FIVE

After they arrived on the first floor, Felix guided Mila to turn right, through a hall leading to a french door on the right that led to another, quieter and dreary hallway. Mila almost felt doubts and wanted to stop following Felix because it seemed that she was just being toyed with by the male servant. But then Felix stopped in front of a brown door and turned to look at her who looked so tense.

“Mr. Ezra is inside. Do you need anything else, Miss?”

“Erm... I need a drink. Can you take it inside?”

Mila feels bad because she had prejudice against Felix.

Felix just showed a friendly smile that looked warm. When he smiles his dimples form a hollow in his cheek which makes his face more pleasant to look at. Mila feels at ease around him now that he is proving to be not as evil as she thought.

"Okay, I'll bring you a drink after this."

Felix leaves. Mila exhaled loudly to get rid of the feeling of fear that was currently infiltrating her heart. However Ezra was a bad man who had raped her and ruined her life. She would probably see another cruelty behind that door when she opened it to come face to face with the monster.

“Ezra Carlos.”

Mila called his name a little louder when she managed to open the brown door wide. When Mila came in, Ezra was in his chair, behind his desk. Ezra glanced at her, seemed to have guessed what her purpose was in coming to his room tonight.

"Sit down."

Hearing his words that were firm and filled with an intimidating aura, Mila suddenly felt a sinking feeling. She wanted to be mad at him. If necessary, she wanted to kill the man right now by strangling him, then tearing his face until it bled. Never in her life had she been treated this lowly, even received such an intimidating order. She used to give orders, not be ordered!

Mila stiffly walked over to Ezra and sat down on the chair that had been provided in front of his desk. The corner of her eye tried to catch the scene in Ezra's study which was very cold and gloomy. The yellow light above them couldn't completely illuminate all sides of this place. And classic bookshelves made of old wood give this room a mysterious impression. Mila looks at the pictures of her family on the right side of the wall, all of them stabbed with a knife in the surface. Photo of her father who was at a party. Photo of her mother standing in front of a fancy dress shop. And a photo of Hunter standing on the balcony of his apartment holding a glass of wine. Ezra had clearly been spying on them all this time. Even Ezra has more photos of her in various events and situations. The photo of her standing among her college friends is circled in red marker and there is a knife stuck above her head.

"What are you doing all this for?"

For a moment Mila thought that Ezra was a very dangerous crazy psychopath. She suddenly felt regret for having indulged Ezra in bringing her here. She regretted playing with this man to prove her parents and Hunter's love if she was kidnapped by Ezra.

"Are you going to kill me?"

Mila thought in her heart that maybe soon she would be killed and her body would simply be thrown into the river or thrown into the forest so that no one could find her body. She was really scared now.

Ezra followed Mila's gaze. “I will not kill you. The expression on your face says you're terrified of me." Ezra spoke calmly, as if he didn't care about Mila's pale face.

For a moment Ezra felt strange with Mila. She sometimes shows a rough and haughty side in front of him. But for a moment Mila also shows her weak side and looks scared like this. Women are indeed difficult to predict!

"I want to go home. Let's make a profitable deal between you and me,” said Mila with a reassuring face. She pulled up a chair and sat down as if she was a tough woman who harbored no fear in her heart.

Ezra gave her a deadpan look and started leaning towards Mila to intimidate her. "A deal? It seems you're asking me to negotiate. Alright, what are you going to offer for our deal this time?”

Mila unconsciously swallowed her own saliva nervously. Ezra's face that was so close to her face made her heart beat so loudly inside there. Moreover, Ezra's eyes were locked right in her blue eyes, making Mila suddenly lose the courage to make a deal with that crazy man.

"I..." Mila licked her lips slowly to reduce her nervousness. But instead of getting calmer, she became even more nervous when she saw Ezra's eyes now instead moving to follow the movement of her tongue on the surface of her moist lips.

"Relax, Milla. I'm listening."

“Please let me go. Let me go and return to my family. In exchange, I will not report you to the police for your lecherous behavior yesterday. You are still free to do anything, as long as you don't disturb the peace of my family anymore. Let's just say your revenge on my family has been paid off after you slept with me yesterday. I..."

"I can't let you go. You have to stay with me, no matter what. And about that grudge, I can't just forget it. I would only be truly satisfied if I had managed to wipe out Louise's entire family. They have to die and feel what I have felt all this time,” Ezra said quickly with his face red from holding back anger.

He then pulled a large book out of his drawer and threw it on the table, causing Mila to be so surprised that her chair was pushed back without realizing it.

"Read, and you will know everything."

With hesitation, Mila began to open the thick book while looking unsure at Ezra. Maybe all this time she really didn't care about the condition of her family, which she always thought was odd. But so far she also never tried to find out. She just let all the awkwardness happen around her until finally a man forced her to see the reality in front of her eyes.

“Wwh-what is this?” Mila stuttered when she saw a photo of herself as a child crying next to two nearby coffins.

The photo seemed to have been taken from a local newspaper because next to the picture of her crying was written in a very large header, Queen's Group heir Mila James was crying over her parents' coffins.

With a confused face Mila started looking at Ezra's face and also the writings in the ledger alternated to ask for an explanation from the man. She really didn't know and was confused by all of this. Actually, what has been hidden by her parents all this time? Why did they never say anything to her at all? And why didn't she remember any incidents that were reported in that old newspaper?

