02/09/2024
🌹🌵Roses out of thorns🌵🌹
(My unexpected Sweetheart🌺)
Episode 42
*Finalization of law case*
Fred sits down comfortably on the sofa, ignoring Cole's question. Cole on the other hand decides to play along, and asks Turo to get wine.
"Is it pure?" Fred asks referring to the wine Turo offers him, earning a raised brow from cole.
"Why big brother? Scared? Isn't this a better way to murder you, considering you didn't even give father an easy death? Drink the damn wine, and if you die then you die" Cole says nonchalantly.
Fred collects the wine and guples it down in haste.
"Fred, can we just end this feud, what's done is done. Aren't you tired? It's not like you're winning" Jane suggests but is blatantly ignored.
Kay briskly stands up to leave after kissing her hubby good bye. She had a business to run.
Cole signals her ( Katherine's) personal guard to keep an eye on his wife.
After that is done, he now faces Fred with a more ruthless aura, feeling more comfortable now that his wife is out.
"Why are you here, Fred?" Cole asked looking serious at his brother with a plain face.
"I'm going to be brief and straight. I need all of dad's documents and assets that are in your possession, and I need it now. After all, I should be entitled to them as his first son" Fred blurted out with a smirk and a serious face, knowing well that he's looking for trouble.
Cole chuckles, while Jane face palms herself.
"You....you seem to be forgetting who you're speaking with. You seem to not realize you're speaking with the new Greg Antonio huh? Because I've been giving you the tiniest bit of respect you didn't deserve? Are you kidding me?" Cole asked in a whisper voice of anger and a raised brow, not believing the mundane words coming from his brother.
"Failure to do that and you'll inquire my wrath. You know your wife is pregnant...." Fred trails on, and at the mention of his wife, Cole springs up attempting to attack Fred but Turo holds him back while Jane holds her chest in anxiety.
"You had better not lay your filthy fingers on my wife if you still value your life and that of your family's!" Cole threatens with the most dangerous facial expression and aura. Fred doesn't seem to flinch, but just smiles.
"Then give me the documents..." Fred said with a smile.
"Fred! That's enough! Enough of this!" Jane yells.
Just then Harry and Ruben enters, and are shocked by the toxic situation of the living room, especially Cole who looks like he's about to scourge Fred's heart out of his chest and that incy bitsy fear of loosing something dear in his eyes and other emotions.
"That's not even a chance! You had better leave my house now before I get loose from my guard's hold! You won't see the next minute I promise you! Get the f*ck out of my sight!" Cole threatens sternly, and Fred chuckles and places his hands up in surrender while retreating backwards...
"You've made your choice baby bro, I gave you a chance, but you decided to be greedy! Don't blame me when things get sour!" Fred said and further increases his retreating pace when Cole charges towards him.
He finally leaves after glancing at Petra who has been sitting quietly watching the sharade and admiring the resemblance between the brothers.
"Cole relax. Fred won't do anything.. he can't do more than a dead rat, relax" Jane says, trying to calm him down. The latter ruffles his hair and grips it with his hands as he puts his head down trying to calm down and put his fear of loosing his wife again or more still his unborn child because of mere properties of his dad.
"He had better not!" Was all he said before looking up to see his other two brothers, who are staring at Petra.
"What? Why are you guys staring at her? Stop being shameless, you're married" Cole says.
"Hmm, who is she? What's she doing here..?" Harry asks.
"Start talking woman " Cole orders and Jane nudges her to talk.
"My name is Petra, I use to be one of Jay Antonio's slave. He has a secret casino, where he enslaves Young women, get his men to sleep with us, and get us pregnant, so he could sell our kids off. But recently, someone tipped the place out to the police, and the place got raided. We all ran away. Most of us died due to the exchange of gun fires, and because we were weak and malnourished. I was running, when I ran into Jane's car" Petra said and put her head down, twisting her fingers while at it.
