THE CULPRIT'S VERDICT
Chapter 15

"Lex!" I got startled when he popped out from behind me. I didn't realize that he had already made his way up here.

"Did you replace anything? he inquired.

I drifted my stare on the wall to let him see the writing there, but when I looked back I see no sign of vandalism on the wall.

I bit the inside of my cheek and took a deep breath.

"What was it?"

"N-nothing." I decided not to spill as I was lost in the thought of if there was really something there earlier. Was it just a product of my imagination?

We both made our way inside my uncle's room. We scanned the drawers and bed for anything suspicious but we found none.

"Seems like there's nothing you can replace here," he concluded.

"No there must be something, I need to look intently." Frustrated as I was, I pulled out all of my uncle's clothes from his cabinet, but still, I didn't see anything. Suddenly, a wind from the slightly open window passed through and caused motions to some objects in the room with less density.

I shifted my head to the source and got glued on one side of his room instead. Adjacent to his bed, a familiar portrait was plastered on the wall. It was a portrait of the Villa where my parents and I were supposed to go on the night of the accident.

It wasn't the first time I had been there, because, for many times in the past during my childhood years, my parents would bring me there to gather with hundreds of people in black cloaks and dresses. It had been a seasonal tradition and such occasion had always been marked important in our Family calendar. But when I reached the age of 12, they sent me to Canada under Mrs. Perez's care, my mom's best friend and Juliet's mother, to continue my study. Since then, I had forgotten about the tradition and what it was for.

I took a closer look at the portrait. It had a similar artistic style to those paintings posted on the walls in the company. This one was framed in a rectangular starlight glass with a black frame on its sides.

"Can we take this off?" My gaze was on Lex. What came out of my mouth may sound like a question but it wailed a command to him.

"H-huh? Y-yeah." He sounded off as if he didn't want to try, but still, he followed.

My anticipation grew as he pulled the portrait off the wall. Our eyes widened at the sight of the volt that was secretly hidden behind the portrait. Lex examined it.

"It's encrypted, again." He let out a sigh of disappointment.

We tried and spent hours exchanging turns in unraveling the right combinations until the sun almost went down to the horizon. Hopelessness was in the air until an idea popped into my head.

I asked Lex to help me take off the volt out of the wall using the available tools in the stock room. Then, we brought it to my condominium.

"Goodness, Max, this is so heavy!" Lex said in between his breath as he placed it properly on the cabinet of my room. We decided to place it in the box so others would think it was just a brand new oven. "Thank you, Lex. This day had been a very long day for the two of us. Let's just take our rest, okay?" I said idling for him to leave my room, but inst, ead he laid flat on my bed, arms stretched sideways. What the-. "Lex!" I yelled.

"What? You said we can take our rest, I am taking my rest now," he said as an excused for his action.

"Duh! I mean you may go home now so you can rest in your house." I explained. I didn't want him to stay for long because he might fall asleep on my bed. I was tired and I would love to have a full rest also, alone. He pulled his upper body in a sitting position and pouted his lips. Gosh, I thought only girls do that! I felt guilty for a second. After I took advantage of him as a chaperon and attendant, I will just ask him away leave? "Okay fine, you may rest for few minutes, but you must go home after regaining your energy."

