Truth

"Okay... but what will happen now? Do I have to stay in the hospital or do I go to a jail while waiting for the trial?"

"I managed to get you under house arrest with the excuse of your recovery, you can do anything inside your mansion, but you will be being watched by the police and you will wear an ankle bracelet."

"*Sigh* Well... Mom went to talk about discharging me, will she have problems?"

"No, she has the right to know when to take you out of the hospital, she just has to talk to the police and you will have to be escorted home by them"

"*Sigh* I'll follow instructions."

"Don't worry Christian, we have a team of lawyers with 100 ways to get you out of trouble, it's just a matter of time."

"Thanks... aunt, I'll hang up on him for now"

"Alright, take care Christian and get some rest, when you're home we'll come see you with your uncle Jayden"

"I'd like to, it's been a few months since we've all seen each other" Christian nodded.

"See you later."

Hanging up the call, Christian sighs and dials another number.

"Hello, Mrs. Eva? Did something happen?" The call was answered quickly by a voice very familiar to Christian, and the concern in her voice warmed his heart.

"Hi honey, you don't know how much I missed you, I can still smell you in my hospital room."

"..."

"Come on Sarah, don't be shy, we already had our first date and everything."

"How are you feeling?" With a relieved voice, Sarah asked.

"A little sore, but all good, thanks for worrying about me."

"Who cared about you? I was only talking to you because of Elisa's insistence" With a snort, Sarah replied.

"You're so shy, it's cute~" Christian smiled.

"CHRISTIAN, IS THAT YOU!!!?" But suddenly a shout sounded from the speaker, causing Christian to smile.

"Hi Elisa, did you miss me?"

"Very much, very much, too much!" Elisa exclaimed happily "Are you okay!? Are you in pain? Do you feel dizzy? Are you scared? Do you have traumas? Do you want me to come and see you? Let's have a sleepover! Would you like to-!"

"Wait, wait, that's a lot of questions!" Christian exclaimed quickly, only to wince at the pain in his lungs.

"Hehe~" laughed Elisa awkwardly "Sorry, I'm just happy~!"

"I'm happy to hear you too Elisa, but for now calm down" Smiling at the enthusiastic woman, Christian continued "We can meet in a while, I was told by my lawyer that I'm under arrest and now I'll be under house arrest until the trial is over"

"WHAT!!!!?" Elisa shouted in disbelief, and then exclaimed angrily "You're really under arrest for defending yourself!!!? What the fuck kind of situation is this!?"

"Relax, I think it's a routine thing, in two months at the most it would be solved, there you can come to my house and we could play, I have a pool, jacuzzi and a big bathtub that massages, we could both fit in easily"

"Oh, sounds like a good idea"

"I also have a movie room, we could watch a few movies-"

"Say no more, it's a done deal!" Elisa exclaimed quickly with joy "Soothing water, movies, food and my cute Christian, the best on the same day! I'm sure he'll give me diabetes so much sweetness~"

Smiling, Christian spoke softly "Then it's confirmed, in 2 months we do that, for now I'll leave you I have to get things ready to leave the hospital, say hi to Sarah, tell her I don't really like her that much, but I put up with her because her embarrassed expressions are funny!"

"Sure~" Elisa laughed softly "See you Christian!"

"Bye..." Hanging up the cell phone, Christian smiles and dials another number.

"HI CHRISTIAN, HOW ARE YOU!!!?" Without giving him the time to speak, an ultra excited voice came from the cell phone, causing Christian to look at the cell phone with narrowed eyes.

"Emily... Are you spying on my mother's camera?"

"N-no?"

"..."

"Well, yes I did, but I just wanted to see how you were doing!" Quickly accepting defeat, Emily dropped the beans and exclaimed.

"Just don't keep doing it" Smiling bitterly, Christian continued "How have you been? Have you been having problems without me?"

"I have a lot of problems, I feel bored and sad!"

"Oh, and why would that be?"

"..."

"Emily?"

