“Why don’t you and your mom stay at my house?” Mia asked Gabe. Both of them were standing in front of the grocery store.“I can give you many reasons, but you’ll be hurt by them, so…” Gabe said.“D-Do you think they’ll poison you or something?” Mia hesitantly asked.Gabe shrugged.“They are not good people, but I don’t think they’re criminals,” Mia said.“I can risk living there for you, but I can’t risk my mom living with them,” Gabe was as frank with her as possible. “She’s already been through a lot. I don’t want her to experience unnecessary family drama now.”“...I understand,” Mia didn’t press him regarding this anymore. “But where are you going to stay?”“Mom wants to build a new house here. It will take a couple of months even if we get it done fast,” Gabe said. “Until then, we’ll live at Zuri’s house.”“Z-Zuri’s house?” Mia didn’t know what to say because she knew that Zuri died. “I-Isn’t it dangerous to live there? Also, what will the people think? What will your mom think?”

A few minutes earlier. Russell was reading a report in his office in Tuna Waves. It was a report that contained details on plastics. “They are filled with estrogenic chemicals, and are bending the genders of males slowly by reducing their sex drive, making them infertile, giving them boobs, and not to forget, cancer. This is pretty crazy…” Russell couldn’t even read the full report because it was so horrific. “I was wondering why there were so many effeminized men these days, but it seems that there’s a darker truth behind all this. Just how many people store water in plastic bottles and drink every day not realizing how dangerous they are? If just the plastics can do so much harm, then what about all the other chemicals that are polluting the food, water, and air?” Just thinking about it put a significant burden on his heart. “I had the research done after Chef Nicole told me that plastic chopping boards are not safe for the health of the customers… But now, I’ve stumbled onto a

“Your father is innocent,” Gabe said, “but I believe that someone might be forcing your dad to do this.”Jessica looked at her dad who then frowned visibly. She stepped closer to him, but Russell intervened and kept her a few feet away. Russell looked at Gabe. “How can you say that he’s not the one behind the wheel when there’s clear footage?”“If someone were to wear a skin mask that looks like Jessica’s dad and then drives the vehicle and attempts to kill Jessica….” Gabe slowly uttered so that his words would penetrate deeper into those that were hearing, “then they can get away by putting the blame on her dad. But because Jessica survived, it’s possible that they approached her dad and threatened him to act like he’s the criminal.”Gabe’s words made a great lot of sense to Russell and Jessica. To add to that, Jessica’s dad opened his mouth and said, “They seem like very dangerous people, Jessica. I thought it was better that I go to jail for now, and then contact you and your husba

Gabe, Russell and everyone were having lunch on the balcony of the top floor of Tuna Waves, with a magnificent view of the skyscrapers built all around the Creed Zone.Russell just finished his phone call with his grandfather.“What did he say?” Gabe asked him.“He says he’ll also personally look into it,” Russell said. “But from his experience, he says that this was probably done by someone I might have offended recently in the past few months or year.”“Did you receive any threats or something like that?” Gabe asked.Russell shook his head. “I trust my best to even help those that were bad to me, so I’m not sure what kind of a nasty guy would go after my beloved wife.” He gently grabbed Jessica’s hand. The fact that she was pregnant right now only added to Russell’s worries. Even though he was confident of putting protection around Jessica, would that completely guarantee her safety? He wasn’t sure about it.“Someone who benefits from her death must have done this,” Nicole opined. “

As far as Gabe knew about Russell, he was more of a silent guy in the class who minded his business. Nevertheless, he did attract many friends because he would go out of his way to help them, so anybody would feel free to approach him. Back then, Gabe thought it was just weakness, but now, he didn’t have a similar opinion.Russell saw Gabe smiling and asked, “Why are you smiling? Is it because you think I gave her too much?”“No. I once bought costly high heel sandals for Kiera because she said she liked them and wanted me to buy them for her,” Gabe said. “They cost 3000 dollars, and I had to pay for those in 6 month installments. I had to work extra hours to pay that money.”Russell’s expression changed. From Jessica he had heard about Gabe’s story because Irene had told Jessica. “Both of us were in love with the beauties of our class, and both of us got fooled.”“Yeah,” Gabe forced out a smile. He blinked twice. “Wait, you, too?”“Ah, yeah, mine’s a long story with Natasha.”“Oh…” G