DETAILS: HISTORY OF THE GENTLEMAN

[unconned]

Every story's a waiting game

Matthew Perry Brown was born on October 13, 1978 to Richards Mark Brown and Jennifer Rachel Brown in... His parents' apartment. Not the ideal place to have a baby but the two didn't have much of a choice due to financial difficulties at the time. (Read: Meaning all the time in their case.) They hailed from New York City, the One that Never Slept and the couple lived in an almost-nice neighborhood in a somewhat-nice part of the city. A good, honest and very hard-working class pair that always seemed to be swamped in bills no matter what they did, Richards and Jennifer were a tad old to have their first child and only son. Both of them in their mid 40s at the time of Matthew's birth but they always wanted children despite the hours of both their jobs and the fact Richards' health was never the best. They had a serious talk about and concluded that, yes. They wanted a child or two. Matthew was not a disappointment to them when he came into their lives. At a young age he proved to be not only a handful for the couple but also a clever boy with fast hands and a way with words quite eloquent for his age. He was wily and nimble, constantly needing to move somehow. He was observant and eager to learn things when it was presented to him and it interested him. The last one was essential since he always did like a challenge. Though he tired them out frequently with his antics and his actions, he was a bright light in their lives and the parents tried to provide the most they could for him. Not enough money for school so they taught him what they knew themselves, got him books and encouraged any signs of talents that he showed like his head for maths and his hands for actions and his mouth for such pretty words. They tried to give him the best they could afford since the money leftover after paying the bills, the rent and the other things needed to keep their family running wasn't a lot for his college fund. It was Matthew's father, fondly called 'Pops', who taught him his card tricks and sleight of hands. It was Matthew's mother, 'Momsy', who taught him that he had the prettiest green eyes on the block where they lived. He didn't have a lot of friends growing up. Charming as he was, the neighborhood he lived in didn't have children his own age but that was alright with him. As long as he had his parents he was glad though he wouldn't mind company. He told his parents so on his seventh birthday and, yet after another long discussion with each other, Jennifer and Richards decided to have another child in the family. It would be hard but long as they had each other they can make it. On November 4, 1984, in a hospital this time, Adalinda Calista Brown was born to her happy if not weary parents and a determined big brother who wanted the best for her too. He was enchanted by her on day one and vowed to make sure she always smiled and was always happy. He was a big boy after all having turned 5. It was the arrival of Adalinda, 'Addie' as he happily nicknamed the fair-haired girl, that sparked the loyalty and devotion of Matthew. It was also Addie's arrival that made him finally realize his family's situation. Momsy constantly fretted over the bills when they came and Pops shirts haven't changed in months despite having been mended half a million times. They were always careful with their money, their food. They weren't poor. They couldn't indulge compared to others. It still made Matthew uncomfortable and worried as he grew up. He wanted to help his parents out, get in more money so they didn't always frown when they thought him and his sister were not looking. He wanted to be certain that Addie's future was safe and secure. So he grew up doing little child jobs that he could get from the neighbors and did his best to be serious like Pops though, studying diligently and even turning up his nose against television and toys unless Addie asked him specifically. His parents thought it was cute and patted him on the head during those times, cooing at what a sweet boy he was. Honestly? It annoyed him as he turned 6, 9, 13, 16 as he wanted what he said, what he did to matter because he wanted nothing more than at that time to make his parents proud of him. When he was 17, he tried to get a job at a grocery store and was quickly caught lying about his fake age of 20. When asked by Pops, who apologized to the store manager and promised to keep his kiddo out of trouble long as he could breathe, what one earth that was all about -- He simply explained he wanted to help. Wanted to keep the family close and do his part somehow. Pops smiled at him after he explained his concerns and told him to not worry, to just be a kid for a little longer, to let him and 'the old woman' take care of that. It was why they were here in the first place after all. He and Addie will be safe for a long time. That would be the first encounter Matthew will have when it comes to unfulfilled promises.

