Ten years after my stepbrother Elric disappeared, I met him at underground auction. I was the auction item, while he was my buyer. But he didn’t seem to recognize me. *** Others call him Draven Rodriguez. Draven is the Mafia boss of the Chicago underground. He hooked my chin with the tip of his boots, just like looking at a cargo. I cried tentatively: “…… Elric?” He didn’t look back, just told his subordinates to take me to his house. It’s like he doesn’t know me at all. But I still didn’t give up, with a louder voice, called again: “Elric！” The one who answered me was the gun on my forehead. His tone was casual: “Don’t mistake me for anyone else again, I will send you to hell. ” I didn’t know how dangerous I was until that moment. Draven’s subordinates took me to a mountain villa. The empty room, as if no one had ever lived here. “ What’s your name? ” Draven asked me. “……Liora。” “Help me undress,” he said. He lifted his arm, and the dagger and the gun around his waist seemed within reach. But I don’t know, this is a trap. I took the opportunity of unbuttoning his shirt to grab his gun and point it at his temple. “Let me go,” I said. I was supposed to be the one threatening him, and yet, my hands trembled in fear as I held onto the gun. On the other hand, Draven reached out calmly and grasped my cold wrist. “Do you know how to use a gun? Would you like me to teach you?” he asked. He snatched it forcefully, and I let go of the gun in pain. As soon as he got hold of the gun, he pointed it at my throat. He placed his finger on the trigger, then talked to me nonchalantly. He said, “You see, you’ll have to do this to succeed in threatening someone. Open the drawer and wrap the metal chain around your neck, or else…” He pressed the tip of the gun on my throat as he smiled with squinted eyes. “I’ll blow your throat up,” he warned. Since then, Draven has chained me up in the garden for three whole days. On the third night of my sleeping out here, Chicago started to rain heavily. I was drenched in rainwater within minutes. I hugged my knees and curled up by the wall next to me. After a very long time, I heard a sound and looked up. Draven stood in front of me without an umbrella as he looked down at me. Despite being wet from the rain, his exquisite features were handsome as usual, and his gaze was sharp and penetrating. “Do you admit your mistake?” he asked. He raised his eyebrow, then chuckled. “Come give me a kiss, and I’ll let you return to your room.” I was at a loss for words. I knew that he was just trying to tame me, but I felt dizzy from being exposed to the rain, and my stomach ached as well. Therefore, I stood up slowly and walked towards him shakily. I held onto his shoulders as I tiptoed and planted my lips on his. Draven’s pupils darkened as he took a glance at me. He then carried me into his arms and strode into the room. He sure was a person who loved trouble. The sex with him was a mixture of torture and pleasure. After that, I had a fever and lay in bed unconscious for days. During my illness, I dreamt a lot. The dream is all Elric without exception. My brother, Elric.
Elric Frank was my stepbrother, the son of the woman whom my dad was remarried to. Unlike the fairytales, she had never been cruel to me. She treated us fairly and even treated me better than she treated her own son in some cases. “Liora is a girl, we have to look after her well,” she said. Apart from Aunt Frank, my stepmother, Elric adhered to this rule very strictly as well. I always thought that even if I had a biological brother, he couldn’t possibly have treated me as well as Elric did. He’s just one year older than me. But when I was young, I was weak, timid, and soft-hearted. Elric had to protect me so that I wouldn’t get bullied. Elric had a deep, dark-colored scar on his back that he got from getting cut in a fight to protect me. Back then, so much blood flowed out of his wound that I sobbed in fear. Elric, who had been injured in the fight, had to console