Chapter 2 : The Set-up

Lloyd raised his arms up as he slowly walked out of the car.

It didn't take him very long to understand what had just happened here, he had been set-up.

It seemed that all that time that the driver had been staring at him while he was in the car, he was accessing him to see if he was wealthy, and thus, a notable victim.

There were four assailants in front of him, two of them had a gun in their hand, with one pointing the gun directly at his face.

While the other two didn't have guns, they did have knives on them.

Lloyd would spot the driver lounging casually on one of the buildings in the alleyway.

His head was slightly bowed down, and he showed a relative lack of interest in the robbery that was currently ensuing.

It was as if he just wanted the robbery to be over with, so he could leave the area immediately.

Lloyd sighed at the current situation he currently found himself in.

Not even an hour since he returned to Hilburg, and he was already suffering the consequences of the city's crime rate.

“Give me everything you've got on you… and that means your watch, your wallet, your phone, and your luggage” ordered the man who had his gun pointed at Lloyd.

“Alright” agreed Lloyd, as he slowly reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone.

After he did this, he made sure to turn the phone slowly over to the armed man, but just as the man grabbed the device, Lloyd would quickly duck underneath his arm and rush at the man.

The man tried firing his gun at Lloyd, but Lloyd was far too quick, causing the man to miss all his shots until he was right in front of the man, and then gave him a powerful uppercut that sent him flying, knocking him out immediately.

Once the other two assailants saw what had happened, they quickly rushed at Lloyd with their blades, while the third assailant, who also had a gun, readied his weapon to shoot at Lloyd.

Lloyd would easily dodge the inaccurate swings the men would throw at him, which then led to him punching one of them in the stomach, causing him to throw up and crumple to the floor.

Lloyd would then kick him in the head, knocking him out immediately.

Seeing that Lloyd was dominating them, the other assailant with the gun would panic, causing him to start firing his gun at Lloyd.

He would only end up hitting the final assailant with the blade, killing him in the process.

Now it was just Lloyd and his final assailant.

The man couldn't believe what had just happened, he thought this rich man would be easy pickings for him and his boys, but everything had fallen apart.

His hands were violently shaking as he held the gun, so much so that he almost dropped his weapon.

When he finally decided to fire, Lloyd would dodge all the shots and quickly rush at him, grabbing his hand and breaking it, causing him to drop his weapon.

“AAAAARGH” yelled the man, as his body quivered in pain, causing him to fall to his knees in front of Lloyd.

Looking up at Lloyd while holding his broken arm, he asked… his voice filled with fear, “Who… who the hell are you?”

“A man you really shouldn't have fucked with” Lloyd calmly replied, as he grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt, before punching him in the face so hard, his jaw was shattered, and he was knocked out immediately.

“Now… as for you” said Lloyd, turning in the direction of the taxi driver.

However, the man was not there.

Lloyd turned around to see the driver inside the taxi, desperately trying to start the vehicle so he could escape from Lloyd.

Seeing that the driver was about to escape, Lloyd rushed to the driver's door of the taxi, and attempted to open the vehicle.

However, the driver had been smart enough to lock the car, even in his state of hurry.

Seeing that the taxi had finally started, Lloyd knew that if he didn't do something quick, the driver would escape, so he punched through the glass of the taxi, and dragged the driver out of the vehicle.

“Please… please don't kill me… I'm so sorry, please forgive me!” pleaded the driver, as she shook violently on the floor, attempting to shield himself from a future attack by Lloyd.

Lloyd sighed before rolling his eyes at the man's pathetic state, “Relax alright, I am not really in the mood to kill anyone today, so don't worry, you're fine” said Lloyd, reassuring the driver.

“However, you are going to do something very important for me” added Lloyd.

“Wha… what is it?” asked the driver, skeptical of Lloyd's intentions.

“You're going to take me to the Francis family residence like you were supposed to!” yelled Lloyd.

“YES… YES, I will, please don't hurt me” said the driver, now even more frightened than before, dude to Lloyd's yelling.

Seeing that he had adequately scared the taxi driver, he would return to the alley to pick up his phone, before returning to the taxi.

His phone was quite important to him, so he couldn't afford to lose it.

The taxi driver would cautiously drive Lloyd to the Francis family home, just as he had initially paid for.

To show his appreciation for the trip, Lloyd would tip the man a whole 500 dollars, which the driver would frantically accept before speeding away from Lloyd.

Lloyd could only laugh at the entire situation, as he couldn't help but wonder the lasting impact this day would have on that driver.

There was no way in hell he would ever forget what transpired that day.

In the corner, Lloyd could see Ivan waiting for him in his limousine, they made eye contact, and a single nod was enough to share their thoughts.

However, just before Lloyd was about to head into the building, he noticed something on the floor

Picking it up and examining it, he realized that what he was looking at was the wallet of the driver that had dropped him here.

“He probably dropped it when he frantically accepted my tip” reasoned Lloyd, as he put it inside his coat, not thinking much of it, as he stepped into the house.

The Francis family were a middle-class family, definitely not poor, but not close to being rich.

Their compound was modest, probably built with decades of family contribution.

There were a few modest looking cars parked in and around the compound, it was obvious the ceremony had already started.

But the scene was not buzzing the way Lloyd thought that it would, probably because the family, ashamed of their debt crisis, didn't want to attract too much attention.

****

Eleanor sat close to her mother, in silence with her head bowed down.

She wore a pretty awful wig to hide her hairless hair, as the cancer that afflicted her had reached late stages.

She wore a veil over her face to hide her pathetic state, but also to hide the tears that were streaming down her face.

Eleanor Francis, Lisa's mother, looked at her daughter with pure disgust.

“Please mom, don't look at me like that, the guests are staring” pleaded Lisa, with tears in our eyes.

"Shut up, you worthless failure" replied Eleanor, her voice filled with rage.

"You have been a burden for this family every step of the way, getting married to some bastard is more than you deserve" she added.

She had initially hoped for her daughter to marry a wealthy man and bring incredible fortune to the family.

But instead, Lisa had chosen to become a lawyer, to tackle the insane corruption within the city.

But of course due to the insane corruption of the justice department, Lisa kept loosing cases, and now her law firm had gone bankrupt.

As Lisa quietly sobbed at her mother's abuse, Eleanor got even angrier.

"Silence Lisa, you have no right to cry" said Eleanor.

"We warned you that trying to go against the Hilburg justice system would result in failure, you chose not to listen to us"

"Now look at you, riddled with cancer, and drowning this family in debt... if I could spit on you, I would" concluded Eleanor, as she heartlessly turned from her crying daughter.

Lisa, internalizing this abuse, felt that her mother was completely right.

She truly believed her current cancer and predicament was her fault, and she was wrong to ever trying to fight against the city's corruption.

John Francis, Lisa's grandfather and the patriarch of the family, had the same thought as his daughter-in-law.

He saw Lisa as nothing more than a failure and a burden, one that would soon be taken by cancer, so they might as well marry her off to someone who was willing to elevate some of their debt.

As he looked around the array of middle to upper middle-class men who were here to marry his granddaughter, and bit his lips in disgust.

The family truly had high hopes for Lisa, yet here she was, about to be married off to one of this unremarkable men, for whatever short time she had left.

John sighed, as he raised his aged hand to point at Lisa's future husband.

"Simon Harland, you will be my daughter's next husband"