I will remember the ups and the downs

Richards and Jennifer Brown died on November 3, 1997 as they were heading to a grocery store to buy ingredients for Addie's birthday cake as a surprise gift. An accident on the intersection on the way there quickly turned into a gloriously messy pile up of twisted metal and dead bodies that could have been avoided if not for a careless driver who had not been paying attention to the roads when the intersection was a mess as it was. Matthew and Addie were in the apartment when the news for the tragedy came up. Matthew didn't even find out from the police. Oh no, it was from good old television. He had been flipping through the channels to find something to watch when he got the news footage of the pile up and saw it all. Saw the scene of the newsworthy circus, the twisted metal, the smoking debris and the crushed pile of scraps and gore that was once his pop's truck squashed at the very bottom of the car wrecks. The reporter just happened to mention, as he stared at the screen and prayed his parents were safe, that it had been just confirmed there were no survivors for this. When the shock of the news ebbed off, Matthew looked for his little sister in the small apartment, found her and hugged her for a long long time to make sure she was really there. His parents were both an only child from both sides of their family when growing up and both of their grandparents had long died before Mattie was born. The money they left behind, after paying their debts and other things, was a modest sum for their two children but not enough for them to live on. Mattie shouldn't be ready to take on the duties of being a guardian of a little girl when he was a child himself? Would he even be willing to take such a responsibility? Yes, yes he was. He was so willing to do so because he already lost his parents, he couldn't bear to lose his sister too simply because he was too incompetent enough to protect her. When the men in blue were knocking on the door of their apartment, Matthew was already planning what to do for Addie's continuing education and welfare, what type of jobs he can bring up and was already trying to rally help from the neighbors to babysit her while he went job scouting. Because like hell he would let anyone separate him and Addie after their parents had just died on them. He was an adult, he pointed out to the cops that came and the social service worker that visited and anyone that would listen to him as he hoped no one separated him and her. He could do it. They just had to let him prove himself. This was a challenge he could do, accomplish if they just believed. They didn't however. They let him try for a short (too short) time but felt like it wasn't enough. They were going to separate the siblings and put Addie in foster care. It was for the best, said the social worker who came to their apartment one afternoon, a few months after their parents' deaths. He tried to learn how to pay the bills, look for a job, take care of himself and a little girl who couldn't understand why they couldn't just wake up their parents from the ground. He tried and there were points for efforts on that but just not enough to make the adults believe him. He wasn't ready for this, he was told, he just wasn't ready but a plus for the trial version. Maybe next time when it was a kid that wasn't his only family member left in the city. They'll come for her in the morning. The same night Matthew came to a decision and an action. He packed clothes for him and his sister and got all the money he could scrap together from his parents' savings littering around the house and his own meager income from some little child jobs he did long ago. He got nonperishable food and items he could pawn off if it ever (and will) come to that. He was only 18 at the time as he and Addie slipped into the night and into New York's embrace but family stuck together. No matter how broken and small it was.

I was once a gentleman but the thief came out in my London town

There wasn't a lot of options for Matthew when it came to the means for fending himself and a little girl. Seeing he had technically kidnapped said little girl and ran away from her to get away from Social Services, it meant he had to keep his head down and wait for the heat to die. Sounded easy enough. He went to a bad part part of the city and found an apartment complex to hide himself and Addie in, the landlord willing to look the other way long as Matthew kept paying a few more dollars than rent needed, and it was okay. There were... Issues, yeah. Like how they had to use fucking candles as light from time to time. Or how the sink didn't work so they had to use the bathtub to wash the dishes. Or how the door on the front lock didn't close all the door so he was forced to teach Addie how to push a chair up against when he left. But it was better than being separated from each other. Now the problem for them back then was what would be their source of income. They couldn't float on their parents' money forever and the jewelry Matthew (reluctantly) sold away could only fetch a so-and-so price. With the police on his tail for the time and him looking just a tad too young to pass for other jobs, he had to look into other alternatives for the dough. He didn't want to get into too much trouble, he was wading deep enough in it at the time already thanks, so he decided stealing it had to be. Quite a jump for him to make but he was desperate at the time. Really desperate since there were the bills to the pay and the things to buy so he could home teach a little girl