me instead. I used to believe that our family would’ve lived happily together forever. But life was full of mishaps. When I was fourteen, Elric went missing all of a sudden. My father and Aunt Frank made a police report. The police searched through the entire city, but couldn’t seem to find any trace of him at all. Our neighbors advised us that Elric wouldn’t be able to return anymore.They told my parents that they at least had a daughter left, who would be able to accompany them when they were old. Without saying much, my father resigned from his job and began his never-ending search. Aunt Frank no longer looked at me with loving eyes. Instead, she always glared at me with hatred. “If Elric hadn’t gone all the way there to buy that for you, he wouldn’t have gone missing,” she said. I couldn’t refuse. That was because I was the one who had said that there was a new bakery. I said that most of my classmates had gotten to try it, and that they said that cake tasted great. Elric had always doted on me. After finishing his homework, he saw that it wasn’t too late yet and rode his bicycle out to buy it for me. And he never came back after that. As we’ve never found Elric after that, Aunt Frank’s mental and physical health started to deteriorate at great speed. She passed away when I was twenty. My father was involved in a car accident during one of his search trips, and passed away during that accident as well. I buried my father’s ashes next to Aunt Frank’s in the Mausoleum. After returning home, I hung the third portrait on the wall. Yes, I’ve always thought that if Elric were still alive after so many years, he would’ve been able to return to see me with his smarts. Even if it was just for a second. But unexpectedly, after being sedated by the vagabond who asked me for help, I was transported to the underground auction by a human trafficking team. Here, I met a person who looked exactly like him. But that person was called Draven Rodriguez. And he didn’t know me at all. Technically speaking, they were completely different in terms of personality as well. Nevertheless, he is very keen to play my stepbrother. It was as if that title could make his experience even more enjoyable during affectionate times. Sometimes, he pulled my wrists above my head and chuckled as his warm breath spread across my neck. “Come, tell me, did your stepbrother treat you like this too?” he asked when thrusting. At first, I suspected that he was pretending that he wasn’t Elric, or had perhaps lost his memory, so I tested him multiple times. I stayed in the kitchen for the entire afternoon and cooked a bowl of Elric’s favorite noodle soup, then carried it out of the kitchen with hands covered in wounds. I patched up the torso of his jacket with a kitten-shaped felt pad. He flipped the bowl of noodle soup over, and then tore the kitten-shaped felt pad off of his jacket with a smile. Next, he ordering his men to lock me up in the enclosed attic, where the door and windows were bolted shut. “Liora, I do not like it when you see me as someone else,” he said. It was hot in the summer, and the airflow in the attic was terrible. When I was released from the attic after two days, I had already fainted from dehydration. Draven gave me a kiss, then fed me some water before letting it trickle onto the ground. “Liora, did you know that the sight of you being weak gets me excited?” he said. He talked to me as if I were really a kitten, and his goal was to tame me. Elric never did that to me. In the past, even if I were merely suffering from a mild cold, he’d prepare medications and hot water for me, and forbid me from eating spicy foods or drinking cold drinks. But soon, my persistence subsided when I noticed Draven’s back after he took a shower that day. His skin was fair due to being shaded from the sunlight. There were two newly formed scars on his back, but the old, dark scar was nowhere to be seen. He truly wasn’t Elric. At that moment, I lost all of my hope and energy.
