Chương 128: 41 - THE FOURTH REDEEMER PT. 3

Tyene and German started meeting up on the top of the Corlander building regularly, which was probably about once a week, when he actually had free time. Corlander kept him too busy to have a lunch break on most days. But Tyene typically ate up there alone anyway, so he would end up joining whenever he and Corlander weren't having lunch with some other executive. Alone wasn't the way to put it. Tyene was never alone.

Vienna sat on the other side of the roof in plain clothes, pretending like she couldn't be seen just because she was far away. But, like usual, Tyene made a point of ignoring her by throwing on a pair of headphones and cloud-gazing, wondering why whatever god did the things they did. German politely knocked on the side of her headphone to hand her the chicken hibachi, specially made for them both.

"Hey there, slick," she said. She didn't know if he grew to like the nickname, but he never commented on it after the first meet. Their relationship hadn't really turned into much of anything, at least not in the romantic sense. But she tolerated his company as one of the few relationships she still kept, besides her mother and her maids. She still found him pretty dull, a strict missionary kind of guy. But there was comfort in that. She never got the feeling that he would lie to her or deceive her.

Once the marriage pact was sealed, he never had a reason to. Everything he wanted out of her, he already had. So it really was a wonder to her that he kept coming up there to see her.

"Everything alright?" he asked, catching her staring at Vienna.

"Yeah. You'd think he would've stopped paying for her by now. I mean, nothing's happened to me after all these years. She doesn't need to keep stalking me like that."

"Apparently, you're a valuable commodity."

"Was that a joke? That's like your first joke ever, and it's at my expense, you asshole," she playfully punched him on the shoulder.

"It actually wasn't meant to be a joke," he said.

"It'd be a big issue if something were to happen to you."

"Figures…" She started eating.

"Well then, she should just quit. Unless she plans on protecting me from spreadsheets and model cars. I'd probably go insane if my entire life was watching some chick all day."

"If you feel bad, I could always attack you and give her something to do." She stared at him blankly.

"That was meant to be a joke," he said.

"I wouldn't say things like that with your deadpan delivery. But we can work on it… even if you were serious, I'd rather not give her any reason to get a raise. The fewer reasons she has to stick around, the better."

"She actually doesn't get paid. All the money goes directly to her handler at RazorWind."

"Really? She's been doing this and doesn't even get paid? Why would she even do it then?"

"I imagine it's all she knows. She was trained like she was since she could walk… so I don't imagine a single thought has ever crossed her mind of choosing a different occupation." Tyene considered for a moment and then shrugged.

"Well, she might be out of a job soon. If we end up tying the knot, you're gonna have to be the one protecting me, big guy. So I hope you carry a big stick… two actually." German nearly choked on his chicken. One of Tyene's few joys in life was catching him off guard like that. Slipping in a dirty joke every now and then was one of a handful of ways to get his face to crack. She got home to find that her mother still hadn't gotten back from the vacation she had gone on.

"I just need to get away for a while," she had told Tyene. That was perfectly fine. Things at work were settling into monotony again, and her mother rarely had anything to do these days, so a vacation was exactly what she needed. But it had been three weeks since she had said she would be gone for one. But Tyene wasn't the worrying type. She had her bodyguard with her, and she was going to a well-populated resort with a bunch of people her age. She had likely just decided to stay for a while and lost the time.

Tyene got some ice cream and watched movies on the couch by herself. Then she went to bed. Until the middle of the night, there was a knock at her door. She answered it groggily, only to see Vienna standing there. She immediately scoffed, remembering all those messages in college.

"What the hell is it now? I've been good."

"It's nothing like that," Vienna said.

"Well then, I told you not to bother me in my house or at all." But instead of going away, like she usually did, she lingered with a look she had never seen on the woman. It was almost… sorrowful.

"I was instructed to tell you… Your mother has passed away." Tyene stared down at the grave, tears soundlessly falling down her face as the stone read, "Charlotte Corlander." It was a large funeral, full of people she didn't know, and she was sure her mother didn't either. They were all there for her husband. She was quickly suffocated by the amount of condolences from people that didn't know her, and she knew didn't care about her. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent.

Report any appearances on Amazon. So when it ended, she elected to stay at the graveyard alone so she could mourn in peace. She found herself more angry than sad.

"You left me here. You trapped me with all these strangers and then you…" The reports said it was a car accident. She was off alone, driving a rented car in the middle of the night. She had a few drinks in her and overcorrected, trying to avoid a pothole. Her body was intact, but all the damage had hit her directly in the head. So she died instantly.

"I'm only here because you made me… do it for me. Now where the fuck are you now?" she cried. She was eventually surprised when someone put a hand on her shoulder. And even more so when she saw that it was Mitas Corlander, dressed in black. She had half-expected him not to even show up for the funeral, but at the very least, he had the decency to know he owed her mother this much. They looked solemnly over the fresh dirt of the grave. He even drove her home that night.

