Tony wandered around the really empty park, following the lights just as Rafael's text had instructed. Not  just the lights, Rafael's location on his map too. The park was way too big for one man to cover on his own without help.

Where was he?

Tony took a quick glance around the park the moment he realized the map marker had stopped moving. He could see a figure sitting at the middle of one of the garden sections. He let out a tiny relief exhale as he found his way to where Rafael was sitting, staring lost at the bottles of cheap beer in front of him.

"Why did you ask me to come here Ralf ?" Tony got a bit closer and then paused abruptly at the sight of all those empty bottles. He could count about six, Rafael was on his seventh. He sighed.

"Someone has to drive." Rafael stuttered not bothering to look at him.

"Rafael, brother, what's the meaning of this?" Tony was still in so much shock to even process what was wrong. He slowly rose his head to Rafael's. "You're drinking beer?"

That was the most surprising thing of all, considering the fact that the man sitting in front of him wasn't a beer person. He wasn't the type to drink till he was drunk- too drunk to even look at him. Tony let out a tiny grunt.

"You're drunk."

Rafael scoffed.

"Rafael, what exactly is going on? What are you doing here by this time of the night? Why are you drinking yourself insane?"

"If you're going to nag, you might as well just join me." Rafael gestured at the unopened bottle of beer in the large shopping bag at his other side. "Go on."

Tony studied Rafael for a while. He had not seen him so lost, so scared and so miserable in a long time. Something had to be up. He could feel it and he just wanted to know.

"You had better explain yourself man," Tony tried to make himself comfortable on the ground, "You had better explain all of this-"

"Do you believe in fate Tony?" Tony rose his head to meet Rafael's. He could see Rafael finally raising his head to glare at him with a lot of tears in his eyes. Tony blinked twice, still managing to keep his gaze on him. "Do you believe in destiny and the law of karma?"

"W-what's the problem?"

"Just answer me!" Rafael rose his voice just a little bit above Tony's. He shut his eyes and let out a shaky breath. "Please." He opened it again. "Do you believe in these things?"

Tony swallowed hard.

"I-I mean, I've heard stories." Tony stammered, trying as hard as he could to keep his head straight and his mind attentive. "I know sometimes, the heavens set rules and consequences for breaking those rules, make our futures and past connected in some sort of way. God, sets these consequences. Good for those that deserve it and terrible for those that don't, thus, the law of karma."

Rafael sniffed loudly before Tony could even finished his last words, causing Tony to watch him clean the tears that had fallen from his eyes as fast as he could. He slowly drew his half empty bottle of beer to his lips and took a long drink. Tony watched him empty it and then throw the bottle alongside the others that were empty on the lawn.

"Man," Rafael's voice broke. "I think the heavens are playing some sort of game with me. I'm being punished right now." Rafael sobbed loudly causing Tony to lean forward to him. "And I can't even save myself."

He was crying now.

"Bro," Tony slowly reached for his arm, shaking him gently. "What the hell is wrong Rafael? Why are you being like this?" Concern was written all over Tony's face. He wanted to know now. He had to. Rafael sniffed and then quickly reached for another bottle of beer, and then a bottle opener. Tony watched him fight with himself to get the cap off it. It was like his hands were shaking too much to even concentrate now. He was finding it so difficult. Really difficult. He kept struggling with it, groaning as hard as he could until he got up in a hurry and then threw the bottle far away from the garden in frustration.

"Rafael, stop!" Tony got up immediately he heard the bottle crash far away.

"I ruined her life!" Rafael yelled at the top of his lungs as he hurriedly turned to face Tony. Tony held his breath, standing still and refraining from taking another step. He didn't understand. He couldn't, especially since Rafael wouldn't stop sobbing so loudly.

"W-Who?" Tony had to ask, trying to think hard. "Rafael, what are you talking about?"
Rafael was barely standing still now. Tony watched him pace on a straight short invincible line with his hand on his forehead.

