Lock Me Up You’ll Pay

Fifteen years ago, the brutally mutilated corpse of a stranger was discovered in the center of my bedroom.

My parents, fueled by a sickening sense of righteous fury, pointed their fingers at me. They swore to the police that I was the killer. My twin brother sobbed uncontrollably, begging me to just confess and spare the family any more pain. My wife, the CEO of a rising tech firm, handed me divorce papers before the blood on my floor had even dried.

I was convicted and thrown into a maximum security prison. The victims family paid off the inmates. They crushed my vocal cords, leaving me with a raspy croak. They shattered the bones in my arms and legs, making sure they healed crooked.

I endured that absolute hell for fifteen agonizing years.

On the exact day I was finally released, my ex-wife and my twin brother were waiting for me at the prison gates. They were both wearing matching platinum wedding bands.

My brother looked at me, his face twisted in an expression of deep, exaggerated pity. "Brother, you have finally paid for your sins. From now on, we will take good care of you."

The prison guard standing next to me placed a heavy hand on my crooked shoulder, his voice thick with condescension. "Your brother and his wife are Saints for taking you in. Make sure you turn over a new leaf and actually try to be a human being this time."

A cold, hollow smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth.

Because fifteen years ago, the person who butchered that stranger and left the body in my room wasn't me.

It was my twin brother.

...

Before I could even take a full breath of free air, a swarm of aggressive journalists, led right to me by my brother Lucas, completely surrounded us. Flashbulbs exploded like mortar fire, blinding me.

"Mr. Vance, you brutally murdered and mutilated an innocent person, yet you only served fifteen years. Did your early release have anything to do with the massive financial influence of your sister-in-law, CEO Olivia Cross?"

"The victim's family has publicly stated they want you dead. Do you have a response?"

"In the last fifteen years, have you felt even a single shred of remorse for the monster you became?"

They surged forward like a pack of starving wolves, shoving heavy microphones so close they nearly chipped my teeth.

The chaotic, overlapping shadows instantly dragged my mind back into the suffocating nightmare of the prison yard beatings. Pure survival instinct took over. I threw my arms over my head and scrambled backward, but my badly healed leg gave out, and I crashed hard onto the concrete.

"Don't... please don't hit me..."

In the middle of the ensuing chaos, my ex-wife Olivia pushed her way through the mob, using her body as a shield to block the rabid reporters.

"My husband's brother was convicted of manslaughter, and he has served his full sentence. There was absolutely no financial bribery involved in his release. If you vultures continue to harass him, my legal team will bury you in lawsuits!"

Her icy, corporate authority finally made the journalists back off. They dispersed, grumbling in disappointment.

Only then did Lucas step forward. He knelt down, offering me a hand with a face plastered in fake concern.

"Brother, are you okay? Thank God I asked Olivia to come with me. I am so, so sorry. I had no idea the press would track us down..."

Olivia wrapped her arm around Lucas's waist, pulling him close, her voice dripping with soft reassurance.

"This is not your fault, Lucas. Do not blame yourself."

I slapped his outstretched hand away. Gritting my teeth against the shooting pain in my leg, I struggled to stand up under my own power, forcing my permanently hunched spine as straight as I possibly could.

"Keep your fake sympathy to yourself!"

In front of these two monsters, I refused to look completely broken.

I dragged my bad leg, limping stubbornly toward the sleek black SUV waiting by the curb.

Lucas squeezed in right next to me in the backseat. He deliberately rested his hand on his knee, letting the sunlight catch the massive diamond on his ring finger. His tone was coated in an artificial layer of guilt, but the sheer, gloating triumph in his eyes was blinding.

"Brother, Olivia and I actually got married fifteen years ago. When you went to prison for murder, my health took a massive downturn. She proposed to me so she could legally take care of me."

He let out a sharp, dramatic gasp, covering his mouth as if he had just realized his mistake, and offered me a sheepish smile.

"But do not worry, brother. Olivia and I already talked it over. You can live in our guest house. After rotting in a cell for a decade and a half, even if you used to be a genius, there is no way you can survive on your own now."

