Mirage | 𝙈𝙞𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙚𝙡 𝙅𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣

Chapter 12

Alfred Ronan was a loyal secretary to Joseph Jackson when the Jackson Enterprises started, almost forty years ago. Alfred was there when Joseph married Katherine, when his only son Michael was born, when Jonathan was appointed as a director by the board members and other important things in Joseph's life. He was one of the first ones to know about his heart disease and his limited life expectancy: 2 years.

However, when Alfred's mother fell ill, he used all of his resources to give her proper treatment, having the support of his wife, Noelle. They were drowning in debts when Jonathan got to know this important information nobody else knew, not even Alfred's old friend and boss, Joseph.

Jonathan bought the Ronan family debt and then used this as an advantage to make Alfred join his side.

Alfred was aware of the things he was about to do, betraying his friend. But he had no other choice but to compile with what Jonathan was asking. There was so much money in the middle, that he chose to give up his friendship to save his family. At that time, Joseph was extremely ill, and his wife Katherine was the one meddling his business in the Jackson Estate. Jonathan got into her head, making her believe that Alfred was betraying them even before he actually did. That's why she refused to let him see her husband.

That was the decisive point for Alfred, that accepted to help to change big part of Joseph's will, without him noticing. There was nobody except for Katherine in Joseph's side. This scheme was something that Jonathan had been planning ever since his younger brother achieved something he had always wanted.

And all because of greed and power, he took everything away from his sister-in-law and nephew.

When Alfred reached out to help Katherine, he got to know that she committed suicide. But he couldn't -and didn't- believe it. That's why he hired someone to look after the case... only getting to know that Jonathan was the one that got Katherine killed and framed it as a suicide.

Jonathan got to know a few years later that Alfred knew too much, and possibly his wife too. Some informants told him that they were gathering information against him, that's why... he decided to cut them off.

Louisa was in her teenage years when she got under Jonathan's wing. He didn't adopt her but gave her a home and education. President Jackson was Louisa's personal hero for years, until she grew up and started gathering information that made her realize who the real monster was.

Reminiscing about what happened that morning, Louisa couldn't help but feel sad. But she was also feeling bad as she looked at the ring on her left hand, the one that she found out that her former fiancée had made just for her.

"I'm sorry that I whined about not having a ring", Louisa said, lying on her bed as she looked at the ceiling. "You were making your best and I took you for granted... gosh, I really feel bad now", she mumbled as she covered her face with her hands.

She knew that Georgie would understand how she felt now. He always knew.

Even though she wanted to think about him, her mind drifted away to think of Michael. She was having small memories of him doing certain gestures or him reacting this way or that way. Despite what he had done before, she also started to see that he was trying hard not to be mean with her.

Maybe he was starting to see that she wasn't the bad guy. Just as it was happening for her since President Jackson had revealed his true self to her.

As she was falling asleep, the last memory in her mind was of Michael waiting for her at the house of her dreams.

The next morning, she found an envelope in her mailbox. The content of it was the whole real story about her father, Joseph and Jonathan. Jonathan wasn't the person she thought he was. He was a bad person.