all by himself. And he always was a quick boy with quick hands, quick feet and a quick set of eyes for details. Using the sleight of hands and tricks he was taught by his Pops for fun once, he exercised them for more profitable means. He bid his time and waited for everyone to forget about two kids in a city full of other people, to forget about two tragedies and just chalk them up into some statistics and numbers. While waiting for that to come he stole. Pickpocketed people of their supposedly hard-earned money because it was either them or him and Addie and that wasn't a hard choice for him to make. He had some close calls and got his ass kicked but he still got money. He sometimes swindled people out of their money too, tricked card games for anyone dumb enough to be lured in by a bright-eyed kid in a shady part of New York, but he stuck to the shadows. Just in case. He usually got enough money to take care of himself and Addie. It took a while, a whooping three years, but the police finally gave up on finding them, apathy finally settling into the people that swore to honor and protect the citizens, and Matthew was at last able to get a job as a store clerk in a shady store near the apartment complex he and Addie lived in. He was 21 by then, Addie having turned sweet 16 just a month before the cops threw in the towel, and grateful for the ever present pressure on his chest to slowly ease out of him. He had a steadier income and there wasn't a risk of his ass getting sent to jail or getting beaten up over something. It was better and that should have been the part where he dropped pickpocketing all together and try to have a normal life as possible for his sister's sake. But that didn't happen. He did have his impulses. Sometimes, just sometimes, he would pickpocket again. Brush up against a person in a busy street and dip his nimble fingers into their pockets or coats or purses or bags to slip out a wallet or a wad of money they were dumb enough to just shove in there. He reasoned to himself back then that they were still tight on the budget, steady job or no, and sometimes he had to resort to that in case of emergencies. That's what he told himself. That's what got him meeting a sharp-dressed man one late night in the city when the sidewalk was deserted and the bad part of town became nastier when it was the evening. Seeing the tailored suit and well-carried man in that part of town made Matthew think just tonight, nothing could go wrong. But as he did his usual routine - bump and dip his hand in the coat pocket, fingers quickly gripping the wallet and pulling his arm back in a fake shrug - the man's hand clamped down his wrist just like that. He couldn't breathe for a second when the man grabbed his chin and jerked his head up, forcing him to look into the man's cold blue eyes. He knew then that the man was dangerous and he was the wrong person to try and steal from. The man honestly introduced himself as John Doe and said, usually, kids like Matthew would be died by now for thinking he could pull a fast one on him. John Doe asked why he shouldn't just kill Matthew, right there and then, and Matthew silently raised the wallet he had in his hand in reply. He managed to take it out even when caught. Never breaking eye contact with the very possible cause of his death there, Matthew stared the man down with what he still hopes to this day was a carefree smile and a dare in his eyes. The older man continued to stare him down as if he was searching for something. And he smiled and said something that always stuck to the boy. 'You got balls, kid. I need a guy like you around and I feel pretty generous for the evening.' He explained briefly what he did in glamorous, rich details and a smooth smile. He made it sound something right of the movies: Honor and riches, style and infamy but anonymity. A family made from a group of rag tag people who always had your back. It was like John Doe knew what Matthew wanted, needed, in his life. Perhaps he did with how those sharp eyes shone as he explained the details. And after all of that he gave Matthew a choice: Jump at the chance he now had presented to him or drop dead thanks to a bullet in between his eyes. He said yes. Of course he would at the time. With what his life was nothing but hiding in the slum and shadows and here was this chance to make it actually worthwhile for him and his sister. But he said at the same breath that only on the condition he brought his little sister with him. John Doe seemed impressed with Matthew's loyalty and forwardness to ask such a request and agreed, telling him to come back there the next night with whatever he had and his sister in tow. Following instructions, he went back to the same sidewalk in the same bad part of town with a girl just pushing adulthood soon. John Doe came and took them further into the bad part of town and their new lives. John Doe was a leader of a criminal gang, con artists and thieves and scholars who specialized in information and heists. They were deeper in the dirty work and much more important than Matthew initially believed, actually having connections with senators, big names of government around the worlds to their clientele or help. The gang consisted of a total of seventeen, now counting him and Addie in it, people coming different walks of life. They took up commonly used names from where they came from, or what was thought to be commonly used names, and all had a role to play. John Doe and Alice Doe were the leader and the second-in-command, respectively, the ones who pulled everyone's strings. Albert Doe