Sam couldn't wrap his mind around what he was seeing.

At first, it was the voice. But then, his father stumbled into the room, obviously alive. He looked thinner, and the right side of his body was a little slumped, as if it was hard for him to stay fully vertical. The hands wrapped around the head of the sturdy black cane looked gnarled, as if they belonged to a much older person. There was a deep scar on his right cheek, making it look fallen in. The hair on his temples was completely white now, and his hair looked thinned and scruffier.

And yet, her carried himself with confidence as he and the men who joined him, including Von Crooken and Eye Patch, made their way around the cage and stepped in the entrance of the open space.

Kyle made to step forward, but Snitch Gravel-- Davyn now-- reached out his arm to hold him back, sensing the obvious danger.

"No way," Tom breathed. "No fucking way."

"So this was it, huh, Nicholas?" A lopsided grin appeared on Davyn's face. "You finally found someone to replace me with. You didn't even have to look far."

"You were always disposable," Von Cooken grumbled. "I just needed help to see it. You are not Snitch Gravel. Snitch Gravel was my creation, and I'm taking it back."

"Shove it up your ass, as far as I'm concerned." Davyn crossed his arms over his chest. "But do tell me how you managed to pull this one out from the grave."

"Always so sure of yourself," Freider said with a shake of his head, as if abandoning his family and faking his death for the past five years was the most normal thing in the world. "Did it never cross your mind that you might have failed at killing me?"

"I didn't even try," Davyn said, sounding bored. "And I didn't even check if you were dead."

"I did," Von Crooken said. "After you left. And I saw his use. Especially after you made sure to cut off all profitable avenues for business."

"Then who did we burn?" Jerry asked, snapping Sam out of his shocked state. "We held a funeral for you. Your urn is still in the house."

The matter that they'd held a stranger on their mantle didn't seem to interest Fredier in the least. He didn't even bother to glance at Jerry, or any of them, really. His killer gaze moved from Davyn to Kyle and Maxi and then back, as if he'd finally found the meaning of life.

"All these years." Freider shook his head again. "I was so naïve, trying to convince myself that I was wrong, that you couldn't have."

Sam's body felt as if it was rapidly filling with liquid fire, rage replacing the shock. It kickstarted his mind, brought all the details of the hellish situation to the forefront. Dvayn had been right. It felt as if Sam's parents were meant to show up in key moments to pick up the story.

"You can't be serious," he said. "Not after what you did."

This got Freider's attention for once. With some difficulty, he turned to face his son instead of his enemy. "What do you mean?" The innocence in his voice was disgusting.

"Where do we even start?" Jerry said, clenching his fists. "With you abandoning the family, faking your death, or missing out on your children's lives?"

Freider threw Kyle another fleeting glance at the mention of his children, but then focused on them again, a pensive air surrounding him. It made Sam's skin crawl. He knew that look too well. His father was about to throw some complicated nonsense at them in order to try to justify what he'd done. And it was a wonder that everyone was waiting for it. Sam had half expected Kyle to punch his face in by then.

"We are at a crossroad," Freider finally said, his voice level. "It has come to this. For the past five years I have been working to ensure you kids a legacy." He threw Davyn another disgusted glance. "Make sure you would end him."

Sam waved his hand back, aware that one of his brothers was going to snap at this nonsense, and quietly asking them not to. He wanted to hear all the bullshit Freider could throw at them.

"Oh, how dramatic," Davyn said, the amusement in his voice clear.

"Let him finish," Kyle said, obviously thinking along the same lines as Sam.

"Oh, I'll be getting to you, my bastard child," Freider said, not even looking at him. "But until then, I want you to know that I have done what I set out to do. I have destroyed Snitch Gravel."

Silence followed his statement. Sam tried his best not to roll his eyes and managed it. What he couldn't manage was to stifle the rage and resent building inside him as his mind finally accepted the reality that his father was not dead.

"Are you expecting applause or something?" Jimmy asked.

The chill in his tone was a clear warning, but even after coming back from the dead, Freider didn't know how to read his kids.

"I believe the time has come," Freider said, ignoring Jimmy's words and reaching out one of his arms in a grand gesture. "I have done my part, removed the danger and built a safe future for you. As we agreed, Sam, it's now time for you to join me."

"You're shitting us," Tom said. "Do you think we don't know what Von Crooken does for a living? Do you have any idea just what that asshole did to us?"

