"Remember me, Evelyn White?"

I looked shell shocked at the person standing in front of me. Never in millions of years would I have imagined he would be behind it all. My mouth opened and closed a several times but no words came out. My brain was still trying to process everything.

"What? The famous, the smart Evelyn White has no words now? 'Cat got your tongue?' would have been a phrase I'd use but you are too smart for that cliché, aren't you? So, surprised to see me?"

I finally managed to get my voice back.

"Mike?"

He smirked in response before bowing dramatically. "The one and only."

"I don't understand. How... how did you know Dylan? And my parents?"

He laughed loudly at my confusion. "And you called yourself smart." He gave me a mocking smile. "Well, let me tell you a story to clear that beautiful frown off your face. It's a pretty long story so I might as well sit down."

He brought a chair close to me and sat down. "Once upon a time," he started, "there was a wealthy evil man who proud of his riches. He owned a large sum of money, mostly because he got his brother's share as well. He inherited the family business and his father's property but didn't have the brain to run it. After all, the business had been run by his competent brother. After his brother was disowned, he got the business but could not handle the responsibilities. Neither did he care what happened to it as long as he got to live his life in luxury one could only dream of.

So he went on with his life- drinking, partying, sleeping around, gambling, buying lavish things with the money that had miraculously come to him. His father disapproved of his ways and told him to be responsible but he didn't care. Slowly, the riches started dwindling due to his reckless spending. The business was doomed as all the shareholders had started backing out when they became aware that his brother will not be running th company anymore. A few remaining ones took off as well after witnessing his carelessness.

As poverty threatened to visit him, he started thinking of ways to get rich again. Then his eyes fell to his brother's growing business. He had found a door. Initially, he started by asking his brother for money. He did get it for a few times but later, his brother started refusing. Just like his father, his brother told him to be responsible and refused to give him a cent unless he started working.

This angered him. His father was growing angry at his ways and he wasn't getting money from his brother either. So he resorted to an evil way- blackmail. He started threatening his brother's family, knowing that he valued his family more than anything. His brother moved a lot in fear of something happening to his family but he managed to track them everytime to demand more again.

Then one day, his brother finally had enough. He was charged for blackmail. Luckily, his father was afraid to lose their family's reputation so he prevented his younger son from being arrested. He got a restraining order from his brother. His father then threatened him to throw him on the streets. His ego faced a brutal blow when one day he found out that his father had asked his brother to come back and handle the business once again, even promising to transfer the property to his eldest son.

His brother- who loved his family more than the property- refused, thankfully for him. But his anger didn't subside. He was blinded with rage at the audacity of his father. So one day, he poisoned his old man. The property went to him so he was rich once again.

But it wasn't enough for him. He was angry at his brother for simply existing. He had this twisted notion that his father had always favored his brother above him even when the elder son was disowned. So he began to search again- he wanted to make his brother pay for being the firstborn.

His started growing poor once again. It wasn't so easy to track his brother this time around because by then, he had become rich and had a strong security system. But he was getting desperate. He needed the money fast and needed to make his brother pay. He began searching day in and day out but every search led to nothing.

Then one day, he found a blessing. He came to know that he had a nineteen year old son from some hooker whose name he didn't remember. He learned that his bastard son was adopted by a middle class family and was living just like he had- party, girls and drinks.

So one day, he approached his son. He took him to his place and told him about himself. He told him about the property and asked him to search the papers, promising to give him half of it. The son immediately agreed and thus the partnership began. They found out that his brother was planning to return back to live in a place they had moved from some years ago. So he planned his final move.

He, along with his son planned the murder of his brother's entire family. It was his way of taking revenge with his brother and at the same time, owning the property. He made the murder seem like an ordinary car accident and took comfort thinking he had killed his brother's entire family.

But when it came to taking over his property, they got nothing. They found out that his brother had made a will to transfer his property equally to both of his daughters if anything happened to himself or his wife. But they couldn't find the original document stating this. So although he thought that both of his brother's daughters were dead, he couldn't access anything because it was clearly stated that the original document of will was required before anyone could transfer the property.

