I’M A BRAT AND I’M IN LOVE
(No more broken hearts??)
Chapter 20
(Lean on me)
Levi saw Rika’s motionless body strewn a few meters away from his now wrecked and burning car.
He gathered his wits, and clambered to his feet, running to her side.
He had to stay calm.
He had to stay calm.
Upon arriving at her side, he pressed his thumb against her neck to feel for her pulse, his own racing.
It was there.
Oh God. She was still alive.
Her heart was beating, but it was faint.
There was blood all over her body, so he couldn’t determine exactly where she was bl.eeding from.
He needed to get her to a hospital.
Now.
Levi whipped out his phone and hastily dialled the emergency number, telling them the situation and their address.
In no time, the ambulance had arrived and Rika was taken to the hospital.
Levi waited in the lobby while the doctor attended to her. Greta rushed in about half an hour after they had arrived.
“Señor Levi! Jesús! Tomar El control! (Jesus! Take control!)” She exclaimed, kssing her rosary and clasping her hands in prayer.
“How is she?!”
Levi took in the woman’s panicked demeanor, and put on a brave expression so as to alleviate her fears.
“She’s with the doctor now.” He said quietly.
Greta sat beside him heavily.
“Master and Madam Sato are on their way. I was the one who received the call at home. Jesus, please save my baby.” She said again anxiously, closing her eyes and praying silently.
Levi stayed quiet.
It was all too obvious whose doing this was.
But why?
Why was Daniel Fuhrer going to such lengths to get him to drop the case? And also, Daniel Fuhrer was in prison, so he would have had to be in close contact with whoever was responsible for the attack in order to…….”
Levi’s eyes widened.
That was it.
That was what Daniel Fuhrer had been trying to hide.
“Are you Miss Sato’s guardians?”
Levi’s train of thought was interrupted by the doctor’s voice.
Greta stood up hastily, grabbing the doctor’s arm.
“Yes mèdico! (Doctor). How is she?! Please tell me my baby is okay!”
The doctor smiled reassuringly.
“Don’t be too worried ma’am. Miss Sato is going to be just fine. Luckily it looks like she wasn’t standing close enough to the car to get the full effect of the blast. She just suffered multiple lacerations and a bit of a concussion. She’s asleep now though. Would you like to see her?”
“Yes please!”
Levi followed Greta silently into the VIP room that Rika had been moved to. When Greta saw her lain on the bed, covered in bruises and bandages, and hooked to an IV drip, the poor woman broke down in tears, despite the doctor’s assurances.
Levi stared regrettably at Rika’s immobile form.
He had made this girl a promise.
He had said he would protect her.
What a load of garbage.
He had just ended up putting her in more danger than she had been in all her life.
Who was he to asked another person to put their trust or faith in him? He had no right.
He wondered how Daniel Fuhrer was able to send Rika that fake text message, finally concluding that they must have cloned his phone somehow. He struggled to remember if he had ever lost track of his phone in the past few days.
His eyes bored into Rika’s closed lids, his heart racked with the all too familiar pain of guilt.
It was clear now.
Clear that no matter how hard he tried, nothing good could come out of he and Rika’s relationship.
He would always end up hurting her, one way or another.
????
The Police investigation on the incident, which they were calling the “Precinct blast”, had just made a huge headway.
Rika was recovering speedily, as Levi had heard from Greta, although he never went to see her. His guilt wouldn’t let him. So he just stayed away from her, only getting information about her health from Greta. He sighed as he stomped into the cell.
It was time to get to the bottom of things.
Daniel was already waiting. He wasn’t smiling today though. Rather he looked agitated, and Levi already knew why.
“So? Are you satisfied?” Levi asked casually, his eyes narrowed.
Daniel Fuhrer stayed silent.
Levi sighed and took his seat.
“I’vee figured out your secret Daniel. There’s no point in hiding it anymore. You’re just making things harder for yourself.” He paused.
“You had a partner didn’t you? You weren’t the only one committing those mur.ders.”
The man before him flinched, frowning slightly.
“You wanted to protect him. That’s why you were so eager to get me to drop the case. His name is Alex Mayer. He’s your childhood friend.”
Daniel smiled uneasily at Levi. “So what Mr Akabane? That doesn’t change anything. You can’t prove that he and I were partners.” He said, his voice shaky.
“Actually it does, and you can bet that the Police are going to find the connection soon. Right now though, the Police are probably already processing his arrest warrant for the bomb attack on me. His work was sloppy, and his prints were all over the place. It’s obvious that he isn’t as good as you in that aspect. How long do you think it’s going to be before he cracks and confesses everything to the Police? Then all you’ve worked hard to protect will be wasted.” Levi replied calmly.
Daniel bit his lip, his hands trembling. After awhile, his shoulders slumped in defeat.
“It wasn’t supposed to be so elaborate.” He began quietly. “That fool. He was just supposed to scare you. But he was agitated, afraid he would get caught, afraid because I was caught. He wasn’t supposed to plant a fre.aking b0mb.”
Levi stared silently at him.
“What’s done is done Daniel. But you had two ways that things could have turned out, you could have made things easier for both of us, but instead you decided to go this route.” He sighed.
“With all that’s happened, I can still get you both lesser sentences. But we’re going to have to work together from now on. Okay?”
Daniel Fuhrer didn’t answer him, but Levi knew that the message had been passed across and understood.
Levi had figured out everything that day of the blast.
