SIX

Sian pov

It's been two days since Eden's disappearance, and since then I have seen my best friend who is also my boss turn into a very gloomy man who is very scary. Every day he always looks grumpy which leads to great anger at all his innocent men. Sometimes I feel concerned about his life which has never been smooth. The demeanor that is formed now is the result of his father's strict upbringing.

I still clearly remember how devastated Aciel was when his parents separated because his father had another woman he loved more. He did come from a well-known family, so the problem of the third person seemed to always overshadow the life of his rich family.

At that time I didn't really understand Aciel's family problems because I met him under very embarrassing circumstances. I stole his wallet and then I got caught and almost died in silly because people would beat me up.

But Aciel chose to save me and continued to give me a lot of help until finally we were able to survive as an inseparable pair of friends. But as I slowly got to know Aciel, I began to realize that the man had such a big wound in his heart related to his parents' separation. Aciel who was previously a spoiled man who was very close to his mother, became really hurt when he learned about his father's affair. He then turns into a cold-hearted man who likes to play with women's hearts after he realizes that love is just bullshit.

Unlike me, who had never received a mother's love, because my mother died while giving birth to me. Meanwhile, I myself am not very close to my father because my father is a stiff type of man who can't be warm to his son. I used to always want to be a rich man like Aciel because by having a lot of money I don't have to steal food or money from pedestrians to survive on the harsh world. I want to have a perfect family like Aciel's. But unfortunately Aciel's perfect family that I thought was absolutely perfect, in fact it was never perfect either.

And Aciel failed with his family. He decided to move into his grandfather's house because he was the only grandson who inherited all of his grandfather's wealth. Again I feel jealous of Aciel's life, even when he failed with his family, he still has another life that is just as perfect, even if it has to be without the warmth of family, but for me it doesn't matter because family can be bought with the money he has.

But of course those were all my innocent thoughts when I was still in a life that was far from worthy. At that time I didn't really know how the rules of the world of rich people played until now more or less I know if love, affection, or family, they can't be bought with money. I myself have proved it now. In one week I can change women up to a dozen times, but all of them still can't fill the empty space that continues to gape in my heart.

In fact, lately I've been visiting Aciel's house more often after work. I played with Ciara, had dinner with Eden and of course Aciel, then sometimes stayed at Aciel's house until my damn friend kicked me out openly because I was like a tramp, he said, who just kept living in his house. But no matter how much Aciel threw me out, that's how much Eden accepted me with open arms because Eden realized that we belonged to each other as a family.

Then regarding the life of young Aciel, I don't really know much, but if you look at how Aciel's demeanor has been, he seems to have been educated very hard by his father or by circumstances that have forced him to act like that.

In the past even I often saw Aciel wake up with a face like a zombie because he was sleep deprived. Every day he is busy developing his grandfather's business and is very ambitious to compete with his father's company because he feels that his father has been underestimating his work. Besides that, Aciel also lives with a very big hatred towards his father because his father has been breaking his dream to have a perfect family.

Eight years later Aciel began to establish a strong claw in the American business world. He with all his business instincts was able to make his grandfather's company more successful and victorious in the American market, even then the company had expanded to several regions in Asia.

However, Aciel also briefly fell into American radical groups and he was almost arrested by the police because he joined the syndicate several times to kill people they thought were guilty. But because of the power he had, Aciel finally escaped the law and the police never again entered his name into the radical group. But Aciel is still Aciel, after he got into a pretty dangerous problem like that, he wasn't deterred at all.

He then tries various other challenging things by being one of fighter in MMA arena with other thugs and assassins. Every morning, I would find a bruise or two on his face. For the rest I could see his left arm was bandaged, his leg was limping, or one of his joints was injured. Well, I can say it was a turning point for an Aciel Lutherford, where he usually lived his life full of boredom, then he started trying something more challenging in his life.

In fact, he was once famous for his incredibly crazy player image. In a day he may be able to date two or three women at once, all of whom are classy women who are usually the children of a parliament, an artist, or the child of a business partner of his grandfather. But I think at that time Aciel really just wanted to play with his life. He just wanted to feel what he had missed as long as he got a lot of restraints from his father.

As time went on and we got older, Aciel started to act more mature. He began to leave his black life and began to focus on his seat of honor to continue the glory of the Lutherford clan. At that time— whether we hit our heads or something, we discussed the future of our company which had been neglected for several years because of our negligence. Well of course that was after Aciel gave me the opportunity to own a fifteen percent stake in his company. I told you that Aciel was actually quite nice, he even considered me like his own brother even though I used to be just a street kid who almost stole his wallet.

We used to have discussions like two grown men who looked wise and full of ambition. Then since then I began to realize that we are really mature and grown up to take the company seriously. We are no longer ten year old snot kids who are always filled with sadness because we don't have parents or wild teenagers who often make noise to annoy others.

Now we are grown men who must work hard to maintain the glory and honor of the Lutherford family. However, Aciel's arrogance and cunning cannot just go away. The demeanor he brought from the radical group continued to stick in him, so that anyone who dared to stand in his way, he did not hesitate to kill that person.

Until one day Aciel met Brexton who was one of his business partners who at that time helped Aciel a lot to open more businesses in the international market. Brexton, who is eight years older than us, has had quite a lot of great business experience. He happily shares his knowledge with us and often introduces us to his family, including introducing us to his beautiful daughter, Eden.

The first time I met that beautiful girl when she was about five or six years old, I don't know I forgot a little. But I still remember how Eden's cheerful face was when she welcomed her father's business friends at home and when the girl asked this question with a very adorable child-like question. At that time, of course, I never thought that a cheerful Eden would one day turn into a gloomy Eden, even a vengeful Eden like a few years ago, or a rough Eden like the days after she woke up from her coma. Many things happened to Eden that made the mental state of the little girl who has now transformed into an adult woman torn apart. One of the main actors is of course Aciel, then her father, Brexton.

