#A_CRAZY_LOVE_2
©Sir Zach
EPISODE 61
Finally he rested his gaze on his mom. She looked at him, her face tear stained.
“Your… your dad!!” She said and cried loudly.
Markus took a step forward, even that one single step towards the coffin seeming very heavy.
He just couldn’t make it in himself to face the coffin or more specifically the body lying inside the coffin.
He took another step, and one more, slowly lessening the gap between him and the coffin, the surrounding sounds fading in background.
Finally a face, pale, eyes closed, looking completely lifeless entered his vision. And he stopped midway.
No matter how much he wanted, he couldn’t take another step or even lift his leg for the same.
And he turned back, running out of the mansion, deaf to all the shouts and calls of his family members.
Suddenly the sky turned grey, as dull and dark as his heart was becoming and eventually rain started pouring down.
He just couldn’t believe that the person he always looked up to, the person who always stood ramrod straight in front of him was lying lifelessly in a coffin.
He just ran aimlessly on the roads. Not even knowing what he was doing or where was going.
He ran for more than twenty minutes before suddenly kneeling down with a ‘thud’ in the middle of the road, which was deserted because of the heavy rains.
“Aaaaarrrrghhhhhhhh!!!” He cried loudly, finally letting his tears fall freely, as he remained in the kneeling position.
He didn’t utter another sound. He was completely drained and exhausted, hurt and heartbroken.
That day nobody knew how long Markus stayed there crying, feeling lonely and utterly defeated.
He lifelessly returned back home in the evening, finished the funeral rituals and disappeared for days again.
Mary, who was already devastated from losing her husband, was even more troubled after being unable to contact her son.
Grandpa stopped her from searching for Markus. He told her to give Markus some time. If he was still not back, then it would be grandpa’s responsibility to bring him back.
But in reality, grandpa was tracking every single movement by Markus. He could see that Markus needed some time to accept his father’s loss, and even more time to stand up with more strength and power now.
Thus he let him be, deciding to wait for two months and see what Marlus would turn into.
He had in fact disclosed the information about Aaron’s father being the culprit behind Markus’s father’s death.
Grandpa already has his own means to end Aaron’s father. Because how could he forgive his son’s murderer.
But he wanted to see where Markus stood in this Mafia world. If he was to ascend the throne that Markus’s father had left behind, he needed to have the required qualities.
Even if Markus was his own grandson, he didn’t want him to receive the title without any hardships.
Meanwhile Markus had been staying in one of his spare apartments for almost a week now.
For the first three days, he only drank and smoked, making him vomit blood on the very fourth day.
Fortunately grandpa’s men were keeping a watch over him, making it easier to transfer him to hospital on time.
After that, grandpa visited him for barely half an hour, disclosing Aaron’s father’s information and how he ki||ed his dad.
Grandpa didn’t utter a single word for revenge or how irresponsible Markus was behaving.
But this was exactly what worked the most. If grandpa would have scolded him, Markus might have let this incident go.
But grandpa not disciplining or even lecturing him made it more difficult for him to forget this situation.
Thus from the moment grandpa stepped out of his house, Markus started with his planning and strategies.
He collected every single piece of information he could. If needed, he would ask for Lucas’s help, who was more than happy to lend a helping hand to their young master.
Not only that, but Markus also started working out, self training his body to fight and defend.
His father, when alive, had taught him a lot of fighting techniques. And those exact techniques started helping him get stronger.
He would visit a $h00ting range, practice his gun ski||s. Would go to various fighting arenas and come back home with injuries all over.
On the nineteenth day after his father’s death, Markus was as usual practising his gun ski||s in the $h00ting range, when another man approached him.
“What are you?” The man said suddenly, interrupting Markus in the middle of his $h00t.
“Huhh?” He asked, not knowing why this unknown man had approached him.
The man, though average looking, had a great build and it wasn’t difficult to see that he must be working out regularly to maintain his body.
“Are you even a human?” The man said again, this time a little excitement visible in his voice.
“What do you mean?” Markus asked again, this time paying all his attention to the man, as he found him mysterious.
“I have been watching you since the first day. Though you were good with the $h00ting, your ski||s have improved tremendously within a short period! And I never usually approach others, but you are truly on some another level.” The man said, a smile forming on his face.
Though he wasn’t very handsome, he looked rather cute with a smile.
“Thanks for the compliment.” Markus said monotonously, not knowing what else he should reply.
“You want to take some revenge?” The man suddenly said.
And suddenly Markus was frozen. But that was only for a moment before he covered his expressions.
“What revenge? What do you mean?” Markus said, trying to know what this man meant.
“Ahem.. Don’t take me the wrong way. I don’t know anything about you. But you have been practising and improving like crazy. This only happens when you have some dead set goal or more likely some revenge. Plus with that it was easier to make this guess.” The man said, pointing towards Markus.
