The Brocade Baby (Rewrite) Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Truth revealed

24 And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth.

1 Kings 17:24

 

Julien's heart had never beat so fast (other than the time he found out he almost missed a deadline for his job) as he never expected to hear such panic and urgency in Miranda's voice. He quickly informed the others on what just happened and that they all needed to leave the house immediately. Realizing that this was serious, they all nodded in response and gathered some of their personal belongings before grabbing Ambroise and bringing him back to the Blumenthal Residence. Once they arrived, they saw that there were several police cars surrounding the house making everyone worried about what happened in there. When Julien was able to find a decent parking spot, he immediately got out of the car so he could ask one of the offices on what exactly happened.

"Sir, is everything alright? What happened in there?" Julien asked.

"Are you Julien Larue?" the officer asked.

"Oui, I am," he replied.

"Is your family here with you as well as Timotheos Blumenthal and the baby?"

"Yes, yes we're all here! Can you please tell me what's going on?"

"Then you might want to bring your family inside. Miranda and Barnim requested that you come in the house before things got any more serious than they already are."

"Okay then," Julien replied as he signaled for his wife and the kids to follow him into the house, with another police officer escorting them inside. As for Henri, he was seen being placed in one of the police cars but made no attempt to resist as he was too scared to do anything. Brielle couldn't help but notice that the officer was looking around nervously as if he was worried that someone was going to attack them at any moment. Must be related to whatever's going on in the house. She thought to herself as she and the others went inside, with Timotheos immediately checking for his mother and grandfather. There were more police officers in the home, much to her surprise, as they were in the kitchen and even in the backyard. The dogs were all huddled together in the living room as they too seemed unsure as to what was going on.

"Mama! Opa!" Timotheos said as he finally found Miranda and Barnim in the living room with Elio and went to embrace both of them.

"Oh Timmy! Thank goodness you're here!" Miranda replied as she eagerly returned the embrace. "Are the others here?"

"Yes we're all here!" Timotheos replied as Audrey, Brielle and Julien came into the room (with Audrey holding onto Ambroise).

"Oh thank Gott," Barnim replied with relief as he went to greet them.

Elio stood a bit further away from them as he seemed to be distressed by something, which did not go unnoticed by Timotheos.

"Say, mama? What's with him?" he asked out of concern. The room immediately became silent and tense as Barnim gave a rather cold look towards Elio, causing him to flinch a bit. Though Elio seemed to be a tough and aloof man on the outside, the fact that Barnim was able to scare him was both impressive and concerning.

"Elio?" Brielle asked suspiciously. "What did you do?"

After a few seconds of silence, with tension being thick enough for everyone to sense it, Elio finally spoke.

"We just discovered how Henri came to the village in the first place."

"Really?!" Audrey cried as she held the baby protectively in her arms. "How?"

"We also found out that there was someone who led him and the other guy here in order to track down and kill the baby."

Everyone gasped in horror over this. Brielle was the most horrified as she was afraid that something like this would happen. It was bad enough that there was someone who wanted Ambroise dead, even though he was still an infant, but the fact that they were able to find the baby here and were led by someone didn't make things any better. However, given the remorseful tone that Elio had, she couldn't help but wonder...

"Who was it?" she asked in a serious tone, causing Elio to flinch while everyone gave him intense stares.

"........It was me," he revealed. "I was the one who led them here to Ambroise and endangered the whole town."

This shocked everyone into silence before the police immediately pulled their guns on him while Julien held onto the kids protectively. Brielle was utterly furious and fuming as she saw her worst fears realized. The fact that Elio was left here alone with Barnim and Miranda made her even more distressed and scared given how cold they were towards him. She immediately walked towards Elio and delivered a hefty slap to his face, much to everyone's shock.

"How could you...." Brielle began while trembling with rage. "HOW COULD YOU!?"

"Signora, I'm so sorry," Elio tried to explain. "I didn't mean for any of this to happe-"

"I DON'T CARE IF YOU MEANT FOR IT TO HAPPEN OR NOT!" she shouted angrily. "YOU STILL PUT US ALL IN DANGER AND ALLOWED AN INNOCENT CHILD TO ALMOST GET KILLED IN THE PROCESS! ON TOP OF THAT, YOU KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN AND YET YOU STILL KEPT THIS A SECRET FROM US!"

"Brielle, please calm down!" Miranda cried out, causing Brielle to turn to her in surprise. "He's telling the truth!"

"Quoi!?" Brielle cried out in shock. "After everything he did, you're still going to trust him?"

"Mom are you sure about this?" Timotheos asked cautiously. "He basically admitted to helping the bad guys. Why should we give him the benefit of the doubt?"

"Because he didn't intend to bring them here," Barnim revealed, causing everyone's eyes to turn to him.

