Chapter 53: Chapter 53

He spent more than two weeks lying in a very uncomfortable hospital bed, staring at the scenery outside the window. He heard the screeching sound of birds perched on one of the windows of his room as if trying to greet him with their innocent faces. He continued to watch the birds until they left the window, following their friends. Next to his bed, he found Hazel, who was slicing an apple for him even though he had refused many times as he had lost his appetite. As soon as she finished peeling, the woman tucked the apple into his mouth. Reluctantly, he devoured the apple, chewed it in silence.

'I respect your decision, Raymond.'

He winced in confusion at Hazel's sudden words. Chewing on his apple, he turned his gaze from the window towards the woman who was now giving him a second bite. 'Huh? What are you talking about?'

'I told you before, didn't I? If any of us likes new people, we should inform each other and respect the decision,' Hazel prepared the third bite after he had eaten the apple with difficulty. Hurriedly he shook his head, asking the woman to stop feeding him because he felt full. 'You've already done it, but I'm acting childish, thinking you still like me.'

He was silent, could not respond to what Hazel said. While swallowing the chewed apple earlier, he closed his eyes. The pain from the gunshot wound he got from Simon has started to lessen, but sometimes it still hurts. Especially after Gavin's incident at that time made the wound healing process go much slower than it should have been.

'So I'm retreating now. We can still be friends, no need to worry.'

'Can't I choose to be together with you two?' he asked, anxious. Actually, he had doubts. Hearing Hazel's words convinced him that she was saying it because she already liked someone else. Or at least, trying to move on.

'That's ...,' Hazel bit her lower lip, then forced a smile. 'You better ask Edward first.'

'O-oh ...,' he nodded weakly, then looked down. No longer dared to look at Hazel's brown eyes.

Ah, that was right. He just realized that since he woke up until now, he had not seen Edward at all. Where was he?

'Oh, I forgot. Verdict asked me to tell you to look at the files in here,' Hazel took out a flash disk that read 1 Terabyte with a thick Futura font on the grey body of the flash disk.

'Where's Verdict?' he said as he connected the flash disk to his smartphone, which was also given by Hazel along with the flash disk earlier.

'Back to Morozov, with Amanda. He said he had some business to be done.'

He muttered softly, knowing Verdict's way of thinking.

'I have to go,' Hazel said again as she got out of her chair. The woman's slender hands grabbed the red handbag placed on the nightstand near the bed, along with the bowl filled with apples that were still left over.

'Thanks,' he said, pointing to the flash disk the woman had given him earlier.

'No problem. Get well soon. Don't forget, this afternoon you have to see your psychiatrist.'

'The psychiatrist works at the same hospital as I'm in, Hazel,' he said, laughing softly. Hazel's nagging nature whenever she took care of someone still did not change, making him a little happy.

'In case I catch you skipping your schedule,' Hazel walked away from the room without even looking at him. His gaze was again fixed on the screen of his smartphone managed to read the flash disk. In contrast to its large size, the file size turned out to be only ten gigabytes. Why was Verdict sending video files using a large capacity flash disk?

His thumb pressed the 'play' button, playing the file, which made all the cells in his body freeze. On the six-inch screen, Arnold Walter's figure looked cheerful and healthy, smiling in front of the camera as if the man was still alive. The man sat in one of his favourite guest chairs, against the backdrop of the pile of his favourite collection of books that he could still clearly remember all the titles on the small bookshelf.

'It's a bit tense, talking here alone,' Arnold cleared his throat, seemingly trying to clear his throat, which felt dry from nervousness. The man rubbed his palms over his thighs, then took a deep breath as he managed to calm himself down. The man's eyes flickered, reluctant to say the next sentence.

'Ray. Sorry, I've been hiding a lot of things from you. I am really, really sorry.'

'I know,' he replied, laughing softly, knowing that the man could not possibly hear the answer. His tears just dripped without being able to stop it.

'If you have received this flash disk from Verdict, it means I'm already dead. Or maybe go to another place, somewhere you can't reach anymore,' the man was silent for a moment, trying to think through his next sentence carefully. 'I will make a big confession.'

His breath caught as Arnold fell silent again for a few moments, waiting for the man's words to return.

'I'm a hitman. The figure you hate the most. Remember, you told me how much you hate people who move for money? Because of that, I was forced to hide my identity in front of you. I'm not that kind of person you've always been thinking, Ray. I'm a person who moves based on profit and loss, not moves based on a sense of justice like you. That's why I don't want you to know my identity and hate me for life. Accepting such severe consequences is something I wanted to avoid as much as possible.

'I had to ask my father to give me a job as a bank employee so you wouldn't know my identity, and thankfully my father agreed. To answer your suspicions every time you see me and Verdict, I'll answer it. I am not part of the Walter family, although the Walter family welcomed me with open arms and made me a part of them. For the details, I don't want to tell you. It's not a comfortable topic to talk about…'

Arnold fell silent again. His eyes looked sad for a moment. Arnold was trying to get rid of the bitter memories of his past. He waited anxiously for Arnold's next sentence.

'Verdict and Martha once told me I need to be honest with you, but it's difficult than it seems. What if you would hate me once I told you everything? I am scared. You're the first person who managed to make me think that liking someone isn't as bad as I thought so far, you know? And yes, you heard it right. I like you, Raymond Copper. I fell in love with you since our first meeting. It still feels like yesterday when I shook your hand. Your face was irritated when you look at me for reasons I don't understand.'

'It's because of your fake smile, you bastard…,' Raymond muttered as he wiped his tears using the back of his hand that did not have an IV attached.

'You are a strange person. Your attractive presence always manages to get everyone interested in approaching you—no matter what gender. Including me. It never crossed my mind for the slightest bit to like someone that it was driving me crazy the way I am now, Ray.

'Because of that, last year, I decided to quit my job as a hitman and really focused my attention on my career as a bank employee. I want to try to be an ordinary person. Things that never crossed my mind before. All because of you. I want to stay by your side. Not tied to the mafia world or anything that you hate. I want you to realize how I feel one day. For the first time in my life's history, I have liked someone this deep.'

Arnold chewed his lips, looked up and then looked back at the camera as if he was staring into his eyes with his teary eyes. 'I thought things were going well. Unfortunately, some parties try to recruit you to be a part of them. There have been two attempts to kill me because I prevented them from getting you.'

Raymond frowned at Arnold's confession. Going after him? The people he killed said the same thing at the very second they died.

'... you waste his struggle—'

Vera ...

'Too bad. Though Arnold definitely doesn't want you to investigate his death. His struggle to protect you is in vain. Am I right?'

Also Levin ...

'Soon, they will come to my place. I don't know how much time I have, but I assure you they won't touch you, Ray. Not even a bit.'

***