Markus looked down to see what the man was pointing at, but couldn’t find anything.
He lifted his head again, his gaze questioning.
“This.” The man said, lifting Markus’s collar, revealing a deep bruise.
Markus had received this bruise while fighting a man in the arena a day ago.
Markus just kept quiet, wanting to hear what more this man knew or guessed.
“In fact you have a lot of wounds right?” The man asked again, this time lifting Markus’ jersey, but Markus stopped him midway.
“None of your business.” Markus said coldly, his cold aura emanating for the first time after his father’s death.
His father’s death had taught him that he could trust no one, nor was he supposed to reveal any information about himself, which was something he had learnt since childhood.
“Maybe I can help.” The man said.
“I don’t need your help.” Markus said, lifting his gun to start $h00ting again.
“But I have a really good proposal in which I will help you in return for your help.” The man continued, ignoring Markus’s cold behaviour.
“Not interested.” Markus said.
The man just gave one last smile before leaving Markus on his own.
But the same incident happened the next time Markus visited the $h00ting range. And again one more time, till Markus grew accustomed to this man, who would always come up to him, praise his gun ski||s, and talk about the proposal.
Finally after two months of frequent talks, Markus approached the man immediately after arriving at the $h00ting range.
“So what’s the proposal?” Marlus asked the man, who was busy scribbling something on his paper.
The man looked with utter surprise at Marlus, not believing that finally he was ready to talk with him.
“You agree?” The man asked astonishedly.
“Don’t get it the wrong way. Today is the last day I am visiting this $h00ting range. I won’t be coming back. So I thought that maybe I can hear you out in the least. Whether to accept the proposal or not, that can be decided later on.” Markus said, speaking so many sentences for the first time in two months.
In this duration, he was once again alone, with only Lucas and grandpa’s men helping him out.
He visited his mother once, who appeared a little better since the last time he had seen her on the day of the funeral.
But she would stay at home, doing some meaningless chores, trying to pass her time.
And Markus was truly sad watching his mom in this condition.
Thus he asked for only one request, which was for his mom to start working. He said that he wouldn’t mind what job she was doing, until she was doing something.
And fortunately he was informed by Lucas that his mom had asked grandpa to lend her some money and taken out her savings, saying that she wanted to start a company.
Markus had also asked Lucas to dig out information on this man who would always come up with the proposal to him.
But they couldn’t find anything on him. He seemed completely mysterious.
The only good thing about this was that he didn’t have any connections with any of the powers that grandpa or Markus knew.
Thus Markus thought of giving this man a chance and listened to him. After all, who knew what this might result in? And even if he didn’t like the proposal, he could simply walk away, treating this as some chance encounter and forgetting the entire scene.
“Let’s talk at some other place.” The man said, getting up from his seat, neatly folding the paper on which he was scribbling moments ago.
“Like?” Markus asked, a little alertly.
“No need to put up your guards. Maybe a corner seat in that cafe?” The man said, smiling a little.
Markus looked at the cafe before looking back at the man and nodding a little.
And thus, both the men went to the decided cafe, taking a corner seat where others wouldn’t disturb their chat.
“So Hi. My name is Andrew.” The man said before extending his hand.
“Hi.” Markus replied formally before shaking hands.
“You can introduce yourself as well.” The man said, chuckling a little.
“Maybe later on. Or let it be. Anyways you can find my name easily after searching a little. I am Markus, Markus Evans.” Markus replied.
“Evans? Hmmmm.. I wasn’t expecting this outcome though.” Andrew sounded a little shocked.
“So does my identity affect the proposal?” Markus asked.
“No no. In fact maybe now I can understand why you are working so hard.” Andrew replied.
“What do you mean?” Markus asked.
“For avenging your late father.” Andrew spoke, his voice a little serious and low.
“Just talk about your proposal.” Markus said, not wanting to hear anything about his father’s death.
“So here’s my proposal.” Andrew said before taking out a piece of paper and passing it to Markus.
“Aren’t you too careless?” Markus said, noticing it was the same paper on which Andrew was scribbling moments ago.
“Hehe… just let it pass this one time. Don’t judge me based on it.” Andrew said, trying to sound serious, though the attempt was a complete failure.
But seeing this cute side of Andrew, a barely noticeable smile formed on Markus’s face.
He took his own time to go through the entire page, taking out his own pen and scribbling something on the same paper.
In the meantime Amdrew just kept silent, drinking his own coffee while watching Markus, who didn’t give out even a single expression, maintaining a poker face all this time.
But Andrew was more confident after watching Markus like this, because this showed how capable Marlus was in hiding his intentions and emotions.
Finally after half an hour, he passed the paper back to Andrew, filling up all the leftover place on paper before standing and leaving with his coffee.
“Your decision is-” Andrew was about to speak but he saw the paper and immediately shut his mouth.