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Chapter 77
Jackson’s eyes shot open suddenly on the cold hard ground he found himself, a blinding pain shooting across the back of his head and his face. He tried to move but his hands were tied behind him tightly, the edges of the zip tie cutting across his skin. He tried to focus his vision but it was damn near impossible in the pitch blackness. His tongue was dry, and tasted metallic. Confusion clouded his brain as he tried to understand what was going on.
What was going on? Where was he? Last he remembered, he was talking to Ethan about Emily and then – shit! Someone attacked him from behind. Panic rose in his chest, suddenly heaving up and down when the door opened and someone walked in, he tried to look up but the pain shot across but he fought through it and balancing himself on his knees.
The door seemed farther away from he lay helplessly, so their steps were slow and calculated and almost intimidating, the echoes of their leather boots knocking seamlessly across the wooden floor.
“You’re awake” it was guy’s voice and in his brain it sounded familiar, Jackson squinted through the darkness but could barely make out his face. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to knock you out too hard, but I have a personal vendetta” the guy chuckled mockingly, standing firm a few inches away from Jackson, his hands behind his back
“Who are you?” Jackson sounded in an effort to sound fearless and brave but came out almost strained and weak.
The guy chuckled again “You don’t have to worry about that, I’m on a mission here and we could work together, you know help each other out could help your chances of staying alive”
“What do you want?! Money?”
Laughter echoed through the silent room “I wish it was that simple, see it’s not just you Jackson I have a vendetta with, it’s the whole Hatton family”
“What!” Jackson stared at the strange guy’s silhouette, his face contorting in confusion.
“Your father stole from me, he took everything from me to build his company, to build his empire and then tossed me aside like garbage, like I was nothing, like it wasn’t my idea at first but I had no money, no influence not like him and then he took my idea and tossed me aside, so what did I do? I watched him for years, his family, his sons, their wives, their lives and everything they thought happened in secret, but I was there watching, listening and biding my time”
Jackson stayed silent, unsure of what to say. His mouth taped shut by his beating heart, the confusion that still sat in his brain, unwilling to clear the fog that blocked his thinking.
“Jackson Hatton” the man started again “The youngest son and in love with his brother’s wife, it was amusing, made the whole ordeal fun me”
“What do you want? Why did you kidnap me?” Jackson sounded again, his voice sounding firmer and angrier at the mention of Emily.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.
“You’re moving too fast, don’t you want to know about all the things I did” he said, moving closer to Jackson now but still some inches away.
“I don’t care, tell me what you want, you want us to work together don’t you? Let’s work together”
The man laughed again, so loudly this time it was hard to miss the mocking undertone to it “Just like your father, always willing to bury things with the money you never deserved in the first place”
“Why did you bring me here? Why did you kidnap me? What on earth do you want”
“Do you want to know what I have done?” the man went on ignoring Jackson’s questions “Remember the Banquet party ”
“That was you?” Jackson said in shock
“I mean I didn’t mean for the poor girl to lose her memory, I just wanted a scandal that would ruin the Hatton family and that way I could swoop in with my stories about your father and he could get rightfully cancelled, but guess what your father enjoyed it, the stocks went up and again I helped your father while I was left with nothing”
Jackson said nothing this time, allowing him to continue talking and the strange man enjoyed it, he smiled in the darkness and continued “Do you want to know what else I did? I orchestrated your engagement with the Lawrence daughter, it wasn’t an easy one trust me. She needed to get away from her father with her fiancee but what better way to do it than an engagement with America’s richest bachelor, Jackson Hatton. I knew your father will jump at the idea of a global recognition so I told Blair to suggest it to her father, ad of course two power hungry men would love the idea. The plan was to kidnap you, she gets three hundred million dollars from you and escapes with her fiance and then I have you for my plan but she chickened out and I had to step in and do it myself”
“So what is your plan?” Jackson asked
“Relax, we’re getting there little Jackson”
Little Jackson
Little Jackson
The word rang in Jackson’s head unlocking a memory that he had long forgotten, that he could barely even remember. Someone used to call him that, someone who was close to the family, someone he had once trusted like a father.
Immediately he looked up the same time the lights suddenly came on, brightening up the frightening dark room. It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the darkness and when he looked around it was an old warehouse. Brown boxes of different sizes lined the corner of the room, alongside with barrels and Jackson wondered what was in them. Finally he looked up to the familiar voice he had been hearing amidst his beating heart and the familiarity stuck him.
Uncle James?
He thought, scared to say it out loud but the words came out of the mouth anyways and the man smiled. Jackson stared, surprised and in shock. Uncle James had been his father’s closest friend when he was so much younger, always came around and called him Little Jackson, till one day he just stopped seeing him and he was too young to care, rather much engrossed in his games and toys.
“Uncle James?” Jackson said again, trying to take in his appearance. He looked way older, his face unshaven and riddled with stubs of hair, sunken eyes that looked ages with wrinkles surrounding them. But suddenly, Jackson looked down at his hands unconsciously, and right there on his wrist was the red crimson bracelet he had gotten from Emily. Jackson looked up at him immediately, realization suddenly dawning on him and he kept his eyes fixed on him as Uncle James did the same, both of them locked in a stare.
“It was you” Jackson said and the man smiled.