Chapter 11 - Geneaology (2/2)
”Don't you ever say that!” shouted Winston. ”You are my grandson and Walter treated John as his own. You are my flesh and blood, the only son of my beloved Emma. You are as much a Blyth as me.”
”Sorry, grandpa. I wasn't thinking. I just blurted it out in surprise,” said Balthazar apologetically. Winston also understood that he had overreacted and it was expected of Balthazar to be shocked at the revelation. He calmed himself down and continued to speak.
”Walter decided to stick to his promise and brought the kids back to the family. He later became the head of our shadow organization. The patriarch and the elders decided to raise them as Blyths. The girl was Robert's mother Jordan. It was all well and fine in the beginning. Both Jordan and John were very promising young individuals. Walter even took John as his apprentice. John had been Walter's only apprentice other than Walter's eldest son, George. George and John were as brothers. Even Max wasn't as close to George as John. Later John got married to my Emma and Jordan got married to George. George was set to be Walter's successor and Jordan mine, and everything was peaceful.”
”Robert was one year old when an attempt was made on George, Robert and Jordan's lives. George managed to save their lives at the cost of his own, but Jordan lost her sanity watching George sacrifice himself. More than 6 members of the family were killed during that attempt. It was at this time that we first suspected a mole or traitor. John was distraught and inquired personally into his death. Both Walter and John suspected someone, but due to lack of evidence they both refused to comment on it. Everyone expected Walter to take Max in George's place and train him. But Walter chose John instead and somehow even convinced the grand elders and the old men in seclusion to support his decision.”
”Seven years later, when everyone almost forgot about the incident, John requested a meeting with the council of elders claiming to possess evidence against George's murderer. Even Walter had given up, but John never stopped his pursuit. But, John and Emma had the accident before the meeting. It was after this that Walter confided in me about his suspicions.”
”Was Uncle Max the suspect?” asked Balthazar suddenly cutting into his story.
”How? How? How did you know?” asked Winston flabbergasted. He was so shocked that he almost toppled backwards in his chair. In both the cases, the actual culprits were foreigners with no connection with anyone in the family. Max always wanted to be Walter's heir. He had the motive, but Max had neither the power nor the wealth to hire them. Unless an external force offered to do serve him for free, there was no way he could have orchestrated this. So any claim against Max had no proper basis or foundation. But Walter had always suspected Max since George's death.
”So, it is,” confirmed Balthazar. ”I guess you had no proper evidence as you couldn't find any trace of transactions of him or any of his acquaintances involved. It was always like someone just had done it without any proper motive. But among all the people that had the information required to do it only Max had any sort of motive for it.”
”Yes. You are right,” said Winston shaking all over. He got up grasped Balthazar's shoulders in both his hands and asked, ”How did you know? Do you have any clues about it? Max is one of the few remaining heirs of the core family. We can't prosecute him without strong evidence. The grand elders wouldn't allow it.” Emma's death had not been avenged. Her demise caused his wife to lose all hope in life and resulted in her death 5 years after Emma. He wouldn't give up any chance to bring them to justice. Hearing Balthazar had him thinking that his grandson had managed to find some tangible clue to it.
”I submitted a report to the military after the explosion in which I mentioned two names in connection with the knights of old republic. There was a third name which I hid. It was Max Blyth,” answered Balthazar.
”That is ridiculous. We must inform this to Walter,” said Winston.
”Are you sure? Max is his only remaining son after all,” said Balthazar.
”You don't know Walter well enough. He would kill Max personally the instant he has any sort of evidence proving him guilty. He considered John his son more than Max and George was always his favorite. He almost went mad and hunted assassins crazily after George died. If the grand elders hadn't intervened, he would have killed Max. If not for John, we would have probably lost Walter too,” said Winston trying to convince Balthazar.
”OK! I will leave you to it,” said Balthazar. ”But that would only help to the answer the first part of my question. I still need to get a lead on the second part. Why are they after me? Before last week, I was a person who ran out of the family. Max has no reason to attack me. All these days, I have been completely stumped about it. But, after you told me that my father might have other ancestors, I must assume that the people providing Max are related to them. I have much more confident of it as they are related to the knights of the old republic as the ones that tried to assassinate me are the same.”
”The only reason, I suspect they were involved in George's death was to eliminate Jordan. George was just unlucky to be with Jordan,” thought Balthazar. ”They would surely attempt to kill Bolena and Robert too,” said Balthazar.
”Don't worry. After the explosion when we came to know about the knight's involvement in attempting to assassinate you, we improved the personnel guarding both Robert and Bolena,” comforted Winston. He got off his chair as he had to inform the rest of the family on the floor about what he learned from Max. If, the knights managed to have infiltrators in the family, it would be a very severe issue for them.
”I will try to investigate about the knights. Do you have any information about my paternal grandmother?” asked Balthazar
”We don't even know her name. Walter kept a tight lid on it. He might inform you about it. It is best that you consult him,” advised Winston.
”Let us leave it for now. About Max, keep it a secret. I will talk to Walter and a few others. This is something that even my father would be interested in. We will consult and decide on what to do with Max. At the very least, they would wan't to put him under observation and confine his movements. Don't tell Bolena anything about this. I will inform you of what we decide,” said Winston signalling Balthazar to leave the room. He immediately sent a message for an emergency meeting with the grand elders and Walter.