"Where is he?"
"The farthest room from the left."
"Did he receive any visitors?"
"Apart from his lawyers, there have been none."
"Lawyers?"
"Yes. He is facing multiple charges against him so there have been numerous allegations to look into but they have been divided accordingly in a way that....."
"He should never be set free." Mora murmered to herself. As much as she dreaded facing her father, she knew it was inevitable for them to meet in the end especially after him demanding a number of times for them to have a one on one sitdown. This time in particular, she had to show up after a long time family lawyer and a friend of her father insisted she tag along.
"If you reject his request to meet him again, he will go public with whatever he has against you."
"And what might that be?"
"You'll have to meet up with him to find out."
"What a rare sight." Mora's father spoke with a broad smile. From the looks of it, he hardly showed any sign of discomfort, rather, he looked more composed and relaxed than Mora had anticipated him to be. "Finally, you show your precious face."
Mora ignored her father's remarks and took a seat infront of him. There was a large table separating them two and a man, whom she'd assumed to be an armed police officer stood behind her father.
"Don't be afraid. He is here to make sure neither of us harms the other, but I have no intention of harming my own daughter."
"Why did you call for me? We have nothing to discuss..."
"Where is your mother?" Mora's father asked. "She'd have enjoyed the current sight of me."
"Stop wasting my time and tell me why I am here."
"I was informed you've been receiving funds to sustain some childish project while in campus. Is that your new way of laundering money from me? Or perhaps you've finally found your moral compass..."
Mora's face twitched at her father's last remark. "You can resist all you like...being locked up suits you well."
"Oh, I find it more fun for both of us. It's been a while since we played a game together. I'm sorry my attention has been focused on moulding your brother to take after me when you were infront of me all this time. I should have known your brother was a weakling just like his useless mother."
"He is not hers. I know everything there is to know."
Mimicking a sigh, Mora's father continued, his witty expression remaining unchanged. "I'm sorry to say this, but the more you two plot against me, the more I prepare myself for days worse than this. I'm not that complaisant as you think. Reflect on how I taught you to always be one step ahead in the game. Your mother must have taught you two thousand steps, which I'm sure you've applied and executed efficiently while you two conspired against me but do you know the disadvantage of being many steps ahead of an opponent? You become exhausted and confused. You loose focus and start forgetting things. You mix up the steps then miss a few and soon enough, your entire plan falls apart."
"Why I'm I here?" Mora could feel her heart thudding louder and louder as her patience ran out. She'd promised herself to remain calm but that promise was beginning to fail miserably infront of the person she despised the most. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and a smile formed on her face.
'Fuck. Now he knows I'm intimidated by him.'
"Careful now. I showed you that move but doing it infront of me is just sabotaging yourself infront of an opponent."
"With the skills you've forcefully taught me, I'm creating a new world of my own."
"A family of your own, friends of your own perhaps. Maybe you've also seen yourself as a god."
Placing her elbows on the table, Mora rested her chin on her crisscrossed fingers. "I determine who leaves and who stays. I get bored, I'll eliminate anything and anyone that comes my way just as you've taught me."
"I concur but I insisted on keeping a small company. Surely you must know it will come down and crash in due time the more people get involved. Learn from me. Never form attachments than necessary, especially with the enemy."
"I no longer hold interest in learning anything from you."
"I can see that."
Mora's lips twitched. The rage inside her was going berserk and her father enjoyed her controlled reactions until he began laughing. "You owe me my freedom."
Mora's father leaned back on his seat and shrugged his shoulders. "You could simply disown me like your brother did, but you won't survive long without my influence and while we are on that subject of money, I remember mentioning my displesure at your attachment to that girl with a thirst no one could quench."
"I must have misheard you for she is currently pregnant with your grandchild."
"What did you say?"
Mora flinched at the sudden murderous look her father gave her but she wasn't about to back down. Mijin's pregnancy had been a triumph card she'd planned to use someday yet her tongue slipped.
"Perhaps next time, make your requests more clearer or do you need me to help you with enunciating..."
"Do not tell me it's from that time..."
"I simply did exactly what you did to brother when you forced a marking out of him purely for your own selfish gains."
"What do you stand to gain from that consequence? Mixing up with the middle class? You know nothing of their weaknesses. They have nothing to loose neither do you have anything of value you can take from them."