The son discovered the goldmine then. He found out that the eldest daughter was still alive- in fact she was a good friend of his adoptive brother. So he schemed to get close to her and trap her into giving him everything. But she turned out to be a prude. She didn't respond to any of his flirtations so he opted for the next best option- her bestfriend.

Luckily the said bestfriend turned out to be easy so he pretended to be a doting boyfriend just to know of her whereabouts. He soon began to realize that she had no idea of the will because he learned that the daughter of his 'uncle' used to do multiple jobs to support herself- was even studying with scholarship.

He didn't give up, however. He kept the search going. In the process, he got to see how the woman had made a multimillionaire company by herself. If not the father's property, he decided the daughter's would be just as good because it clearly seemed that she owned more money than the will had.

But unfortunately for him, he got caught 'cheating' on her bestfriend on her birthday. He hadn't meant for it, actually. He had planned to be at the party without anyone knowing and keep an eye on the rich woman, and perhaps blackmail her with something. But he wasn't able to resist a woman with lovely assets and was discovered.

His ego was hurt when the woman punched him and kicked him for cheating on her best friend. That day, he vowed to himself to make her pay for the humiliation. So he started getting more serious on his work and gathered every possible information he could about her.

He started playing with her company's softwares secretly. He learned about the closeness between her and another billionaire who had become her business partner and who seemed to be in love with her. So he started obtaining information about him as well. He seduced the billionaire's secretary for information. Even after she was fired, the billionaire's secretary continued informing him about the company's whereabouts.

The bastard's father, who was a mastermind of it all, suddenly had a change of heart when he had a stroke. The old man started regretting his actions. He told his son to stop everything. But the bastard was too far gone into his plan to stop. Neither did he want to. He wanted to get the money after he humiliated her and her company.

When his father objected, do you know what the bastard did? He killed him with his bare hands. It turned out to be a lucky kill for him because the next month, he found out where exactly the original will was.

So he started working on his plan. He made this big scheme to frame the woman for fund embezzlement by playing with her bank transactions. For the last task, he attacked the retired old Stone and got the papers. He wanted to kill the old man as well, but had to run away when security came at him.

He thought the woman would be arrested and as the closest living kin, the property would automatically go to him. But her lover had to go and get arrested in her stead to save her. It was just as good because now he got to kill two birds with a stone. He was getting fed up with the young Stone who kept on hovering around his target every time. So finally, he found his target alone in a deserted place, just like he wanted."

He smiled at me evilly once he finished. "So, how did you like the story? Fantastic, isn't it?"

My head started to hurt as the realization set in that Mike was actually Dylan's son and that he had killed my parents along with his father- whom he had killed as well.

"Did I shock you too much?" He mocked when he saw me quiet.

I nodded slowly. "You did, as a matter of fact." He smirked at me, looking proud of himself before I spoke again. "But most of that story, I knew already. So you could've saved our time and your breath. Every story tends to be boring if it's too long."

He raised an eyebrow. "What did you already know?"

I titled my head a little. "Michael Evans, did you seriously think that I wouldn't know about what goes on in my company? I knew that someone has been playing with my accounts. And I also knew that someone was trying to frame me- the 'who' part, I didn't know. Thanks for clearing that up."

It was his turn to look surprised. I smirked at him. "There's more. I also knew that this person was the one responsible for my parents' death. I thought it was Dylan but then I learned of his death. So I just wasn't able to pinpoint who this person was."

"And," I raised my eyebrows at him, "do you seriously think that you caught me by surprise by bringing me here?"

He frowned in confusion, making me chuckle. "Gosh, you did! You really are a fool, Mikey. You know, my lover, as you put it, has his men looking over me."

He laughed at that. "Oh, I know that, sweetheart. Why do you I think I waited this long to do this? Thankfully none of them were around today. I heard they were following your car, that your old man was driving."

