LEILA.

My mother used to say, that silence was safer than lies.

Now I wondered, if she had buried me alive with it.

The message kept replaying on my head as the car moved through the sleeping city.

Ask Aiden frost what your mother really signed away the night she died.

I didn't speak, neither was Aiden.

The car was quite as a graveyard, the abandoned one precisely.

That wasn't worse enough. The worst was the

Silence between us, it felt renew and this time it was more dangerous than ever.

***

When we reached the villa, I went straight to the study room,the only one room that still smelled like control.

He followed behind, more like he knows things were not right.

I turned to face him.

" What did she signed?" I asked in curiosity.

He loosen his tie slowly.

Too slow, that I could see through the hesitation in his action.

"Leila_" he stutter.

"No", I cut in sharply In a rage.

" Don't soften it, don't protect me , don't sugar coat it, just say the damn truth, answer the question Aiden".

His jaw tightened, I could feel how scared he was to say a thing, but I wasn't ready to give in either.

Then finally he spoke,

" She signed a safeguard agreement".

"That's not an answer to the question I asked" I snapped at him.

He exhale and continued .

" Your mother believed your family would destroy you if you stayed, so she asked me to protect you from them".

" So she handed me over to you?" I asked.

"No" he replied sharply.

" She protected you from them" He added.

I laughed out in a thin and brittle tone.

" By tying my life to a man I didn't even know?".

He stepped closer,"she trusted me Leila".

" Well that was her mistake, she made a decision I never approved of, I was never asked if am willing to follow, was my feelings meant nothing to anyone?" I cried out angrily.

The words landed between us like broken glasses.

The silent in the room make it more deadly.

***

With a cracked on the drawer

Aiden pulled out a slim file, with a mix of hesitation.

" This was never meant for you to see like this, but at this point I can't help than just to prove it to you with evidence" he said.

I took it away without a word, inside were documents. Old, heavy but legal with language meant to confused.

One clause stood out.

_in the event of my death, guardianship and financial trusteeship of Leila Jones shall be temporary transfered to Aiden frost, until her twenty_ fifth birthday _.

My hands glued on the paper tight, my claws almost torn it apart, the rage in me was double as I asked furiously.

" You owned my future?.

"No, I kept it for you Leila, I protected it". He answered.

I look up sharply.

" No you didn't protect it, you controlled it, all this year's, you watch me suffer Aiden".

The room went silent.

That alone was an answer to my unanswered questions.

" So every job" I said slowly "every opportunity I lost or gained_".

"I intervened only when you were in danger" he cut in directly.

"Well that was me at the edge of loosing my life, when I finally choose to accept my fate as a loser in life" I shoot back .

His eye darkened with disappoinment.

"That's not fair".

I smirked.

" Neither was my life Aiden, you make me believe you were a God sent, you could've atleast told me everything, not letting me find out myself. Beside why choose to be on my future?"

***

LYDIA.

Lydia sipped her tea calmly as she watched the cracks form.

Distance made distraction elegant.

Her phone buzzed.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: she's unraveling, bet he didn't see this coming this soon.

Lydia smiled.

"I think am loving this already, how I wish I could see the disappointment in her face right now". She chuckle in satisfaction.

"Well I think confusion is more lethal than truth". She added.

She typed back.

Lydia:send the second file out, don't forget to bring out the reality in it.

A pause, maybe that was a little simpathy, who knows!!

A response from UNKNOWN NUMBER buzzed in .

Lydia smiled widened.

" Exactly how I want it to be".

***

That night sleep refused me, moments I'd ignore.

Aiden showing up at the right time.

Opportunity flogging in suddenly, danger disappearing even before it reaches.

The familiarity on our first meet.

All of this makes sense now.

Have I been living, or being managed?

A question I never get an answer to.

At 3:12am, my phone buzzed again, another message. New file.

Subject: final draft, still from na unknown.

I opened it .

I felt my breath leaving my nostrils.

A familiar handwriting, my mother's.

_ if you are reading this, it means I failed to protect you they way I intended.

