The Brocade Baby (Rewrite) Chapter 16

 

Chapter 16: Raoul

10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:10

 

Timotheos couldn't believe what he was hearing and neither could Audrey. It was bad enough that this "Raoul" man was after his own nephew and sister-in-law but the fact that he was willing to have them killed for something stupid as money was unbelievable (not to mention inexcusable). Timotheos was both appalled and furious but when he looked over to Audrey, he noticed that she was shaking with rage and had a look of absolute hatred on her face. Not towards him or Elio but towards the man who was responsible for causing this to happen. Timotheos turned his head to see both his mother and grandfather staring at Elio with gaped jaws, though his grandfather had an expression just as furious as Audrey's. Brielle, Julien and the other police officers still had their shocked expressions though it slowly morphed into anger once the reveal finally sank in.

"I can't believe this," Audrey replied. "So that man caused all of this trouble just for MONEY!?"

"Unfortunately yes," Elio replied. "Believe me, I was just as furious as you were when I found out the real reason why he wanted the baby and his mother dead."

"But what about Ambroise's father?" Timotheos asked. "Shouldn't he have known about this?"

"No," Elio replied. "He has no idea what is going on at the moment. He's currently away on a business trip of some kind in America and won't be back until the first week of August."

"So that's why Ambroise's mother begged us to take care of her baby for an entire month," Miranda stated as she finally realized what the letter meant. "She wanted us to make sure he stayed alive so that when his father came back, she would be able to tell him on what was going on."

"Even so," Barnim pointed out. "Shouldn't Ambroise's father have given some of the inheritance to Raoul? Sounds to me like he is just as responsible for causing this mess along with Raoul."

"He did," Elio revealed. "Unfortunately, when Raoul saw that he was only given a small portion of the inheritance compared to his sister-in-law and nephew, he felt that it wasn't enough and that he should have ALL of it no matter what."

"I see," Barnim replied. "So he was THAT greedy and selfish enough to cause trouble for everyone else, including his own family?"

"Basically yes," Elio replied.

"Wait, did you guys know about this already?" Julien asked as he recalled that Barnim and Miranda didn't seem that shocked compared to the others the moment Elio revealed who was behind Ambroise's attempted assassination. This caused the 2 Blumenthals to feel somewhat guilty in the background, with Miranda holding onto her left arm and rubbing it nervously

"Yes and no," Barnim confirmed in a sheepish tone. "We were only told that Elio was the first man that Raoul hired to kill the baby and that he accidentally led the others to Amable when trying to protect him. We didn't know about who Raoul really was until Elio told everyone."

"Elio insisted that you along with the police should be present so he could explain things better," Miranda stated.

"I see," Julien responded. "How did you react when you first found out about Elio's reason for being here?"

"Well..." Barnim replied with a nervous smile. "Let's just say, me and Miranda did not appreciate the news at all..."

 

1 hour earlier...

 

"Are you ready to talk now?" Barnim asked in a cold tone as he had just finished siccing his dogs on Henri, who was a complete mess by the time the dogs were finished. The man found himself being covered in bite marks on his limbs, stomach, chest and even his face (with one of his cheeks being heavily scarred by Aldo's teeth). The dogs themselves got off of him by Barnim's orders and retreated back to their sitting positions next to him and Miranda who were still giving him cold glares.

"Oui! Oui! I am ready to talk! Just keep those mutts far away from me!" Henri shrieked as he feared for his life.

"Good!" Barnim replied with a smile as if nothing happened. "Now then, tell us. Who is this Raoul and why did he send you after the baby?"

"It was not my place to ask," Henri revealed. "All I know is that there was going to be a handsome reward for me if I accepted the task and that was it! I really don't know who this Raoul is or why he wants that brat dead! I meant it when I said that I didn't know his motivation nor did I care! All I ever cared about was the money! I swear!"

"You do realize that you're making yourself look even worse right?" Elio pointed out bluntly. "Not to mention you're a complete idiot. Even if you were to succeed in getting rid of Ambroise, Raoul wouldn't have given you the reward money even if his life depended on it."

"And how exactly do you know that?" Miranda asked suspiciously.

"Because..." Elio began in a tone that was both shameful and scared. "He did the same thing to me."