and Abigail Doe were the intelligence, the ones who gathered data of possible works and clients and targets. James Doe and Jospehine Doe were the muscles, the ones who steppe d in when heads had to be cracked or fingers had to be broken and so on. He became Jack Doe and was in league with Jacques and Jade as one of the honey traps. Sweet things that lured people in with their charms or looks in exchange of getting something or anything out of the person in return. With his charm and his smile, and his willingness to do anything to prove his worth in the gang, it wasn't hard. The difficult part was coping with the new life, the new identity, the new pressure that came with all the promises that had been made by him as long as he kept his end of the bargain. Addie was too young to do anything, Matthew made it that clear and was willing to take extra jobs or harder tasks to make up for it, and she had a hard time getting used to the sudden 180 of their lives, from being taught homeschool by her brother in their shitty apartment to being taught by an intense and scary man who insisted on being called Andrew Doe in a nice nice building that felt too much like a base of operations she saw in those old movies that was somehow her new home now. It was Addie's presence but non-involvement that caused tension to form between Matthew - Jack - against a few of the other members. He was doing fine. Addie however. She was smart and sharp, a potential Doe for the gang when she was old enough and he agreed, but then she was still a kid. She was seen as a load by some people like Alex Doe and Alice who just wanted to keep her brother and get rid of her and bitter but quiet fights happened during his time getting into the groove of the gang. Though he and Addie had only spent two years in the gang, they were fully integrated by 2002. John Doe had become enamored of sorts by the boy for whatever reasons he held, holding him in surprisingly close confidence and going as far to say, one day, Matthew will take over the gang. 2002 is same year Addie joined her brother's job and the gang properly, now taking up the identity of Jill Doe. Thanks to his background and his ability to make friends with anyone if he put his mind into it, Matthew made close confidants and comrades with people like James, Anna, Jacob and Josephine; he also made enemies with Jasmine, Alex, Alice and possibly others with his past actions in the last two years he was in the group or how he quickly become so close to John Doe, a man who had made it a point to not play favorites until Matthew waltzed in. John Doe trusted Matthew and thought of Matthew like his son. It was how Matthew got a bigger cut in a job than what would have been expected or how he had more intelligence or information at hand if he just asked the man. It was how he always had someone keeping note of what he did when he wasn't on a job. Or why almost always had an assignment to do even if he should be resting since John Doe wanted to keep check on him at all times because Matthew was his. It was why he felt like that he was more than a person to John Doe but rather a thing he owned. Uncomfortable? Kind of but it had benefits even if it had people watching his every move and breath. It was also the year 2002 when Matthew was then assigned to go to Houston, Texas so he could infiltrate a ritzy honest-to-fucking-goodness ball party they had to crash in order to get codes from a guest that would happen to be there. Matthew was certain it would be a boring job when he met up with Andrew and Jasmine for briefing for it. He even got a pretty boring identity to play for it. Jameson Howard Well, a man born and raised from England who moved to the U.S. He was sure that this would be a routine job.

This city's made us crazy and we must get out

It was at this party he met her. The cliche of their eyes meeting across the large large room and sudden spark happening. She wore a smile that could kill a man if they weren't careful. The girl introduced herself as Xi Zhaojun when he approached her. The chemistry they had as they briefly flirted was amazing. She was sharp and could dish what she could take and kept up with his compliments, his insults. He was on his toes the whole time, anticipating her next moves and actually thinking well of her because his time spent with the gang made him look down at other people that weren't them, thinking anyone who wasn't a Doe was more gullible, more susceptible to getting tricked but here was this girl that had him working. He then remembered what he was there for and excused himself, oddly unhappy that he had to cut that conversation short. Later that night, after the job was done and he retired with the others to the hotel they were staying for the duration of their assignment, Matthew discovered there was something in his pants. It was a folded up napkin, with the scrawl of a phone number on it and the words 'Call me' next to them. Somehow she had managed to reverse pickpocket him. In public. In the middle of a crowded party. That was enough to make him call her the next day. Soon he found himself looking for all the free time he had to talk to her. Whenever he had a break or could get away he spent his time with her on the phone or he'll meet her somewhere in the city. He managed to pull out some information from her though she was reluctant to give details beyond herself. She wasn't from here, that was a fact, and she was only visiting the city with her father for a while since he had thing to do there and decided to take her long. A reward of sorts. Casual mentions