**Revenge for Mum**
“Your daughter is with us. Bring £100,000, and she stays alive. Ill send the meeting point later,” said a heavily distorted male voice.
“You… try giving me orders!” roared Michael, but the caller had already hung up.
Michael was known as a meticulous, cautious, and often ruthless manexcept when it came to his beloved wife, Charlotte, and adored daughter, Emily. Even then, his patience had limits.
At the slightest defiance, hed remind them: “Im the head of this house! I provide for all of you!”
And it was true. Hed bought their home in a gated estate, his wife only worked to show off her dresses, and Emily drove to university in a brand-new carhis gift. Yet his family sometimes forgot their place.
Hed had to “lay down the law” again when he discovered Emily was dating an up-and-coming violinist named Oliver.
“Hes not good enough for you! You wont see him again!” Michael snapped. “What kind of man makes a living scraping a violin?”
And the boy was scrawny. Some intellectual!
“Im going to marry him! Thats my choice!” Emily had inherited his stubbornness.
“I raised you, so *I* decide!”
“Im 18, Dador did you forget? Im an adult and”
“Enough! My word is final. As long as I pay your way, *I* decide.”
Emily fled in tears. Charlotte sulked for days, but Michael didnt carehed spoken.
Besides, he had real problemsunlike his daughters tantrums.
His childhood friend, Jack, with whom hed built a concrete-block business over a decade ago, was stirring trouble again.
Theyd only just cleared their debts, built a solid team, and greased the right palms to turn a decent profit. But Jacknever satisfiedkept pushing expansions and whining about stagnation.
Their usual arguments were short, but this time, Jack dug in his heels. “Then we split the business,” he said. “I wont rot in this swamp!”
As if his ideas werent enoughMichael was the one who had to clean up the mess!
For weeks, things settled. Jack dropped his schemes, Emily attended classes and stayed home nightsno mention of Oliver. Then Michael spotted her arm-in-arm with some lanky stranger.
“Emily! What are you doing out this late?” He slammed his car to a halt beside them. “And whos *this*?”
In the dim light, it took a moment to recognise the boythen he scoffed.
“You traded down from that violinist? Defying me now? Get in the car!”
Emily scowled but hesitated, until her companion spoke up.
“Who gave you the right to talk to people like that?” The boy jutted his chin. “Think your money makes you”
“Youve got it right, *boy*I *can*, and I *do*,” Michael cut in. “But *you* wont have a job tomorrow.” He turned to Emily. “Now*move*!”
She glanced at the boy, shook her head slightly*dont*then slipped into the car.
*Thats more like it.*
And the ladMichael remembered nowwas a labourer at his yard. Cheeky sod. Hed dealt with worse.
Order restored: with Jack, with his family. Until a week later, he saw Emily again with that ex-labourer, Liam.
They vanished before he could confront them, but at home, a blazing row awaited.
To his shock, Charlotte sided with Emily. They called him a tyrant, said living with him was unbearable.
“Then leave! No ones keeping you!” he snarled.
And they didbags in hand, faces a mix of grief and scorn. Fine. Lets see how long they lasted without him.
He was sure theyd come crawling back. So when Charlotte called a week later, he wasnt surprised.
“Michael, Emilys missing!” she gasped. “Two days goneher phones off! Were at Sarahs, butshould we call the police?”
Ah. Theyd moved in with her friend.
“No police. Come home. *Ill* find her.”
He had no plan, but involving the authorities was out of the question.
As he weighed options, his phone rang again.
“Your daughter is with us. Bring £100,000, and she stays alive. Ill send the meeting point later.”
“You little!” Michael spat, but the line went dead.
A video link followedEmily, dishevelled and teary, hands bound but alive, staring silently into the camera.
*Ill bury them all.* But he needed help. Despite their feud, Jack agreed to assist with the drop.
“Shouldnt we call the police?” Jack wavered. “That much cash”
“No. Ill handle this myself. And were keeping the money.”
Confident as ever, Michael grew surer when they arrived at the derelict factory, and out stepped Liam.
“You little rat!” Michael lunged, but Jack yanked him back. “*Stop.* We dont know where Emily is.”
Liam stood on a ledge ten feet away, smirking. “Drop the bag there.” He nodded at a cracked-open sewer grate.
Michael glared but obeyed.
“Perfect.” Liam turned to leave.
“You think youll get away with this? Wheres Emily?”
“Shes fine. Alive and well. Shell contact you soonif she wants to.”
“Are you *stupid*?” Michaels fury faltered at Liams calm. “Ill still find you and”
“I dont care. I did what I had toavenged my mum.”
“*What* mum?”
“Margaret. Worked as your cleaner for seven years,” Liam said, jaw tight. “Caught your wife in bed with another man. Aunt Charlotte sacked her on the spotsaid she stole.”
“Because she *did*!”
“Right. Just shut her up. No proof but her word. Would *you* have believed her?” He swallowed hard. “Mum had a bad heartraised me alone, slaved for pennies at your place”
His voice cracked. “Next day, she collapsed in the street. No one helped. Doctors said it was a heart attack.
“If not for your family Shed be alive. I wouldnt have wound up in care.”
“And now youll wind up in prison,” Michael said flatly. “Howd you even rope Emily into this? Shed never”
“She didnt *have* to.” Liam wiped his eyes, smirking. “We planned it together. The moneys already safe. Youd have to arrest your own daughter.”
“*What?* Emily would *never*! Where is she? Whatve you done?”
“If you hadnt meddled, shed have told me to sod off. None of this wouldve happened.” Liam narrowed his eyes. “She loves Oliver. *Loves* him. But you wouldnt know about that, would you?”
“You!”
“Or ask your *mate* about love,” Liam called over the roar of his motorbikehidden nearby. “Hes the one your wife cheated with!”
He sped off, weaving through rubble.
Michael punched Jack. For the betrayal, for everything. Jack didnt fight back.
He divorced Charlotte, leaving her a tiny flat. The business? No share for herhed paid enough for her sins. She didnt argue, only begged him not to report Emily.
But he wasnt a complete monsterno police. Emily never showed her face again, dropped out of uni.
Rumour said she and Oliver moved abroad. Maybe one day theyd return.
*Who knows?*
**Pride breaks more than heartssometimes, it shatters families.**
