Chapter 76

***Levi.***

***New York,***

***Twenty years earlier...***

I stared at the black shining coffin being laid into the ground.

Six feet. The sound of the wheel as it lowered the coffin, a reminder of dad's demise. Mum crying in my arms, wet the front of my black coat. Family friends stood around, commiserating with us. But I barely heard them. All I heard were the words that rambled on the news for the past two weeks, since he died.

***'Richard Ruthford found dead. Throat slit in his office of their Irvington residence.'***

***'Richard's suicide note; Am sorry Christina and Levi. I should have been a better husband and father.'***

***'Debt drowned Ruthford. Stocks fell. No way out. Possessions claimed by the banks.'***

I inhaled a shaky breath, drowning in the enormity of reality. The banks were already taking everything. The cars, the houses. The companies. Everything.

It turns out dad mortgaged everything and now the banks had to claim all assets to cover the loans he had taken, which he had been unable to repay. The stocks fell, so he couldn't repay the loans he had borrowed.

But that was the surface news.

The truth was dad never used that loan for investments he had claimed them for.

An investigative journalist had revealed that all the money dad borrowed had been for his gambling and pleasure; women. Mum had threatened to sue the journalist.

But once the banks came knocking, she barely had any strength left.

She was smoking more these days. Attributed it to the cold. But I was aware her humiliation pushed her further down.

My friends were gone. Not a soul left. Meghan no longer picked my calls and the school hadn't even bothered to send a representative to the funeral. It was like I never existed. Albert was kind enough to attend the funeral. Am sure Abel would have, if he had still been alive.

He was found dead in a pool, two days after dad died. Suicide. Couldn't bear the humiliation from the guys at school. I couldn't even cry when I heard. I only allowed numbness consume me. Tragedy's veil, my cloak.

"Levi."

I started at the voice. Meghan's father; Timothy reed. I was too numb to be shocked that he was present. Equally dressed in black, his wife stood beside him, wearing a pity look. *I hated pity looks.*

"I am sorry about your loss."

Timothy Reed turned his unreadable hard gaze to mum. He was in good form, his wealth not affecting his fitness. "Christina. Take heart. Richard is in a better place."

I lifted a sharp gaze to the man. *What better place?* He was dead. Then I exhaled, truth flooding me. Dad was in a better place, which he didn't deserve, for all his bullshit recklessness. While we suffered.

I didn't cry at the funeral. I was only furious. I didn't even cry when Lincoln broke the news that night. I only sank to the floor in shock.

Ignoring the Reeds and mum, I walked in the direction of the only car left. Mine. Dad didn't mortgage that one. He was considerate enough. Perhaps his own pity hormone had kicked in then.

But we might need to sell later. Mum's accounts were emptying because of the debts. By the time she's finished paying them, there'd be nothing left.

Thank God Meghan didn't come. I might have taken out her dad's words on her. I watched the man, touching mum's arms. Even though she wore her coat, I still felt his filthy hand scorch her.

The fallen golden leaves rustled in the distance and I allowed their sight distract me from Timothy, who couldn't even hold his prick in check, in his wife's presence. I was aware my mum's beauty. Her emerald eyes mirrored mine. Actually I looked like mum, but with dad's hard features. So I didn't blame the men from touching her.

None of them could when dad was alive. They had all respected her. Now the cat's dead; the mice play.

Dad's guards were all gone, even the household workers. Mum couldn't maintain their pay.

The Ruthford mansion was already in the bank's possession. The banks were selling it to the Macklesfields. I was friends with one of them. We were chat buddies and he promised me that one day, I'd get back the house. I don't even know why those words lifted me a bit. It was like a vow of two young boys, who didn't know the shit world we lived in. But I held on to that encouragement. That vow.

Yes, I'd get back the house, restore the family's honor. Every taint of dad's error would be erased.

"The Moores are here. Do you want to say hi?" Albert came up beside me. His tone, grave. I turned to him. My gaze, hard. I think he felt it and looked at me. He understood immediately my reason for walking away from the scene.

"Don't think filthy thoughts man. Your mum is too pure for that." Albert snorted.

"But they aren't," I snidely said.

My eyes turned to where she stood, innocuously greeting the idiots that held only dirt in their hearts for her.

"It's them."

Albert inhaled a steady breath. Am sure he equally saw. We had our backs leaned against the car, my hands in my pockets.

"Maybe you should see beyond that, Levi. Your mum's grieving. She wouldn't even have a thought to be with any of these men," Albert said, ruefully. My lips pulled back in a grim line as the thought of her, soiling herself before these men, took form.

"I would break every fucking bone in their bodies, if they dare as bring out their pricks to her." I vowed, my tone dark. I felt Albert's gaze on me for a while, silently contemplating.

"If they do, I'd give you leave to break them." Albert sneered.

I slipped into the car. For the first time since the death, I cried bitterly.