He didn't answer back, rather he slapped his body again on my bed. As tired as I actually was, I laid my back on the available space beside him. Drowsiness crept over me and I fell asleep.

~~~

I moaned as I stretched my arms and legs to the comfort of my fluffy bed. The sound of the lively birds chirping and singing as they welcomed the sun from rising on the horizon, brought peace and bliss to my morning. I pulled my body up in a sitting position and discarded some dried dirt from my eyes before I realized that my friend was with me last night. I scanned my bed from left to right, on and under to look for him but I saw no sign of him. The blanket that was halfway on my body made me realized that Lex had probably gone out sooner before I woke up. I just didn't know if he stayed the whole night with me or he went home that evening.

I jumped out of my bed and proceeded to the bathroom, but the sight of the cabinet made me strode backward and walked in its direction. I opened it and saw the volt. I tried my luck this time to put a combination, but nothing happened. Frustrated as I was, I made my way to the bathroom and eliminated the specks of dirt on my body.

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The picture of the Villa in the portrait I saw in my uncle's office glinted in my head whilst submerging my whole body in the warm milky liquid of my bathtub. Something in me wanted to visit that place.

After changing my clothes and doing the usual routines, I just found myself riding the new yet rarely used BMX car my uncle provided me a month ago or two before I permanently settled in my condominium.

I drove all the way to Villa Revuza. The road ahead brought unwanted memories. For seconds, I felt like wanting to pull back. The place witnessed my family's struggle to survive that unexpected turn in our life. It was where the old Max, had lost her identity.

I tightened my grip on the handwheel and took the courage to continue. Surviving that death trap will be useless if I will not be able to avenge my family.

I parked my car in one of the vast parking lots in the area. There was one black BMW car parked and I had no idea who owned it. The place was so sophisticated yet solemn and private.

There's no sign of a human being around, if I was a stranger who passed by and had no knowledge about this place, I would consider this as an abandoned paradise.

The scorching sun greeted me as I stepped out of my car, I adjusted my eyeglasses to fully block the blinding rays of the sun. A cool breeze blew from behind causing a sharp tickle on my neck. I fixed the black veil I had and wrapped it all over my face.

I made my way towards the front entrance of the classic three-story building. It was quite huge and awfully constructed in a zigzag structure.

I pushed open the wide wooden door and ventured in. The eardrum-breaking silence signified the emptiness of the area. The corridor was dim and narrow with only a little amount of sunlight passing through.

As I walked farther in, a loud bang startled me and made me look back. With a door closed, my eyes dilated to adjust with a dark narrow hallway I have to go through.

My feet dragged me into a huge two-acre space enclosed by a spectacular thick glass roof that hindered the sunlight from penetrating through. Calculating its size, it was capable of accommodating thousands of people.

I wandered around and filled my mind with those old and blurry memories I had here with my parents. Somehow, I'd got accustomed to the pain, I felt like it could be my dose of medicine daily.

I was ten years old when I last entered here and I already forgot most events that had happened in this place.

But one fresh memory I had here was when I first met him, a boy probably four or six years older than me, who protected me from a group of vicious teenage girls who bullied and ruined my dress. He was my first savior and I just hope I could meet him once and thank him for what he did.

I strolled around and examined the area. My attention was caught by the three linear red buttons on one side of the walls. I hate when curiosity strike for it was killing me. My finger lifted, even though my mind did not agree to it yet, and touched the first button to my right.

I shifted my gaze the soonest I heard a quelling noise from the roof. It was as if heaven split in two when the glass cover slid open, allowing enough sunlight to pass through.

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My eyes widened in adoration of the open-close roof system. Such a dramatic architectural effect was costly and rare.

The sunlight allowed me to trace the sight of the three huge elliptic marks on the center of the vast floor. Its second and third internal spheres were obscurely elevated as if it was carved all over.

Suddenly, a familiar figure of a man disturbed my observation and made me straightened my body. He stood at the entrance with his hands in the pockets of his slightly loose pants.

He walked in my direction. Every step he made, echoed in my ear and I could pass out for halting my noisy heart from beating. His gorgeous physique was becoming clearer as he approached, his eyes were boring holes into me but his face was void of expression. I steadied myself since he was the last person I expected to see at this moment.

"S-sir," I mumbled when he stood inches tall from me.

He leaned his face to me and inquired, "Why is it that every time you're making your way through awkward and restricted places, I always caught you off guard?"

I flexed my body and he straightened his.

"Likewise. Can you enlighten me Mr. Valmier?" I mocked as I say. "Why are you always in those pesky areas? Perhaps you're stalking me." I really wanted to ask him why he always appeared whenever I'm off for an investigation, but my instinct instructed me that it wasn't the right time yet.

He chuckled shortly and twitched his jaw as he bit the inside of his cheek. My question probably triggered either his ego or his conscience.

"Because it happened that the places you're passing into, belong to me." He said in a soft and tempting tone.

"Does this place belongs to you as well?"

"Yes, it does." My heart swats at his answer; I didn't expect it.

"Forgive my intrusion then, I just had a memory in this place that I want to look back on."

"I know," he confided. I looked straight into his eyes with a bizarre stare. What was it he knew? Did he happen to recognize me?

"Yes, I know you so well," he answered as if he heard the question I had in my mind, "... Maxine."