Chapter 24: Visions?

                                    

                                          
George
                          
"He's turned into a pussy".
                          
"He has. Ever since he took that girl he's turned soft" Peter mumbled whilst taking a sip of his coffee.
                          
"She's going to go to the police, I just know it. The bastard is setting us up to be exposed. Every damn thing we worked on and he's about to throw it all away. We need to get rid of her, eventually". 
                          
All the men agreed before turning back to the papers overseeing the details of the deals with the Russian mafia.
                          
"How we gonna do that? He'd murder every single one of us if he found out one of us was responsible for her death". 
                          
Even though I told Mason I wouldn't hurt her if he didn't turn himself in, I knew that there was still a risk of Juliette turning Mason in regardless. With all the after care and meetings from police, she'd eventually break and say everything.
                          
"I've got an idea, but for now I want eyes on her at all times. I want to know who she sees, speaks to, where she goes and I want eyes on her mother. If she does something stupid then we will have someone important to her that we can use to break her. No-one say a word to Mason, understood?". 
                          
"Understood!" the men replied back instantaneously.
                          
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Juliette
                          
"I'm so sorry papa, I should have fought harder to come and see you. I'm sorry for all the pain and heartbreak I caused you. I wish I could see you one last time, I wish I could hold you and I wish I could listen to you talk about your day. I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye to you. I miss you so much dad, I just hope you're watching over us and perhaps are at peace knowing I'm home and not going anywhere else. I'll take care of mum. Rest easy dad". 
                          
Placing down the bouquet of carnations down by his gravestone I knelt down before it. Mum asked if she wanted to come with me, but I wanted to go alone. I needed to talk with him, be alone with him and grieve the loss of him by myself.
                          
Raising my hand to the intricate writing on the stone, I let my fingers trail over the photos of dad and smiled at the one of dad holding me as a baby making funny faces whilst I looked very unimpressed by his efforts to make me laugh. 
                          
Tears cascaded down my cheeks as I stared at the photo of his very happy and smiley face. It had been so long since he looked like this. He always tried to hide the pain from me, but one look into his eyes and you could see how much he was suffering. He was always that type of person, wanting to reassure everyone with happiness by masking his own pain to keep us from constantly worrying about him.
                          
"O-Oh I'm sorry. I can come back at a later time. I didn't know anyone would be here".
                          
I spun round in surprise to see a guy holding a bouquet flowers whilst giving me a sad smile.
                          
"You here for my father?".
                          
The man's eyes widened and stepped back.
                          
"Juliette? Oh, I'm so sorry. I'll let you have some time alone".
                          
The man turned to walk away, but I called out to him.
                          
"How do you know my father?" I questioned with a frown.
                          
"Your father was a respectable man in this community. He was a loved businessman and I had so much respect for him as a person and a business partner".
                          
I was so tempted to ask him which company, but I didn't care to know. 
                          
I nodded at him before turning back to my father's gravestone hoping he'd leave me alone.
                          
"I'm so sorry for your loss Juliette, and I'm also sorry for all you endured".
                          
I didn't want people's pity. Everyone was always so sorry and that's all they said. No one cared to ask how I was, they only said how sorry they were for me. 
                          
I wanted to take my mum and just disappear away from this town. 
                          
This town is just a painful reminder of everything I had lost and the person that still haunted my mind in a beautiful yet frightening way.
                          
"It's fine" I mumbled whilst picking up my coat and bag.
                          
"Do you need a lift home?".
                          
There was absolutely no way I was going to get into a stranger's car. I already learned that from my first incident and had no intention of repeating of it. 
                          
"No, but thank you".
                          
The man looked at me apologetically and nodded his head as he lifted his hands in surrender.
                          
"Sorry, the more I think about that, the more I realise that was probably a dumb thing to say to you". 
                          
"I appreciate the offer though".
                          
Throwing my coat on, I grabbed my bag and flung the rucksack over my shoulder wanting to get myself out of this rather awkward and uncomfortable situation.
                          
As I looked up across the graveyard, I noticed in the far distance a pair of sinister eyes staring at me, his face was lit up with the same menacing smirk he showed when he attacked me. He waved at me across the graveyard and I screamed as the memories of that man hurting me came back to me.
                          
"Hey! Woah, what's wrong?" the man I had been talking to not long ago rushed to my side and stared at me with concern.
                          
I stumbled back into his arms and stared up to the area I had last seen him, George. But he was no longer there. Was it just a figment of my imagination. He can't be real. I thought Mason said he'd take care of him or was that just to reassure me.
                          
As much as I wanted to believe that Mason cared for his friend over me, a part of me knew deep down that Mason never wanted to hurt me or see me hurt. When he came home and saw George attacking me he was blinded with rage. There's one thing you can't fake, anger. 
                          
"Sorry, I thought I saw someone I recognised". 
                          
The man stared over to where I looked before looking back down to me.
                          
"There's no-one there sweetheart".
                          
Did he seriously just call me sweetheart?
                          
I felt my cheeks redden, but turned away from him and stared down at the ground instead.
                          
"The name is Charlie by the way".
                          
He held his hand out to me and smiled at me reassuringly. Feeling awkward enough, I placed my hand in his and shook it firmly.
                          
"Nice to meet you Charlie, but I best be going now". 
                          
Throwing my hood up, I excused myself awkwardly running through the rain. 
                          
Reaching the entrance of the graveyard, I glanced back at Charlie  and noticed he was staring at me intensely, but looked away once he caught me looking at him.
                          
Turning back around, I walked along the lonely road and waited at the bus stop eager to go home and spend time with my mother. She was the only good I had left in this world and I never wanted to leave her side again.