I tried escaping once. I even took off one of the earrings that Draven had given me and gave it to a youngster, then told him to bring me to the nearest police station. That youngster looked pure and innocent. And yet, he took me to a local brothel instead. When Draven entered the brothel with his men, I was dressed in a set of revealing clothes and tied up by the corner, as if I were a product to be sold again. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of his bloodstained shoes. Seeing that the situation seemed dangerous, the youngster turned around and ran away. Draven tilted his head, then shot his back without hesitating. With a “bang”, blood and flesh were splattered everywhere. Draven took the earring that had been soaked in blood out of his pocket, then kicked his body away as if it were rubbish. He walked towards me, then squatted down in front of me. “Afraid? Did you think that I’ve been too cruel for killing him?” he asked. He smiled, then reached out and wiped off the cheap lipstick on my lips. “Did you know that he had taken the lives of two children younger than him?” he asked. My teeth trembled as my throat tightened. I couldn’t bring myself to say a single word. Draven didn’t untie the rope around me. Instead, he lifted me up and threw me into the bedroom in the same position. “A bad kitten needs to be ‘punished’,” he said when unbuckling his belt. It was at that moment that I realized how large Draven’s area of influence was. I had been acting under his watchful eye throughout the whole process of escaping. He had allowed me to run away so that I would realize that I wouldn’t be able to leave this place without his protection. The only way for me to survive was to obey him. …… “Liora has been a good girl lately,” he said. Draven’s voice made me return to my senses. He kissed my ears and neck gently. “A good kitten deserves a treat. Valentine’s day is coming soon, what gift would you like?” I looked downwards and said softly, “I want to go boat rowing.” Back when we were in elementary school, apart from the gifts we would receive during the holidays, Elric and I looked forward to the boat-rowing events the most every year. There was a flock of swans in the center of the lake in the city garden. Every time I went boat-rowing, I always carried a pack of bread in my backpack, then tore them into pieces before feeding the swans. They were usually held during the hot afternoons in summer. The weather was scorching, but it was cooling on the surface of the lake. I would lean against Elric’s shoulder and fall asleep unconsciously. At the mention of that Draven’s expression didn’t change at all. Nevertheless, his hand, which was stroking my hair a second ago, froze in the air. On Valentine’s Day, he actually took me boat-rowing. No, it was more like boat riding. He helped me onto the boat with a few of his men, and we took the boat across the river to discuss a collaboration with his ex-opponent. They wanted to join forces to import more illegal firearms into the country. The location of their negotiation was a luxurious private manor. When we passed by a water fountain with a statue on top, I couldn’t help but take a few more glances at it. Draven wrapped his arms around me when he noticed me looking at it. “Are you interested in these things?” he asked with raised eyebrows. I answered softly, “I went to art school at the university.” He extended his arm and patted my head. “When we get back, I’ll get you a set of painting supplies. You can busy yourself with them when I’m not home, okay?” As soon as we arrived at the hall, he took a seat on the sofa calmly, then turned around and whispered, “Sit closer to me, do not leave my sight.” Draven was rarely ever so gentle to me. These were the moments when I couldn’t help but associate him with the Elric I knew. Until the mafia boss on the other side, who had a scar on his face, called Sam Miller, told his henchmen to bring someone forward. It was a woman. It was a pitiful-looking woman who had watery eyes and was garbed in a white dress.
Sam pinched the woman’s waist before dipping his head into her neck and sniffing hard. “Smells nice.” The woman was in tears. She remained silent as she stared at Draven. Sam snickered viciously. “It seems that you’re enjoying your new woman very much, Draven. You haven’t forgotten about your old lover, have you?” Draven tightened his grip around my waist. But the expression on his face remained unchanged. “What do you want?” “Apart from the conditions that we’ve agreed on, I want half of the profits as well. I’ll also need my men to be a part of the main network,” the boss said. Draven squinted his eyes and took a short glance at him. “Deal.” The woman was pushed over, she rushed towards Draven and fell into his arms, as if she were a butterfly with broken wings. Nonetheless, Draven didn’t push her away. He let go of my waist and used his hands to grab onto her shoulders. I was stunned as I watched the scene. We’ve been so intimate all this time, and yet, I didn’t know… anything about Draven. Perhaps it was because Draven was willing to compromise, and the subsequent negotiations went smoothly. Sam even took Draven and his men to see their newly established firearms warehouse and invited them to stay the night there. “To be honest, Draven, this situation here is complicated and chaotic. However, I see the potential in you. You’re young, and you treat your relationships with importance. I’m willing to trust only you when it comes to collaborations,” he said. Draven placed his wine glass down in agreement. Sam arranged two rooms for us, then gave Draven an ambiguous wink. As expected, Draven did not return to our room after dinner. I lay in bed alone until midnight, when the door opened all of a sudden, With the beam of light that shone through the crack of the door, I squinted my eyes as