Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 236: The Questions Asked

Chapter 236: The Questions Asked

By now the documentary was well over an hour and Talia thought that was it. But then the narrator described how the documentary will begin only then.

Their Secret Life!

Talia was stunned to see how her tantrum that transfered that maths teacher was exposed.

It was off the record!

And her stay in the mental hospital for depression.

How did this guy get this detail?

And he had proofs that all her boyfriends cheated on her.

Ugh! That stings!

And then the narration went on about everyone else. The secret parties they had on their birthdays and the illegal drugs they used, the fornication that happened in those parties... The hazing of the poor kids, the violence against the unfortunate and their utter disregard for their country and common people.

There were pictures, short video clips, recorders audio and many proof for every allegations that made against those elites. There was also a newspaper article of a boy missing and the recording of a couple of boys laughing how they ’disposed’ that boy after he died of their harassment.

That was not all. There were censored videos of some boys and girls ’running a train’ on a girl tied to a bed, who was later found dead in her room as she killed herself and many other videos of those sneering boys and girls harassing and violently beating some others who were blurred.

Many of those aggressors usually had a humanitarian tag attached to them since they were patrons of some charities and they always conducted themselves polity in the public, gaining a very graceful, classy and gentlemanly reputation.

But their secret life... It was despicable with their weird fetishes behind closed doors.

There were even testimonials from some of those victims whose identity was protected and they couldn’t hold back their tears as they couldn’t talk about what happened to them. Some blamed themselves for wanting to be friends with those elites to have a taste at their glittering lifestyle and ended up getting treated worse than a farm animal by them.

Talia who was not strong at heart, couldn’t bear to hear the tear filled testimonials of those poor victims and their denial of justice. One girl who was one of the elites explained how the injustice to her was solved by The Duke of Oakley but she couldn’t speak more as she didn’t want to burden the one who helped her.

The narrator explained that he still had more footages that were taken from many private parties of these young elites, but he is not going to release them. He said that these parties he included in his documentary were funded by the taxpayers themselves. He showed the receipts with their money transfer informations.

Talia sighed. Most of these parties were the coming of age parties of the young Lords and Ladies. When the heirs to the noble families turn eighteen, they would be eligible to collect a grant from the government as the future members of the Council who work for the people. As they come of age, they will be required to start working for the people and the grant is their salary.

It usually gets closer to a million dollars per year depending on the title of their fathers. And these people had used that money from the taxpayers to spend for themselves and their friends in this utterly ridiculous way.

Sophia was exposed as a lying, narcissistic manipulator in the Documentary. She was so manipulative many elites were scared to get close to her fearing that they will be thrown under the bus by her.

Apparently, in high school, she had accused a boy of trying to force her when he rescued her from an abuser. The abuser was from a notable family and so to get on his good side, she threw the other boy who rescued her, under the bus.

Crazy woman!

Talia wondered who that poor boy might be.

Of all the elites mentioned in the documentary, only Cyril was the one with impeccable records even better than Roderick’s.

How could there be such perfect person?

As the documentary proceeded, the narrator explained the ’new evil’ that had set foot in Esteria. The one who is equally as despicable as the elites of Esteria and so was welcomed with open arms by the establishment elites - Olivia Graham.

There was a long rant of Olivia when she advised those highly intoxicated people how they might lose their grant money if Talia is left back in.

The Brunton Family never accepted the grant in four decades. And Talia talks about it too. If she is allowed back, her voice will be heard and people will start to wake up and so she must be hidden from the media.

And all Olivia’s past life and lovers were exposed. And her grudge against Talia for years well documented by her friends were also included.

Olivia is on par with the other elites!

The narrator didn’t fail to include the Sinclair family who are the ruling family of Esteria. Roderick didn’t have much and Arthur had his handful of fights during his high school days, which the narrator brushed off as a ’hormonal ginger doing ginger stuff’ and Talia couldn’t help but laugh.

He’s a hot-headed red head. Who can refute that?

Ray on the other hand had his list of atrocities that wasn’t shy of the other elites. And his death was a mystery too.

As the pictures of Ray was shown in a party, Talia felt her heart skip seeing Cyrus there. Sitting on a couch, there was a naked woman on his lap and they were doing ’it’ right in the midst of others.

Did Cyrus attend these parties really? Why didn’t he tell me?