I smiled at that. "You still think this is all your doing, don't you? Let me enlighten you. As I said, there's a lot of things I know. I know they have connected the GPS of my car with their phones so that they can track me down and save me from the likes of you. Despite knowing this, why do you think I drove my grandfather's car today and asked him to drive mine instead? Why do you think I drove through the busy marketplace and stopped at a deserted park? I wanted to distract some of the guards who were following me, thinking my grandfather was in the car while most went after mine. Michael Evans, you didn't find me. I led you to me."

He looked shocked, to say the least. I smirked again. "Well, you said an interesting story. Now it's only fair that I return the favor. Let me tell you one too."

I started at his silence. "There was a heartbroken woman who thought she had been deceived by a prince whom she loved dearly. She cried for many days before deciding to move away from the place that gave her pain. Before that, she decided to return everything that the prince had gifted her. Then she has an idea.

You see, she just wasn't able to shake off the feeling that something was not right. She still loved the prince. Some part of her heart was not ready to accept that the prince was guilty. So she decided to find out the truth herself when no one told her. She called her loyal assistant and made a plan. She had her fix a voice recorder on one of the gifts and returned it to the prince.

The evening she came to visit her grandparents, she got the recording and found out the truth after hearing what the prince said to his best friend.  She knew that she had to do something. So she called one of her acquaintances and together, she decided to track the monster who dared to play with her life. And she found out that the monster had followed her to her grandparents house as well. She knew that the prince had kept his knights to keep her safe but she wanted to see this monster herself and hear him confess to his crimes. So she distracted the knights and led the monster on, making him think that he had caught her."

I smiled sweetly at him, taking in his dumbfounded stupid face. "Now, how do you like my story?"

He nodded at me as a side of his lips quirked up. "Impressive. I have underestimated you greatly, Evelyn White. You're beautiful and smart. A perfect combination indeed. Too bad you never paid me any attention other than glare at me and badmouth me to my sweet Allie for this thing or the other. We could've been so good together. I feel slightly bad that you're going to die. But no regrets, I had a real good time with your best friend. Such a shame that I got caught. She would've followed me to the end of earth if I'd asked her to- that silly girl."

My eyes flashed at his words. "You will pay for what you did to her, Mike. You couldn't recognize the gem in front of you. But whatever happened, it was for the best because at least Allie realized how big of a jerk you are. Because of your deceit, she found the perfect man for her- your brother. And I've never seen her happier."

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Ah, of course. My brother. He is the next one to pay for humiliating me. Once I'm done with you, he is gonna be my final target. The nerve of him to invite me to his engagement! I'll give his dead body as a wedding gift to my dear Allie."

I felt my heart trembling a little at his words. But I managed to stay calm, all the while thinking of ways to get my hands to reach the back pocket of my jeans where I'd kept a small blade that would help me out of the ropes. Unfortunately for me, his men had bound both of my hands to either armrests of the chair. I gave up when I realized that I was only trying to hurt myself at the futile attempt. There was no way I could free myself without him noticing. At the same time, I cursed the movies for fooling people into making them believe they could escape from a kidnapper unscathed and later proceed to kill the kidnapper as well.

His voice brought me back to the current situation. "Anyways, this talk is starting to get boring. I think your time has come now. Any last wishes before you go?"

I nodded. "Not a wish exactly, but I do have some more words to say. There's still more to what I know." I smirked at him. "I know that you're planning to flee to Italy once you've killed me. You've hired a jet, haven't you?"

His face turned pale at my words. He dangerously narrowed his eyes at me, making me feel afraid of him for the first time. "How did you know that?" He asked slowly with a dangerous undertone to it.

I rolled my eyes despite my heart starting to beat fast at the sudden change in his demeanor. "You really should've been around Allie more often, you know? Then you would've found out just how smart I am. I have tracked you down just like you tracked my parents with your father. I tracked your location from my bank transactions you messed with."

He slightly narrowed his eyes. "How... how did you? I made sure no trace led to me. You couldn't have tracked me. It's impossible."