"Rafael!" Tony hurriedly grabbed his arm to stop him from being so restless. Rafael glared at him, finally coming to a stop. "What is going on?"

"It was us." Rafael finally told him, and Tony could feel his hands shaking. "It was my family Tony. My father caused that accident. My father killed Olivia's parents."

Tony let go of Rafael's arm slowly without even realizing it.

"W-What?" He stammered. Rafael snorted out. "Rafael t-that's not possible. Your father couldn't have done that."

"He did." Rafael cut him off.

"Rafael, I need you to calm down and explain this so I can understand that this is not some sort of a joke."

Rafael snorted. To think it was anything but a joke.
He took deep breaths, trying to calm his nerves. He knew he was too drunk to act the way he felt. He knew he had to have a grip of himself.

He sniffed.

"A lot of years back," he started scratching his brow gently. "My dad was caught on the news, it was said he was having an affair with one of his employees. Olivia's mother was that employee. His mistress."

"What?" Tony blinked hard.

"Along the line, she found out that Rand oil owned and buried the chemicals that caused the ALCS outbreak and when my dad realized how dangerous that knowledge could be to his company, he made someone kill them, with the same truck."

Tony had his eyes buried on the ground, with his hands on his hips. His head was spinning. He was trying to process all that information at once.

"I don't-I don't understand." He turned back to Rafael. "Brother, are you sure about this?"

"I wouldn't even dare of thinking it if I wasn't . My family buried those chemicals and killed all those people, buried the evidence and framed a man for it. A man lost twenty three years, twenty three years." His voice broke. "For something he didn't even know about. We ruined so many lives, and got rid of anyone that seemed to be a threat to us, to what my father built. He got rid of everyone that got in his way, he always did. And just when he had cleared all the loopholes, I fell in love with the woman, whose parents he killed." He chuckled. "Just look at God." He was laughing hard now. "I fell in love with the same woman whose life was practically destroyed by my family. She's never going to look at me the same way again. If she found out I'm responsible for all the hardships she has been through, she's going to hate me Tony." Rafael laughed harder. "She's going to hate me forever."

"Rafael, none of this was your fault. You didn't know."

"Everything is my fault. My family's fault. Her life would have probably been better if her parents didn't die in that river. She wouldn't have been homeless. She wouldn't have been sent to the Silver's foundation, she wouldn't have met Andrew, she wouldn't have been abused and caught up in that family's drama. She wouldn't have been in jail and she would not have met me."

"Probably." Rafael scoffed. "Rafael, everything that happened was done by your father. You are not your father. You had no idea any of this ever happened." Rafael shook his head in disagreement. Tony leaned closer to him. "Rafael you were only a child. All of us, Olivia included."

"What is this Tony?" Rafael sniffed. "What sort of a game are the heavens playing? What sort of a game is God playing. Why us? Why her?" His voice broke. "Of all people in the world, why did it have to be Olivia man? Why did it have to be the woman I love? What am I supposed to do? How do I even tell her this? How do I tell her my family is responsible for all of this? She's never going to forgive me Tony. I'm scared that the moment she finds out, I'm going to lose her too." Rafael had tears in his eyes again.

"I'm going to lose her forever and I can't lose anyone else. I can't lose Olivia. I can lose everyone and everything else but not her." He was crying again. This time even harder. "I just can't. What am I supposed to do brother? How am I supposed to deal with this? How do I look at her everyday and hide the truth from her? How do I look her in the eye and tell her it'd be fine when she has all her nightmares? How am I going to live with myself Tony? Just tell me, how am I supposed to get through any of this?"

Tony licked his lips and sighed.

"Brother."He exhaled and then took a step to Rafael. He could feel his heart get weighed down too every time Rafael drew a loud sniff. He was trying so hard not to get emotional too. "Come on." Tony hugged Rafael as tight as he could.

"You just need to breathe." Tony told him. "It's going to be just fine. Everything is going to be just fine. We'd find a way through this. We have to." He face Rafael a gently pat on his back. "We will."