C9 Chapter Nine

"My name is Amanda Puth, and I was raised by Puth Furman and his wife Becca. They are my parents."

The voice of Amanda was calm as Gabriel and his wife Paula listened carefully, every single one of them had a lot of questions to ask since the situation was all so complicated. Paula took a closer look at Amanda and noticed she had a scar around her neck, "you must have gotten this from a young age." she was referring to the scar.

"Yes, I fell from the stairs when I was." Amanda responded quickly.

"So, where do your parents live? You mind telling us?" Gabriel hoped he didn't ask this too early because Amanda looked not ready for questions.

"I haven't seen them in about 3 or 4 years." Her response came carelessly, she obviously didn't care about how long she'd been away from those who raised her, and Gabriel could only wonder why.

"You don't live with them?" Paula asked then noticed some other scars on Amanda's wrist, they looked like she'd hurt herself from being chained. "Oh honey, have you been alright lately? You seem to have a lot of scars and marks." She hoped she wasn't crossing the line.

"They're scars from childhood." She answered again without looking up from the floor where her eyes were firmly fixed.

Paula and Gabriel noticed she was hiding something, there was something she didn't want to talk about, and whatever that was, it's obvious she had been hiding it within herself for a very long time.

"Who's this Melissa? I was arrested because the cops thought I was her. Who is she?" Amanda was crying, it was one of the worst experiences she'd ever had apart from whatever was really behind the scars on her body. It was hell on earth having to suffer just for looking exactly like someone else. She didn't know she had a twin and she never knew that the couple right in front of her were her real parents.

"Mellisa is our daughter, when we heard someone was arrested, we thought it was her. But then we found out that it's you so we decided to dig deep into things." Gabriel said.

"What do you mean dig deep?" She finally managed to raise her head up.

"Well Amanda, we dug deep and discovered that you and Melissa are not just lookalikes."

"What are you trying to say to me?" She could tell where all this was going but she only needed to hear him say everything. But before Gabriel could say a single word, they were told that visiting hours were up and they needed to leave.

"We'll talk about this next time my child, there's much you need to know about yourself and where you really come from!" The deep voice of Gabriel said as they all stood up to leave.

"My child? He called me his child? And what did he mean by where I really come from?" Amanda asked herself these questions as she was escorted back by the police.

*****

The weather was just perfect in the Milburn home as the busy workers walked from one side of the expensive mansion to the other, trying to get on with their daily chores. Ethan Milburn had spent a huge amount of money to get himself one of the most admired mansions in the city and there he was lying so weak on his sick bed as he spoke to his most trusted fellow Mr Arjun Khan.

"You have to bring him to me as quickly as possible, I don't have much time left and I can't die without seeing my real son." The old man struggled to say the words while lying on his back as Khan sat just beside him with a sorrowful face.

"I've talked to him several times, but he is still in denial and yes, he is angry with you too."

"But... But why Khan?" His throat was dry and he coughed, squeezing his face to the pain in his chest.

"He's not happy that you left his mum to suffer for so long. He passed through hell right from a very young age, and he's grown up believing he's without a father so he's used to it and doesn't really appreciate you showing up now."

"How many young people will be angry at me despite my wealth? A lot of them will bow to such an opportunity, but this man is different, that sounds like something I would do. I like him."

"Yes, he appears to have his principles, and he's interesting to talk to."

"Get me that young man, get me my son, I want to see him before I leave this world.”

*****

"My father has already willed most of his properties to that good for nothing guy. Why can't you guys just carry out a very simple task?" The angry voice of John Ethan was something everyone in the Milburn mansion was getting used to. He suddenly developed anger issues after knowing he's only an adopted son and the real one might be coming to take his place very soon.

He was speaking to his men in a quiet passage in the mansion and they were confident that no one could hear them. "Look here guys, it's nothing new to you, you've done this before haven't you?" He asked the two men in front of him.

"Yes Boss." They replied at once.

"Mc is the only one standing in my way. If you can eliminate that dude, everything that belongs to my father will be mine, and you know what that means right? You guys can have whatever you want."

"We know that boss, but that Mc guy, he's really fast and he can fight well." One of them replied.

"Well don't fight him, just shoot him! That's simple."

"We've tried that, he's really smart."

John used the back of his hand to clean imaginary sweat from his forehead in frustration, he knew he was running out of time because he didn't know how long it'll take before Mc finally decides to come see his father.

"Look here guys, look at me, find out exactly where he lives, break into the damn house and pull the trigger to his skull, you got me?"

"We got you boss, we got you.”