BLACK CARD, SOFT HEART.

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"....