"Join you to what, Dad?" Sam asked instead, because he could see this was not about inheritance or legacies or whatever. This was about his nightmares and what he'd always feared. Having to chose between becoming his father and becoming Snitch Gravel.

"To deliver the final blow and end Snitch Gravel once and for all."

Sam flinched. Of course it had come to this. But what Freider couldn't understand was how much had changed in the five years he'd been dead. How much had changed in the last hour, actually. Snitch Gravel was not a person. It was a concept floating in the room with them, waiting to be picked up again.

Freider motioned for them to come over. On cue, Von Crooken and the goons stepped back to make way for them and Sam noted that their father had most likely bargained for their lives. If they stepped towards him, they were safe.

"What about Kyle?" Jimmy asked.

"You heard your whore mother. He is no son of mine."

"Speaking of which." Tom stepped forward but stopped next to Sam to make it clear that he was in no way joining the madness. "Do explain why she'd be a whore when she never actually cheated on you."

Annoyance cut across Freider's face and he moved his gaze to Davyn. "I see he has told you quite a bit."

"I left one part out," Davyn said with a light shrug. "Lucky that you'd turn up right now."

"Or unlucky." Kyle shoved past Davyn and headed for Freider, his intentions more than clear.

Von Crooken and all his men took out their guns and pointed them at Kyle. He stopped in the no-man's land between them, Davyn and Maxi, and Freider and his goons. Kay made to rush to him, but Jimmy caught her around the middle and pulled her against him.

"Freider, no," Maxi shrieked. "Please, don't."

Kyle narrowed his eyes. "I'm still going to get my hands on you eventually. Now you can't pull that 'are you going to hit your father' bullshit on me, you coward."

Freider faltered, obviously searching for some insult to throw at Kyle, but there was nothing he could cling on to.

Sam didn't like this, not when all the guns in the room were pointing at Kyle. They just got him back, he wasn't about to lose him again. He glanced at Davyn, hoping he'd tell his men to back off. But then again, they were no longer his men. So he just squinted at them, as if trying to find the weakest link.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," he finally said. "There is still story to tell."

"Dad," Jerry said quietly, "tell them to lower their weapons."

Fredier turned to him. "I don't think I will, Jerry. You always saw how dangerous he was. You were right."

"No, I wasn't. Kyle is our brother. We don't care that he's not your son."

The snarl on Freider's face made his hallow cheek even more grotesque. "Here's where you're wrong. Blood is everything and you should be protecting your own. Ensure the prevalence of the Grant line. It's why you must join me--"

His words would have made Sam snort if they didn't send Davyn into an outright laughing fit. Jimmy took advantage of the distraction to toss his shotgun to Kyle. He caught it in midair and pointed it at Freider's head.

"Well, I don't give a shit about that, since I'm apparently not a Grant," he growled. "Lower your weapons or I'm smearing his brains all over the floor."

Freider hesitated a second, the fear obvious in his eyes. Then, he waved his hand. The goons lowered their weapons. Kyle didn't.

Sam's stomach twisted uncomfortably at the role reversal, at how his own father was a threat to the people he loved. But that didn't mean he wanted Kyle shooting him either.

Freider seemed to be thinking along the same lines because his gaze turned calculating again. "Lower your weapon, boy."

"I don't think I will, old man," Kyle said matter-of-factly. "Unless you're planning to shoot your own family, you have no leverage over me."

Kyle was right, so Sam had no idea how his father could put on that insane grin. "Oh, but you are one," he said.

Sam frowned in confusion. Freider had obviously lost his mind, but his words plunged the room into complete silence once again.

"A what?" Kyle asked, unimpressed.

"Are you sure you want to go there, Freider?" Davyn asked, though he didn't sound like he wanted to stop him.

"I'm surprised you obviously haven't," Fredier growled.

"I thought I wouldn't completely trash you since you were dead and everything. Plus, you're still obviously trying to hide it with that whole bloodline bullshit."

Freider huffed. "There are rotten fruit in every tree. You think this is bad for me? For me when it's you who's been trying to kill them for years?"

"What's going on?" Sam asked looking from his father to Davyn.

"The final piece of the puzzle," Davyn said, stepping back with a grin. "Let them have it."

Freider's gaze was full of hatred as it moved from Davyn to Kyle. "What he failed to tell you is that you are a Grant, boy."

"Stop calling me boy. And you made it pretty clear that you're not my father. Which, honestly, kinda feels like a blessing right now."

