"Sir, where are we heading?", Tiger asked from the driver's seat. They left the GV Country club early morning with Yago only telling him they're going back to Dan city. He didn't specify the exact location they're heading nor did he utter a single word after they left Green Valley. He just sat there in the passenger seat, silently staring at the world outside.
"Sir?", he repeated.
Yago sighed. He heard Tiger but he was in no mood to converse with him. As time passes by, the pressure in his heart grows heavier and anxiety builds up pricks his chest. He still doesn't believe Arianna is dead. She must be alive. But that same hope is a double edge sword. Instead of being gloomy, he was now more worried and eager to find her. He had this weird feeling that Arianna was having a hard time at the moment. Something inside him was nagging at him to go and find her quickly, making him feel restless and perturbed.
"Did you manage to contact Viper?", he asked, at last.
"No sir. Viper lost his phone. We could only wait for him to call us first." he answered.
Yago nodded.
If Viper was still out there, then there could only be two possibilities. The first is that Arianna is still alive, and Viper was helping her hide somewhere. The second was Viper didn't know Arianna's whereabouts too, and he's out searching for her. Nonetheless, Arianna being dead was not part of the possibilities Yago was considering. For him, at the moment, no news is actually good news.
"Sir, have you seen the gift Miss Reid left for you?" Tiger asked as he was reminded of the mysterious box Arianna asked her to fetch from Miss Gwen Morgan. He glanced at his boss from the rear-view mirror but his expression didn't reveal anything.
"No." he said without sparing him a glance. Judging by the package, it was obviously a watch and of the same brand as the one Arianna gifted her father on christmas. Yes, it was expensive. But she didn't put a lot of thought into it, did she? "Are you the one who picked it?", he added. Why would Tiger know about it if he's not the one who delivered it to her?
"Yes." he answered without giving it a thought. After a while, Tiger pondered about it and changed his answer to "No." He picked it up. But he didn't choose what's inside that box. Could his boss be having some misunderstanding about it?
"It's alright. You don't have to lie." he said with a cold expression. "What's in there isn't important. Right now, finding Rian is the only thing that matters."
Tiger furrowed his brows. The gift wasn't important? He heard from Miss Morgan-Lee that the gift costs more than fifty million dollars. The lady boss had it customized and there's only one of this in the whole world. How can it be not important? When the lady of Morgan corporation handed it to him, she told him to guard it with his own life. But now, Yago is saying it's not important? He really can't understand the world of the rich and famous.
Tiger sighed and then shook his head. Sometimes, it's hard to pick sides between his two bosses.
"What was that about?", Yago asked with a frown when he caught Tiger shaking his head. Was he scolding him in his heart?
"Nothing, sir. I just think Miss Reid shouldn't have given you a kind of gift you can't appreciate." he answered. The message seemed to sympathize with him for getting a thoughtless gift, but Yago can sense sarcasm in it. Was Tiger mocking him? Is there something he didn't know?
***
Tiger shut his mouth up during the rest of the trip. For the first time ever since he started working for Yago, he was deeply annoyed by him.He feels sorry for Arianna. She has been sacrificing a lot for Yago lately, but this guy was being petty because of too much jealousy. Was he still upset because Arianna left him to marry Jayden Bates?
Yago noticed Tiger's frown. He was about to question him when his phone suddenly rang. The ringtone was the exclusive one that he assigned for his brother's phone number. Did something bad happened on their side?
"Hello, Vier?",he greeted as he answered the phone. "What's the matter?"
"Brother, where are you?", Vier asked.
"I'm on my way to Dan City." he replied. Vier's voice seemed anxious. Did something bad happened in the dela Vega family? "Tell me, what happened?"...
"That's supposed to be my line! How did sister-in law die?" he asked with a loud voice.
Yago narrowed his eyes. Why is everyone saying Arianna is dead? She isn't dead yet! He doesn't believe it. He will only believe it if he sees her corpse with his own eyes!
Yago remained silent. He was too vexed to utter a word. Sensing his irritation, Vier sighed and calmed himself before talking again. "Head to the Reid's South mansion now. We're here. We have to discuss about this things." Vier said before hanging up the call.
***
When Yago reached the South mansion, his siblings welcomed him in the living room with anxious eyes. Erica's eyes were red and puffy. It looked like she cried all night. Vier was wearing a frown and his fiancee was sitting beside him with her head lowered.
"Well, you look fine." Vier greeted mockingly.
"What are you all doing here?" he asked as his eyes surveyed each of them.
Vier sneered. He stood up before walking towards his twin. "You should ask yourself that. What were you doing? When your woman was bravely fighting for you, what were you doing? Where were you? How come you allowed things to end up this way? Why did she end up dead?" Vier shouted. Yesterday, Erica called him telling him while crying that Arianna died. If Erica was this devastated, then why was his brother looked this calm? Doesn't he care?
"Arianna isn't dead. Stop spouting nonsense if you still want to keep your life." Yago replied. His fists were clenched tightly as if preparing to beat someone.
Erica immediately rose from her seat and stood between her arguing brothers. She stared at her eldest brother's face and then held his hands. "I'm sorry brother. I'm partly to blame." she said before turning to Vier. "Don't blame him anymore. Brother Yago didn't know what's happening."
"That's exactly why he was at fault! He should've known what's happening! He has been careless, stupid and selfish!", Vier shouted. "Wasn't his task to finish off Rojo? If he focused on that task instead of flirting here and there, things wouldn't turn out to be like this! If he trusted Arianna instead of keeping everything a secret, would she have to finish Yago's mission by herself?", Vier continued scolding his twin. This time, Yago couldn't find a word to refute. He stared at Vier with eyes widened.
"What do you mean?"
Vier looked away, refusing to say more. Yago then turned to Erica with questioning eyes. Erica lowered her eyes, unable to meet his brother's gaze. She gripped his hands tightly before slowly uttering a few words.
"Sister-in-law was worried about your injury. She took over your security team and your properties to take-over.... on your mission. Everything that happened was a plan to eradicate Rojo..." she confessed.
"How did she find out?", he asked.
Erica shook her head. "I don't know. She just told me about some of her plans before both of you left for christmas. She said I need to take over a few things while you were gone. The rest could wait til she's back."
"Why would she.... " Yago froze before he could finish that sentence. Why would she do that? Could it be?
Erica sighed. She turned around and left the living room. When she came back, she was holding a brown envelope in her hand. "These are the files she left. The rest.... I'll send you through e-mail." She said.
Inside the envelopes are instructions and gathered informations. Before he could check any of them, a hand-written letter caught Yago's attention. He recognized that penmanship very well. It was Rian's. It was a written instructions for Erica. He started reading it and was stunned for a while.
"Sister in law wrote that before she left for the wedding." Erica stated.
Yago's hands shook. He stared at a particular part of the letter.
"... although it's very unlikely, but if anything happens to me during the wedding, please take care of Yago for me. Tell him not to blame his self. I did everything on my own accord. I want him to live and that's all that matters to me. I've lost him once. I don't want to go through it all over again."
A single tear fell from Yago's eye. She knew.... She knew it all along.... It was very foolish of him to lie to her....