like that and her general cagey attitude when he attempts to get deeper information from her made him both suspicious and even more intrigued. He actually liked her besides the horizontal tango and the bitchy cattiness they could throw at each other. She actually distracted him. This was something that was noted by the others in the job and by John Doe in particular when it came to his attention. Matthew was then suddenly being messaged more and more frequently by John Doe at that point, at this point in time the possessiveness John Doe felt for Matthew no longer a subtle thing between the two of them. Those bumps aside, his relationship with Zhaojun grew as the months passed, their meet ups becoming a routine thing he looked forward too. He started to feel something but wasn't really sure about it. She must have had feelings for him since one day she called him and asked him to visit her house soon as he could. He got there and saw the nondescript moving van and things being taken away when Zhaojun called him into her room. She was apparently leaving Texas soon to return home. He asked her where she lived so he could keep contact and Zhaojun said that was what she wanted to explain. That was when she told him of the Deck. Of course he didn't believe her at first. He was pretty fucking offended by the time she was done to be honest. Did she really think he was going to believe that people could live in a magical society based on playing cards? That she was some sort of heiress to a family of Spades? He didn't let his annoyance show but let the skepticism shine. There was also, deep down, curiosity of this because she wasn't lying to him when he looked her over for any signs of it. She believed it. So she was either telling the truth or was crazier than he thought. She asked him if he was willing to come with her to see where she was going to return home to and Matthew decided to indulge her since he had nothing else to do for the day. He could take care of himself should anything go wrong. They got in the back of her car with only the two of them there besides her loyal and personal chauffeur. The car drove out of the city and everything was at first normal. But then the chauffeur took a turn in a downtrodden path that shouldn't be possible. Then the path suddenly became obscure by the thickness of trees as if they were suddenly in a forest because they were in a forest. He could only stare in awe as the car approached a looming castle at the distance and he noticed there were three more even further away. Zhaojun quickly had the driver turn back to their path before anyone noticed the car and while they drove back to Houston she willingly and patiently answered any questions Matthew had about the Deck that she could talk about. When he asked her why she told him this, she wasn't sure of the reason herself. He called John Doe about the information he had as soon as he could after he departed from Zhaojun's home. He could smell the business opportunity from a mile away. Like himself earlier, John Doe was skeptical of the notion of the Deck but Matthew convinced him (to a point) with the decent photos he had secretly taken and appealed to John Doe's belief that everything had a price on its head, everything could be brought. A secret society could fetch them something interesting among the other criminals, the connections with governments they had. And John Doe always did tell him to dream big, he pointed out. Amused by Matthew's insistence and willing to indulge his favorite, and intrigued by the idea of having a world at his hands, John Doe finally agreed to let him pursue this job. On his own. This would be his first solo heist by himself with the others only giving him the occasional help. Everything else was up to him. It wasn't that hard when Matthew looks back to it. He went to Zhaojun the next day and told her he wanted to continue seeing her and acted worried and conflicted over the difficulties that it would entail. They talked a bit and he played to her sense of rebellion against her parents, the relationship they already had, her interest in the Outside. It worked. He made Zhaojun do the hard parts for him, basically. She was the one who arranged his way to getting in and out of the Deck without being noticed in the first place. Her family business in the Deck were mostly tied into trades and goods within the Deck and on the Outside and they had their own trucks to bring/take supplies to places. Pulling some strings she had, she made her chauffeur become a driver for one of these trucks that would go to Houston. The man would take him in the truck and since he was an ex-private employee of the heiress to the influential and infamous Xi, he could easily get in and out without being inspected as thoroughly compared to the other trucks. The driver than helped him used the many passageways of the Spade Castle to get to Zhaojun's rooms in the Xi Apartments, which were located deep in the Castle and far away compared to the other rooms, and Zhaojun made sure he only came when there would be little to no people in the household. Matthew spent the next year focusing on nothing but Zhaojun and their romance, using it his advantage. Whenever she had to leave him in her rooms to attend to things, he would take the chance to sneak past the maids inside the apartments of the Xi and get whatever evidence he could get. Documents of shippings and connections the Xi had with other people from the Outside. Antique books and texts focusing on the history of the Deck made by the Cards. Items like heirlooms of the Xi or gifts they had gotten from other Deck families. He even got quality film of a Spade Challenge being conducted in the castle thanks to Zhaojun showing the film for him as an example of her studies on Deck life. He had enough for what he had hoped to have at the start by the time November of 2003 came. He informed John Doe when the man visited Houston to see the progress. John Doe was so pleased with this when the evidence was explained to him, shown to him but not given to him yet since there was one more thing Matthew had to do first. John Doe was so proud of Matthew that he told him that he got the honors of killing Xi Zhaojun, Six of Spades. She was no longer useful after all, John Doe told him as he had Abigail enter the room with a prepared syringe and she pressed it in Matthew's hand. 