“That was eighteen years ago, you were around six years old back then. Don't you remember all that happened?"

Mila shook her head weakly as she opened the pages one by one. On the third page, Mila immediately stopped moving her hands while looking at the photo of Louises embracing her shoulders warmly. There was his father, mother and Hunter there smiling broadly at the camera.

“I remember this photo. This photo was taken in front of my school. At that time… at that time…”

Mila tries to remember her forgotten past while tapping her fingers on the table in exasperation. She felt really bad because she couldn't remember all the events in her past correctly. And all this time she always assumed that her life was truly peaceful without the slightest problem. But in fact her life is more complicated than just the cheap dramas that she often watches on television.

“That was the first time Louises made you part of their family. It seems you experienced a lot of pressure in the past, so you try to bury all those bitter memories and leave nothing in your brain. You have childhood amnesia," Ezra explained.

Mila gave up on remembering all of her past because she just couldn't bring it up in her brain at all. Precisely her head hurts because she tried to summon the lost memories into her brain.

"So I'm really not Edward's daughter?"

"No. You're the daughter of Kohen James."

"My father is Kohen James?" Mila asked, pointing at the pictures in the newspaper showing a man and a woman smiling sweetly at the camera. The picture seems to have been taken long before the couple died and is seen attending a banquet.

"How could I become Edward Louise's adopted child if they were the ones who killed my parents?"

“They are certainly smart people, dear Mila. They've disguised the whole murder incident and it's as if your family died in an accident. Even though they had indeed sabotaged the car used by your parents to attend a party at the Ritzcarlton hotel. And this." Ezra pointed at an image with his large forefinger. "This is proof of the agreement signed by my father and also Edward before they conspired to kill your parents."

Mila began to read the writing printed on the dull paper carefully. Inside was written an agreement, if they succeeded in killing Kohen James and Layne James, they would get sixty and forty percent respectively of Queen's group's assets. It was written there that Silas Carlos got sixty percent of the property owned by Queen's group because Silas was the party that had given the idea and the party that was going to execute Kohen James and his wife. But if Silas Carlos fails, then Edward Louise will carry out the next execution task.

Then the James couple actually died after Silas Carlos' men sabotaged the car they were using, so that James' property would actually be theirs according to the agreed amount of distribution.

However, Edward Louise, who did not accept the distribution of the property, finally killed Silas Carlos and began to carry out his own plan to take over the assets belonging to the Queen's group through Mila.

“They are really greedy old bastards. You must be feeling very betrayed right now.”

Mila looked up while trying to hold back the tears that would soon fall down her cheeks. She didn't really know why she was crying now. Her entire chest felt tight, and the tightness pushed her tears to immediately drip down her cheeks. She did feel betrayed. But she doesn't know what kind of betrayal has happened in her twenty-four years filled with lies.

"You're probably lying." Mila looked into Ezra's eyes sharply. He is the son of Silas Carlos, the man who conspired with Edward Louise to kill her parents. It could be that Ezra is now trying to manipulate her too to take away her parents' property which she never knew about.

“If I lie, you seem to believe my lie. You are confused Mila. Without all that memory, you know nothing.”

Ezra leaned back in his comfortable leather chair and pressed his hands to his lips. He likes to see the anxiety that is printed on Mila's beautiful face. The woman is in a dilemma.

"All these newspaper clippings seem to make sense." Milla spoke slowly.

“It's not just about the newspaper clippings I showed you. It's about your heart."

"My heart?" Mila looked up to see Ezra's face that still showed stiffness in front of her.

"Ask your heart, how have you felt so far, as long as you are part of the Louises."

She didn't answer right away. She tried to think about Ezra's words for a few seconds until she finally found the answer for him.

"I honestly don't know what to do now. After knowing all this, I felt that I had no right to live with Louises anymore. No wonder they always ignore me. They did give me unlimited comfort and facilities, but I always felt something was missing in my life. And now I know what was missing in that family.”

Ezra smiled slyly. "Say to me."

“Affection. Affection between parents and children. Hunter has probably been trying to show affection to me all along.”

"But?" Ezra glared at Mila and then snorted "He's planning to marry you."

Instantly Mila's face turned pale. There was something that suddenly made her scared and nervous.

“I doted on him as my older brother.”

"Then he is the one who has misinterpreted your affection to be love. Hunter loves you, Mila. He must be very angry to know you've slept with another man."

“You damn bastard! You're just like them. You devil!”

"I am," replied Ezra sarcastically. "Because you are Hunter's favorite, I used you to hurt him."

"He used to deliberately approach me because he wanted to kill my parents." Ezra started telling her about his past which was just as sad as Mila's.

“They killed my family while I was out of town. They dismembered my parents violently in my house.” Ezra snorted, “Huh, and what I can't forgive the most for what they did is because my parents' bodies were only found three days later. My parents' bodies had rotted in the toilet in a very disgusting state. They carried out the murder with cold hands. Their faces are straight, there is no mercy on their faces. Even on the day my parents' body parts were found, Edward was at a prestigious event to give a speech to successful people who admired him so much. So, if you call me a devil, then Edward is a real devil that you need to hate.”

“But that doesn't solve anything! Revenge will only breed new grudges!” shouted Mila frustrated. She felt damned because she had been dragged into a sneaky game created by her adoptive parents.

"I'll make sure the grudge will be over after this because I'll kill them all with my own hands," Ezra hissed determinedly.