I decided to miss school the next day to study but, as usual, I found it hard to concentrate as my mind wandered away to yesterday's incident. I thought I overreacted, Mike was just stating his opinion and the way he talked to Anna, well, that was rude but he is Mike, what else can I expect from him. But, what he said at the end was suspicious, is there anything that my mom is hiding from me?; Maybe that could be related to her job and the only way left to find about all this stuff was to apologize to Mike and ask him about it because he is not one who will apologize.

Closing my books, I grabbed my phone and went out, I checked the time and there was still half an hour before the school got over so, I went to the garden and plugging my earphones, I started listening to some songs.

After a while, I pocketed my phone and went to Mike's home. Mrs. Keller welcomed me with a polite smile.

"Ooh, Shay! How are you?; come in."

"Good evening Mrs. Keller, can I meet Mike?"

"Sure, come in"

As we entered the house, she called Mike from upstairs and I waited for him to come.

"Who is it?" Mike asked as he walked towards the hall. His reaction was not even surprising as he gazed towards me and an arrogant smirk crept through his face.

"Ooh look, who it is" he mumbled but our conversation was interrupted when Mrs. Keller bought some cookies and after smiling, she finally left.

"Look, Mike, I'm sorry, I overreacted"

"You should be" his smirk grew even bigger.
"Anyways, now if the apologizing stuff is done, you can leave."

'Filthy rat' I muttered under my breath which got unnoticed by him.

"I will leave but, before that, can you answer my question?"

"Sure, go ahead"

"Is there anything that you are hiding from me? Anything about my mom?"

His smirk suddenly faded and he coughed uncomfortably on his spot.

"Well, it's none of your business," he said sternly. But before I could even retort, he turned to his heels and left.

'It is my business if it's related to my mom and I have the right to know.'

After bidding my goodbyes to Mrs. Keller, I left.

While on my way back home, a notification popped on my phone, it was Alex! I tapped it and replied.

Alex
Hey shay, are you free right now?

Me
Yes, why?

Alex
If you remember we have some important matters in hand, don't you want to get rid of Robbin & Christy?

Me
Of course, I want to

Alex
Good, where are you?

Me
I'm in the garden

Alex
Ok, wait there, I'm coming.

Me
Ok, bye.

After what it felt like an hour, he finally came.

"Where were you, Alex?"

"I'm sorry for coming late"

"You are an hour late!"

"Wait, I'm just 10 minutes late Shay!" I looked at my watch and saw the time, he was correct.

"See, I told you," he said as I felt my face flushed from embarrassment.

"So, what are we gonna do?" I asked

"Look, after what you told me, I think the letter has nothing to do with This case" he started and I knew which letter he was talking about, the one which I found in mom's room which was given by Meldy to her. "And speaking of Robbin and her partner, I think that they are after something"

"But I think Robbin is trying to protect me, everytime he sees me with Christy, he warns me not to talk to her" I tried to reason.

"Manipulation Shay, Christy is trying to manipulate you which is not acceptable by Robbin"

"But, what they want from me?"

"That's what we have to find and, I know exactly form we can seek for help"

"Who?"

"Me. Phil" he replied with a wink.

"But how?"

"It's obvious, he is hiding something from us as he is Robbin's friend."

And so, we continued to talk about the possible outcomes. But meanwhile, something stange happened, while we were talking, I felt like I saw someone in the bushes but, it was only a dog. Strange things happen and I had felt some sort of intuition. Look, what a dog put me through...

---

????'s POV (point of view)

After the nonsense conversation of that git, I finally managed to get out from there. I made my way through the isolated dark street and after walking a few steps, I came in front of the black house which was covered with climbers, I rang the bell and waited for someone to answer. A dark-haired man appeared in front of me as he gazed down at me with his green eyes glowing in the dark and a smirk playing on the edge of his lips.

"What?" He asked after gesturing me to come in. As I stared at the big hall, my stomach lurched with excitement but, composing my face, I slowly turned to him and answered.

"Payment first" I replied and he walked towards a dusty drawer and opened the very first shelve of it, after taking out something from it, he approached me.

"Fast," he said as he gestured at his hand which was full of a bunch of dollars, my eyes got widened at the sight, and quickly, I started explaining to him everything, my gaze, fixed on his right hand.

"It's about that Phil"

"Hmm..." He hummed and handed me the money thoughtfully.

"You know what you have to do," he said.

"Very well" I replied with a smirk.

After counting the money, and being fully satisfied with the goods, I left the hall. But, before I could leave the house, he yanked my hand.

I turned to see him gazing down at me with a glint in his eyes. He lifted my other hand which was empty and handed me a heavy, black thing.

I looked down at it and gasped in excitement, I have never held a gun before.

"You know what you have to do" he repeated his words with a smirk. I nodded and turned to my heels, finally leaving the house as I pocketed the gun and the money.

---