I rolled my eyes again, feeling a little bold at his idiocy. "Again, if you'd paid more attention to Allie, then you would've known that I have taken a special course in software development and advanced technology. I can track people based on almost everything. And besides, I had help from some real talented people who are way smarter than what you think of yourself."

I thought of my meeting with Jason Reyes in Paris. He had a software development company of his own. It hadn't been the purpose of the meeting originally, but I told him about the server crash and asked if he could help out with it. And when I came to know about the transactions, I called him last night. He managed to track the person down and I asked the details to be forwarded to Leah. I got to know about Mike's plan of escaping when I was in the park. Leah had messaged me about it and warned me that he was in my vicinity. But he got to me before I could ask who the person was.

I was distracted at my thoughts and did not notice him standing up from the chair and getting close to me. "I see you know a lot, dear cousin. So you do understand it now, don't you? I have to kill you."

I did not like the wild look in his eyes. My heart suddenly jumped in fright when he pulled out a shiny object from his pocket. My breath got caught in my throat when I realized what it was.

A gun.

He pointed the gun towards me. "This is going to be the last minute of your life, Evelyn White. Say goodbye to your body. You'll be reuniting with your family soon enough."

"Is that RXJ 92? The latest model roblox gun?" I asked, referring to the gun in his hand.

He frowned looking at the gun and then back to me. "I... I suppose it is. How did you know? Well you know what? I don't care. I purchased it with a heavy sum for this special occasion. Isn't it lovely?" He tilted the gun for emphasis.

"It is... lovely." I answered, looking at it warily. "Do you know it only carries two bullets in it?" I tried pushing my luck. I had to buy some time.

His dumb face told me that he didn't know that. "O-of course I do. But don't worry, you won't need the second bullet. I'll be done with you the first time. The second one is for my brother."

"How good is your aim? Are you sure you can kill me with a single shot? Because now that I know I'm going to die, I want it to be on a single shot." I knew I was playing a childish game and risking my life in it but it was the only option I had. Thankfully Mike was dumb enough to fall for my tricks.

He looked offended at my words, his face flushed with rage. My heart lurched when he pressed the gun against my temple but I willed myself not to show my fears. "Are you insulting me? Do you want to see just how good I am? How about I blow off that pretty head of yours?"

"I want to see you hit a target first. Only then will I believe you." I spoke again.

In a fit of rage, he walked backwards and pulled the trigger, pointing it somewhere right behind me. My heart nearly stopped when the bullet went past my right ear and hit a flower vase, smashing it into pieces. I could only look at him with horror and shock.

For such a stupid person who didn't even know what model of gun he was holding, Mike was surprisingly a good shooter.

But that was the least of my concerns now. I smiled widely at him. "Bravo. So there's something you're good at, after all. But you should've listened to what people say- know your weapons well before going to war."

He looked confused again making me sigh. I straightened up a little and held my head high. "Anyways, leave that for now. You're a good shot. I believe it now. Okay, shoot me. I'm ready."

He bowed in mock acknowledgement before once again, pointing the gun at me, his finger ready to pull the trigger. I stopped him once again.

"Wait! How about I give you a surprise first?" I moved my hands- what little I could with the rope binding me. I looked at my wristwatch and smiled. It was time.

"Let's do a countdown first." I smirked at Mike before counting. "Five... four... three... two... one... aaandddd... here we go!" I turned my head towards the entrance, expecting them to arrive with arms and ammunition.

But nothing happened. No one came.

I rolled my eyes, mentally cursing Leah. "Goodness gracious, Leah! Do you have to be late every damn time?" I mumbled to myself just as a loud laugh resonated in the small space.

"Oohh, you really scared me for a second there! That was a nice distraction indeed. Now, are you done with these childish games? This isn't going to prevent the inevitable, cousin. You are dying today. Right now, in fact." He lifted the gun again.

"Wait! Let's try again. You see, my assistant can't do a single job in time. But she gets it done, I promise. Let's count once more and then I'll let to you kill me. Okay, five... four... three... t-"

"Eve!"

Finally.

"Mr. Michael Evans, you are under arrest for murder, kidnapping and defamation. You have been surrounded by the police force. We ask you to drop your gun and surrender yourself. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law."