"Lucas!"

Olivia snapped, cutting off his relentless gloating. She caught my eye in the rearview mirror, her voice immediately softening.

"Your brother just got out of prison. Let him rest."

Lucas let out an annoyed, petulant sigh and turned away.

I turned my head, staring blankly out the tinted window as the city skyline blurred past. My mind was dragged unwillingly into the past.

Fifteen years ago, I was a shark. I was the top venture capitalist on the East Coast. Desperate entrepreneurs literally threw briefcases of cash at my feet, begging for a fraction of my attention.

When Olivia launched her tech startup, every single dime of her initial capital, and every bridge loan that kept her afloat, came directly from my personal accounts and my aggressive market maneuvers.

She used to grip my hands, her eyes shining with pure worship, swearing that she would spend the rest of her life protecting me. Promising I would never suffer a single injustice as long as she drew breath.

But fifteen years in a concrete box completely incinerated my genius. The brutal beatings shattered my nerves and left me hollow.

The brilliant, high-stakes world that used to bow to me had locked its doors and thrown away the key a long time ago.

When the SUV finally parked, I looked up at the sprawling estate, and for a split second, my brain short-circuited.

The 'guest house' Lucas had so generously offered me was actually the massive, custom-built mansion Olivia and I had designed as our marital home.

My parents rushed out of the front doors. They completely ignored me, swarming Lucas, checking if he was tired, asking if the drive was stressful.

I stood off to the side, a complete stranger, watching their sickeningly sweet family reunion.

Olivia popped the trunk and grabbed my single, battered duffel bag. "Mom, Dad. Julian is home."

My parents froze. The warm smiles vanished instantly. They turned to look at me, and identical expressions of pure, visceral disgust twisted their faces.

My father spat on the manicured grass. "Olivia, I told you not to bring this psychopathic butcher back to our house!"

My mother crossed her arms, glaring at me like I was a disease. "Exactly. Just having him stand in the driveway makes the air feel polluted."

A dull, delayed ache throbbed in my chest.

For twenty-something years, my parents were meticulously, obsessively fair. If they cut an apple for us, they made sure Lucas and I got pieces that were measured to the exact millimeter.

I truly believed they loved us equally. It wasn't until the blood hit my bedroom floor fifteen years ago that I realized that 'equality' was nothing but a delusion I had built to survive.

Lucas grabbed their arms, leaning in affectionately. "Mom, Dad, brother just spent fifteen years in a cage. Do it for me, okay? Just tolerate him."

My parents let out identical, heavy scoffs and turned their backs on me.

Dinner was a silent, agonizing affair. Afterward, I was escorted to a tiny, windowless storage closet at the back of the property.

I stared at the bare, splintered sheet of plywood propped up on milk crates that they called a bed. I didn't say a word.

Late that night, I curled into a tight ball on the hard wood. I couldn't sleep.

In the cell block, the shot-caller made sure I suffered. He paid the night shift inmates to stare at me. The second my eyes closed, the heavy steel-toed boots started raining down on my ribs.

"Knock, knock."

I violently flinched, my heart slamming against my ribs. It took several agonizing seconds for my brain to process that I wasn't in the block anymore.

Listening to the persistent knocking, I slowly dragged myself off the plywood. I opened the door, saw who was standing in the shadows, and my hands instantly balled into fists.

"What the hell do you want?"

Olivia looked at me, her face painted with deep concern. "It is your first night out. I was worried you couldn't sleep. I just came to check on you."

My voice was like cracked ice. "Get out. Take your fake pity somewhere else."

She just looked at me, an indulgent, almost patient expression on her face.

It was the exact same look she gave me sixteen years ago.

The night I walked into our bedroom and found her and Lucas entirely naked, tangled up in our sheets. I lost my mind. I screamed until my throat bled.

She just stood there, shielding Lucas's naked body with her own, letting me break everything in the room.

When I finally collapsed from exhaustion, she looked at me with that exact same patient, soft expression.

"Lucas and I just had too much to drink. Nothing happened. You are overreacting."

The face from my nightmares perfectly overlapped with the woman standing in front of me now.

