New Life : A Second Chance

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The moment Philip left the board room, he quickly took out his phone and called his family. He wanted to warn them and tell them to leave immediately.

The phone kept on ringing without connecting.

Although he felt fear, he pushed it aside for now. There were many reasons why one didn\'t pick up the phone, right?

They could be in the bathroom.

Driving.

So many reasons.

However, after he got into the car and was heading home, the things he said to convince himself sounded lame.

More so because no one from his family was picking up their phone.

"Hurry up!!" Philip shouted at his driver, his heart full of fear.

Just as he was nearing his house, there were sirens heard and the car went to the side to allow the emergency vehicle through.

Philip had a bad feeling.

Fire engine trucks, followed by an ambulance, passed by.

The moment it did, Philip urged the driver to go faster. His eyes strained to look ahead and at the sky.

He saw dark smoke.

His heart dropped.

It couldn\'t be …

No, it couldn\'t be …

At that moment, Philip suddenly remembered one of the things he learned prior to the Smith Heir Test.

There was only one way to deal with traitors: total annihilation.

He had scoffed when he read that, thinking that the ancestors were being so dramatic. Everything reeked of archaic rules that he felt was unsuitable for modern times. Hence, he promptly forgot about them.

When he reached his home, he realised that while he had thought them to be archaic, it was obvious that Patrick and Kyle did not.

He rushed out of his car, dashing to the burning house, only to be stopped by the police there.

"I\'m sorry, Sir, you can\'t go in," he said sternly.

"That\'s my house! My family is in there!!" Philip wailed.

A flash of sadness went through the officer\'s eyes and he turned to look at his superior before saying, "Mr. Smith?"

Philip hated that name now.

A Smith was responsible for this.

"What about my family? How are they? Are they safe?!" Philip asked, clutching the policeman\'s shirt.

"Come with me," the officer said.

For a brief second, Philip had hope until the officer said once they were away from public eyes, "I\'m sorry for your loss, Sir."

"What?" Philip said, shocked, "No, you can\'t mean …"

The office was silent, his head down as he turned to a certain direction. Philip looked where the officer was looking.

Four bodies, covered with a cloth, being attended to by the emergency response team. \'Attended\' to here, was basically them transporting the bodies underneath the cloth into a body bag, and onto a stretcher.

"NOOOOOO!!" Philip shouted, rushing over.

It couldn\'t be.

"Sir, I\'m afraid I have to tell you to step back," one medic was saying.

"That\'s my house! They may be my family!" Philip said frantically. Until he saw the bodies himself, he would not believe it was them.

"I have to check!"

The medic took a deep breath and stood up, going over to Philip.

"Their bodies have been burnt beyond recognition," the man said slowly, looking at Philip in the eye, "But we found these on them."

Philip looked down and wailed.

In his hands, were items that his family never left home without: wife\'s wedding ring, his eldest son\'s Cartier watch, his daughter\'s charm bracelet and his youngest son\'s stupid earring.

The medic looked at the crying man in pity, patted his shoulder and went back to his work. Philip just stood there, crying, with the items in his hands.

Then, anger started to burn in his heart.

This was Kyle\'s fault!

He would make him pay!!

He would make all of them pay!!

He turned, then everything went black.

When Philip came to, he found himself in a dark room. He shook his head, wincing at the pain that came.

His head hurt badly, a sign that he had been knocked unconscious.

Where was he?

Philip tried to look around, but could not see anything. It was total darkness. The thing he was on was soft, and not the cold floor, and he was curious about that.

Why make him comfortable? Why was he not tied?

There was a gentle breeze wafting in, and that told Philip that there was a window somewhere.

With a smile, he lay back down on the bed.

If there is a window, then there would be light eventually.

He decided to wait.

Philip actually fell asleep while waiting and when he woke up, the room was now bright.

He shot up in bed, aghast to see a nonchalant Kyle just standing there, leaning against the wall and observing him quietly.

"YOU!!" Philip snarled and attacked.

Kyle avoided the fist that was coming at him at the last minute. He grabbed the offending hand, twisted it and smashed Philip against the wall.

Pressing on his back from behind, Kyle said in his ear, "How does it feel to see your entire family dead? All because of you."

"NO! It was you! YOU!"

Kyle snorted, "Delusional as always. Your pride and ego is your downfall, and you brought your family down with you."

"Philip, how could you?"

Philip shuddered upon hearing that voice, "Emily?"

Sounds of people crying and wailing were heard, "Daddy! Daddy! Save us!!"

"Emily?!"

Kyle let Philip go and Philip turned, to see that the wall where his bed was, had been turned into a wide screen projector.

It showed his family, huddled together and crying.

"Enjoy the show," Kyle said as he silently left.