I breathed in relief as armed cops suddenly surrounded us, all of them pointing the gun at Mike while his was pointed to me. I would've laughed at the dramatic picture but my attention was drawn to a handsome idiot who was hugging me so tight that I was afraid I'd die of suffocation.

He pulled away just as soon and started untying the rope around me with an efficiency I envied. All the while he was mumbling his apologies to himself. "I'm sorry, Eve... I'm so sorry... I'm sorry... I did this... I hurt you... please forgive me... I'm sorry..."

My eyes were so trained on him that I was startled when I heard a distinct click. Adrian froze and both of us turned our head to see Mike smiling evilly, his gun still held high.

"What did you think? You would have these police around me and I would surrender like a coward? You're wrong, Evelyn White. I am going to kill you even if I have to die today. You will not live to see another day."

As if on instinct, Adrian stood and stepped in front of me, trying to shield me. But I was having none of it. I saw that the rope was undone so I stood up as well and stepped alongside Adrian, letting him know where I wanted to be- alongside, not behind him.

Turning my attention back to the criminal in front of me, I folded my arms. "Okay, then. Shoot me. Press the trigger." I challenged him, ignoring Leah's gasp and Adrian's warning to stop provoking him. He once again tried to step in front of me but I stopped him, mumbling something in his ear. Adrian looked like he wanted to argue again I ignored him.

I maintained eye contact with Mike the entire time as he looked around before finally pressing the trigger, ignoring the policemen who were warning him not to shoot and to surrender himself.

The bullet never came. I smirked at him as he tried once, twice and many more times again. "Remember what I said? Know your weapons before going to war. RXJ 92 is a single shot pistol with only one bullet in it." I said with a roll of my eyes. Seeing him unarmed, the police quickly took over and handcuffed him.

I slowly walked towards him. I thought of every evil deed he had done as memories flooded through my brain- the car accident, how my dad had sacrificed his life to save us, how mom had asked me to take care of Eva before she closed her eyes for the last time, Eva's heartbroken face as she was lying on the hospital bed unable to move her legs, her pained eyes when she thought Brandon's operation hadn't worked, Allie's broken expression when she found out about her cheating boyfriend, Adrian's painful cry I heard through the recorder last night when he was alone in his room- everything came in front of my eyes until I could see nothing but red.

Using all my energy, I punched him in the face. "You will rot in hell for this! I won't let you have an easy death. You killed my parents, you hurt my sister, my bestfriend, you tried to take away my company. I will kill you myself!" I started clawing and scratching every part of him I could reach when I felt strong arms trying to pull me away.

"Eve, it's okay, love. Let the police do their job, he will be punished for his actions. Calm down, love, please. Sshh... take a deep breath with me. That's good, come. You're the strongest woman in the while f*cking world, you know that? Let go now, love. Let the law punish him."

I finally managed to calm down at his words and watched the police dragging him. It was as if all of my energy was drained in these past hours that I couldn't even stand straight.

Strong arms caught me just when I was about to fall down and held me close, whispering soothing words in my ear. I briefly saw Nate standing with Leah but my mind was too tired to think of anything else.

Just when I was about to give in to the darkness about to consume me, another chaos erupted.

Before I could comprehend anything, I saw Mike take out a gun from a cop's hand and fire straight towards me. A loud bang sounded throughout the place and I felt myself finally succumbing to the evil darkness .

---

So... tell me honestly, how many of you expected it to be Mike?

And okayyy, don't try and kill me with your glares, I just had to have one last cliffhanger!

Thank you everyone for commenting. Each and every one of them always puts a huge smile on my face. I'm sorry this chapter is not the best I've written. But still, comment your thoughts pwease?

P.S. I made that whole name up about the gun and it's nature. So don't sue me for giving wrong information lol. I have absolutely no idea about guns- I mean I would've been a cool mafia or sth if I did. :p

So what do you think comes next?

Don't forget to drop a star if you liked the chapter although it's somewhat a trash.