I took a look. The familiar figure walked forward and lay down next to me. Draven hugged me from the back as he pressed his lips onto my ear and whispered, “Why aren’t you asleep yet, kitten? Have you been waiting for your owner to return?” His warm breath diffused across my ear, and there was an unfamiliar fragrance coming from his body. I kept quiet for a moment, then asked, “When are we going back?” He chuckled, then turned me over before hugging me tighter. “You kept wanting to leave that place back then. Now that I’ve brought you out, you’re thinking of going back already?” he asked. “I don’t like this place, and I don’t like… the smell of your body,” I replied. The bedside lamp was turned on all of a sudden. I was startled by the bright light. Draven grabbed onto my wrists, then leaned closer as he stared into my eyes. “Are you jealous, my little kitten?” he asked. I drank some red wine during the dinner banquet. Perhaps it was because I was a little tipsy from the alcohol, but I pounced forward and wrapped my arms around his waist. I didn’t say a single word. Nevertheless, Draven laughed happily. He held onto my hands as he kissed my lips. “Alright, we’ll go back tomorrow.” …… The next day, we left Sam’s firearm warehouse. The woman in white came with us. I heard her name from Draven. Her name was Eden Connelly. We took the boat back again. Eden felt sick from the boat ride and came knocking on our door with a pale complexion. Draven straightened my messed-up clothes, then got up and opened the door. “What do you need?” he asked. From my angle, I noticed Eden looking up at Draven with a pitiful gaze. “Draven, I feel sick.” “Go get some rest if you’re feeling sick. The journey isn’t that long,” he said. After that, he closed the door impatiently, but a fair hand tugged on his sleeve. “I’ll do it.” Eden said, “I’ll do what you asked the last time.” I watched as Draven paused and left the room with her. I didn’t know what they talked about. Upon returning, Eden moved into the manor I was locked up in. Perhaps to compensate me, Draven actually bought me an entire set of painting supplies and sent his men to clean up the study room on the second floor for me as well. “Don‘t go out for no reason，But you can paint here instead,” he said. He leaned forward and gave me a kiss on my forehead. “I’ll be very busy these days. You’ll have to be a good girl, okay?” I looked down. “Are you worried that I’d bully her?” Despite having my head lowered, I could sense the cold aura coming from him. “Don’t make me angry, Liora,” he said. With a smirk, he said with an unbothered gaze, “Stay in your room and be good. Don’t offend her, okay?” As soon as Draven left, I finally understood why he had said that. When I was painting in the study room, Eden walked in all of a sudden. With me being the only person there, she didn’t seem weak or pitiful at all. Instead, she looked at my painting haughtily, then snickered. “Pretending to be artistic, huh?” I didn’t respond and focused on mixing the colors on my palette. She rushed towards me, then slapped the paintbrush away from my hand. “I’ve seen plenty of women like you. After being sold to a place like this, you have no choice but to seduce a man to survive,” she scorned. With her arms wrapped around her chest, she snorted coldly. “Unfortunately, you’ve chosen the wrong man. Do you know that Draven and I are about to get married soon?” I didn’t know what to say. I stared at the bits of paint on her clean, white dress as I remained silent. “Once we get married, I’ll get him to gift you to his lowly subordinates as a reward. All of his past women ended up like this, and you’ll soon join their ranks,” she said. I stared at her chin. Suddenly, I smiled as I said, “Are you threatening me, or are you trying to convince yourself?” “You!” she yelled. Eden was furious. She kicked my easel to the ground, then stomped out of the room. I don’t know what she told Draven, but he came back to the manor that night. When Draven came in, I was getting changed into my pajamas next to the bed. “You sure are adding to my troubles, Liora,” he said. His leather shoes made deep thuds as they were pressed against the ground. He squatted down in front of me, then stared at me. “I told you not to offend her, why did you flip her things over on purpose?” I was at a loss for words. She was the one who did it to me, and yet, she pretended to be the victim. Before I could explain, Draven took his gun out and pointed it at my forehead. “If I kill you now, you’ll stop adding to my troubles, won’t you?” he said. His tone was nonchalant as usual, and it seemed to contain a hint of joy. Nevertheless, I could see that he meant it from his cold and dark eyes. After a moment of silence, I closed my eyes and said with a trembling voice, “Go ahead.” “Once you kill me, you’ll be able to marry her without any troubles,” I said. The gun that was pointed at my forehead was moved away. I opened my eyes, and caught sight of Draven’s inexplicable gaze. “Liora.” I moved my shaking arms behind my back, then smiled in tears. “Isn’t it easier to get rid of a kitten and get a new one?” Draven went quiet. He stared at my face under the bright light. Some emotions started to fade from his eyes, while new emotions emerged. After a long time, he placed his gun back into the holster before standing up. He placed his hand on my head, and stroked my hair as if he were trying to comfort me. “You’re not a kitten, you’re my dear Liora,” he said. As I indulged in the warmth coming from my head, I closed my eyes. At that moment, I truly wished that he was Elric, that he hadn’t got lost, and that I hadn’t gotten sold to a place like this. I wished that he had returned safely with the cake when I was fourteen. But when I opened my eyes, I only felt the coldness of the gun beneath me. The person in front of me is Draven.
