Leon and Eva were having a romantic dinner. They were enjoying their evening by just talking and eating a premium grade rib-eye steak. "What if have our wedding on The Plaza, New York?" Leon suggested to his fiance. "The ballroom is magnificent and iconic."

Eva gave it a thought while chewing her food, and took a sip of wine right after. "True," she said. "It is, I saw it the last time we had tea there with Odette, but I don't know. As magnificent as it is, I don't picture my wedding there."

"Alright, so what do you have in mind then?"

"I like the idea of ballroom though, but not in the city. I would love a garden wedding."

Leon smiled, glancing at how this woman before him feeling excited to tie-the-knot. "A garden wedding. Sure, we can have that and I know a perfect place for that."

Suddenly, Eva's phone rang, then had a strange look on her face once she read the caller I.D. "Rita?"

"Why would she be calling you?" Leon asked.

"Let's find out." Eva answered the call. "Hello, Rita. Is everything alright?.... Wait, slow down. I can't understand what you're saying... WHAT!?... Okay. Okay, we'll be right there."

"What's wrong?"

"It's Odette. She's been shot."

From that news, Leon just froze in his seat.

----

In the nearest hospital, the college kids arrived. Everyone were hurrying to get Oddey out of the car to get inside the emergency ward. Gage carried his Juliet over his threshold. "We're here now, Oddey. You're gonna be okay. Stay with us!" he said frantically. "HELP! HELP! WE NEED HELP!"

E.D nurses came to them with a stretcher and placed Oddey there, and rushed her to a room. Gage, Felix and Rita followed them at first, but then they were stopped since the trauma team had to do their work.

Once Oddey was there, the doctors and nurses began to do whatever they could to save her.

It was nerve-wracking when a close friend and someone you loved was fighting to stay alive. Rita was inconsolable, so Felix held her to be her rock even though he was also just as devastated.

As for Gage, he felt helpless with his clothes soaked with Juliet's blood. All he could do was stand outside the ER with the couple as they waited anxiously if whether or not Oddey would make it.

"How did this happen?" Rita weeped. "Who would do this to Bestie?"

"Maybe a mugging gone wrong. Maybe a creep was in the area," Felix responded since he too tried to fathom how that could happen.

"No," Gage spoke, seething with anger. "I don't think it's either one of those."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I know who did this. I have to go. Call me if something happens." The Romeo ran out to the main entrance.

Felix and his girlfriend became confuse that he decided to leave at time like that. "Wait, where are you going?" he called out to his buddy, but it was too late. "Gage!"

Gage got into his car, and drove away to get to his house. While on his way there, all he could think about was Oddey and how irate he was feeling to the person who did that to her.

Moreover, it made think why she had to lie to him during their relationship. It all made sense to him, and the only think he had to after was to get home as fast as he could to confirm his suspicions.

When he got to his parent's house, Gage just went inside. "Dad! Dad!" he shouted, then looked around for his father. "Dad!"

Eventually, Marie came down the stairs after hearing her son holler from the master's bedroom. "Gage? You're here," she said.

"Mom, where's dad?" Gage asked her.

"I don't know, he left an hour ago. Why...?" His mother noticed his clothes. "What...? What's that on your shirt? Is that... Is that what I think it is?"

The young man was too irate not to answer Marie that last part, and decided to take out his phone to call his father. "I need to talk to Dad. Do you know where'd he go?"

"Honey, slow down. What's going on? Why do you need to talk to your father?"

All of a sudden, Adrian came in with a different shirt because there was a gauze wrapped around his left shoulder since Oddey stabbed him earlier. "Gage," he yelped since he did not expect to see his son home, then pretended to clear his throat. "I didn't know you're coming."

"Dad, where have you been?" Gage asked him straight away.

Marie noticed her husband's shoulder right away. "Hold on, what's that?"

"Oh! This? I uhm..." Adrian stammered while trying to think of a story. "I was in Henry's bar. There was a fight and next thing I knew, I fell on a broken beer bottle."

"Oh! God." The woman shook her head. "At least it didn't get worse than that. You should have called me."

"I know, I just didn't want you to worry."

Gage confirmed his father's lie, and even glanced at his shoulder. "The bar? You were there?"

"Yes... I went there to cool off. You know, your mom and I had an argument earlier," his father explained, not knowing that his son was suspecting him.

"You didn't go somewhere else?"

From the young man's tone, Adrian could not help, but gaze at him in a strange way. "Just in the nearest clinic for my shoulder," he answered.