Alex Mayer was Daniel Fuhrer’s friend and partner in crime. They both r@ped and committed the mu.rders together, but somehow Daniel had always been in the lead, that was why he was the only one recognized by the victim who had survived.
So when he had been caught, Daniel had speedily pleaded guilty, so that the case would be wrapped up quickly, and his friend wouldn’t be discovered.
The attack on Rika was supposed to scare Levi into dropping the case, and he figured that they must have determined his closeness to Rika by cloning his phone and monitoring his calls.
He sighed.
His intuition had been wrong after all. He had thought that Daniel Fuhrer was protecting the true criminal, while he was innocent, but turns out he was just protecting his friend.
He got up to leave.
“Oh, and one more thing Mr Fuhrer. If Rika Sato had been hurt badly by what you and your friend did, trust me, this conversation would have gone very differently.” He said coldly, before exiting the cell.
?????
The weeks passed, and the days got colder, as December approached. Rika had been in the hospital for two and a half weeks, and Levi had not come to see her once.
The serial r@pist case was still ongoing, and with what she had got from the news, it looked like the the criminal had had a partner, and that partner was responsible for the bomb attack that had put her in the hospital.
The news had also stated that the attack was an attempt by the criminal to scare Levi into dropping the case.
She had immediately guessed that Levi was feeling guilty about what happened, and would probably be blaming himself. She had tried his number severally, but he had never picked. She finally reached her wit’s end, and was now standing at his doorstep, banging on the door.
“Open the door Levi! I know you’re in there!” She yelled continuously, relentlessly banging on the door and pressing the doorbell.
She did this for about ten minutes, before the door finally clicked open.
Levi stood before her, his eyes tired and heavy, and full of guilt.
Rika felt her heart break.
“Go……” He began but she cut him off.
“Don’t even think about saying that.” She snapped, and pushed her way in.
Levi stared at her silently, before shutting the door behind him.
She faced him stubbornly.
“It’s not your fault Levi.” She said firmly, and he cast his gaze to the floor.
Tears formed in her eyes.
“Please stop blaming yourself! Look at me! I’m fine!” Rika yelled.
“You could’ve have been seriously hurt Rika. And it would have all been because of my inadequacies.” He said, maintaining a stoic expression, but Rika could hear the strain in his voice, could see the hurt in his eyes.
She stepped closer to him and grabbed his arm.
“You have no idea how much you’ve been there for me these past months we’ve known each other have you? How much you’ve restored my hope and happiness? But yet, you always feel like everything that happens is your responsibility, or your fault. You’re always ready to bear every cross alone. This much I know. But…..can’t you see just how much I want to bear your burden with you?” Rika said quietly, her voice laced with the pain in her heart.
She couldn’t stand seeing him this!
Seeing him consumed by guilt and avoiding her as a result!
He was staring at her with a forlorn look in his eyes, a look that told her that he was currently at war with hus emotions.
He slowly rested his head on her shoulders, and she gasped silently.
“I’m….not a good person Rika. I don’t deserve your comfort.”
Rika but her lip. “You might not. But I’m gonna give you anyway.”
There was a short silence.
“Thirteen years ago, when I was in law school, we were given a project by our professors to join the jury on several cases in court. The idea behind it was to give us real time courtroom experience from the perspective of every facet of law practice.” Levi began, breaking the silence.
“I was part of the jury presiding over a murder case. The jury was split in half over their decision, and I was the deciding vote. I….. thought the man was guilty. I was sure he was, and I wasn’t ready to look at any other opinion. I sat on my high horse and judged him. In the end, an innocent man was convicted. He committed suicide two days later, and the real killer went on ahead to kill three more people.” He finished solemnly.
Rika’s eyes widened at his confession.
He continued,
“I’ve lived everyday of my life knowing that their deaths were as a result of my decision. I can’t get them out of my head, and I probably never will. That’s why I became a defense attorney, so that I could prevent something like this from happening again. After all, who am I to judge others, when I’m just the same, if not worse?” He added again, sighing tiredly as he finished.
Rika rose her hand and began to run it through his hair softly, hoping to provide some sort of comfort.
Thirteen years ago. She would have been six at that time. That was the year her life had changed completely.
“Their deaths are not on your fault Levi. You did what you thought was right. And those people are dead, but you’re still alive. Why should you suffer for people who are gone?” She said softly, and heard him scoff.
“That’s a pretty selfish thing to say.” He muttered, not with condemnation, but rather with amusement.
“Sometimes we have to be selfish, Levi. Selfish enough to love ourselves and stop hurting. And I know my words can do little to comfort you on something you’ve been carrying in your heart for thirteen years. But….. I just want you to know that, you don’t have to carry everything on your own. You’re not alone anymore. Let me share your pain.” She said determinedly, and there was a heavy silence.
Rika continued stroking his hair, hearing the soft sounds of his breathing over the silence that hung in the room, as she waited for his response.
“Okay.”
Rika smiled at his answer, wiping a tear from her eye with her free hand.
He finally lifted his head from her shoulders, his face so close to hers and a very soft expression in his eyes.
“I’m not supposed to burden you with this Rika. You’re not here to carry my baggage.” He said softly.
Rika stared at him squarely.
“But you carried mine didn’t you? You were there for me even though you didn’t have to, you told me to stay by your side even though you could have pushed me away, and apologized to me even though you could have chosen not to.”
She bit her lip.
“You once said you’ll protect me Levi Akabane. Well guess what? I’m gonna protect you too.”
?????
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