She reached out, her soft fingers wrapping around my scarred wrist. Her thumb stroked my ruined skin, sending a wave of absolute revulsion crashing through my body.

"Do not touch me!"

I yanked my arm back violently, but she held on tight.

"Julian, you are the only man I have ever loved. I only married Lucas because he threatened to cut your family off. Our marriage is purely on paper..."

I let out a harsh, barking laugh. "Really? You took care of my family by taking my brother to bed? Lucas practically bragged at dinner that you had a miscarriage with his kid."

Olivia stepped forward, aggressively trying to force her way into my personal space. "Julian, it isn't what you think! I have been waiting for you to come home for fifteen years! I promised I would protect you!"

I shoved her hard in the chest, stumbling backward.

"Are you that desperate? You want to sleep with a crippled ex-con? Or do you just get a sick thrill out of playing both brothers?"

Her eyes filled with theatrical tears. "Julian..."

"What the hell is going on here?!"

Lucas's shrill, furious scream echoed down the dark hallway.

He stomped toward us, flanked on both sides by my parents, who were glaring at me like I was a rabid dog.

Olivia quickly stepped away from me, rushing to Lucas's side, whispering frantic apologies into his ear.

Lucas shoved past her, marching right up to me, and drove a vicious backhand across my face.

"You ungrateful bastard! I bring you into my home out of the kindness of my heart, and on your very first night, you try to seduce my wife?! She belongs to me now!"

"Have you absolutely no shame?!"

I swallowed the warm metallic taste of blood pooling in my mouth and spat on the floor. "I didn't touch her."

Seeing his face twist in rabid paranoia, a dark, vindictive urge flared up inside me. I smirked, letting my raspy voice drop.

"But even if I did, I learned the trick from you."

"The very first time I brought Olivia home to meet the family, didn't you put on my favorite pajamas and sneak into the guest room while she was sleeping?"

Ever since we were children, Lucas was obsessed with stealing whatever I loved.

The night I brought Olivia home, he didn't even try to hide his intentions. He aggressively threw himself at her.

Back then, Olivia actually had a spine. She explicitly rejected him and chose me.

When my parents tried to sweep his disgusting behavior under the rug to keep the peace, she was the one who stood her ground, demanding they hold him accountable.

But somewhere around our third anniversary, Olivia's moral compass shattered, and she started drifting into Lucas's bed.

My father stepped forward and slapped me so hard my head snapped to the side. "Are you still spewing this venom?! Olivia already proved that night was a misunderstanding! Why are you so obsessed with destroying your brother!"

My mother wrapped her arms around Lucas, pulling him close like a terrified toddler. She shot a venomous look at Olivia.

"He is a convicted murderer! Why couldn't you just write him a check and let him die on the streets?! Why did you bring this psychopath back to terrorize our family!"

I pressed my hand against my burning cheek and let out a broken, raspy laugh.

"A murderer? I am not the one who killed that man."

My parents froze completely, the color draining from their faces until they looked like corpses.

My father's voice violently trembled. "What... what the hell are you talking about?"

Ignoring the agony shooting through my shattered legs, I locked my knees and stood up perfectly straight, burning the sheer, naked panic on their faces into my memory.

"Lucas was the one holding the knife. If the two of you hadn't used your status as my parents to commit perjury and block my legal counsel, I never would have..."

Olivia smoothly stepped between us, her voice calm but laced with a lethal, undeniable threat.

"Julian, you have already served your time. There is absolutely no point in digging up old delusions."

"Lucas lost his temper tonight, and I apologize on his behalf. Stop spinning these wild conspiracy theories. Get some rest. We will leave you alone."

She grabbed Lucas by the bicep, her grip tight enough to bruise, and practically dragged him and my parents down the hall.

The second the heavy door clicked shut, my knees buckled, and I slid down the rough wood until I hit the floor.

The adrenaline evaporated, leaving me drowning in a cold, suffocating sweat.

But I knew one thing for certain. If I collapsed now, I was dead.

For the next week, my parents treated me like I was completely invisible.