Tears blurred my vision.

Then it continue, I trusted Aiden frost because he promised you safety not ownership.

But powerful men don't separate the two.

If he ever make you feel small,controlled or indebted, run from him_.

I dropped the phone.

"My mother knowns everything, she had known this would happen" I cried silently.

***

By morning, I hallowed out.

Aiden found me in the terrace, wrapped in a blanket, starring at nothing.

" You should have told me" I said without looking at him.

" I was waiting until you were strong enough " he replied.

" And who decides when that was?" I asked again.

He didn't answer.

That hurt more than a lie.

" I won't be owned" I said " not by my family, not by Lydia, and not even by you".

" Then what do you want?"he asked, this time his voice was low and comforting, but that wasn't what I want or asked for at that moment.

I stood already dress up, he saw the determine spirit in me.

"I want the truth" I said " all of it Aiden".

I met his gaze, steady and sharp.

" If the truth destroy us, then we weren't built on anything real, some guardianship are just like a prisoner with a bitter memories and views, it's an eyesore"....

LEILA

They expected me to hide, but I was done hiding, this time, I was ready to bloom on my own, Just me, and for me now.

By noon, frost enterprises boardroom was filled up with lawyers, advisor's, people who spoke in phrase instead of words. They thought today would be damage control, but my elegantly self says different.

I walked in alone.

No Aiden by my side.

Just me ready to sail.

That alone unsettle them more than my presence ever could.

"I'll be brief", I said while placing a tablet on the table." Panic they say thrives on confusion and I don't intend given it a room".

Murmurs erupt.

Mara voss stiffened.

I tapped on the screen with a determined spirit.

Then I added.

" My mother's agreement has been misinterpreted". I continued calm and focused.

"Not by frost enterprises but by parties who stood to gain from my instability".

A pause in the room, silent follows, then murmuring.

Everyone seems to be dissatisfied with my presence, but mara seems to showed a sign of satisfaction.

I didn't care whatever they think or have to say.All I wanted was to be heard.

Then I slid the real weapon across the table .

"Here are the amendments she filed two weeks before her health".

Their faces leaned forward ready to see what was inside , I didn't wait to get asked, I shot directly.

"She revoked guardianship". I said "conditionally".

A lawyer frownd " condition on what?"

I smiled then whispers to myself.

Whosever this unknown person is, must really want to see me thrive in success.well am glad he/she always gives me a way out.

"On proof that Aiden frost would never make decisions for me without my consent" I replied.

The room went silent

"And since I never get consented" I continued,

" Any authority assumed beyond financial protection is legally void, and even in finances aspect its only when needed".

Mara's pen dropped.

The boardroom seems to be under my control, I choose to control it because, I never intended being owned or managed by some organization.

"I'm not here to accuse anyone" I said softly.

" Rather am here to clarify everything".

I looked directly at the camera at the edge of the room. This time even steadier.

"And also to inform the board that I am not controlled, that I am competent".

I stood, ready to walk away, I victoriously concluded it amazingly with a request.

"Any further questions can be directed to my counsel_ my counsel I said not Aiden's". I added while walking out elegantly.

***

AIDEN

This was not how it supposed to happen.

I watched from the private office, just as the screen muted, my heart pound like it was trying to escape my ribs.

Leila didn't flinch or looked at me for once.

Not for approval.

Not for reassurance.

Not even for a rescue.

She didn't need me.

And that_ that alone terrified me.

I had built my life on control because chaos once destroyed everything I ever loved.

"I told myself I was protecting her, but watching her now, I realized something brutal, and I persive the determination in her".

" Protecting had become possession".

"And possession had nearly cost me her".

When the board meeting ended, I didn't move.

The office felt too large, and too quite.

I kept replaying her voice in my head.

It was steady, measured, determined and unafraid.

She had rewritten the narration without me, how I wish she knew that there's so much to it than it seems.

I pressed my hands to the desk breathing shallowly.

For the first in years, I feel my chest in so much pain, panics and in unmanaged state.