Don't know, I always blame Brexton when I remember Eden's dark days which were full of bad luck because she had to deal with Aciel. But indeed, only Aciel had great confidence from Brexton to educate Eden after that bastard died.

Me? Of course Brexton wouldn't take the risk of leaving his daughter in the hands of a man whose origins were very obscure and only grew up on the harsh Vegas streets. Although sometimes I quite wonder with Brexton's true purpose why he handed Eden to Aciel. Is it because Aciel is rich? Or actually Brexton already knows that one day Eden can become someone who has such a big influence on Aciel's life that it turns a fierce Aciel into a weak Aciel after Eden disappeared a few years ago.

And now I really understand that Aciel loves his wife so much. Although Aciel never said clearly that he loved Eden, but every action he showed to his wife was more than enough to prove that he really loved Eden. My best friend who used to always close his heart to a woman, now feels exhausted because he has to deal with a tough woman who is not easily conquered. If all this time all women have been subject to his feet because of all the things he has, Eden actually spit in his face and absolutely does not want to submit to Aciel's domineering power.

But as a witness and viewer of their complicated love story, I'm actually really amazed by their struggle to adjust to each other because they basically have two completely opposite personalities. They do this for the future of Ciara and their other children because they don't want their children to feel what their parents have felt so far. Aciel was willing to put their egos down for the sake of my adorable niece, Ciara and now Louise too. It can be said that Ciara is an angel sent by God to extinguish the embers that have been stretching between the two hard humans, Aciel and Eden. Now that I haven't seen Aciel's terrible side for a long time, that side has now reappeared. Aciel returns to his old self, when he lost Eden. He returned to being a horrible cold man who was almost untouchable as he continued to dwell on his own anger.

“Uncle, why is daddy just sitting there doing nothing? Does daddy not love me anymore?"

This morning I found my niece protesting to me because her daddy started not paying attention to her. As the only uncle she had, I tried to answer her in a diplomatic way that was more acceptable to the children. But unfortunately my niece was so critical that I was made to die with her endless questions.

“Uncle, don't mommy and daddy love each other anymore? Since mommy woke up from her long sleep, Ciara has never seen mommy being gentle with daddy, Ciara actually saw mommy getting angry at daddy."

"They love each other, angel...."

"But why did Mommy leave?" Ciara cut in quickly with an irritated face and almost shed tears because of my unsatisfactory answer and also because of her emotional outburst when she saw her parents busy with their respective egos.

"Your mommy just wants to clear her mind for a moment, she'll definitely be back or your horrible daddy will drag your mommy back." I finally answered in a frustrated tone.

Honestly I'm at a loss for words to answer every critical question. And that inevitably reminded me of Eden, because as far as I know she turned out to be a very kind gentle woman. During this time she often visited me and brought a variety of delicious food from her cooking because she was very good at cooking. Even though I used to think that Eden was the same as the bitches out there. But.... I was wrong. I'm even really sorry for judging her so badly like that, because actually Eden has a motherly side that has been hidden by her hard side.

I think that's what makes Aciel unable to turn away from Eden because since their relationship has improved, Aciel seems to have found his mother figure in Eden. Even though they often argue several times, they will still be fine, and instead show off their affection in front of me until I really envy their perfect household. Maybe right now God just wants to test the resilience of their love through the accident that happened to Eden which led to the woman's memory loss.

"Sian, have you found out where Anthony is?"

Suddenly Aciel has appeared in front of me while stroking the top of his daughter's head affectionately. He then grabbed Ciara from my arms and hugged his daughter tightly while kissing the top of Ciara's head many times. Maybe if I were a woman, I would have cried because I saw their very heart-wrenching and heartwarming interaction. They must have really missed Eden.

"So far, my guys are still looking of him, but according to my guys, Anthony is no longer working at the agency he used to be. He resigned two weeks before Eden's accident. But there is one thing that makes me think that Anthony is related to the accident that happened to Eden, because the cctv camera installed in the supermarket captured a portrait of Anthony's face who was in the crowd of people who surrounded Eden, but after that he chose to leave and look like never seen an accident that befell his ex-lover. What do you think happened to them? Could it be that they were involved in a conflict earlier that caused Eden to rush through the supermarket and not see a car speeding in front of her?”

“Why do you think like that? You're not trying to test my patience are you? Losing Eden and knowing the fact that Eden forgot me already made me very angry, now you are adding to my problem with a new hypothesis regarding Anthony and Eden's closeness behind me, you purposely want to make me explode, huh?” Aciel hissed warningly in front of me.

I tried to calm him down by patting his back casually while warning him that Ciara was currently sleeping in his arms. If he couldn't control his emotions and spoke too loudly, Ciara might wake up and cry from the shock.

“I don't want to make you explode even more, but I just want you to investigate further about Anthony because that guy is quite mysterious. He must have his own plans to get back at you because he has been so persistent in building the life you destroyed before. You better start preparing yourself for the surprising things that will happen to your life.” I warned him.

Aciel looked pensive in front of me while tightly clenching his jaw. He must be holding back the anger welling up inside of him, but his current state required him to think with a cool head because if he had only put his anger forward, he would have been defeated by Anthony easily because the man had thought about this from the start, making Aciel was angry and careless at the same time.

“I'll definitely be gathering evidence about Anthony soon, and if Eden is really with Anthony right now, then I'll let them be together for a while. It will only be a while before I separate them for good.”

I could see the intense glint of anger, resentment, and pain in his eyes. Under these circumstances, Aciel would be very dangerous to anyone. And anyone who dared to challenge Aciel in a situation like this, then that person had to be prepared with the risk of death that he would face.

Sian pov end