Bound To Him

Tristan always thought his father died in an accident. He never thought that somebody would want to murder him. 

Tristan's face was stiff. His hands were tightly clenched. He was angry, sad, and frustrated.

Tristan's veins were popping out of his arms and neck. He wanted to kill James for murdering his father.

"You bastard. You killed my father!" Tristan said with a dangerous aura.

"I never regretted killing Henry," James said truthfully.

Stella married him, but his insecurity drove him to believe that she always had Henry in her heart.

James was good looking. There were a lot of girls that liked him in college, but he had his heart set out for Stella. No one could ever hold a candle to her. If she had even loved him a quarter of what he loved her, then it would have been enough for him.

Sadly, sometimes no matter how much you love someone, they will never love you back.

"You are going to spend the rest of your life behind bars," Tristan remarked.

"What evidence do you have? You can't send me to jail. I was very careful in covering my tracks," James boasted.

"Well, no matter how smart you are, sometimes you make mistakes," Tristan insisted.

Murderers get cocky sometimes. They overlook some clues that they might have left behind.

"You will never find anything," James said, full of confidence.

"I've already found the evidence," Tristan replied.

"What? No way. What do you have?" James' voice got shaky. He did not believe Tristan had found any evidence. "Hah! He's bluffing. He just wants to mess with me," he thought.

"I traced down the assistant, and he is ready to testify against you. You killed the manager of Zane automobiles. But you forgot about the assistant," Tristan reminded him.

All the blood drained from James' face. He did not think a mere assistant was privy to the information. He did not know that the manager confided in his assistant because the faulty engines really bothered him. He got scared. "It's impossible, I can't go to prison," he said to himself. 

"I will do anything. I won't lose. It's only an assistant, I can easily take care of the evidence," James thought out loud. He had so much money. He'd just buy this person's silence and fabricate the evidence.

"You think you are the only one with money. I have more money than you," Tristan said. He belonged to an aristocratic family and if he joined forces with his friends so no one will be able to beat them.

The reason why the four aristocratic families were powerful was that they never gave up on each other. The four families' history can be traced back to 100 years.

"You are a young man. I have seen and experienced more of the world than you have. You cannot beat me," James exclaimed.

"Being old doesn't necessarily make you powerful. Watch me as I make you regret you were born," Tristan sneered.

Tristan was going to give James what he deserved. "I will ruin your life just as you ruined mine. You are the root of all my pain and suffering. If you just left my father alone, we could have been happy," Tristan thought unhappily.

He killed the most important person in Tristan's life, and it destroyed his childhood. He could never forget the agony he went through when he learned about his father's death. 

Because of James, his mother left him, and his grandparents have been in pain every time they thought about their son. 

"My father could have been here to guide me with his business. Instead, I shouldered all that weight by myself," Tristan thought, grinding his teeth. 

Why should other people suffer when James was the reason everything failed. His greed led him to his downfall.

Stella, not loving James, was not his father's fault. His father never loved Stella, nor did he create any of their problems.

James had nothing to lose. His wife and child are already dead.

"Your threats are empty. Let me see you get out of this place alive," James said with a sinister look on his face. 

His only motive now was to kill Tristan. If he dies, nobody will know what happened. He came alone, and nobody would think of looking for him here. "I will make sure they never find him," James laughed to himself.

Tristan kept quiet and looked at him coldly.

"I'm going to kill you. There's already so much blood on my hands, I don't mind killing one more person," James hissed. The only person he regretted killing was Stella. He lived in her memories every day and promised her that he would come and join her and their unborn child soon. 

He just had one task to finish before that. He had to bring the Ambrosio Corporation down.

Each day was a living hell for him. He could not forget his wife's face when he pushed her down the stairs, and it would replay in his mind again and again like a broken record. 

He would wake up in the middle of every night covered in sweat, reliving the nightmare over and over again.

If he could go back in time, he would save his wife and lose his company. But he could not take anything back. The only thing he can do is to take revenge for Stella and their child.

James blamed Henry. He told himself Henry was the reason he killed his Stella. 

If only Henry had not come that day, he and Stella would not have fought. He wouldn't have pushed her down the stairs.

James tried to attack Tristan, but Tristan was quick. He came prepared. He was able to move away faster than James expected.

Tristan had an advantage, he was stronger, and he was professionally trained.

James, although being older was fueled by anger and the need for revenge. He started hitting Tristan again and again. But Tristan was not just standing back either, He gave as many punches as he received. At one point, they were rolling around on the floor, trying to kick and punch each other as much as they could.

James was wounded lying on the ground, trying to catch his breath. Tristan was standing nearby with a few cuts and scratches on his face, his knuckles bleeding, and his suit torn.

"You cannot escape. Everything you said was recorded and seen by police," Tristan pointed to the camera, which looked like one of his shirt buttons.

The camera that was as small as a button was developed in the Santoris' lab. This lab owned by Dmitri's family has developed highly advanced technological weapons that were mostly used by the Mafia and the aristocratic heirs.

Before coming to the meeting, Tristan was talking to Dmitri. His team was able to find the assistant of Zane automobiles. The assistant had moved to another country so as not to get blamed for his manager's death. When they uncovered why the manager died, Tristan and Dmitri started plotting how they could catch James red-handed.

"You cheated!" James screamed.

"Mr. Morgan, we don't win a war by playing fair,��� Tristan chuckled.

"I am not going down alone. I am taking you with me," James roared, pointing a gun at Tristan.

Tristan was purposeful, and he knew what to say to push people's buttons.

"Stella was right. You would not have been a good father to your child," Tristan mocked.

"You bastard. I would have been the best dad," James fumed, waving around the gun.

"Stella will be disappointed in you. Just imagine her face right now. Do you think she will be happy that you are doing this for her," Tristan continued to taunt him?

Tristan needed to buy some time and stall him. He continued to play with James' emotions.

James loosened the grip on the gun. He was distraught. "Will Stella hate me for killing her? Will she forgive me? Is she watching me right now?" His emotions were flitting through his face.

A few seconds later, James came back to his senses.

"You're just trying to distract me," James got angrier. He was not going to get fooled.

Suddenly sirens were heard outside the building.

James looked outside the window. Tristan took this opportunity to snatch the gun from James.

Before James could do anything, the police had already entered the house with their guns drawn and pointed towards him. He had no option but to surrender.

"You promised you would come alone," James asked angrily.

"Well, I am not a saint, and I didn't have to keep my promise," Tristan replied.

Tristan worked with the police and instructed them to come after he gets the confession, otherwise, they won't be able to keep him in jail based on speculations and one person's testimony.

With the proof they have, they will be able to give him a life sentence. There is no way James can find a way out of this.

"Finally, my father will get the justice he deserves," Tristan said sternly. He was relieved that he can now lay his father's soul to rest.

"You will never get me. I never lose," James replied calmly. James snatches the gun from the police trying to put the cuffs on him.

"Stop!" Tristan screamed, but it was too late.

James was lying in a pool of his blood. He chose to die rather than to go to prison.

The Surprising thing was that James was smiling when he took his last breath.

"Stella I'm com….," These were James' last words before his heartbeat stopped. In his mind, he was free. He was on his way to meet Stella and his child.

Tristan was speechless. He wanted James to rot in jail, to suffer every second of being there. But nobody can do anything now.

Having Stella and his child die by his hands was probably punishment enough.