Agatha’s POV
When I saw the scar on his chest, the first person I thought of was Mikhail.
‘His father abused him when he was young with a cigarette butt.’
My mind was drifting far away while buying groceries in the Supermarket.
It was surprising to meet Mr. Adam. But I couldn’t help thinking about what Sebastian and Dominic talked about before.
[“Why don’t you forget Agatha? She’s not in our league anyway. I heard that she was living like a beggar after her father's death. We don’t need a beggar in our circle, Sebastian. Didn’t you hear what happened to her and Mikhail? They broke up and…”]
I didn’t hear the rest of it because Mr. Adam covered my ears.
Although I hate Mr. Adam, I was sincerely thankful.
It would be so unbearable for me to hear how Sebastian answered Dominic. He was my precious best friend. But I knew staying away from him was the best choice.
‘I can’t meet him now in this messy situation.’
I shook my head and tried to focus on my job.
‘Sir Lanceil will go home today. Better cook his favorite food so I can gain points.’
It was already dawn when I arrived back at the condominium.
Using the card key, I opened the door. I was carrying the groceries bags when the malty scent reached my nose.
‘Smells alcohol.’
My eyes automatically went to the living room, where the smell came from.
When I arrived, I saw a man lying on the sofa.
At first, I thought it was Sir Lanceil who came back home drunk. But now. The man has different hair color, build, and height!
“W-Who are you?”
I dropped the bag of groceries and grabbed the big carrot as my weapon. I didn’t know how stupid it was until five seconds passed.
And now, I regret it.
The man with heavy eyelids, and reddened cheeks, stopped humming. Then, he looked at me.
When I saw his face, I recognized him right away. Eyes that resembled an eagle’s; they were rounded and sharp, with his pointed nose, heart-shaped lips, and brown skin.
‘He is Lanceil’s younger brother, Vincent.’
Brett showed me Lanceil’s family picture, and that’s how I saw this guy. But as far as I can remember, Lanceil’s brother was in Hawaii.
Why is he here?
“Who are you?” his raspy voice asked the same question I asked before.
Slowly, I put the carrot down.
“G-Good evening. I am Sir Lanceil’s maid.”
“Maid?”
He looked around as he sat up. Then he nodded his head. “Ahhh, that’s why the house was so clean. Lanceil got a maid, I see. Anyway, where is Lanceil?”
I looked at the clock on the wall.
‘Lanceil will go back soon.’
Thinking that, I peered back at Vincent and answered his question, “Your brother will be back soon. I think he’s on his way home now.”
He pouted his lips and leaned his back on the couch. “Okay.”
As I stepped forward, the smell of the alcohol grew stronger. It made my nose scrunch.
‘I should stay away from this guy, especially when he’s not in the right mind.’
“Do you want some honey and water? It’s good to relieve hangover.”
Vincent didn’t say a thing. His handsome face only stared at me and made me feel so uncomfortable.
‘I guess I should just let him be.’
“If not, I’ll go on my way and do my job,” I said.
I picked up the groceries bag and the fruits and vegetables which had fallen on the floor.
Trying to avoid making eye contact with Lanceil’s brother, I walked towards the kitchen.
“You knew me?”
His question halted my feet.
Slowly, I looked back.
His sharp eyes, which resemble an eagle’s, scrutinized me from head to toe. Then, an impending grin follows.
“Even if I am not sober, my memories are clear. Ever since you walked inside, I never introduced myself,” he said. “But you knew that I am Lanceil’s brother. That’s weird.”
My eyes grew bigger.
‘Damn. I made a mistake! How should I handle this?’
Should I tell him I saw his picture from Lanceil’s picture frame?
No.
Lanceil never displays a picture in his room.
No matter where he looked at it, he’d know that I approached Lanceil after doing a background check.
Vincent stood up. He walked sluggishly because he was drunk, but his eyes locked on mine as if he was staring at his target.
They said, 'First impression lasts.' When I was looking at him walking towards me with such a devouring gaze, I knew he was a bad deal.
“Actually, I… ahh!”
Too fast.
His actions were faster than my mouth.
Vincent pulled me closer.
