Shadows of Destiny

The Dark Side Of Fate By Karima Sa’ad Usman Chapter 100

100 From The Top

~Sylvester~

Liam looked very afraid, staring at me from the table. His tears flowed freely, and I did not know how to make him comfortable.

Looking at him now, I could see his father’s features. I cleared my throat and asked that they bring him some juice.

“Have they been feeding you?” I asked him, and he nodded reluctantly.

I figured he might not have been eating. I felt sorry for him.

I could not be as cruel as I intended to be, knowing his age and the fact that he might be misguided.

“How about we start from the top,” I told him and narrowed my eyes, looking at him.

“I know little of the back story and how you pretended to be kidnapped so your father would do their bidding. I know everything, so I would advise you to be honest. The offence you have committed is treason, and I am sure you are a smart young man to know the repercussions of your crime. If you tell me the truth and it yields something, I will waive the death penalty and life imprisonment. You are too young for it. Do not let this matter escalate beyond this room. I will quietly send you home to your father if you tell me the truth, young man. Today some people threatened my mate, so I am not feeling kind,” I told him. He nodded quickly and swallowed.

Someone brought the juice, and they helped Liam take a sip. I could see some relief in his eyes which meant they were not feeding him. Knowing he was a minor made me feel bad, and I asked Theodore to

look into the prisoners’ feeding.

It was wrong to starve them. Anyone in the estate’s dungeons is awaiting trial and is just a suspect. It was wrong to treat them as convicted criminals.

“I am listening,” I said, giving Liam to the floor, and he nodded immediately.

“About two years ago, I started chatting online with a girl called Elaine. I received an email one day inviting me to d******d an app called Friendzone and make new friends. It wasn’t in my spam box. It was in my inbox, and I wondered who must have sent it because it did not look like an ad. Being a lonely child eager to make friends, I ignored all the warning signs and d******ded this app. It was called Friendzone. I would later find out that the app was private and it belonged to an organisation. After d******ding the app, I was asked to register my real name and upload my ID to start making friends. As eager as I was, I wasn’t stupid, so I joined in as a guest with just my first name and nothing more.

I received a lot of friend requests, and I was excited.

Unfortunately, I could only accept the request to interact with them if I was fully registered. So I went against my better judgement and registered fully on the app.

Uploading all that was required of me. My full name, ID, phone number, age, address, everything. They asked for everything, and I foolishly gave it.

True to the conditions, I was verified and allowed to accept the requests; I did so and messaged everyone that sent me a friend request. There were about twenty-three altogether,” He said and looked at me with shame.

“I felt I had hit the jackpot for someone that did not have any friends to having twenty-three potential friends. I felt like I wasn’t a weirdo anymore, and maybe I had finally found a community that I could belong to,” he said and bowed his head to show remorse.

“None responded except for Elaine. She was pretty, and she was about a year older than me. You needed to see her Alpha, she was gorgeous, and I could not believe my luck. We finally talked, and she told me all I needed to know about her. She was an orphan who lived alone in Gad and worked in a bakery. She wasn’t financially buoyant, but she was getting by. I must admit I had a crush on her,” he said and looked to the side.

I could see that he was relieving his experience, and I could also see that he slowly realised what might have happened to him. He was catfished.

“We got talking, and six months later, she said she had feelings for me. I did not need to overthink it. She was a huge upgrade, and I did not want to lose her. She asked and pleaded for me to find a way so we could be together and soon decided I would go to Gad,” He said and chuckled painfully.

“All this while I thought I came up with the idea alone, but now I realise she put it there,” he said, and I nodded.

“My father did not want me to go to Gad. He said the west wasn’t safe for someone like me. You had just conquered what was left of it; they were yet to fully accept the direct rule.

He said if it was anyone else, it would be okay, but as the son of the head Alpha of the north, I might be in danger.

I thought he was being unfair, and I threw some tantrums. I told him I had gotten admission to study there, and that was where I would go to further my education.

My mother did not oppose me; she encouraged it and fought my father for it.

Eventually, he caved, and I was off to Gad.

Still, Elaine and I could not be together because my father had placed me in a hostel where they were required to put me under strict watch.

The living condition there wasn’t really great, and Elaine and I would often hang out.

While we hung out, she would tell me the people’s history in Gad and how your father ruined the west.

