"Welcome home sir,"

Rafael totally ignored the driver that came running to their direction the second the car drove to the front of the house. Olivia got out first, running as fast as she could to the opened front door. Rafael closed his door.

"Where are they?" He glared at the man beside him, giving him his keys so he could park the car in the garage.

"They are in the living room sir."
At least Rafael and Olivia weren't the only scared people in the entire house.

How on earth did this even happen? How did a burglar manage to break into their house even with all of that security he thought he had?

These were questions he was dying to ask but he didn't just have the time.

Rafael hurried into the quiet house as fast as he could, finding his way to the living room, breathing as hard as he could. He hated the silence. He hated the loneliness and coldness he was feeling as he approached the huge room.

He stopped running, gulping hard as his eyes met Benita and Lucy kneeling on the floor with their hands above their heads and fear in both their eyes.

"You're here at last."

His focus went to the other side of the room, close to the window where a man who looked like he was in his late forties stood, pinning Grace to a spot with one hand and a knife in front of her neck in his other hand.

Olivia let out a teary gasp as she hurriedly covered her mouth with her hands, taking an abrupt step to them.

"Don't you even think about it." The man raised his voice, causing Olivia to refrain from daring to take another step. She was so scared.

Rafael took a deep breath and then turned to Benita. "Did you call the police?" Benita slowly shook her head, the tears in her eyes threatening to fall.

"Go ahead and call them." Rafael slowly turned back to the man with beads of sweat covering his entire face. His body was soaked even with all that air from the air conditioning and his hands were trembling. It was almost as if he was just as scared as the rest of them.

"You think I'm scared of the police?" He said raising his voice, his saliva, forming white marks at the side of his broken pale lips. "I've lived twenty three years of my life scared of the police and at this point, I have nothing to lose so go ahead and call them and watch me kill myself right after I kill this child with me."

"Mummy," Grace had a lot of tears in her eyes too. She was so scared and had her head up in the sky, not daring to bring it down so it didn't come in contact with the sharp blade.

Olivia was numb all over. She didn't know what to do. Her hands were trembling.

"What is it you want?" She asked the man as he slowly turned to face her. The tears in her eyes began to fall even without her permitting it to.

"If you're here to steal something, why don't you just take what you want and leave?" She told him, trying to be as courageous as she could be. She was in no way going to allow him hurt her child even though her voice trembled with fear with every word she said.

"If it's money you want-"

"I don't want your money!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. "It can't do much for me right now!"

"Then tell us what you want!" Rafael yelled at the top of his voice too. He wasn't really good at keeping his emotions in check under pressure. He was just as terrified as everyone else was. "Tell us what you want and we'd give it to you this instant."

The room went quiet for a while just as the man glared at Rafael, tightening his grip on Grace's arm and the knife too. Rafael watched him draw a deep breath.

"I want justice for my brother." He looked into Rafael's eyes. Rafael's frown worsened. He had no idea where he was driving at. "He has suffered twenty three years in jail for a crime he did not commit and in one week, in one week they are going to kill him, pull the plug all because of your father."

Olivia slowly turned to Rafael. She had no idea what was going on but she wanted to. She wasn't going to get an answer from Rafael, not with the way he glared at the man in front of them, just as surprised as they all were.

"M-my father?"

"Remember the nineteen ninety six Apapa lung cancer spread case that took over twenty lives?" The man nodded his head continuously. "My brother was framed for it. He was framed for the death of all those people even though all he did was convey the chemicals on that bus to the location on orders given to him by Rand enterprise. They deceived him into thinking it was harmless, and then they let him take the fall for it. Your father did that. He gave those orders and my brother was taken to jail without even a fair trial. He was only nineteen."

"I'm really sorry for what happened," Rafael stretched out his hand, hoping he could talk to him. "But just as the case was resolved twenty three years ago, Rand wasn't responsible for the ALCS case. The chemical didn't belong to Rand and neither did the bus that conveyed it. There was evidence-"

"Evidence be damned!" The man's loud voice echoed around the room, frightening everyone. Olivia could feel her legs tremble as he moved the knife even closer to Grace's neck. "Rand Oil got rid of all the evidence. They twisted the truth and denied my brother. My brother was only trying to survive. Trying to send me to school and get enough money for our mother's tuberculosis treatment. And then they came, with their devilish offer, they offered him a huge sum if he could just drive the chemicals to the village and bury them there. He didn't know they were harmful, he didn't know he was going to do something that would have taken lives. My brother is a good man, he would have never done any of those things if he knew. He got arrested for it and my mum's heart was too weak to accept that fact that she died two months later."

His voice was shaking.

"Do you know what it was like for the rest of my family? For me? Your family ruined us all, ruined a lot of lives and you all have lived your lives in total bliss, like none of the lives you've taken, none of the lives of the people you've hurt, families you've destroyed, mean anything to you. Typical rich people's behavior. You'd do anything you want as long as it brings you more wealth and power, ruining the lives of any and everyone else below you and somehow you still manage to sleep peacefully while we don't get to sleep enough. We work so so hard to make our lives a little better but you rich people keep pulling us back to the ground right where we started, exonerating yourselves and leaving us tok our fate...on the ground. Not anymore. This time, I'm taking you all with me, this child is going to die with me here today. At least that way, my brother's death would be justified."

"Wait!" Rafael raised his voice, trying to stop the man from putting the knife any closer to Grace's neck because then it would be just close enough to cut right through. Olivia was crying so hard already, forcing herself not to make a sound so she wouldn't aggravate him.