He didn't stay, though, which was for the best, and Tyene laid in bed until she cried herself to sleep. The next morning, she pulled up a few news articles on her phone talking about what happened to her mother. It had made some of the national headlines after all, so it wasn't like she was going to avoid them anyway. But when she saw the first thing that popped up, she wanted to scream. The headline read, "Founder of Corlander Automotive quietly mourns passing of his wife with his daughter."

Underneath was the picture of them together, staring at the grave with his hand on Tyene's shoulder.

"That fucking faker!" She yelled. It wasn't a public funeral. For someone to have gotten that picture, they would've been paid to get that picture. Not even the death of his supposed wife made him forget about how the media would portray him. She had about a week-long grace period before she had to go back to work. She spent most of it drinking and the rest of it crying. But one small bit of it, she spent thinking… Her mother hadn't driven anywhere in years. Tyene wasn't even aware that she had a driver's license.

Most of the time that bodyguard of hers was the one driving her everywhere. But she was alone in the car, the bodyguard sleeping at the resort. She thought about Vienna, who would've never let her go anywhere without eyes on her. She even had a spare car that made no noise whenever Tyene tried to escape from her. She had brought this up to German when she returned to work, only for him to be exceptionally quiet.

"What? You think I'm crazy?"

"I never said that," he said.

"Then it is weird, then?"

"I don't believe making conspiracy theories will help you feel any better," he said.

"Yeah… well, her getting in a car drunk feels like a deliberate attempt to kill herself, and I don't want to believe that either," she snapped. There was a long pause.

"It might be closer to the truth than we'd care to admit."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Your mother was very upset when she left. She had heard about… the arranged marriage between us and had a shouting fit with Corlander. It got rough, and so he offered her the vacation so she could spend time cooling down." Tyene's eyes widened.

"How rough did it get?"

"She admitted that she had been very unhappy for a very long time."

"What exactly did she say…" German hesitated, realizing he had said too much.

"German… what did she say?" Tyene had grabbed his hand, squeezing it as if it were a lifeline.

"She said she was unhappy and didn't want you to end up like her. She had threatened divorce, among other things, but Corlander sent me out of the room after that, so I don't know what else happened." She let go of his hand.

"So Corlander had her killed…"

"That isn't the conclusion to draw. As I said, your mother was very unhappy. Don't be eager to make a villain when there isn't one." She stood up.

"That's where you're wrong. Either he had her killed, or he made her so unhappy that she killed herself. And she would never leave me. Not without saying anything. Either way, I'm not working for that man another day of my life." She stormed out of the building that day. She skipped work for an entire month. No one bothered her about it. Everyone at the office figured she was still in mourning. But quietly, she was building a case against him, trying to find out all the things that Corlander had done.

Trying to piece together anything she might've threatened that would've gotten her killed. At that point, there was no doubt in her mind that Corlander had killed her. That's why he wanted the news to see him mourning when he didn't give a shit. That's why her bodyguard wasn't there when she died. That's why she was found drunk in a car somewhere out of the country, where they wouldn't investigate. She just needed to figure out why. But one day, she had a realization.

She remembered when she was a kid, and Vienna had broken that young girl's arms. No one did anything. No one even tried. If she went after him, it would be him and his endless resources against her and only the things that he had given her. Things that he was very capable of taking away. She had worked with him long enough to know that nothing she did would matter. Nothing she could do would matter. None of it ever mattered.

So she sulked in the house for most of her elopement, determined, at the very least, not to go back to work. That was until the lawyers came to the house. They sat her at the kitchen table and laid out a bunch of paperwork for her to look at in her pajamas.

"Your prolonged absence from your job is in direct violation of the contract you signed with Mitas Corlander," the lawyer said.

"Are you fucking kidding me? I signed that when I was eighteen."

"We still fall within the statute. Violation of these terms means having to pay back all of the money Corlander spent on tuition and any related costs to get you through school. That's including but not limited to the car you used for transportation, any recreational trips you took with his money, and the protective services that guarded you for that duration."

"My protection? I never even asked for… You know what, fine. How much would that cost me?"

"It's well into the seven figures, ma'am." Tyene gritted her teeth, grinding the bone.

"I don't have that much."

"Then I suggest you go back to work." That night, Tyene broke several things inside the mansion, taking out her anger on anything she could find. The maids had no choice but to watch her do it until she eventually broke down crying in the mess she made.

"He can't keep taking everything… He can't."Maimy lightly patted her on the back and walked her to her room.

"It's okay, Tyene. Let's make sure you're ready for work tomorrow." She woke up the next morning, put on a suit, and walked outside to drive to work. For the next few weeks, she did her job, went home, and didn't talk to anyone. Not even German. She ate alone. She worked alone. During one walk to her car, she remembered looking up at the clouds, wondering why whatever god did what they did. And she asked if the next thing they did could be to end the entire world. At noon the next day, they did what she asked.