"Big brother Adonis… I miss you."
When Adonis heard Ana's soft voice on the other end of the line, his heart skipped a beat. For a fleeting second, time stood still.
But his expression remained cold as it always did.
He hadn't heard from her in months. She'd vanished from their lives without a word, and no one could find her no matter how hard they tried. Yet now, that familiar voice the same voice that used to echo with laughter and mischief pierced through his armor.
He missed her terribly. Her smile when she caused trouble. The way she teased him endlessly, always trying to get a rise out of him. Her warmth. Her presence. Everything.
But none of that showed on his face.
"You…" his voice was low, slightly hoarse, "Have you been well?"
On the other side, Ana nodded as silent tears streamed down her face, but she knew he couldn't see. "I've… been surviving."
Adonis clenched his jaw, his hand tightening around the phone. The line went quiet for a moment, the weight of unspoken words thick in the air before Ana broke it.
"I'm sorry for everything."
But before he could respond, the call ended. The silence that followed rang louder than any sound.
That night, Adonis stood on the rooftop of a high-rise building in downtown B City, the wind tousling his dark hair as he stared down at the glowing city beneath him. The neon lights flickered like stars, mocking the darkness inside him.
He heard footsteps behind him and spoke coldly without turning.
"Why are you following me?"
Aaron smiled sheepishly, his hands tucked in his coat pockets. "The Old Master asked me to stay behind and keep an eye on you."
Adonis rolled his eyes but said nothing. The silence hung between them like smoke, heavy and unrelenting.
After a pause, Aaron finally asked the question that had haunted him for weeks.
"Since when did you remember your identity? And why didn't you come back home? When did you recover from your amnesia?"
Adonis gaze grew colder, his lips tightening into a thin line.
The truth was more painful than Aaron could imagine.
Years ago, after the Lyle family found him barely alive in a wrecked car, Axel had no memory of who he was. No ID, no records. The police couldn't trace anything. He was a ghost in the system.
The Lyles took him in, gave him a name Adonis and treated him like their own. Gradually, he settled into the new identity, choosing to live as a normal adopted son, burying the void inside him.
But two years ago, everything changed.
During a gang skirmish while working as a debt collector, Adonis suffered a blow to the head. The trauma triggered a flood of long-buried memories, names, faces, pain and a truth he had desperately wanted to forget.
He remembered everything.
And he hated it.
He remembered the betrayal of the one he trusted most. He remembered the truth of his birth, a child born from sin, from a secret that should have never existed.
He didn't want to return to that life. Didn't want to face that reality.
So he didn't.
He chose to keep living as Adonis Lyle, pretending he knew nothing, hoping that if he ignored the past long enough, it might not find him.
But fate was never that kind.
"In three months," Aaron said hesitantly, "it'll be your mother and father's memorial service. After all these years… wouldn't you like to pay your respects? The Old Master's been visiting their graves alone every year."
Adonis's fists clenched tightly. His eyes darkened, glinting with suppressed fury. His voice, when it came, was low and biting.
"If you want to be useful to me, then find someone for me."
Aaron blinked in surprise.
"I want to know where Ana is," Adonis continued, his tone like ice. "You have to find her as soon as possible. If you can't do it, disappear. And don't ever show your face again."
Aaron nodded, suddenly understanding the weight behind the cold. He had his orders; follow Sandra, and through her, locate Ana.
S City.
Mr. Lhoman returned home that night in uncharacteristically high spirits. The famously stoic and enigmatic man hummed softly as he made his way down the marbled hallway of the Lhoman estate.
He bypassed his study and walked straight to the room at the end of the hall, a place no one dared enter without his permission.
The door opened silently to reveal a large, elegant chamber filled with soft pastel hues and the faint scent of lavender. A nurse and a maid were carefully and attentively attending to a beautiful woman lying down motionless on a bed. Her facial features were a lot similar to Adonis's.
When Mr Lhoman entered, the two quickly greeted him and tacitly exited the room.
Mr Lhoman doesn't want anyone to be around when when he comes to meet his sister. Everyone knows that although Mr Lhoman is outwardly cold man but he's very caring and affectionate towards his loved ones, especially his sister.
It was famously known that these two have been very close to each other since childhood, mainly because their parents died when Mr Lhoman was only sixteen and his sister was ten. He singlehandedly raised his little sister and was extremely protective of her even to this age.
The woman lying paralyzed in bed was Rachel Lhoman, the younger sister of Mr Lhoman. After her husband died mysteriously, she was devastated and returned to the Lhoman mansion.
However, a few years later, for unknown reasons she tried to commit suicide by jumping off a building. She survived the fall, but had been paralyzed since then.
An excited Mr Lhoman rushed to Rachel's bed, gently took her hand and he caressed her face while his eyes stared at her obsessively.
" Did you miss me while l was away." He asked." Did you know how much I missed you?".
"But guess what?. I have good new. I finally found out whereabouts of our little Alessandro. You should see him, he's all grown up now and he looks so much like you. Isn't it wonderful?. Soon I'll bring him home and we'll all be one happy family again". He chattered excitedly.
But the woman in bed remained quiet with eyes closed like a sleeping beauty.
Seeing her not minding or responding to him, Mr Lhoman doesn't seemed to be bothered, having gotten used to her ignoring him and refusing to acknowledge his existence over the years.
"Rachel, when will you open your eyes and look at me. I want you to look at me once again. Like the way you used to when you were little. Big brother will give you anything for you to smile at me again". He said sadly.
He leaned close to her and gently started to kiss her on the forehead, eyes, nose, cheeks and her chin. Kissing every inch of her face like a rare treasure. His eyes stared greedily at her lips.
If anyone were to see such a scene, they'd be shocked to their bones.
This was certainly not how a brother looks at his sister but more like how a man looks at the woman he desires.
Still he retain his sanity and didn't go through with what he wanted to do. After a while, he walked away from there.
Only when her surrounding were silent again did Rachel finally showed signs of being alive.
A lone tear slide down the corner of her eye.