Thud!
The groceries fell on the floor again. He spun me, making me dizzy as I thought the world whirled around me.
Abruptly, I found myself lying on the sofa where he had laid down before. The spot he left was still warm, so my back felt the heat beneath. But when I looked up and saw him above me, my hands turned cold.
The warmth behind me wasn’t enough to calm my shivering body.
“What is your purpose for approaching my brother?” he asked.
His voice was far from before. It’s demanding an answer, and I might regret it if I failed to give one.
‘Brett. This mission is impossible. It’s not been that long, but someone already caught me!’ I complained to Brett since I needed someone to take the blame for my idiocy.
“Do you want to seduce him now that his wife is dead?”
What?
Wait.
What did he say?
I repeated the words inside my head but still struggled to digest the shocking information.
And because I was too startled, my mouth opened and asked, “Sir L-Lanceil had a wife before?”
Vincent thinly narrowed his eyes and chuckled. “So, you didn’t know.”
I did not!
How come Brett didn’t tell me about this important information?
“You didn’t intentionally approach my brother, did you?” Vincent asked.
My eyes went back to him. I tried to get my hands from his grip, but he was strong. Vincent pinned my wrist over my head, and my legs were under his thighs’ supervision. I was locked.
“Sir. Please let me go,” I said while glaring at him. “I know that you are drunk. But doing this to an employee is a crime. I can sue you.”
He grinned at me and released a short laugh.
“Then do it. Once you do, my brother will kick you out of this place,” he warned.
That…
I can’t let that happen.
Lanceil is my only hope. Without him, I cannot terminate my slave contract with Brett.
“Since you didn’t say anything, that proved me right,” Vincent whispered.
I was about to reason, but suddenly he bent down and kissed my lips.
I didn't have the time to realize what the hell had just happened. Only my heart reacted faster than my brain. It beat loudly inside my chest, banging.
I tried to escape, but he grabbed my nape, pulled it, and kissed me roughly above the sofa.
“Ump!”
He prodded my mouth open, and his tongue slid through the seam of my lips.
As if I was shocked by the tremendous amount of electricity, all of the hair on my skin stood on its end!
‘This shit!’
I bit his lips, and fortunately, he moved away.As soon as he moved away, I pulled my hand and slapped his face.
Pa!
He stopped and slowly held the cheek that I slapped.
Still trembling, I was catching my breath with tears in my eyes.
Then, he looked back at me.
“Everyone called me the idiot brother. But I knew you had ulterior motives for him. If you ever do something to Lanceil, I will make sure you’d regret it. It won’t end with just a kiss, Miss.”
I don’t know if I should feel frightened at his last warning or the fact that he knew I had ulterior motives for Lanceil.
The real deal is that this guy would bring trouble to my mission.
“What…?”
The voice made my heart drop.
When Vincent and I tilted our heads, we saw Lanceil staring at us with a deep scowl.
“What the hell is this?” Lanceil asked.
‘I knew it. I am in big trouble.’