'She's a loose knot, Jack, and we got to have her tied up before anything else. I know you'll do this for me.' John Doe wanted Matthew to kill Zhaojun with poison, a type that guaranteed a painful and slow death. It was a smart way to end her because in the political side of the Spades, the Xi had no short amount of enemies that would want to kill the heiress. The chauffeur would be dealt with later. Matthew had to get rid of the one person who knew what he looked like. He was supposed to kill her the next time he saw her, the supposed last time when he entered her rooms and the supposed last time she went over and hugged him. When he had her wrapped around his arms that was supposed to be the cue of pulling that syringe out of his sleeve like it was a magic trick and kill her in one two three. But he couldn't do it. He just hugged her, held her tight until she told him to let go, was he alright and no he wasn't. Because he broke the one rule that was hammered in all the Does because it meant their very lives. He broke it by getting too close with a target, by getting attached. By falling in love with Zhaojun. He left the Deck with a still breathing heiress and instead convinced John Doe, after a long and intense talk with the man, to let him keep getting information. Squeeze all that he could from her until he got rid of her. In reality, he was trying to buy himself time. Try to think of a plan where he and Zhaojun could escape to somewhere else because he loved her and he didn't want to lose her but he would if John Doe got his hands on the information. He could give less of a fuck about the society she lived in but Zhaojun. The plan he had to pull was both simple and difficult. He first let himself get 'discovered' by a maid of Zhaojun first. And predictably the fights over him happened between her and her parents, often escalating to shouting matches. The suddenly violent estrangement and bitterness spread across the Deck, the Cards lapping up the drama with eagerness especially when they learned it was over the heiress' Outsider lover. Matthew quickly became known as the Gentleman from Outside but he was only known as that. He and Zhaojun spent more time in her rooms often with her only leaving when she had to like to study or train or interact to show she was still functional. It was these times he wove tales of the Outside, what was there waiting for her since she had been isolated since her birth and rarely left the Deck. The trip that had them meeting? Her first fucking time on the Outside. He played and courted her sense of adventure and it was slowly working. There was a finally a chance to really convince her to leave with him when she was injured in a Challenge and she was forced into a long bedrest. A Challenge could have prevented by her parents if they had stepped in but let and forced her to go through with it anyways to spite her. It w as the final straw for Zhaojun in terms of her parents, seeing them as her enemies instead of the begrudging allies that she viewed them all her life. As she recuperated in her rooms and was left alone by the majority of everyone thanks to both her parents' orders and her disruptive behavior during the time, Jame stayed by her side and continued to beg her to come with him and to discuss the pros and cons of going to the Outside. He spoke negatively of the Deck, what it forced her to do in her short life. He told her that he loved her, that he wanted her to be happy and he wanted her to see the Outside because of it. Won't she please come with him? It took a while but Matthew had to be patient, had to let her think this over. It was worth it because she finally, on March 2004, said yes. She'll go with him.

We can turn our backs on the past and start over

They had only a few weeks, at the very most, to get everything prepared. John Doe was breathing down his neck at this point, wanting Zhaojun dead and the information given to him now but Matthew had time. It just wasn't a lot of it. It was like Addie and him after their parents died. Only this time he was a bit more prepared for it. He was no Alex or Anna when it come to forgery and making up detailed histories but he could hold out on his own, knowing enough of the process that he could hide away from the gang efficiently enough. He had money, a lot of money John Doe couldn't touch, and had contacts he cultivated over his years of being a Doe that were mostly loyal to him. If he needed a job, he could find it when he tapped into it. He could get resources when he needed them. He had a location to go to too. He remembered a place he had been stationed once for an old job. It was a brief time, only a few months at best, but he made good connection with some of the long term residents there and did his best to make a friendly enough impact on the