"Because I miss you..." Emily whispered "I was so sad when I found out what happened... daddy took me to see you, but you wouldn't wake up... I-"

Noticing the sad tone of the girl who is usually always cheerful, Christian sighed and cut her words short "I missed you too Emily, but I'm fine now, you don't have to think about what already happened and you should focus more on what will happen in the future."

"..."

"I'm already 12 years old and you are 11, in a few more years we can travel to many places to enjoy"

"Yes..."

"*Sigh*" Still noticing the sad voice of the girl, Christian speaks "Emily, everything already happened, when I finish fixing the problems with the police I'll talk to your father so you can come to stay at my house, what do you think?"

"REALLY!!!?" Emily shouted quickly with excitement.

"Of course you have, have I ever lied to you?"

"Never!"

"See? Finishing all the problems, I'll tell mom to talk to your dad so you can come stay for the weekend, I have lots of spare rooms, plus I have lots of computers and games for us to hang out on"

"You promise!?"

"I promise" Smiling softly, Christian replies.

"Hehe~ It'll be a lot of fun" Emily laughed gleefully.

"Emily, I was just calling to see how you were doing, I'll cut the call for now so I can move and get out of the hospital, talk to you later, yeah?"

"Yes!" nodded the girl happily "Bye Christian, take care!"

"Bye" Hanging up the call, Christian sighed and laid back on the gurney.

"For some reason I feel agitated..." Christian muttered with a frown "I shouldn't be attacked again for a while... not in front of public view at least... but something feels wrong, something I don't observe in the situation."

"*Sniff*" Sniffing a few times, Christian looks up and smiles for the person looking at him dazedly in the doorway "It's good to see you again Leslie"

"I..." Opening and closing her mouth repeatedly, Leslie looks at Christian with complicated emotions.

"You don't have to feel bad, you weren't with them, were you?" looking sideways at her, Christian asked.

"Never!" she quickly shook her head "They forced me to ask for vacation...we have to take mandatory vacation every year...I didn't know this would happen..."

"I..." Clenching her fists tightly, Leslie spoke haltingly "If y-you don't need me anymore... I can go-"

"Who said I don't need you? What would I do without my pretty shadow?" Turning around on the gurney, Christian looks at the woman and smiles "Besides I trust you, at no time did I ever think you'd have anything to do with it."

"..."

"But I would like to ask you something and I want you to answer me seriously" Sitting down on the stretcher, Christian looks at Leslie "I want to know why I interest you so much... I know it's much more than work, since you were never asked to follow me around and take care of me like you do... I want to know what motivates you"

"..." Gritting her teeth visibly for a few seconds, Leslie looks at the boy and sighs, then walks over to him and sits down next to him "I told you I don't have a family.... *sigh* I'm not good with words so I'll just sum it all up."

"..."

"I used to have a little brother... should be your age this year , he stayed with my mom and dad while I was in the army..."

"One day I got to go to Syria with my team...things happened and most of them died.... After that I was discharged because of the wound in my eye and I came back home... even though I felt depressed about losing friends in that damn place, I knew I would see my family and I didn't want to be among so much death" With an empty look, Leslie spoke in a monotonous manner.

"But when I arrived, I found the house surrounded by police... my parents had died because of a supposed robbery, and they didn't know where my brother was."

"I searched and searched, but found no clues about him, much less the police... but they told me about a missing person's report my mother had filed" Clenching her fists, Leslie continued "Someone had taken my brother... dad asked mom for help because they had supposedly taken him to a child actor's casting and he disappeared.... they made the report to the police and checked the place, but apparently the casting never existed... he just disappeared and the police had their hands tied."

"I felt devastated... helpless" Elisa murmured "But when I was giving everything up for lost, I heard a family talking in the street about a casting for child actors, so without hesitation I followed them and discovered something that changed the course of my life" Sighing, Leslie spoke "I won't give you details... but it turned out that my brother had been kidnapped by rich and powerful people. .. after that I joined the Elite defense team because I knew that sooner or later I would know something... I spent 3 years in the team and little by little I was discovering what I needed... I wanted to know what happened to my brother and who was the culprit, but I also wanted to know if what happened to my parents was a simple failed robbery or something more..."