"You're lying," Gage told him, and he sounded serious. He didn't hold back knowing that his father was not telling the truth about his whereabouts. "You just lied to my face and mom's. I know what I saw."

His parents were in disbelief to hear what their son just said. "Gage, what are you talking about?" Marie questioned her child.

The young man turned to his mother. "Do you want to know what's going on, mom?" he responded. "Oddey was shot tonight."

"What!?"

"And you did it!" Gage unravelled that his father became speechless.

Marie's mouth dropped to the floor. "Gage, that can't be true. Your dad wouldn't do that," she scolded him.

"Mom, I saw him driving at the intersection to get to the old drive-in. Last time I check, that's not the way to the bar where he usually goes to. So now, tell if that's not true."

The man was getting agitated that his son was starting to make sense. "This is ridiculous! I didn't do anything," he claimed. "You must've seen the same car like mine driving by."

Gage looked straight at his father's eyes. "I know you have a gun in the compartment."

Marie looked horrified. "A GUN!?" she gasped. "How come I don't know about this?"

Adrian was losing his patience, but maintained his story. "Yes," he admitted. "Yes! I have a gun. I have it for protection after that incident when I work out of town, remember that? But I swear, I never used it. And yes, I may have a vendetta against Hal, but I would never involve his daughter in any way. And, why does it matter? You two broke up anyway?"

That did it. That last part. The two were dumbstruck.

Marie gazed at him. "Oh! God, you really did it, didn't you?" she said to him.

"What did you just say?" Gage glanced at him in a disturbing way.

However, her husband didn't have a clue what came out from his mouth. "What? No," he denied. "Don't tell me you start believing your son."

"I don't just believe him. I know it's you. I may not know how, but from how it looks..."

"Marie... I would never..."

"You did it! You shot Odette!"

There was no use, Adrian could see that his family saw him differently after a slip of tongue. Eventually, his expression changed, and it didn't look good. "So what if I did it?" he responded. "She deserves it."

Even though Gage knew that his father was guilty. he still could not believe that his own father would do his misdeed. "Dad, why?!" Gage asked and started feeling anger towards him. "She could've died."

"Can't you see? I did it for us. For this family."

"So you have to kill for us!?"

"Gage, she broke your heart, remember?" The father explained that he was justifying his actions, while his loved ones could fathom what they were hearing. "And I'm not going to let that Hal win just because I'm going to prison."

One more truth slapped to his son and wife. "Oh, my God, everything that Hal accused you of... those were true, aren't they?" Marie questioned him "You set him up to go to jail, and you tried to kill him."

Adrian realized that he had a slip of the tongue, and there was no use in denying it now that his family had put two and two together. "Yes, I did all of those," he confessed. "So what? I did it to have you, Marie, and I had to do something for you too, son."

"I don't know who you are anymore."

"Me too," Gage said, disturbingly glancing at his father. "You're not my Dad. You're just some narcissistic monster who just wants to ruin people's lives to get what he wants."

"I am still your father, young man," Adrian reminded him as he scowled at his son.

"No, you're not. I don't have a father who does these horrible things to people."

"Of all the things I did for you, and this is how you thank me?"

"You don't get it! I never asked you to kill!" Gage exclaimed. "Especially not Oddey!"

"So did I, Adrian! And don't turn this on us," Marie added. "You did this all on your own."

"You ungrateful...!" Adrian was about to raise his hand to his wife.

Fortunately, the son stopped him by grabbing his hand, protecting his mother from the monster whom he once called dad. "That's enough!" he yelled at his father, but the two began to wrestle by pushing and pulling one another.

"Gage! Adrian! Stop it!" Marie screamed at them and tried to halt one of them. However, it was hard for a petite woman to referee a fight between two tall men.

Gage pushed his father down on the table, and then all of a sudden, there was a loud knock on the door. "This is the police. Open the door," a cop said, and there was a police siren heard from the inside. "Adrian Munro, we have a warrant of arrest for attempted murder."

Adrian saw his son was so distracted for a moment that he took the chance to kick him on the stomach to let go of him, then bolted to the back door.

It worked since Gage fell on the ground and rolled in pain. Marie went to his son's aid. "Honey!" she shrieked.

From the loud thump and a woman's scream, the police kicked the door open and instantly raised their gun, yet they only saw the mother and son. "Ma'am, what happened here? Where's Adrian Munro?" one of the officers asked.

"He went to the back," Marie answered and pointed to the back door. "He just hurt my son." The police stayed to help and protect her and Gage, while the partner chased after Adrian.