Page 73 of Abigail's King

Chapter Thirty-Three

Davi

It had been almost nineteen years since I had last seen or spoken to Ricardo. We had both been young men when he left, but from what I gathered, he had taken a far different path than me or his brother. When he walked out that evening, he had been in a dark place, and I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to see him again. Knowing that he was still alive was both a relief and a worry.

What kind of a man had he turned into? The path he seemed to be taking all those years ago was one I couldn’t condone. I had tried to stop him, but the hot-headed man he was, he would never listen.

I had tried to contact him several times over the years and in the past twenty-four hours, but he had either changed his number or didn’t want to reply. I was desperate to see him, to find out how he was getting on, and I knew exactly how to do it. That was why I was currently on my way to Eduardo and Maria’s house to see if they had any news on Ricardo. Pulling up outside their house, I got out of the car and went to knock on the door.

Someone must have realised that I had arrived, because before I could even place my hand on the door, it was opened and I was greeted by Mateus.

“Davi, I am so glad you are here. I was going to try to get hold of you. We need your help.”

I was quite taken aback, but duly followed Mateus into the kitchen, where I found his mum sitting there looking as though she had been crying, along with a very stern-looking Eduardo. It was Eduardo that spoke first.

“Davi, it’s good to see you after so long. As Mateus said, we need your help.”

He continued to explain everything that had been happening over the past few months. How Ricardo had returned to Madeira with Abigail and they had fallen in love. The most shocking thing to hear was Abigail was now pregnant with twins, but that Ricardo didn’t either know or care. I could feel the anger building in me. How could he do this to someone that loved him after everything he had gone through with Sofia and Mateus? I was surprised when it was Mateus who came to his defense, obviously sensing my anger.

“You must understand that Ricardo – or Kye, as he is now calling himself – is not in a good place. If you thought he was bad when he left here eighteen years ago, take that and multiply it by ten. The last time I spoke to him, he was more like a machine than a man. There was no emotion to him whatsoever. His darkness has returned, but this time, I’m not sure we will be able to pull him out of it.”

I sat there a moment. If they couldn’t pull him out, then how on earth was I going to do anything?

“So, how do you think I will be able to help?”

“I have an idea. If we can get Ricardo and Abigail together, I was hoping that seeing she is pregnant might give him the kick he needs. I just need some way of getting him out of the house, and that’s where you come in.”

Mateus explained his idea of me getting together with the rest of Ricardo’s old band. Mateus could bring Abigail down to meet us all. If we could get Ricardo to come to the practice, then perhaps we might be able to pull him out of the deep depression he had gotten himself into.

“It’s not ridiculous. In fact, we were getting together in the church hall tomorrow. The problem is, how do we get hold of Ricardo? He hasn’t answered any of my calls.”

“I have thought of that as well. However, it is risky. I can give you the codes to get into his house. But I’m not sure what you are going to find when you get there. I can come with you, but it’s probably best that I don’t come in. We didn’t exactly part on good terms again.”

I couldn’t help but feel worried. The last time I had walked into this situation, Ricardo had a knife in his hands. He was eighteen years older now. What if this time he had a gun? I just had to pray that we were in time. I couldn’t handle being the one to have to tell Maria and Eduardo that their son had killed himself, but knowing his state of mind as it was then, there was a strong possibility that was what I was walking into. Agreeing this was the best course of action, I grabbed all the codes from Mateus and headed over to Ricardo’s house.

I had never seen Ricardo’s house before, and driving up towards it, I was quite shocked. Whatever he had been doing for the past eighteen years must have paid well. Looking at this place, it wouldn’t have surprised me if whatever it was had been was illegal, because that would be the only way someone like Ricardo could have earned this kind of money. Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t stupid, but he was more likely to turn to a life of crime than become a corporate banker or stockbroker.

I pulled up outside the house, got out of the car, and headed towards the front door. When I entered the code that Mateus had given me, the door unlocked, and I walked through it and into the house. The place was a complete mess. It looked as though someone had ransacked it. There wasn’t a single thing left in place that wasn’t broken. I called out Ricardo’s name, but there was no reply. It was then that I caught the smell of smoke. I followed the smell into a study.

In the middle of the room, I could see a leather chair positioned towards the huge windows at the end of the room. I could see the cigarette smoke coming up from the chair. Countless bottles, which I presumed to be empty, were lying on the floor, with one bottle and a half-empty glass sitting on the table next to the chair.

“Ricardo?”

Still, there was no reply. Cautiously, I walked up to the chair, and with some distance between us, I went around the front and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Sitting in the chair was a man I both recognised and didn’t, a cigarette in one hand and a gun in the other, pointed at his head.

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