss.

Tess continued, noticing Mrs. Benson's face morphe into the most dangerous gape she had ever seen, "He has been cheating on you for months now. Several months."

"Is she telling the truth?" Mrs. Benson immediately whipped herself around to face her husband. She raised her voice, "Are you cheating on me?!"

"Lawrencia," he carefully held his arms up in surrender, "I can explain."

With movements as fast as a cheetah, the woman appeared in front of her husband and landed a heavy slap across his face which echoed within the walls of the disastrous hall.

"You!" she lifted a pointed finger at the man whose face had remained tilted in the position from the slap. The man she had devoted twenty-two years of her life to. The man she had trusted with her life. How could he fucking do that to her? How could he betray her trust after every bloody thing they had been through?

Tess furthered on, "He's been cheating on you with someone you know." Tess revealed, earning the woman's sudden curiosity.

Tess went on, "Someone you trust with your gut. In fact," Tess prolonged, "She's here right now."

If gloom and despair could be illustrated, a picture of this unlawful gathering would be displayed. Gulps were taken, gazes were widened, souls threatened to leave bodies.

What Tess did not expect interrupting her brilliant presentation of the news was Brie, the culprit, stepping out into the scene with her words,

"No need to dramatise it all. I think it's a known fact that Jared and I cannot keep our hands to ourselves."

A gape parted Mrs. Benson's lips as she regarded the young, confident maid whom she had viewed as a daughter she never had, step up to her with the cheekiest facial expression, uttering her husband's first name like they had been extremely cordial with each other.

When had this all happened?

Mrs. Benson's shock rattled her entire being. Why would her husband throw away all their years of happiness for Brie? Why would her husband make a mockery out of her in front of her workers?

Tess certified, "Your husband has been screwing your maid, Brie, for months now. Right under your nose."

Just then, Katy who had been silently absorbing the entire event tonight, inquired from Tess, "How do you know this? How do you know what's been happening in this house during your absence?"

Tess proudly announced, "That's because Josey and I have had an insider this whole time. You can reveal yourself now."

That was when Ella, Emma's bold twin sister, stepped out of the line of maids, strutting to proudly stand beside Tess who continued, "Ella has been feeding us with the necessary information. She's sent us pictures, videos, information on everyone and everything that we've asked for. From Jayden and Lara's celibate relationship to Brie and Mr. Benson's raunchy affair. We know it all. We know everything."

"Jayden, wait!" Kira called out as the three girls tried to catch up with Jayden who was far up ahead on the sidewalk.

"Jayden!" Lara yelled, keeping up with the other two girls' paces as they quickened their steps, running after him.

He couldn't be left alone at a time like this, Kira thought. Where was he headed to? Why wasn't he stopping?

"Jayden, wait up!" Josey guiltily yelled. It was all her fault. But all their cries fell on his deaf ears as he sauntered forward, fists shoved into his slacks, a protective scowl shielding his emotions from the nosy pedestrians.

With his mind set on escaping that which flamed his pain, and his eyes now fixed on the alley across the road on the other side, Jayden stood still beside the road, waiting for a few cars to pass before moving his legs forward, crossing the road, departing himself from the sidewalk on which the girls had nearly caught up with him as they now stood at the point which he had crossed from.

A mere four seconds late. Kira had barely been able to touch his shirt before he had torn himself from the sidewalk and onto the road.

Jayden's scowl remained on his face. He had had it with his parents. His house. With his past.

He was still in search of freedom. After all these years.

He hadn't found it in Lara. She had added to his pain.

He hadn't found it in Kira. He had added to her pain.

He hadn't found it in Josey. She did not understand the pain.

Where on earth would he find it?

When on earth would he be free from his demons? When on this damned earth would the rustic chains break?

Jayden had been so unaware of his senses as a huge horn boomed from a vehicle he had not seen. His eyes widened, suddenly realising that he had lost concentration on his surroundings for a mere second, a mere bloody second, the grey specks in his riveting blue eyes shining from the headlights speedily approaching him. In a gruesome, detrimental moment, an SUV brutally collided with his body, smashing him before he could react.

“Jayden!” was the final word he had heard, Lara and Kira's voices, before like a burning flame coldly put out, he was embraced by utter, abysmal darkness.