Saving the Villain

"Did they ask you to bring me to them? How? By tugging my guilty conscience that you spent time in the juvie while was I free? Did they think being out here is better than being inside the prison?"

Maxen's expression turned solemn and sharp. He always had this thought since his last conversation with Remo and Maxen could only think of this. They wanted to use Remo since the guy went to prison instead of Maxen. Even though Maxen didn't stab that guy himself, that person died because of him and his connections to those felons.

Realistically speaking, this might've worked if Cosette didn't come into the picture. After all, Maxen's guilt for that delinquent's death was slowly consuming him before he met Cosette. He even thought he would lose his mind, thinking he was not only a son of a felon but also a murderer himself.

Maxen only needed one last push before he would join the dark side and accept the fact he was bad. Nothing was good in his life, anyway, but his sunshine came right on time. Cosette had shown him there was more to life and Conrad showed him a person's past wasn't an indicator of who they were.

"If you didn't do what they ask you, what are they going to do?" Maxen inquired once more when silence was the answer he received from Remo.

"Nothing." Remo shrugged. "They'd do nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing," Remo repeated. "But that's not what I need. I don't need 'nothing,' Maxen. My grandpa…"

Remo trailed off as he mentioned his grandfather, who was very important to him. He bit his tongue, looking back at Maxen. Seeing that the latter didn't seem to show any emotion, in particular, a shallow breath escaped his nostrils.

"My grandfather is the only family I have. When I got arrested, he nearly had a heart attack. Yet, he visits me every single day in the juvie — do you know how old he was?" There was a faint vulnerability in his eyes and voice. "My old man is already old. When I told him I didn't do it, he believed without questions asked. But he fell ill."

Remo weakly ran his fingers through his hair. "I promised him I'd be good for him, so he doesn't have to worry that I'd be in trouble." He looked away from Maxen as if he realized how embarrassing it was to tell these things to Maxen.

"That's why even those pipsqueaks ganged up on me, I didn't fight back. They're weak, anyway."

"You claim they're weak, but you can barely sit up," Maxen pointed out, his finger zeroing in his temple. "So you need money? That's why you want to sacrifice me to those guys?"

"Between you and my old man, his life is much more important — hell, his life is even more important than mine. My old man is already old… and I want him to live a little longer until I can give him a good and comfortable life. At this rate, I don't know if he can wait until I can repay everything he had done for me." Remo looked back at Maxen with bitterness in his eyes. "That is why… I don't need 'nothing' from them."

"I'm ready to make a pact with the devil just so I can transfer him to a better hospital where he can get better medical attention," he added under his breath. "Because if he dies now… I might actually kill you for taking a year of my life away from him for nothing."

There was a long silence that followed Remo's remarks. He kept his eyes on Maxen, looking at the guy solemnly.

"You shouldn't blame me, Remo," Maxen remarked calmly after the prolonged silence. "That night, I didn't ask you to chase me away. Neither did I personally ask you to take the blame. You did everything that night on your own. Stop pushing the blame on me."

Remo let out a short, ridiculing dry laugh. "If I didn't do that, did you think your old man will let me off the hook?"

"He claims to be powerful and had strong connections." Maxen shrugged offhandedly. "If I was arrested that night, if he truly didn't want to see me inside and leave a damn record, he could've used his connections to bail me out."

Maxen slowly leaned forward, resting his arms over his leg, eyes still fixed on Remo.

"You didn't have to go that far." He shook his head mildly. "Those guys… especially, that guy, simply used you for convenience. They took advantage of your naivety and now they still want to use you to get what they want."

"I get you wanted to help your old man since he's already old, and you use the money you earned in those underground brawls to buy him medicines, but if you honestly want to make your old man proud, stop lying to him," Maxen continued as he had used his new gain power to investigate Remo's time in the juvie just last weekend. Aside from Cosette, Remo had never left Maxen's mind since the guy was connected to the SIN Organization one way or another.

It was sickening how those felons used a high schooler to get the job done, taking advantage that Remo was young and incapable of providing good money to help his grandfather. Since Remo seriously needed a lot of money, he would bite whatever those guys would give him.

For Remo, taking Maxen to that organization was almost everything. But for those guys? Whether or not Remo would succeed didn't matter. If Remo did, then good. If not, then whatever. They could just do it their way.

Maxen might be a little baffled as to why his father hadn't made a move for the past months. Maybe because Conrad took him under his wing. Whatever the reason was, it didn't matter for Maxen. What mattered to him was while his father was idling, Maxen was slowly learning Conrad's ways to protect and use everything at his disposal.

"That's irritating…" He shook his head, taking his phone out to make a quick call. It only rang once and was answered even before Maxen could place the phone in front of his ear. But instead of talking to the person on the other end of the line, Maxen snapped his eyes at Remo.

"Which hospital?" he asked.

"What?"

"Your old man. Which hospital is he admitted in right now so I can ask someone to transfer him to a better one."