Olivia would occasionally shoot me intense, lingering glances across the dining room, while Lucas stopped trying to bait me after realizing I was utterly unresponsive to his gloating.

I finally let myself breathe. The uneasy truce gave me the exact window of silence I needed to start digging into the buried evidence from fifteen years ago.

Until one afternoon, as I limped past the heavy oak doors of the study, I heard my father's furious voice leaking through the wood.

"Olivia, I know you still feel guilty about Julian. But the boy is a complete psychopath! He refuses to accept his reality, and now he is plotting to frame Lucas!"

My mother immediately chimed in, her voice shrill with panic. "If we hadn't tipped off the police fifteen years ago, the jury would have given him the lethal injection! We did everything we could to save his life! We owe him absolutely nothing!"

Lucas's voice was shaking. He played the victim perfectly, pouring gasoline on an open fire.

"This is all my fault. I never should have married you, Olivia. Julian has every right to want me dead."

My mother slammed her hand on a desk. "Olivia, what exactly are you planning to do with that monster?"

A suffocating, heavy silence hung in the room for a long time. Finally, Olivia's cold, calculating voice cut through the tension.

"Mom, Dad. Do not worry. I will permanently resolve the situation."

I pulled my hand away from the oak door, lowered my eyes, and silently walked away.

I was not ready to detonate the bomb yet. I needed just a few more days to gather the shrapnel.

But I never anticipated they would strike with such lethal speed.

As I walked out of the physical therapy clinic downtown, a crushing blow slammed into the back of my neck. The world instantly went black.

When I finally regained consciousness, a thick, filthy blindfold covered my eyes. A foul-tasting rag was jammed so far down my throat I couldn't even gag.

"Brother, if we actually go through with this, aren't we just as evil as the monster who butchered our mother?" a young woman's voice trembled in the darkness.

"Shut your mouth! That psychopath butchered mom in cold blood, and the corrupt justice system let him out after fifteen years! I will not let him breathe the same air as us! Plus, the guy paying for the hit is dropping ten million dollars into our laps!"

The blindfold was violently ripped off. A man with a jagged scar running down his cheek grabbed my jaw, his fingers digging painfully into the bone.

I quickly scanned the dimly lit, cavernous space. The girl who was crying earlier was nowhere to be seen.

The scarred man patted my cheek mockingly before ripping the filthy rag out of my mouth.

"You are seconds away from burning in hell, and you still have the nerve to look around?"

I forced my racing heart to slow down. "If this is about the money, I have an encrypted offshore account in Geneva..."

Before I could finish the sentence, a heavy steel-toed boot slammed directly into my stomach.

The agonizing pain folded me completely in half, but the man didn't stop. He viciously kicked my ribs over and over again.

"This isn't about your dirty money! Because of you, our mother bled to death! Because of you, our father abandoned us, and we grew up eating out of dumpsters! You destroyed our lives!"

He stood over me, panting heavily. He grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked my head back, forcing me to look at him.

"But God is good. Someone wrapped you up with a bow and dropped you right in my lap so I could finally get justice for my mother."

"I swear... it wasn't me..."

Another brutal punch smashed into my mouth. The metallic taste of blood flooded my throat.

"Shut up! Murderers don't get to speak!"

He shoved the filthy rag back into my mouth, took three steps back, and pulled a heavy black detonator from his jacket.

"The explosives are homemade, but they pack enough punch to turn you into red mist."

No! I finally found the thread that could unravel the last fifteen years! I couldn't die in this rotting warehouse!

I thrashed like a wild animal. The heavy industrial zip ties sliced through my skin, grinding against the bone, but they wouldn't snap.

The digital beeping of the timer echoed off the concrete walls. Every single beep felt like a sledgehammer hitting my chest.

Three... Two... One...

BOOM!

A blinding wall of fire and a supersonic shockwave of pure agony ripped through the air. Tears of absolute, burning rage rolled down my cheeks.

Just as my consciousness began to shatter, a dark figure tore through the wall of flames. The figure threw themselves over me, shielding my body from the blast wave.

And then, the agony completely vanished into the dark.