She also told me you were the reason she was orphaned because of the war you fought to conquer the rest of the west. I believed her, and soon I started following her to strange meetings.

She said it was a place people affected by the war went to heal. It was also a place for a selected few. I felt it was weired because people in Gad spoke highly of you and loved you dearly. She made me believe it was a pretence out of fear.

In this group, they had a leader called Moses. He had no last name, just Moses, and he was an eloquent speaker.

He spoke of the evils of Monarchy and how it had plagued our world. I was made to believe that other than the north, the rest of the regions lived in fear of being conquered.

I was made to believe people lost their homes, families and lives because of the monarchy.

We were made to believe that an accountable leader was what we needed to ensure the safety of our people and four regions.

They made us believe a lot of things. I honestly saw them as a hate group, but Elaine did not seem hateful.

She just seemed like someone from whom everything had been taken, and she was looking for a place to belong.

There was no crime, so soon, I opened myself up for it.

I would tell my mother what I had learned, and she would tell me not to tell my father as it could lead to trouble. I wonder why she was protecting me.

Elaine spoke to me about asking for my father’s help. They somehow had a notion that the only thing that was protecting them from your wrath was the council.

They had copies of sanctions and orders you signed, which resulted in huge suffering in other regions.

The latest they had was that of the east.

You took the eastern leader’s mate for yourself, and they told me you could do the same to my mother.

They said it was common practice, and every region had suffered that form of injustice.

They had documents with your signature authorising war and killings simply because people refused to agree to your requests. They made you seem like a monster, and the truth was, soon, I wasn’t torn about it anymore; I believed them.

It started looking more like our world would be better if you and your officers were no longer in power and the council was the one in charge, and I felt it would be a great prospect.

One day I took a leap of faith and asked them how I could help. They said being the future heir of my family, I was already helping.

They made me feel like a child, and I wanted to prove myself badly. Moses teased me about living in a hostel under my father’s watch, and they could not trust me with specific responsibilities.

Even Elaine started treating me like a child, so I decided to prove myself to her.

I called my mother and demanded that I was sixteen, and according to the laws in Gad, I was allowed to own my own place.

She did not argue with me, but my father kicked against it.

We were at it for a bit, and my mother came to Gad to see who I would share the apartment with.

She liked Elaine immediately, and finding out she was an orphan made my mother feel sorry for her. Soon my mother was able to help me move in with Elaine.

Other than kissing and watching television, we never did anything. I respected her, and she respected me too.

Soon they started giving me small responsibilities.

I would follow Moses to receive wire transfers and other stuff.

Knowing that I would be charged with that responsibility one day, Moses said I should request a false Id claiming that I would feel safe if I wasn’t bearing my surname. I did as he told me, which was when my father drew the line.

I needed a parent’s consent that came with my family seal for any agent to create a false Id for me because I was a minor, so my mother secretly consented, and that was how I became Liam Bricks.

One day Moses got agitated in the meeting and said you were onto the organisation, and you were coming to kill what was left of us.

I did not want anything to happen to Elaine and all her friends in the organisation, so I asked them to brainstorm and see how we could help. Moses now came up with the plan to make my father raise a

petition to take you and your officers out of the office and place the council in charge. That way, you won’t have the power to attack us, and everyone will be safe.

It was a good idea, except for the fact that my father had no reason to do so; unable to come up with a good cause, Elaine said we should pretend that I had been kidnapped. They should threaten to kill me and come for his family if he didn’t do it.

She said if my father loved me truly, he would do it to save my life. I did not feel great about it, but I did not want to say no to Elaine. So we made a video of me in captivity begging my father to do whatever they asked if he wanted me to come home.

It was a believable video, and it was sent to my father.

My father responded and promised to do as they asked as long as they showed him proof of life every day. They agreed, and he went to work.

One day I returned home, and Elaine told me Moses was ill and that I should help receive a money transfer and wire it to a specific account.

She said the task was given to her, but she did not feel too good and needed to rest.

Wanting to please her, I did it and used my fake ID to receive the money. No one told me I wasn’t to use it; in fact, Moses had implied I needed the Id for that very purpose.

I had already used it when a clerk at the bank said they usually used secret words to accept the transfer from the client.

I did not think much of it.

I wired it to the anonymous account that Elaine asked me to wire it to.

I returned home that day, only to find that she had left the apartment,” he said, and his tears fell freely. He felt used, and he knew exactly what had happened to him.

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