"Wait what?" Audrey asked in confusion. Barnim took a deep breath before elaborating more on what he meant.

"What Elio meant to say was that he didn't mean to lead those guys to the village but rather, it was by complete accident," he said.

"What do you mean it was an accident?" Julien asked in confusion and concern. "And why were they following him in the first place?"

There was another moment of silence before Elio looked around in worry before taking a deep breath and dropping another bombshell.

"Because I was sent here to kill the baby first."

Silence once again swept across the room as the others stared at him in shock. It wasn't until Miranda placed her palm on her face in exasperation and Barnim's glare intensified did Elio realize that he made himself look even worse in the eyes of everyone present. Well this just took a turn for the worse. He thought to himself as he realized how badly he screwed up. Brielle looked as if she was on the verge of exploding while the police cocked their guns towards him. Timotheos and Audrey still had expressions of distrust and fear painted on their faces while Julien merely gave him a disappointed stare and shook his head in response to Elio's poor choice of words.

"Okay, let me rephrase that-"

"You have exactly 10 minutes to explain yourself or we're filling your body with lead," one of the officers warned in an icy tone. Realizing that his own life was on the line, especially since he didn't have any weapons on himself for protection, he decided to take the risk and finally explain himself while raising his hands as a sign of cooperation.

"Okay, okay. Let me explain myself before you all try to kill me," Elio finally stated, causing the officers to loosen up a bit but still aiming their guns at him.

"You better have a damn good reason as to why you're here and why this is happening or I'm killing you myself!" Brielle snarled as she poked Elio's chest as a warming.

"Understood," Elio replied. Though he wasn't THAT afraid of Brielle, he knew that she would do everything in her power to take him down if push came to shove, especially if it involved Miranda. That was a quality he both feared and admired in people. Seeing that the others were expecting an answer from him, he decided to finally come clean and reveal everything.

"As you all know now, I was sent to take out the baby under the orders of a man named Raoul," Elio began. "The reason he hired me was because I am known as a feared hitman from Italy known as Elio, the Shadow of Death."

This caused everyone to gasp in shock, with the police and Barnim being especially surprised by the revelation.

"Wait, so YOU'RE the Shadow of Death?" Barnim asked. "The guy who took down at least 12 mafia groups and other feared rival organizations?"

"Corretto," Elio replied. "I am known for being able to take down several criminal gangs within a few days. However, the only reason why I do this is to protect the innocent and the powerless who are incapable of defending themselves from some of the more cruel and ruthless criminals."

"But even so, you still technically killed people in the process," Miranda pointed out. "How does that make you any better?"

"Someone has to do it," Elio explained. "The police over there are so easy to bribe that they'll just turn a blind eye to any form of criminal activity, even the ones that unfortunately lead to the deaths of children and youths. Even worse, it is because of that same corruption that the new generations start to lose their sense of morality and ethics to the point of becoming criminals themselves. That is why I do this, to prevent anymore needless bloodshed and cruelty that will plague the lives of those who have been affected by it."

"If you really are trying to protect the innocent then why did you go after Ambroise?" Audrey demanded. "Shouldn't Ambroise count as one of those 'innocent children' that you claim to protect? Why did you try to kill him in the first place?"

"Because at that time, I had no idea who the target was until it was almost too late," Elio revealed. "I was basically tricked into almost killing him until I found out the REAL reason as to why Raoul wanted him dead."

"Right, you mentioned this 'Raoul' character earlier," Julien pointed out. "Who is he? Why does he want Ambroise dead? And why would he go as far as to hire other men to kill him in the first place?"

"Because Raoul," Elio replied. "Is the uncle of Ambroise."

This caused everyone to gasp in horror, with Barnim and Miranda being the most shocked by this information. Timotheos' could only stand there with his mouth agape while Audrey covered her mouth in revulsion over what she just heard. So Ambroise is being targeted by his own uncle?! Timotheos thought to himself as he tried to process this piece of information. That's just seriously messed up, like it's gone from 0 to 100 messed up. Now I feel even more sorry for Ambroise. As he turned to face Ambroise, who was just babbling away in Audrey's arms without a care in the world, he couldn't help but feel more worried about him than ever. It was bad enough that Ambroise was being targeted by a bunch of hitmen and mercenaries who had no problem murdering children or innocent bystanders but the fact that his own uncle hired them to off the baby made it even worse.

"What could Ambroise have done that warranted something like this?!" Timotheos demanded as he moved closer to the baby and held onto his fist.

"It's not something that he did wrong per say but rather it involved a situation involving his father and mother," Elio explained.

"Wait, Ambroise's birth mother was involved?" Miranda asked.

"Well, yes and no," Elio replied. "She and her son were both being targeted by Raoul and his men."

"But why?" Brielle demanded. This caused Elio to stay silent for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and resume talking.

"It was because Raoul was after their inheritance."