LOGINFor a moment I remained silent, but when I turned my head slightly and saw that it was Sebastian holding my neck, with a rather subtle gentleness, it was like his way of showing that he was there for me without being anything too intimate. The boxes were stacked in uneven towers, some precariously tilted, others perfectly aligned thanks to Kathe's obsession with order. The apartment smelled of fresh paint and dust, but beneath it all, the faint promise of a home lingered.
The amount of information I had just received was more than I could bear. I looked at Sebastian, calmer than I expected, and at Olivia, who seemed angry about everything she had just confessed, or perhaps about her past. I felt like my head was about to start spinning, but maybe it was because of everything that had happened last night.I leaned back on my knees, my hands on my head, and then I looked at Olivia intently. She shifted her gaze slightly, as if there was something more she wasn't telling me yet.Sebastian lay down on the sofa next to me. "I have a problem," he said.I looked at him. "What problem?""My mother is cutting me off, leaving me out of everything important, and she's put me under investigation. Most of my accounts are frozen until who knows when," he sighed."So we're in the same boat," I said, looking at him and then back at Olivia. "Do you have a plan?""I—" She shook her head. "I was hoping we could do something together.""What did Ian tell you about Carlos?
Olivia's POVThe moment I saw Sofia's face, I felt a lump in my throat and I was unsure whether I should continue speaking. My mouth still hurt terribly when I talked, but I had been through so much and now I had my sister and a potential ally in front of me, and I couldn't stay silent.I began to tell them, little by little, without giving away that Sofia is my sister because I'm not ready to tell her yet.I started with how my mother had died just a few months after I was born, murdered by the betrayal of a close friend, or so I was told.I ended up in an orphanage, where unfortunately, they didn't just take in children from the streets, but they chose a few for special programs. Some were chosen as spies, others as informants, others as deadly weapons. I was lucky that they didn't consider me so special and they trained me in self-defense.When I was barely five years old, they started replacing my diet and games with disguised training. Everything was changing and becoming more an
Olivia's voice echoed through the apartment, hoarse and trembling, but unmistakably hers. I froze, unable to process what had just happened. All week she had remained silent, a shadow in the background, and now… she was speaking. As if the wounds on her mouth had somehow healed.Sebastian turned abruptly, his eyes wide. "Olivia… since when have you been able to speak?"He stepped away from me, his hands shaking. "I don't know…" he admitted, his voice fragile, as if each word cost him strength. "I was too afraid to try, and… it still hurts," he said softly and deliberately.My heart raced. "Why now? Why tonight?"Olivia looked at me, then at Sebastian, her gaze heavy with unspoken words. "Because I know what Damian is hiding… Ian told me about your fiancé, and I want to do everything I can to stop you… from marrying him."The room fell silent again, but this time it wasn't an oppressive silence, but rather an expectant one, heavy with the weight of the revelation. Sebastian stood still
Sebastian's eyes flickered, almost as if my question had taken him by surprise. He looked at the motorcycle, then at me, his jaw clenched."It's not mine," he finally said. "It's Ian's."I frowned, but didn't say anything more.He brushed the paper in his hands. "He put the tracker on you because he's investigated Carlos more than I should have. He knew things about him that perhaps none of us knew."The night air seemed to grow thicker, the silence oppressing us once more. I felt the grass beneath my hands, damp and cold, giving me stability as my mind wandered. I returned to that memory of him pressing me against the wall in an empty house, of how Carlos had almost... I felt my chest tighten at the mere memory of the act and how he had disrespected me in every possible way.“Sebastian,” I whispered, “are you saying that… Carlos, the man I was going to marry next week… there’s more to him than we knew?”He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he seemed to just drift off, as if the answ
Sebastian squeezed me much tighter, tighter than I expected.I pulled away slightly and looked at him. For the first time in almost a month, I felt like I was truly looking at him."I told you, we're going to figure this out, together," he promised, and kissed my forehead.Then, he just stared at me."You have a mole on your eye," I said, noticing something, and he laughed.It seemed like everything was alright, and then we sat down on the ground, on the fresh grass, staring into a dark abyss—a mountain or a lake, something I couldn't quite identify because of the time."How... did you know I was here?" I asked, genuinely curious.He seemed to hesitate for a moment, and leaned back."Ian put a tracker in your backpack," he said.I stood still, not even noticing what had happened. That explains the close hug he gave me before I left."Where?" I said, grabbing my backpack and quickly opening it like an idiot.In a moment, as if fate weren't cruel enough, one of the papers flew out of my
The silence of the street was overwhelming; we were on the outskirts of the city. Many of the houses around us were empty, or there were simply vacant lots. I stopped for a second to catch my breath. When I heard a car engine in the distance, my brain, combined with the adrenaline, made me catch my breath and keep running as fast as I could.As I kept running, I saw two lights on the street, but I didn't stop. I ran and turned into an alley, which could have been more dangerous for me, but I couldn't get a car in.Then, at the end of the alley, there was a main street, and a motorcycle pulled up in front of me at full speed, extending a helmet toward me. The feeling of imminent danger was still there, but it wasn't coming from the stranger in front of me, but from someone behind me."SOFIA!" I heard Carlos's voice in the distance, and without thinking, I grabbed my helmet, jumped on the motorcycle, and clung tightly to the person in front of me.He sped off, leaving the place behind,
Carlos leaned slightly toward me, his smile seeming more like a mask than a genuine gesture.“Rumors, contracts, employees leaving… it’s all just noise. The important thing is that you and I keep going.”His words made me clench m
A few days passed normally, as normally as things could go in my situation. Some suppliers had begun to show their support for my uncle, and their true colors were becoming obvious. My stationery and ink supplier contacted me to say they had to raise prices due to external company measures.Similar
"Carlos... That really doesn't sound like a good name.""You can say that again."I sighed and leaned back in my chair, gazing out the window as the city faded into the night. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind, but now that I was a little more relaxed and my mind had cleared, I felt the wei
The woman approached and stood between Sebastian and me. I stood there for a second, unsure how to react or what to do. The woman was shorter than me, but she had an imposing presence that made me doubt everything; she had eyes as dark as night and short black hair perfectly tied up."Ma'am, I..."