"You speak of worth as if you know what it means, or maybe your comprehension of what value means is just as unclear as your so called requests..."
"If you still intend to bring me down, then there is something you should never forget. I taught you everything you know and you will never outsmart me. I will always have the upper hand in everything and in anything so the next time I ask you to show up, it will only be once."
Leaning forward closer to the table, Mora's father added. "When I asked you and your brother to keep off that wretched girl, that was not a request but an order."
"That wretched girl you despise so much has the key to cure my brother. The only living thing you've ever cared to bother about other than yourself."
Mora's father's expression relaxed. "What do you mean?"
"Your son's blood is contaminated with the drug you've invested and profited from highly without a care of its use and abuse. The child Mijin is carrying will detoxify his blood and he won't have to undergo a procedure that will render him a scentless walking corpse. I was informed you were against giving him a complete blood transfussion."
Mora's father formed a grin at the corner of his mouth. "How amusing. All I wanted from him was to stand beside me for as long as he can. As my son, he owes me his loyalty and his life which you have so graciously lengthened. I can forgive you for the things you've done so far but you shall still need to redeem yourself with two more conditions." When Mora stared at her father in silence, he took the chance to expound more. "You see my dear daughter, while you were busy creating a world of your own, I had already created my own world long before you were born. Perhaps along the way I lost sight of my purpose and focused on pleasing your grandparents then but at the moment, none of you have any meaning in the world I've created. All of you, especially you my brilliantly minded daughter have wished to be the protagonist but that day will never come. The moment you thought I cared for your brother more than you was the day you lost sight of your path. You shouldn't have allowed your mother to brainwash you.
If you believe locking me here will protect you or that bastard of a child, then so be it. I shall be out soon enough and will come after you. You are a thin fabric in all I've been accused of. You shouldn't have forgotten who you were going up against but I shall forgive you and allow you redemption. My other two conditions is you find a way to shut down the noise of insignificant scoundrels asking for compensation for things they willingly accepted to take part in. While at it, have your brother acknowledge me as his father again and tell your mother to never ever go against my orders."
"No."
"What?"
"I will not be your puppet any longer."
"Behave yourself, I'm warning you."
"You still intend to claim ownership of brother yet he has no meaning to you. Explain it to me clearly and I might take your threat into consideration."
Mora's father suddenly burst out laughing as he leaned back again on his chair. "You truly are my exact replica. It's unfortunate that silly woman had to be your mother."
"Why do you still want brother? You did make it clear we are all dispensable."
"Except for him."
"Why him?"
"He must stay alive."
"Why?"
"He is not mine to keep as much as I have use of him. I'm sure your mother explained to you in-depth of my lover. Your brother disowned me, but he didn't disown his other father therefore, whatever rights you believe you have over him are irrelevant."
"That's not possible! I have all his legal documents and I'm his next of kin...!"
"I have no intention of disclosing more than what doesn't concern you. In the end, all that matters is why you came here. What I need to know is did you enjoy it? Toruring your brother that is?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about. I prevented him from running away as you wanted didn't I?"
"Your brother was found with unexplainable marks, some hidden others too tiny to almost miss out. Surely I had assumed by now you would have outgrown your old habbits Mora... Or did you think the helps were blind to your hobbies?"
"You left me to fend for myself!"
"You've been a defective child from the very start. That's why instead of you exposing yourself, I personally gave you training, one that has allowed you to blend in perfectly with normal people and switch into any character undetected. To think you'd use your brother as an experiment is unsightly even for me. You will be found out soom. I'm sure your mask has began falling off since you can't even tame your own desires..!"
"You must have thrown brother to me purposely as a test just like before didn't you? You knew of my weaknesses..."
"I'll remind you again one last time. I feel nothing, I regret nothing, I dislike nothing. I too was considered a misfit and was married off but little did my family know I'd already met someone I didn't want to cause harm to and to tame my wild intrests, he marked me and I became his. So, I'll ask you as I asked you earlier, did you find your moral compass?"
"Never have I found it nor I'm I searching for it."
"Well, you're in big trouble silly girl because your moral compass, is supposed to be your salvation and if you really haven't crossed paths with it, then you must tell me your entire plan.
What exactly are you up to?"