Freider shook his head as if pitying them all for their stupidity. "I was never sure about you, not after the lies your whore mother fed me. But after you were born, after I saved your life, the more you grew, I knew. The only thing that saved you was how much you looked like my father as well as yours. I couldn't even stand to look at you."

Sam's breath hitched in his throat. All the new information had thrown him off so much that he failed to do the basic math and connect things he already knew.

"Oh, and how she adored you. Of course she did. You were the son of her true love."

Kyle lowered the shotgun as well, a frown on his face as if he'd also come to the obvious conclusion.

"Wait..." He looked from Freider to Davyn. "You're Baby D."

Davyn grinned like a maniac and raised his hands in surrender. "Guilty as charged."

"No fucking way," Tom breathed. "We found your body in Egypt!"

"That was Walt Turner," Davyn said, his tone dropping, filled with lingering regret. "I put my dog tags around his neck and took his. After what happened in there, I needed a physical reminder." He reached out under his t-shirt and pulled out the tags. "I never let myself forget it."

"So you see," Freider interjected, untouched by all the drama. "All along it was your own uncle who was trying to kill you."

"No." The word flew out of Sam's mouth as he connected the dots. All the painful, frustrating, insane dots that finally formed the sick picture their lives had always been. The truth dangling right in front of them, just outside their reach, hidden by lies they'd been forced swallow. "It was you who betrayed your brother. You who turned him into who he is now. Did you know?"

Freider stared at Sam as if he'd sprouted antlers. "What?"

"You heard what I said. Did you know?" Sam's voice came out stronger, more commanding as rage bubbled inside him.

Freider narrowed his eyes. "Know what?"

"That Mom was your brother's girlfriend. What you were doing by sending him away at a critical time."

"Oh, he did," Davyn said. "Because he'd had his eye on her for a long time."

Sam didn't even get to open his mouth before Kay stepped towards Kyle, her burning gaze fixed on Maxi. This time, no one stopped her.

"My question is how could you?"

It hurt Sam, but he was too aware he was doing his best to keep his mother out of this for his own sanity. It was very hard to grasp the fact that his entire family was made out of incredibly shitty people.

"Oh, they never bothered to tell me," Maxi said, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring daggers at Freider. "You knew about Davyn, of course you did. And yet, you never considered it important to tell me who you really were until it was too late."

"You only married me to hide your pregnancy!" Freider yelled.

"And you didn't care!" Maxi yelled back. "You would've done anything to take me away from your brother, to hurt him. And I was such a fool, letting you hold Kyle over me when it was I who should have left the moment I found out who you were!"

Freider huffed. "Coward. Weak willed woman."

"Traitorous asshole," Jimmy shot back. "Ruining our lives and never taking responsibility for it."

"He ruined your lives!" Freider pointed an accusing finger at Davyn.

Jimmy let our a growl that made the hairs on Sam's neck stand on end. He moved next to Kyle in the space between all factions. "He owed us nothing. You did."

"So this is how it's going to be?" Freider asked. "Why am I not surprised?"

"This is it." Davyn lifted his hands in a dramatic gesture that reminded Sam so much of Tom. "The curtain call. Where we go from here is entirely your choice." He glanced at them and then turned back to Freider, a smirk lifting the corners of his mouth. "Funny how we're right back where we started."

Sam's muscles tensed as the matter of choosing sides weighed more heavily than ever. Even if the idea in itself made him nauseous, he was too aware that they would have to do it. And Davyn was right. It really was the curtain call, and they could no longer delay or put it off.

"Von Crooken had us tortured," he said. "As long as he's with you, you can't expect us to join you."

This argument seemed to confuse Freider, and it was obvious that he hadn't even considered it would be an issue. "I negotiated your safety."

"In exchange for what?" Tom asked.

"In exchange for him," Von Crooken said, nodding in the general direction of Kyle. "But if he's coming along, it's just an added bonus." He nodded at Jimmy this time.

"Oh, Nicholas, are you sure it was in exchange for him and not me?" Davyn asked, taking a few steps forward.

Von Crooken squirmed the tiniest bit as his gaze moved towards his former boss. "You're finished."

"Am I now?" Davyn grinned. He looked so much like Kyle right then, Sam felt even stupider for not figuring everything out earlier. "Are you going to give Freider the title of Snitch Gravel? What does he know about your business?"

"What do you?" Vom Crooken shot back.

