223 Her love for me clouds her judgmen

yuan bo flinches when the glass hits the wall. it smashes into pieces. maddox lets out a curse.

he has been keeping an eye on her since she joined the world of hacking. he did everything to find her, but she was quite good at hiding her whereabouts. still, he managed to find her in a game and add her to a chatroom he created. to not make her suspicious, he added a few other people he met in the game. when he started chatting with her, he found that she was a female.

rie is one of the few things that he wanted to have. he wanted her before he even saw her at the world hack series event. she was perfect in his eyes. he wanted to approach her, but he was a little nervous back then. he still wants her.

but he lost his chance because of his hesitation. all of it happened too soon. he was distracted because of daniel nagasawa. that man approached dionne's only daughter with plans. he didn't expect that the consortium would do something unimaginable.

when he got back, he found out that rie died in the hospital. if he had investigated the matter more, he would have found her and taken her away. after the news of her death, he knew that he couldn't delay anymore. he had to choose someone and have a child. the woman was a poor college student. she agreed to do anything as long as he paid her. thankfully, his first child passed the test of the consortium and became one of the candidates for the position of the president. he keeps his daughter at a safe place, hidden away from the loyal supporters of dionne ash.

two years later, he found rie again when she got involved with chisa hashimoto. by then, rie was already married to kiyohira.

it didn't matter anymore. he already had a child, though he wanted rie to be the child's mother. but the past couldn't be changed. he still wanted her as his woman.

he couldn't bear seeing him with someone else. it was better if rie was away from that man. when the opportunity arrived, he brought her away while hoping for something.

he tried.

but that woman kept rejecting him. she was already pregnant with kiyohira's son. she always kept a wall around her. she never saw him as a man. he was still content. at least, she wasn't with someone else. her son was also an extraordinary child, but the boy is emotional. he was going to take yuta away, but he saw how fragile that woman was without her son. so, he decided to let them stay together until yuta turned five. after the boy's fifth birthday, he was planning to raise him alongside his daughter.

instead of becoming a possible sacrifice of dionne's granddaughter, yuta should have been his daughter's future sacrifice.

he lost both rie and yuta instead. it's all because of kamiyama kiyohira. if he wasn't there, rie wouldn't have left.

why does everything that belongs to him snatched away by someone else? even after dionne's death, consortium never considered him to become the next president. why? because he failed a stupid test. even if he and dionne had the same blood, he was rejected because he wasn't a genius like dionne or his daughter.

"yuan bo." maddox turns to look at the assassin. "go to her side. keep her safe. from now on, you will only serve her. she must be prepared for what is coming. she must become better than that child. remember to tell her that only the winner can have it all."

"what about you?" yuan bo narrows his eyes on him. "don't act stupid because of a woman. it's better to kill her and concentrate on the future."

the boy is still young to understand. maddox smiles at him. he can never accept daniel and kiyohira having their ways. "i will start a game with daniel and kiyohira. either they will keep everything or i will win what they stole from me."

"brother, they are involved with the consortium now." yuan bo looks at him with worry. "you can't harm them."

"a little game between the guardians isn't against the rules." maddox tells him, "since i already know where dionne's granddaughter is, i don't want to wait to see that little spawn. is that child similar to dionne or christopher? i can't wait to find out."

***

at kirishima family's house, daniel applies the soothing ointment on his wife's wounds with utmost care. his eyes are emotionless and dark when he sees the bruises on her back. the corner of his lips is tilted downward. he strokes her hair and watches her eyelids stir. she must be having nightmares again.

she's so pitiful.

he takes her hand and stares at her pale fingers. "if you hadn't killed the previous heir, you wouldn't be living this kind of life. if you had accepted your destiny, you wouldn't be punished for fighting it so hard. in the end, it was all in vain, wasn't it? you suffer in this hell every day that we created for you. if i could, i would have ended your pitiful life in a single moment since i love you, ayaka. but a royal being like you can't be killed by someone like me."

silence issues in the room. daniel covers her with a blanket. a faint smile appears on his lips. he whispers to her, "perhaps, your daughter will release you from this hell. she's quite similar to her father and grandmother. unfortunately, it must be done now. she already doubts me because of some interfering pesky beings. but her love for me clouds her judgment. she's quite like you in this regards."

though it's a little premature, the time is already here. he kisses ayaka's lips and mumbles a few intimate words to her. he cleans up the pills from the floor and places a new pill bottle on the table. he glances at her once. he might have to distract this woman a little. from now on, he must treat her with 'love' and give her a dreamlike life to make her forget about certain things.