community to keep suspicion off him. It was called Whispers Springs and he made a call to the area to buy a house there, move things in and called up a good friend he made there, Charlie Eppens, to do this in his place. Then he started picking fights with his sister. He suddenly became terse and short with Addie with her work, with what she did, with how she acted. He always got into squabbles and arguments with her, pushing the buttons he knew would hurt her, make her scream at him and hate him because that was the point. He needed to distance himself from her so when he left, the gang wouldn't think she had anything to do with it. It worked because before a few weeks he left, Adalinda was avoiding him and vocally expressing her frustration and hate of him. That was good, he told himself. Now he needed a signal for him to get eh hell out of dodge. It came soon enough when Zhaojun called him out of the blue, a rare thing to avoid being caught even when he was an open secret between her and her parents, and sounded upset and furious. Thinking this was his chance, Matthew collected all the things he prepared for that night, including all the evidence he had gotten of the Deck over the years, and was picked up by the driver. He was brought to the very outskirts of the Deck's territory. It was there he met up with Zhaojun who was bundled up and had with her a hastily packed bag and suitcase. Apparently that night her parents had finally given her an ultimatum. The Deck or James, the man she had been seeing for a short amount of time. With her standing here the answer was obvious. Matthew comforted her as the driver took them in the car and drove them. In the morning after that night, scandal will erupt in the Deck over the heiress' elopement for a stranger but nothing beyond a humiliated family will happen. If she was willing to throw her life away for a man, the Cards wouldn't stop her. Zhaojun catty behavior on the Deck also made her unpopular with a select few close friends of hers, making the chances of people chasing after her less likely. The driver drove as far as he could for them before he stopped in the middle of a deserted road far away from any city. Matthew would take over driving now. The chauffeur would walk back to the Deck and claim nothing about the whereabouts of the missing heiress. He'll be fine since the food he had should sustain him until the magic of the Deck got him and returned him. Zhaojun reassured Matthew the loyalty of the man, how he had helped them in the past two years. The chauffeur departed to return to his world and was never heard from again but lived to a good age until he passed away of natural causes. (That's a lie of course. Matthew, being paranoid, didn't trust them man despite Zhaojun's backings and the man's countless selfless acts over the years for her and for him. He poisoned the chauffeur's food before he left with some chemicals he had taken from Abigail. The loyal chauffeur was found dead on the side of the road next day by a traveling car. The case quickly become hot since there was no record of this man anywhere but it soon turn cold and the matters dropped in a few months by the police. He never told Zhaojun the truth about what happened to the man. He wasn't an important person in the Deck anyways.) It had taken some time to get to Whisper Springs but after a month's worth of traveling and a lifetime's worth of staying in motels and sleeping in the car to conserve money and keep their tracks hidden, they were finally there. It was something out of those picture perfect comedy sitcoms of a cozy little town with friendly, well-meaning neighbors who welcomed people with open arms. People knew Matthew when he was first around though he kept mostly to himself. Friendly but they never caught his name and he used that to his advantage. He introduced himself as Jameson Howard Well and slipped into their world of domestics and normalcy. For the first few months, they kept to themselves and waited for something to happen. Anything. A Card to come after them (Zhaojun), John Doe storming in (Matthew). It never came. Eventually they stopped waiting for something bad to happen and began their lives. Matthew started going out, making connections with people of the town, playing to their interests and what he could read from them. Matthew didn't think it would be this easy to get into Whisper Springs' life but it was. With his charms and his talents, he managed to become virtually everyone's Good Friend with the people in town in the few months they were there. From the priest of the church there to a doctor who was also a fellow New Yorker, and the only person he disclosed his real birthplace too since he had some dirty information on the good man himself, Matthew managed to become a favorite in Whisper Springs in the short time he and Zhaojun got there. It took Zhaojun a little bit longer to get into the groove of things, social etiquette of the cheery town a far cry from the Deck's, but she gets the hang of it with Matthew's encouragement and becomes a belle among the others. They got married in Whisper Springs the same year Zhaojun and him left their lives behind. In the town they were a picture perfect couple. Zhaojun the smart and funny wife who was devoted to her husband but playful and sassy to everyone. James the suave and hardworking husband who helped around the community, gave to charity and always had a smile on his face. Mr. James Well and Mrs. Zhaojun Well were very happy in the town and hoped to live their lives out there in obscurity and peace. This wouldn't happen.