"Everything. And what a mistake it was of you to ever think that you could outsmart me."

"Oh, bullshit. You're just here having your little soap opera with your high-school girlfriend." Von Crooken puffed out his chest, his glare even uglier than usual. "If you must know, I tried to kill her during those riots, pushed her down, hoped she'd get trampled."

"You what?" Davyn's tone instantly shifted from amusement to murderous.

"See? You don't know everything." Von Crooken laughed, but it sounded forced. "She was getting in the way of business, making you weak, distracting you."

"Making him human!" Maxi took a step forward too, pointing her gun again. "You asshole! You planned it all!"

Von Crooken grinned at her. "I only planned some of it. The rest was all your husband. It was interesting to find out we'd been unknowingly working together. But this..." He turned to Davyn again who looked ready to set him on fire. "I must admit I didn't know how deep your link went with the brats. No wonder you never outright ordered us to kill them, even if you claimed that was what you wanted."

It made sense, and Sam had always known it, but it still felt strange that Davyn didn't deny it, that he only continued to glare holes into Von Crooken. Maxi on the other hand turned her gaze to him, confusion and hope on her face.

"The two of you..." Davyn closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. Then the snarl on his face turned into a terrifying smile. "Not like I wasn't planning to end you both, so this just further justifies it."

Freider let out a hallow laugh. "Us both? You didn't even know I was alive, mister know-it-all. You've always been one, since the day you could walk and talk. Always the prodigy, Father's favorite."

"Maybe because I wasn't an entitled little shit, like you and Bill were."

"Please! You were the most arrogant and annoying son of a bitch I'd ever met."

"You are brothers. How...?" Sam was lost for words at all the hatred filling the air between them.

"That's the part I left out of the story," Davyn said, his killer gaze still on Freider. "The issues between me and him came way before Millie entered the picture, way before what he did. He always hated me. For a moment, I was just stupid enough to think that he didn't."

"How could I not hate you?" Freider asked between his teeth. "How, when my own parents acted like I was nothing? As if Bill and I didn't even exist and you were their first born, their pride and joy!"

"That's not his fault," Jerry said. "That's on your parents."

Freider completely ignored him. "You know, I could understand the neglect when I thought they were just unfit to raise children because they were so fucking entranced by each other and their grand love story. But when you were born and then Ron... They showed they could love and raise children. Just not us. No wonder Bill left the moment he could. And guess what? Ironically, I ended up being the one to take over the family, care for our weak-minded mother."

"Freider, that really wasn't fair to you," Maxi said, her voice soothing. "But that's no reason for all this."

"You shut your mouth! You were supposed to be it! My salvation. My happily ever after. And instead, all you did was waste away after him every single day."

Silence followed Freider's affirmation. There was a dull ache in Sam's chest as part of him understood where his father was coming from, especially with their mother's recent behavior. It hurt to be ignored, to be the second or third or fourth choice.

"Yeah, but taking it out on me?" Davyn asked, shaking his head in disappointment. The slight smirk on his lips showed he didn't pity Freider at all.

"You could take it," Freider grumbled.

"Oh, I could. I could own you. But Ron couldn't."

"Ron was a brat."

"Ron was thirteen and you made it sound like his mother was dead!" Tom said, stepping towards Kyle and Jimmy.

Freider rolled his eyes. "I never told him she was dead. He deduced that himself. Not my problem."

"Not your problem?" Tom clenched his fists and took another sidestep. "You've ruined so many lives."

"But not yours. He ruined yours." Freider nodded towards his brother.

Sam doubted it. He hated that he did, but knowing so much made him understand and justify things he never thought he would be able to. The moment to choose was coming near. And he couldn't do that without having the last bit of information.

"Okay, Dad. We've had his story. We've heard Mom's. It's time for you to give us yours. And afterwards, we can decide what to do."

"Do we really have time for this?" Von Crooken mumbled.

"Never underestimate the power of free will," Freider said. "Or the value of my blood. Fine, Sam. After so many years of nagging, you can have your story."

🧭🧭🧭

All the delicious drama! And yes, I know a lot of you suspected the link between Freider and Davyn, but it is finally confirmed. The Grant family is a cesspool. Poor kids.

And all the bad blood. And Freider's master plot, and Von Crooken's interference and... All the stuff! Now you get more story time as the climax reaches its... Well, climax!

Stick around for Freider's story and how this will be closing up.

Don't forget to vote and comment for support! I'm so nervous about all of this working.