Chapter 111 - Confession of Silvia Grey

The curtains blowing into the room of a luxury apartment on the thirteenth floor were a testament of the cold wind blowing inside. But the occupant was unaware of the bite in the air as she read the limited report that the private investigator had compiled and her face turned paler by the moment. The private investigator was an experienced man who had once worked in law enforcement. He observed the woman in front of him as he made his verbal report. "As you can see there is not much information in the report. Please be assured that I have tried my best but the person suppressing the information seems to be very powerful. In fact, from my experience, I can even tell you that this little information that I have gleaned is also because of that individual. They mostly wanted you to have these crumbs of information so that you would beg them for more. Madam, if you do not mind me asking, is this person very important to you? Because I have a gut feeling that whoever this person is, they are not simple but rather dangerous. Though they wanted you to get the information, they made it extremely difficult to obtain. And all clues could be easily missed."

Silvia Grey looked at the investigator and gave a shaky nod. Looking at the man in front of her she questioned softly, " Do you know someone who can provide personal security? And I need someone who is good."

The man narrowed his eyes and said, "Of course I know and you should know too. You have recently signed a contract with KSS Media and they are basically a security company. Who better than KSS. They are the best. Within our field, Long Ah Hai is known as a God. There is no person he cannot save or kill. And he is known to maintain the same standard for all his employees, you could ask him for help."

Silvia Grey looked at the man blankly and muttered, "You want the dog to protect the bone?"

Though it was muttered softly, the man heard it and his eyes widened. In a hesitatingly soft voice, the man asked, "Miss Silvia, are you saying that the man suppressing this issue is Long Ah Hai?"

Silvia nodded gloomily as she pondered her future course of action. The private investigator was suddenly scared to the bone as he bowed and said, " Miss Silvia, thank you for using my services. If you have any need in the future, please feel free to contact me. For now, I am sorry I can not be of more help." Just as the man was making his escape, he turned around and advised, "Miss Silvia, that man is known to get what he wants. I think it would be better if you compromised timely. He has a certain amount of patience which if it runs out, there will be a blood bath. There is a principle that he is known to follow. It goes something like 'Saam,daam,dand, bhed' it means that one must follow these steps to get what they want. The first "saam" is to cajole. The second is 'dream' which means to pay a price to get what you want, the third means to punish and the fourth means to threaten those close to you. Please try to compromise at the soonest. Goodbye."

Silvia Grey heard the words and nodded her head. It had been two weeks since that day and she had hardly slept a wink. She had been so preoccupied that she had not even for a moment spared a thought to the betrayal of her trusted assistant. Now coupled with the investigator's words, she felt that surrender was her only option. In front of her was a deep valley and or the other side a deep well. She had to jump either way and hurt herself.

A little while later, Silvia picked up her phone and made a call to the man called Assistant Yang. He had approached her last week to let her know who to contact in case she needed it. The phone was answered on the first ring, "Miss Grey. How may I help you?"

Silvia was tempted to snort at this but holding it in she said tersely, " I would like to request a meeting with Mr Long. How soon can it be arranged? "

With a simple smile in his voice, Assistant Yang answered, " Miss Grey is a special case so of course, Mr Long is available at all times. Please come at your convenience."

Silvia smiled ironically as she placed the phone down which had been disconnected.

A little after two hours, Silvia had tied her hair in a chignon and with big glasses covering her face, entered the KSS building. After announcing the person she came to meet, she waited while Assistant Yang came down to fetch her. Her appearance for no apparent reason caused a lot of curiosity but nobody dared to ask.

With a slight knock, she was sent in. Long Ah Hai was sitting at his table studying his files and did not even bother to look up from his work when she entered. To someone who was used to a certain amount of adulation from the opposite gender, she was a little disconcerted at this and was jolted out of her thoughts by a cold voice, "Miss Grey. Are you here to stare?"

Shaking her head, she made her way to the chair opposite him and sat. Clearing her throat, she began, "Mr Long, Before I tell you anything, I would like you to answer something." Placing the picture of a young girl in front of him, she asked, "How do you know this girl?"

Ah, Hai glanced at the picture for a moment before his eyes flicked back to the woman. C.o.c.king his head he answered, "She is my wife."

Silvia felt as if the sky was falling on her head. Stuttering she said, "I want to meet her.."

"No.", came the final reply.

Before Silvia could protest or plead, Ah Hai continued, "Miss Silvia, I have answered your question. It is now your turn."

Silvia twisted her fingers and gulped, a little afraid. In a scared voice, she said, "I hope you and Mrs Long won't hold against me what I am about to tell you. Please know that I was also only a teenager when all that happened."

Breathing deeply she continued, "Your wife is called Shi Xiao and the other girl that you saw a picture of was her elder sister Shi Ai. Shi Ai and I were the same age and best friends. I don't know very well all that too place but Shi Ai and Shi Xiao were in a fire. Their house burned down and I genuinely believed that the two of them had perished. I am glad that at least Shi Xiao survived the fire. Mr Long, please let me meet her."

Ah, Hai was unmoved by the display of emotions and said once again coldly, "No."

This answer caused Silvia to almost lose her rationality and she dared to demand, "Why not? All I want to do is meet her! You are the one who brought her to me and I don't know what you are up to!"

Ah Hai smiled at this and silkily replied, "Miss Silvia, my answer is clear and straight forward. My wife's past is a mystery I am trying to solve. Until I know for sure that you are not a threat to her, I will not even let you see her, meeting her is an altogether different topic. Secondly, I want the whole story and not a censored version. This is your last chance to come clean. But for now, I can see that you genuinely believed that Shi Ai has died so let me tell you both the sisters survived the so-called fire. Now shall we continue with your story?"

Silvia absorbed this new information and decided to just blurt out everything.

" We were neighbours in a rundown area. Both sets of our parents were working hard to make a living so we were often left to our own devices. But while my parents saved and scrimped to get out from there, the Shi parents were not what you would call good people. Their father was a gambler who often used his wife as a bargaining chip. And lost most of the time so that his wife was considered nothing more than a p.r.o.s.t.i.t.u.t.e."

Ah Hai felt his insides clench at this new piece of information. He thanked the fates that he had not let his wife listen in on today's confession. Though there was no way to verify the information,  for even suspecting something like this would have hurt her tremendously.

Looking at Silvia carefully he gestured for her to continue and what she told him next caused him to snap the pen in his hand into two. The usually grim aura that surrounded him was intensified making him look ready to kill.