Draven left the next day. Their collaboration with Sam went smoothly, and they had already smuggled two batches of illegal firearms into the country through both the old and new routes. Apart from that, a batch of women who were in their twenties was being secretly smuggled into the country as well. Human trafficking and illegal firearms seemed like ordinary businesses when he talked about them. Meanwhile, it’s been a long time since Eden last came to seek trouble with me. Nonetheless, she glared at me resentfully every time she saw me. I guessed that she was probably dissatisfied because she had tattled on me to Draven and made him return on purpose, but he didn’t do anything to punish me. That afternoon, I was painting in the garden when I dropped one of the earrings that Draven had given to me. At night, I went to the garden to look for it after noticing my earlobe was naked. And noticed that Eden was making a call by the entrance of the basement. She spoke softly, probably because she knew that Draven’s men were in the manor. “No, I want forty percent of it.” She said, “Are you kidding me? You know how terrifying Draven can be, I’m taking such a huge risk by staying by his side… who’s that?” She looked up abruptly, then took a glance with her sharp gaze as she ended the call cautiously. I hid on the balcony between the first and second floors. Suddenly, I realized something. I climbed up and entered the manor through the window, then dashed towards my bedroom as fast as I could. As soon as I was tucked in my bed, Eden opened the door and barged into the room. She stared at me as she snickered coldly, then left the room without saying anything. A few days later, Draven returned. Eden started to pretend to be weak and fragile in front of him again. After the meal, she began attacking me. “Draven…” she said. She bit her lip as she stared at me. “Have you never suspected that she could be an undercover spy that someone else has sent?” Draven raised his eyebrow. “Hmm?” “When I left the manor to buy some flowers two days ago, I ran into her giving a man a thick stack of letters,” she said. With tears in her eyes, Eden added, “You said that you and Sam faced some problems when importing the third batch of products, so I thought that… there’s probably a traitor here.” Draven turned towards me as he placed his hand on the gun holster around his waist. “Is that so, Liora?” He had an exquisite pair of eyes, and his brow ridge was slightly high. When he was focused, his gaze was as dark as the night sky, as if it could see through all of the lies in the world. I looked at the gun in his hand in a daze for a few seconds, and laughed. “Indeed, I gave someone a stack of paper,” I said. I added gently, “They were paintings. I painted some paintings of you, and wanted to get someone to frame them up as gifts for you.” “That’s nonsense!” Eden screamed. I looked towards her once again. “She’s the one who has been betraying you. I heard her talking to someone on the phone, saying that it was a huge risk to stay by your side,” I said. “That’s nonsense! Nonsense! You’re just trying to sow discord!” she shouted. The smile on Draven’s face widened, but his gaze seemed to become colder and colder. It was obvious that he was very dangerous at that moment. Therefore, Eden pounced toward me with a shrill scream. As she moved, I saw the glint of a knife between her fingers. She screamed, “Did you think that lying would be of any use? Do you know that my dad bought him back then? Back when I said that I didn’t like the scar on his body, he…”
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