However that was the only picture of Cyrus there and seeing the other pictures, Talia felt something was odd.

She paused the video on the collage of photographs with Ray and walked to the big screen. The video quality was very good and in that big screen Talia felt like she was amidst those people in the photograph.

She felt there was something weird, but she didn’t know what. Looping the video in the part where Ray was discussed and Talia finally sound something.

This party in the picture where Cyrus attended some months before his death. She could say it by the tattoo he had on his finger then.

And one of the attendees of the party... Ms. Langdon, the exchange student... Sister of Camellia.

Also... Some of the pictures from the party, judging from the angle of the photographs, should be taken by... Cyrus.

"Do you think this picture was taken by Cyrus, Mr. Ed?" Talia asked just to confirm her observation.

"Everyone’s position is the same as the previous photograph and even the guy walking towards the door, holding the beer is to the right of the person who took this photograph just as he had walked past him. It is very much possible that this photograph is taken by Cyrus Lockhart, Your Highness. I bet it was a pen recorder as you can see him holding in his hand in the next photograph," Mr. Ed confirmed. .

Who is this journalist guy? How long was he investigating? And how did he get pictures taken by Cyrus?

" Make sure no one disturbs me for a while, Sir Robert, " Talia got serious and walked to the recliner and placed her laptop on her lap.

Seeing Mr Ed not leaving, she stared at him without moving a single muscle of her hands over the keyboard.

" Bring me a cup of tea, Sir Robert," Talia said with a half smile.

Mr Ed was not a fool. He understood what Talia meant and went out and closed the door.

His Princess wants to be alone!

Running some codes to track the IP address of the poster, she leaned on the couch. Her mind was filled with various thoughts.

Did Cyrus plan to expose them back then? Was that the reason his life was taken?

But who is wise enough to plan that impeccably? I’d any of them were smart, they wouldn’t have gotten caught like this.

And what is this journalist’s connection with Cyrus?

The series of codes ran through the big screen too as it was connected to her laptop. Talia was not surprised when the poster was heavily under the protection of layers of firewall.

He will need all the protection in this world after what he did. He just give a death blow to all the noble families of Esteria. How can they refute the allegations against them? Everything had proof.

There is every possibility that the intelligence agencies and some higher-ups in the law enforcement agency know all these stuff about these young elites but they were tied by people powerful than them, not to make an arrest. Or they were corrupt and complicit with everything getting benefits by covering up the crimes of the elites.

But now, with everything exposed to the public, they will have no other way than to investigate and give justice to the victims of the abuse by these elitists.

This guy/girl is so awesome!

As the codes were running, Talia watched the rest of the documentary. There was only a little left and the narrator asked the ones watching some questions.

- Why was Talia Brunton’s crime brought to light and never forgotten, while others’ crimes which were worse and abundant than that of Talia’s crime were kept hidden?

- Why was Talia let to leave the country without even a charge on her name? Did she really kill Cyrus?

- Was the target on Brunton family out of grudge? Is Jerome Brunton being sidelined from the Council because he is the only one left who is just?

- Why was Wallace Pharma refused permission to produce drugs in Esteria? Is this connected to why Brunton was targeted?

- Was the reason behind the targeted harassment against Talia something sinister? Does Talia know something?

- Why was Brunton adamant on Arthur Sinclair taking his mantle? Is he being coerced?

The narrator went on with some other questions too before the credits rolled up.

Closing her eyes, Talia leaned on the recliner comfortably.

Is he really not sure if I killed Cyrus? There is a video! Why did he ask this question?

And the targeted harassment on me is the fault of the media, right? Especially now it was all insinuated by Arthur.

Grandpa... He didn’t want to attend the Council meetings lately because he didn’t like their decisions probably.

And the reason they didn’t want me back... It’s to get the Brunton wealth for themselves.

Talia opened her eyes and looked at the big screen. She watched the codes running that were leading nowhere. The IP address was skipping from one country to another.

Talia decided to do some manual hacking to try and retrace the video.. Soon the room modified for hearing the best sound, was filled with the mild sound of Talia’s clacking keyboard keys.

As she was deep in getting through the firewalls, she heard a thud by her side.

What now? She sighed seeing her soon to be ex-assistant kneeling in front of her.

"Speak!" Talia ordered as she couldn’t understand the wide grin on his face. With his big eyes and smooth skin, he looked kind of cute.