Third Person’s POVBrett had spent the entire day cleaning his younger sister's room. Now that the whole Olive mystery was finally solved and he was free from its clutches, he felt a sense of relief. He neatly packed all of his sister's belongings into boxes and stored them in the cabinet. The only thing he left out was the picture frame of him and Olive.Exhausted from the day's cleaning, Brett lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling."Man, that was exhausting," he grumbled, pretending to wipe sweat off his forehead.As he turned his head, his gaze fell upon the picture frame on the table. Sitting up, he leaned against the headboard."So, is this really the end?" he pondered.He had brought justice to his family's tragedy and Ian Grim had been punished. He no longer needed to keep Agatha by his side since their slave contract had ended. Soon, Agatha would be going to Argentina.It felt like the climax had passed and a happy ending was on its way."A happy ending," Brett thou
Agatha’s POVIt's been a whole month since everything went down. Today, I hung out with my friend, Sebastian."Agatha," he said in a serious tone. "Are you really sure about your decision?""Hmmm?""That," he murmured."Ahhh," I nodded, understanding what he was referring to. "Yes, I'm pretty sure."I saw him nod his head before he kicked a small rock that was lying in the middle of the road."Hmmm," he whispered.I looked up and saw the inviting blue sky, urging me to have some more fun today."There are so many bad memories in this place," I said. "So it's better for me to leave."Exactly.Even though I'm gazing at this beautiful sky above me, the horrifying scenes keep replaying in my mind over and over again. Sleeping at night is the worst, as nightmares never fail to haunt me. It's hard to breathe and even harder to cry when my tears have run dry.The only solution I can think of is to go somewhere else.Will it help me forget my past?Maybe yes, maybe not. Who knows if I don’t t
Third Person’s POVIn the afternoon, Vincent made his way to the prison to visit his father. Without any visible emotion, he entered the visiting room and took a seat.He slowly raised his head and saw his father sitting across from him, his wrists bound by handcuffs. Between them stood a rectangular glass door with small holes in the center and a larger hole at the bottom, allowing for hand placement.His father, who had always carried an air of arrogance and elegance, now appeared weathered by the sun. Dark circles lingered beneath his eyes, and his lips were dry and cracked, as if he hadn't tasted water in days. It seemed as though he had aged rapidly.As Vincent gazed at his father in this state, he felt nothing. There was no emotional response to seeing the old man before him."I thought I would be left alone until the end," Ian remarked.Vincent kept his slanted eyes cast downward."But it seems you, out of all my sons, cared for your parent the most. If only I had known, I woul
Agatha’s POVAs I stared at the termination contract, the goal I had set for myself to escape slavery suddenly felt within reach.Brett explained, "This contract means you're free from working for me."I glanced at Brett, noticing his tired and puffy eyes. I wondered if he had been crying all night.The reason Brett had asked me to seduce Lanceil Grim was to uncover the truth behind his sister's death by investigating the Grim family.And now, the mystery was finally solved. Olive, Lanceil's former wife, had died after discovering a secret place beneath the mansion where she saw Mrs. Susan Grim, who was supposed to be dead. Ian Grim had killed his daughter-in-law to keep the truth hidden.The crumpled paper in my hands brought back memories of all the terrible things he had done. Not only did he hide his wife, but he also caused the deaths of hundreds of people on that plane, stole a corpse, killed Olive, my dad, and ultimately, murdered Mikhail.He was sentenced to death by the court
Third Person’s POVInside the ambulance, a sense of claustrophobia always lingers. The confined space is filled with activity, from the paramedics tending to Maxine's wound to the police officer urgently demanding that she survive.Despite the chaos around her, Maxine remains calm, feeling the chill of the ambulance seeping into her body. As time ticks by, the pain in her wound subsides, leaving her with goosebumps and a pallid complexion. Her eyes grow heavy, her breaths shallow, amidst the cacophony of urgent voices.“It is Code 3. Code 3!”A life threatening emergency code 3, her faint vital signs and sirens rang on her ears.‘Ahhhh, I am going to die,’ Maxine realized, and by the time she did, she could not stop the grin spread on her bloody lips.They say time is like a tissue. With every minute that passes before treatment, more body parts that should be pink will turn white or blue, and white or blue equals to dead. Maxine could feel that in any moment she can be at Code 4, the
Third Person’s POVA few days later, the trial against Mr. Ian Grim commenced. Surprisingly, Jake Dawson, despite his deep sorrow over the loss of his son, received a lifetime sentence. The trial concluded smoothly, but it was evident that Mikhail's demise was a result of Ian's deceitful plan. Jake, harboring no sympathy for his acquaintance, saw no reason to protect Ian's reputation. In fact, he desired a more severe punishment for him. Consequently, Jake bravely disclosed the truth in court, leaving Ian with little opportunity to refute the allegations.Nevertheless, Ian remained seated in the courtroom, delusionally believing that he still had a chance to escape his fate. With an unsettling lack of remorse etched on his face, he anxiously awaited his verdict, his wrists bound by handcuffs.The prosecutor declared, "I intend to summon Wayne Jetts as a witness, your Honor."Sebastian took his place on the witness stand and glanced at the spectators. Among them, he locked eyes with Ag