There was silence for some minutes. Then Jane spoke up.
"We can't trust Jay. Everything we've heard about him is false. There must be a reason Dad didn't let us know about him when he was alive" Jane said.
Harry sighs. "What do we do about him now. Because everyone from the Antonio's family's got their hands dirty. I'm not even surprised to hear that long lost Uncle jay has a syndicate."
"So the plan we discussed can't work. I can't hand him dad's documents. He's going to claim them and never return them. He's broke right now, and so wants to take from us" Cole said, ruffling his head.
He's seriously scared of what Fred just said. He can't bear loosing Kay again. No, not again.
"Cole, relax. Your wife is safe" Jane says, trying the least she can to comfort him.
"No Jane, don't lie to him. Katherine isn't safe. We all know Fred, and we know that he's not giving up on a fight, and he meant what he said. What are we going to do about him?" Ruben asked Cole who's getting all petrified.
"Should I just give him what he asks for?" Cole asked and everyone gasp
"What?! Are you out of your mind"
"I'd have done same if I knew threatening your wife's life was the key"
"I knew Dad shouldn't have entrusted you with everything!"
"Are you such a kid?"
They all said at once, starting from Jane, to Harry, to Ruben and then back to Jane.
"I can't loose my wife again! I just got her back! All this s**t is overwhelming me. Fred won't leave me alone because of dad's documents, as if I need them. I'm doing well on my own. My wife is far more precious than all these insane stuffs Jane! I can't let anything hurt her, again! If it's the properties he wants, I'm giving it to him. Let this s**t end already!" Cole says and Jane fumes.
"Fine! Go on and give it to him. Everything Dad entrusted to you! Give it all to him you chicken! It's your share of the inheritance anyway, so you can give it to whoever you want!" Jane says and storms out of the living room.
Cole ignores her and sips his wine 🍷 carefully, and deep in thought.
Just then Turo walks in.
"Sir, your attention is needed urgently!" He says and Cole sighs before dropping his glass of wine on the table.
"See you guys tomorrow. I'm sure you have issues to attend to" Cole said to his brothers and they nod in agreement.
"We g*t you bro, go on, we'll be leaving soon as well" Ruben says and Cole taps him gently on his shoulders before leaving with Turo who gave Petra a 'Stay on that sit' eye.
Once Cole and Turo are out, Harry exhales and faces Petra who suddenly started having goosebumps.
She continues to squeeze and twist her fingers and feel shy. She can't believe how cute the whole Antonio's family are.
"So pet.. what was your name again?" Harry asks
"Petra" Petra and Harry answers, while Ruben face palm himself.
"So the little story you forged earlier, you said different men slept with you, and you've given birth to many children. Doesn't that make you a w***e at some point?" Harry asks and Petra gaps offensively.
Ruben taps his brother's shoulder playfully.
"Alright that's enough. We're leaving! Sorry about that Petra. Let's go Harry" Ruben says and literally drags Harry out of the place, leaving Petra clutching the clothes on her chest and wondering how someone so cute could be that rude!
Jane's POV
Feeling so angry, I entered my car and speed off. Destination? Unknown! I just want to calm mind.
Being the only female amongst brothers can be so annoying!
Just then an idea strucks my memory. I smirk and drive away.
Today might not be so annoying after all.
Let's go meet that as***le who never leaves his shop.
Writer's pov
Turo and Cole arrived back at home few hours later. Cole seems to call down a bit and a little more composted than earlier.
He retires to his room and gets busy with his computer and I-pad. He's done with arranging all the case files and getting then ready for his lawyer.
He's going to bring Fred down, even if it means washing hands off all illegal businesses.
Besides, his meeting now either turo revealed another secret if Freds. And to close this entire case, he'd have to make sure Fred can't see the daylight outside a cell.
The law suite is tomorrow, and so Claire arrives at Cole's mansion with case files.
Cole comes downstairs to meet her.