"..."

"That's when it was my turn to come to you" With reddened eyes, Leslie spoke "You don't know this... but inside your files, there was the proof of murder of my little brother and my parents."

Opening his eyes wide, Christian looked at Leslie in disbelief "W-why didn't you tell me...?"

Shaking her head, Leslie spoke "I already had what I wanted... on the vacation I took I was able to finish my goals."

Looking at Leslie sadly, Christian just remained silent.

"At first I thought I would just disappear... you know, I have no goals or dreams, everyone I love had died and I was alone.... I wouldn't come back after my vacation" Turning her gaze to Christian, Leslie speaks with sincerity "But when we talked the other day... I felt the warmth I had lost... that day I took the goal to protect you..."

"..."

Clenching her fists, Leslie mutters "But even in that I failed... I-"

Taking Leslie's hands to calm her down, Christian moves and sits on her legs and then looks at each other "No need to say more things, welcome to the family... now whether you want to or not, you can never leave, because the best situation in case you escape, is for me to find you and lock you inside a basement for the rest of your life."

Looking at the boy for a few seconds, Leslie averts her gaze and nods.

"Okay, then it's a deal" Smiling, Christian hid the wince and got off Leslie, then purses his lips and speaks "You already quit?"

"Yes, I resigned a few days ago and now I work for you, Ms. Sara made me a contract"

"Perfect~" Christian nodded "We can't call you #1 as a code name anymore... we need another one, do you have any ideas?"

"I'll call myself whatever you want" Returning to her stoic attitude, Leslie got up and stood next to Christian, looking straight at the door.

"What a bore *sigh*" Bringing his hand to his chin, Christian processed many names, so that after a few seconds, a quick memory from hell flashed through his mind "I know, you'll be 'Death', like the horsemen of the apocalypse."

"..." Raising her eyebrows, Leslie looked at the boy and simply nodded.

"Christian..." Eva interrupted awkwardly, causing attention to shift to her.

Noticing the 5 policemen behind his mother, Christian nodded and stretched his left leg "I already talked to Aunt Sara, she told me what's going on now."

"Excuse me kid, it's routine procedure" With a bitter smile, the same policewoman who spoke to Christian a few minutes ago approached with handcuffs in her hands, then took the boy's hands and cuffed him.

"Do you think I can get a wheelchair? I can't move much without it hurting, I'd also like some clothes."

"We already have everything ready" The woman nodded, nodding to the policeman behind her, while Eva just looked at everything with a worried expression.

"Thank you" Taking the clothes, Christian closes the curtains and puts on his frog pajamas, instantly noticing that they're a bit tight on him, then looking at himself and muttering "Mom took a strange obsession with these pajamas..."

"*Sigh* I'll have to buy more clothes" Christian muttered opening the curtains, then looking at the police and speaking "Now what?"

"We'll place the bracelet at your house, now we'll escort you to the patrol car and your mother will follow us, understood?" Stroking the boy's hair, the woman smiled and helped to sit him in the chair to then take it from behind and move him.

"Good..." Nodding, Christian just looked at his mother and smiled "Leslie, go with mom."

"Got it" Leslie nodded, looking carefully as Christian was called.

The drive was quick, there were 5 police escorting him out while the nurses and patients looked at him curiously, some even took pictures of him.

Arriving at the parking lot, the police helped Christian into the patrol car and split into two cars, leaving quickly for the house.

But as they passed through the front door, Christian saw something that shocked him, causing him to open his mouth wide.

In the front entrance was a large picture of him smiling, while multiple stuffed animals and candles adorned the entire place, people could be seen standing looking at the picture and also people leaving more candles.

"W-what is that?" pointing toward his photo, Christian asked toward the cops.

"When it became known that you were in this hospital, many people came to pray for you, what you see is a small altar they made symbolically to wish you to get better" Smiling softly, the police spoke "I shouldn't say this, but I also came to leave candles, you are a very strong boy Christian, strong and cute."

"Thank you..." Smiling strangely, Christian went back to looking at all the toys outside the hospital, feeling a strange warmth in his heart.