Silence immediately followed after he finished his sentence with everybody staring at him in shock. Even the dogs seemed surprised by his words, that or they were just mimicking what the others were doing. Elio sucked in a breath and winced as he saw Barnim and Miranda's faces turn from shock to horror and even outrage. He knew the risks of revealing his secret to the others but he felt that it was the only way to get them to trust him as he genuinely wished to save Ambroise. Unfortunately, because he didn't have any of his weapons nor did he want to fight Barnim and Miranda (as it went against his moral code), he quickly found out that Barnim meant what he said when he threatened to use his hunting rifles on him as he saw the old man quickly pull one out from behind him and immediately pointed it at Elio, shocking both Miranda and Henri.

"What the hell!?" Henri cried out in shock and fear. "Where did you get that?!"

"I pulled it out of a secret compartment that I kept in the house while the dogs were attacking you earlier," Barnim replied. "Given that Miranda and Elio were also watching, I knew that they would be too distracted to notice where I had gone for a couple of seconds. Now, you have exactly 10 minutes to start talking or else I'm blowing your brains out right here right now!"

Elio realized that his life was on the line and given the cold look in Barnim's eyes along with the concerned expression on Miranda's face, he saw that he needed to choose his words carefully.

"Alright, I'll talk," Elio began cautiously. "But you have to listen carefully because I don't want you to misunderstand what I am saying and shoot me in the face okay?"

"Okay then," Barnim replied in a cold tone.

"Now, as I just explained to you, I was the first to be hired by Raoul in order to take out Ambroise. At that time, I had no idea who the target was until I did some investigating before assassinating him. All Raoul told me was that Ambroise was someone who posed a threat to his life and made it sound as if Ambroise was some dangerous villain that I had never heard of. It wasn't until I found out that Ambroise was a baby did I realize that Raoul hid some very important information from me and went to confront him. Eventually, he confessed to lying to me about the target and even revealed that he had no intention of paying me after I did the deed as he wanted the money all to himself. Unfortunately, because I posed a threat to his plans, he tried to kill me by shooting me and causing me to fall out the window. I was able to survive but was severely wounded from both the fall and the bullet, with the glass shards not making it any easier. After that, I ended up going to Louise's home where she and her handmaiden Eulalie patched my wounds before I informed them on what happened. Once I was able to heal up a bit, I helped them escape so they could get a head-start in case anymore criminals showed up. However, it seems that Raoul suspected that I had survived due to my reputation as he immediately sent more hitmen and assassins after me while presumably hiring them to take out the kid as well. It's possible that during my escape, I may have accidentally led them to Amable as I wanted to make sure the kid was safe and sound first."

"But how did you end up here in the first place?" Miranda asked.

"That is something I can't tell you just yet," Elio revealed.

"And why is that?" Barnim snarled as he continued to raise his gun at him.

"Because I need you to get the police along with your friends here now!" he replied. "It's only a matter of time before those same hitmen will be coming here for all of us if we don't work together! Per favore, signore. I need you to trust me."

Though a part of Barnim wanted to stay distrustful and suspicious of Elio, especially after the reveal that he was responsible for bringing Henri and that other guy to Amable, he could see in Elio's eyes that he was being serious over his claims that they were all in danger. When he turned to his daughter, he saw that Miranda was nodding, therefore confirming that he was telling the truth. Seeing that Elio was desperate to get them to trust him and call the others quick, he decided to just get this over with and head towards the nearby phone.

 

Present...

 

"And that was how we first found out about Elio's involvement," Barnim concluded as he saw both the Larue Family along with his grandson and the police slowly come to an understanding.

"Well that explains how Elio ended up injured and knew about the other hitmen," Brielle began. "But there are still some things that I don't understand. What happened to Ambroise's mother? Is she still alive somewhere? Why did she leave him in Amable instead of taking him with her? How did you find out where Ambroise was in the first place?"

After a brief pause, Elio took a deep breath as he proceeded to tell his story.

"Okay, I'll tell you all the REAL story of who Ambroise is and what happened to his mother," Elio began. "However, you all need to listen carefully because I don't want to have to repeat myself and tell the story again. Also, we don't have time for me to explain everything so I'll tell you what I know about Ambroise okay?"

"Okay," Timotheos and Audrey replied at the same time as they listened eagerly, with Ambroise having fallen asleep in Audrey's arms thus prompting Brielle to take the infant out of her arms and carry him in hers. That way, Audrey's arms wouldn't feel exhausted after having carried him so long. They along with their families sat down on either the floor or the seats that were closest to them while the police remained standing, with some having their guns still pointing at Elio. Seeing that everyone was finally ready to listen, Elio finally began.

"It all started several weeks ago, before me and Ambroise arrived in Amable..."