I had once sworn never to feel this again, not after learning love could be leverage and yet _ here it was.

The woman I built walls around had learned how to Walk through them without me.

"You were suppose to need me" I whispered to the empty room.

That wasn't love, that was fear disguised as devotion.

My phone rang, I thought she finally came around and wants to talk things out, well my last hope was shattered again. It was mara voss.

" She outplayed us all" she said, "you've taught her so well" she added.

"No" I replied gently. " I underestimated her, her intelligent and her power" I added shakenly.

Well i deserve everything that happens.

***

I left the building without looking back.

The city felt different when it wasn't pressing down on me.

My phone buzzed.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: Lydia won't stay put on this, watched your back.

I smiled faintly, then a type on my phone.

_am counting on it _

Because now, I know she would move recklessly.

And reckless people revealed everything.

This time I want to see what you've got Lydia.

......

Power doesn't hurt but truth does hurt the most.

I stood alone in the frost study, long after the board meeting ended.

My reflection fractured in the glass walls.

Every surface here had once felt like safety but now it felt like a surveillance kept to monitor me.

I picked up the file again hoping all this would just be a dream, but all I see was my mother's name staring back at me. I felt trapped and betrayed.

She had written so carefully like she knew somehow I will read them in lines.

***

The clause I missed earlier seems to blurred into my vision clearly.

_in the event Leila refuses protection, all contingencies shall activates__

"What contingency?" I whispered to myself, another question of no answers unlock.

***

AIDEN

Outside the study I was, contemplating either to enter or not.

I heard the shift in her breathing, even before she spoke.

I just knew things weren't that great in there.

That was how I always knew before the distances in the moment trust collapse.

I walked in unnoticeable soft, and before I could even asked what the problem was, she snapped in with another counterattack question.

" You didn't show me this part." She asked.

I stood still and timid.

"Because I never intended for it to be activated." I replied.

Her laugh hallow in the room, I always do see the hatred and disappointment in.her eye's.

"That's not an answer" she replied.

I move closer, this time I was ready to face it.

"Leila i_."

She stepped back, even before I could continued.

And that single step did more damage than every headline combined, it shatters me.

" What's left for me to know Aiden" she asked again.

I went silent, this point, I rather not say a thing, it's better than saying things rashly.

***

I didn't wait for him to speak, I already knows contingency didn't exist on protecting people, they existed to override them.

I turned toward the dest, hands braced against it.

" So if I walk away" I asked slowly "what happens next?"

Aiden didn't answer, he didn't deny anything and he never moved form where I stood.

The room felt so tiny, I knew I will never get an answers, yet I pressed on for it .

Aiden wasn't dump after all as he never say anything no matter how hard I go on him.

"So will you stop me?" I asked .

"No" he said hoarsely, "I will stop the world from hurting you".

I laughed ironically.

A laugh so fake that it starled us both.

" You sounded just like my father" that hit him hard.

His face changed, I knew I had hit his limit but who cares.

***

I have been called many sorts of names like ruthless, cold and dangerous, but no one has ever compared me to anyone, well it was hurtful coming from her.

" You didn't mean" I said jokingly hoping to clear the air between us.

She turned, eyes glassy and sharp.

"I mean every word".

I reach for her instinctively but she flinch and step aside.

It was from there I knew, I had lost that one woman.

***

My phone vibrated one... twice... Then a message appeared.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: Ask him about the last clause.

I immediately switch the screen, I looked up at Aiden.

He was watching my phone like it was a loaded gun, and he appear clueless.

"Can I asked a question?"I asked.

"Yes" he replied

" What's the final clause to all this?"I added.

He swallows hard, and then__

Too late, another message arrived.

UNKNOWN: your mother didn't just protect you......A pause and the last line took forever to show then with a suspense it hits the screen. SHE MADE YOU A LEVERAGE.

I raised my eyes to Aiden, he was standing there innocently.

And for the first time since I met him, I wasn't sure if I was standing beside a protector or inside a cage built in control....