The man glared at Rafael, tears clouding his scared eyes, his hand still shaking abruptly in fear.

"What's your name?"

"Ahmed, Ahmed Hassani." The man answered in rather a less aggressive tone.

"And your brother's?"

"Musa, Musa Hassani." He tried to be brave.

Rafael took a deep breath, trying to master the names he just called.

"Okay Ahmed, I need you to listen to me very carefully." He started, causing the man to stare at him, narrowing his gaze to him so he could listen attentively to what Rafael had to say. "I'm really sorry for what happened to your brother, I'm really sorry for all the pain it must have caused you to see it happen. I'm sorry for your mother's death and all the hardships you went through as a child. I wish there was something I could have done then but you don't have to do this. You don't have to do any of this. If it's justice you really want for your brother, you're not hitting the stone where it should hurt. It should be me with that knife pointed on my neck not that little child, she has nothing to do with any of this. Your fight is with me and my family not her."

"You think I care about who gets stabbed with my knife?" The man cut him off. "All I want is my pound of flesh and I don't care who I have to kill to get it. All I know is every single person in this house is important to you, so is this little child. If I kill her, it'd just be equivalent to what is about to happen to my brother."

"But that's the thing." Rafael's hands were shaking. He was doing a lot of things, trying to think of anything at all to stop all that madness. He was going to say any and everything he could think of. "It's my father you really want to hurt. My father doesn't care about any of these people. They are just the same as your brother to him. If you really want to hurt my father, then take me with you instead."

The man sneered. He wasn't buying it. He wasn't buying any of it. With the way he looked, it was like he already had his mind made up.

Rafael exhaled. He was really tired now. He was really tired of trying to convince that total stranger and condone his arrogant behavior in his own house. At least he had to look that way.

Rafael stood straight and then scratched his brows.

"Look man," he started. "You honestly have to think this through. You have to think of what you're about to do really carefully," Rafael lowered his hand to his hips, trying to be as calm as possible. "You honestly don't have to do any of this. You're in my house right now, threatening the life of a small child. And let's say you do what you are trying to do, let's say you kill her and then kill yourself. What is that going to change? Your brother is still going to die in a week with his name and that of your family's still in the mud, leaving what's left of your family right where you started, leaving your sisters to suffer the same fate all over again. They'll suffer the same fate you suffered when your brother was accused of killing all those people but in this case, it'd actually prove what your family has been accused of. Murder. No one would let them live with that reputation. They'd hate themselves and would do anything to escape their miserable lives and situation, bringing them to the only solution, suicide, also bringing about the end of your family's name, to whatever is left of its legacy, now that can be the option you want or you could consider my own option."

Rafael took a step to him, not taking his eyes away from the man who looked pretty concentrated on everything that came out of Rafael's mouth.

"I can help you. I can forget this ever happened, re-open your brother's case and help you clear your brother's name and get his freedom back. I'm a lawyer, I guess you knew that already and a very good one at that."

"Rafael." Olivia whispered his name, trying to get him to not make any decisions he wasn't sure of.

"It's not the first time I've fought in cases like this and won. You can drop that knife right now and come with me to my office and we could talk about all of this. I could get your own side of the story and together we can set your brother free and put whoever that's responsible for this in jail and clear your brother's name, clear your family's name and no one has to die. Or you you could just kill that little girl and put my first theory to a test."

Rafael stopped the moment he was right in front of him. He noticed how the man's hands were slowly wavering. It was like he wasn't sure anymore what it was he wanted to do. It was almost as if he was listening to Rafael. Like he wanted a second chance.

"And what if you fail?" The man glared at him. "What if you don't solve this and my brother dies?"

"I won't fail."

"You can't assume this case would be just like your other cases. I won't bet my brother's life and my one chance at justice on just the words that come out of your mouth. What if you fail?"

The room was filled with an abrupt silence just as Rafael took a deep breath. He swallowed hard for the next thing he was about to say.

"Then you can kill me instead." He said just as Olivia's eyes glared at him, not believing the words she was hearing. How was he willingly placing his life on the line just like that?

But it was working.

Rafael's words were getting to the man, seeing as he slowly lowered the knife from Grace's neck, his eyes still on him. He was beginning to listen. He was beginning to believe Rafael's words.

They all watched as the man slowly lowered the knife completely from Grace's neck and then threw it on the ground.

"Mummy." Grace yelled in fright as she ran into Olivia's arms. Everyone let out relief sighs the moment they could see that Grace was safe with Olivia. Rafael quickly stepped on the knife before the man changed his mind and then kicked it behind him so Lucy could get it away from the room.

"Good choice." Rafael said, his breathing trying to regularize. It wasn't just him, the man's too. Rafael let out another exhale. "Come with me."

Olivia held her breath in worry as she watched Rafael lead the scared man away from the living room as he turned at intervals to make sure it was safe to go with him, to make sure he wasn't getting into some kind of ambush.

"It's okay." Rafael assured him, his eyes meting with Olivia's. He slowly looked away. "We're not going to hurt you. It's safe."

Rafael turned to Benita.

"Please make us two cups of coffee Nanny."

Benita nodded quickly as she and Lucy walked as fast as they could away from the room. Rafael slowly turned to Olivia who had Grace in her arms tight, rubbing her gently. He nodded slowly.

"It's okay." He assured her.