It's all a lie but you'd never know

It was a careless mistake. Matthew will admit that. He and Zhaojun had hit a rough patch during the early months (February or March) of 2006 when his dodging of the questions of what he exactly did for work was becoming tedious for his wife. They fought behind closed doors and in their house. Tension was brittle between the usually happy couple and Matthew was having a hard time with his side jobs as it is since a slew of them then had too many close calls for his liking. He was popular in town but at that time he often felt detached since he couldn't talk to anyone with how he felt because he wasn't Matthew to them. He was James. The feelings reached a boiling point when, during an intense fight with Zhaojun on October, she suddenly threw up as she shouted at him and that was when Matthew noted how she seemed to be a bit bigger than usual. On a worrying hunch he took her to the doctor he was friends with and his joys/worries were confirmed. Zhaojun was pregnant. As he sat in the car while Zhaojun stayed in the doctor's office to discuss how she should eat now and how to prepare for the arrival of a baby, Matthew simply was at a lost for once in his life and wanted to talk to someone, anyone. It was why he picked up his phone and punched in the numbers of Addie's last known number, praying she would pick it up despite the odds. He missed her and the worry for her only grew over the years since he never heard much from her besides the occasional comments of a Jill Doe from his contacts when he carefully asked for information about the gang. He wanted to know if she was safe, if he could talk to her. The phone rang and rang and finally someone picked it up. Said hello Matthew, how are you? It was John Doe's voice. Matthew ended the call and went as far to destroy the cellphone but he knew it was no use. John Doe was waiting for him to slip up like that, he knew it. He wanted confirmation that Matthew was still out there and he stupidly gave it to the man. John Doe would be relentless in his search. He will not be merciful when he got his hands on the two. Matthew had to prevent them from harming Zhaojun. Even as they drove back home and Zhaojun was listing off the things she'll miss doing like knife training and jogging due to her pregnancy, Matthew was planning his death and her protection. The evidence he had gathered of the Deck had been long since hidden away during his many trips for work. He left a trail for his wife to follow towards the information he had hidden away a long, long time ago. A place only him and her went during their time together in those last two years. He hoped it would be personal between her and him enough that should John Doe ever get his clutches of a clue, a contact, a hint of it he would have no clue what to make of it. It took months to prepare the trail and during that time he knew his time was running out. Many of his previously hidden accounts were suddenly closed or being tracked. Contacts of his were suddenly unreachable or just plain gone. But his identities were never revealed, no one came busting down his door yet. John Doe was playing with him, trying to put him on the edge since this was between the gang and it was working. Matthew had never been so scared for his life in the final months, something that Zhaojun noted and worried, but he needed to do this for her and their baby. He blackmailed the doctor into secrecy, he made Charlie Eppens, a loyal friend of his, swear that he'll look after Zhaojun and their kid should something happen to him. He left a clue with the Father Forthill as a disguise of a graduation gift for their future child. When everything was ready, when he was ready for it all, he contacted John Doe in the early days of December through a phone that couldn't be traced and told him where he was hiding and he made one last deal with the man: Didn't John Doe like challenges, puzzles just like him? He left a very interesting one for the man that would lead him to the information that would have the Deck right in his hands if he left his wife alone. It wouldn't be very sporting to drag in non-participants after all. Either John Doe had a shred of affection lingering for the traitorous man or he was again impressed by the ballsiness because he agreed. Swore on his honor which was saying something. He told him the basic location he was at and John Doe swore he'll come visit him the day after Zhaojun's birthday just to rub the salt in the wounds even more. Matthew was hoping at this point that that was the truth. He made sure the final days he had with Zhaojun were good so she had sweet memories of him for the inevitable betrayal. He was kind and patient and always smiling, he tried to make her laugh all the time. He joined her in the parenting classes and helped make their baby's room. He was commented on being such a loving father already and people couldn't wait to see him holding his child in his arms next year. He only smiled at them and counted down the days. On Christmas Eve, which was also her birthday, he had with Zhaojun was a good one. He showered her with attention and told her over and over again he loved her. He got her the gifts she wanted, the gifts she needed. And on December 25, 2006, Matthew woke up his wife in the early morning and convinced her to leave their home to buy him some skimmed milk. Combined with the holidays the rarity of it in the town for some reason, she wouldn't return back to their home until hours later. Which was exactly what he wanted. John Doe came to the house after Zhaojun left. Alice and Albert were with him. Alice so smug and Albert so resigned when John Doe walked up to him and offered him a chance like he had all those years ago: Come back to the group but kill the girl to prove his loyalty again. Become John Doe's Jack again. Become his again. Matthew told John Doe to just get it over with already. The man did. He cut Matthew's throat but swore he'll keep his end of the bargain and not touch he watched his son figure die at his hands. Zhaojun later finds him hours later, dead as a door nail and staying that way. She'll grieve for him and do things in the later months, choices involving their child and herself and once more the Deck. John Doe will lie, break his deal with a dead man and go after her. Things will happen. People will die. But that's another story. One he wasn't part of anymore.