"Mr Antonio, there's more to your case that meets the eye. Is there something I need to know?" She's asked as cole goes through the case files.
"What do you mean?" Cole asked.
"Are you into anything illegal? Illegal businesses?" She asked and cole chuckles.
"You never figured that out? Your father never told you his very much close late client was an illegal Lord?" Cole asked again, nonechalantly.,.
"I'll appreciate it if you'd take me more serious and answer me. It might be needed in court." Claire says and Cole sighs, pitching the skin between his brows.
"Claire, my late father was an illegal Lord, so he had illegal possessions and transactions whichever can't be avoided. Of ours he had passed most of them to his sons as inheritance. Fred has most of them because I refused to inherit those ones. But check these files. Few hours ago, I disowned these businesses, and gave it up for any of my brothers who will take it up. Then check these files....they contain all the businesses Fred handles as of present, legal and illegal. They included one of the syndicate the police have been trying to crack for years now. That particular business has high people in the law enforcement included in them, and so that case will be a disturbing one. My plan is to wash my hands off all illegal businesses from this minute, and I've done so. We're going to implicate Fred with these cases" Cole said, handing over two files to Claire who begins going through them...
"How many more of your people are in control of illegal businesses?" She asked as she goes through them
"I don't know really. The way dad shared the illegal business inheritance was very private, and so only if investig*ted can you find out. I had to do some findings to get those. So, if the law enforcements want to find out, they should investig*te " Cole replied.
"Okay Cole, that'll be all for now. See you in court tomorrow" she says and shakes hands with Cole before taking her leave.
Luke's POV
I'm very busy in my shop right now, we're packing our products for delivery when someone walks in.
I froze in shock.
"Jane?" I whispered. I didn't know she was back in town.
"Hi Luke? Oh you're busy m I guess I'll just leave" she said, looking quite disappointed.
"You didn't come just to leave like that now did you?" I asked, looking directly at her eyes. She looked like she needed someone to talk to.
"Common, let's go somewhere less busy" I said and left with Jane after handing over business issues with my assistant.
We went to one of the coolest resorts to relax.
"Luke, the law suite is tomorrow, and I'm scared. Things might just rile up and d end up really bad. Can you imagine Cole pathetically chipper in giving everything to Fred? After everything" Jane complains with concern, laying on my chest and me stroking her hair as we watch others play on the beach.
Well we've gotten quite close these past few days. So she tells me whatever.
And seeing her this worried makes me want to protect her.
I peck her forehead and continue stroking her hair. "Everything will be fine. If it pleases you, let's be absent tomorrow. Don't attend the lawsuit and let's go somewhere private." I suggested and she glanced at me.
"Why not, you have your own life to live Jane, you can't just be focused on other's life that way, sometimes you chill" I suggested again.
"But they're my brothers." She said again.
"Are coming with me or not?" I asked, getting hired with her motherly attitude.
"I'll think about it" she replied.
NEXT DAY: IN THE COURT ROOM
Writer's pov
Things are not looking good. Jane isn't in the Court room, and so isn't Katherine. Cole suggested she didn't come, since it might get dangerous.
The atmosphere is tense, and the judge is looking really shocked at what he's hearing and seeing ad evidence.
"Looking at all this your honour, there's no need to prolonge the case. The culprit is right before us, and my learned companion doesn't seem to have any evidence to counter mine, I want to suggest a close of case and sentencing of the culprit" one of the lawyers says.
"The court is adjourned for the next 10 minutes and will be resumed for sentencing and close of case!" The judge says and the clerk announces...
"COURT RISE!"
TBC.
Details of the court sessions in the nextdoor episode.
Please dear fans of mine, I'm trying to finish this story as quick as I can since it had lingered for quite a while.
Let's co-operate.
Anywhere you've all gone to, please come around and let's finish this story. Two more episodes and we're done.
We don't know who is going to bring sentenced.
Who do you think?
What do you think of this episode?
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