"P-please-d-don't-k-kill me…" a bloody wounded man pleaded while being hanged upside down. "...I-I'll tell you e-everything-y-you-n-need to-k-know."
Veronica being LM, "Ohh…is it now?" stopped removing the captured bloody man's fingertips. "What changed your mind?"
"O-our-g-gang…b-belittled…by the S Empire…" the man coughed. "Our boss wants to ruin the empire."
She hummed while playing with the knife that she was holding. "S Empire…you mean the Salazar Empire?"
"Yes…" he confirmed.
"Who ordered you then?" she asked.
"Let me go and I…tell you." He bargained making her laugh.
She sinisterly smirked at him. "Your life is in my hands and you have no right to plea."
He smirked back. "Then I have no choice but to take the name into my grave then."
"Better since I've got my ways to get it." She already sees it coming and cuts another finger on his hands. "So, give the name."
"I won't." he gritted his teeth.
She sighed before saying the name she had in mind. "Pendelton." the bloody wounded man's beaten eyes widened and she smirked. "Claudius Pendelton."
"H-how…" he could not finish his words since Veronica as LM was now using her spikey whip and hitting the man again.
The man groaned in pain as he pleaded to stop but LM was not giving in. "I told you, didn't I? I have my ways. Now are you ready to die from making my day happy?" then the last thing that echoed at the torture chamber at the property of Santiniez Familia was the scream of a dying man.
"We got everything, My lady." Asa informed her boss.
"Good, clean up this mess." LM coldly responded as she removed her gloves and burned them. "I have to be a wife now." She changed her cold facade into her usual self and became the Veronica that Sebastian knew.
It's been a year since they got married and when Sebastian got shot behind. Veronica was furious and made sure to torture the person she captured secretly till she killed it after she got what she wanted. Then be a good and caring wife of Sebastian. As Sebastian was released from the hospital, they went to their new house which had a nice and well-functioning house that was not far from their companies.
"Don't you dare do that?" Sebastian's warning voice stopped Veronica from touching something in the kitchen.
Veronica pouted. "Oh c'mon. Let me help." She whined.
Sebastian shook his head upon hearing the cute whine of his wife. "Sorry, wifey, but can't do that." He kissed the tip of her nose. "I don't want my wife to burn our house." He teased making Veronica glare at him.
Veronica scoffed upon hearing it. "I'm good with knives." She was trying to reason with her husband who was a master chef in their fully functioned kitchen. "You can watch my chopping skills."
He chuckled at the cuteness of overloading his wife. "I love you, wifey but nope." he pecked her lips.
"But…" She whined cutely making her husband chuckle.
"And I know you're still worried sick since I've been shot but it's already a year past. I assure you that I'm already doing fine. I'm already fully healed." He kept assuring his wife. "Plus, I'm the master in the kitchen and you entertain my sisters since I don't want them to break things when they start arguing about something they don't agree with."
Hearing that favor from him, Veronica sighed as she kissed Sebastian's cheek. "Fine, if you say so but you owe a great meal."
"Yes, my queen." He teased and saw Veronica steal a piece of grape before eating it then skipped like a bunny toward their living area.
Everything moved smoothly between them like every lovely newly wedded couple though there were times they banter due to annoyance yet nothing was not settled before sleeping. They even shared stressful events around their company which ended up giving advice or assisting each other. It was their routine for the whole year but not at the moment.
'Moana.'
'Count of Monte Cristo.'
'Jigsaw.'
'Harry Potter.'
Those are the words that were echoing around their living area when Sebastian's siblings crashed on their afternoon. They were supposed to be having alone time together at their house on their rare day off but sadly, it didn't happen. The siblings bantered what film they should be watching all together but none was giving up on what they wanted to watch.
Veronica came to the living area. "Veronica, come and help me explain to them that this is a nice movie." Ashley tried to get support from Veronica.
At first, Veronica agreed but she gave her a stern look when she saw her selected film. "Seriously, Ashley..." she sighed before looking back to her siblings and then to Ashley again. "Moana?"
"What? It's Disney." Ashley defended and Veronica looked over the rest with disbelief reaction.
"Don't be surprised anymore." Maliyah chuckled. "She might be older than us but she's our baby." she teased her elder sister.
Ashley glared and pinched her side. "I love you, sis."
"You pinched me," Maliyah whined.
"Veronica, leave them be, and let's watch Count of Monte Cristo," Syriana suggested and about to play the movie when Ashley changed it into Moana's film. "ASHY!!!" She pouted.
Maliyah pulled Veronica's arms next to her. "It's better to watch Jigsaw, Veron." She even wiggled her eyebrows when suggesting it.
Veronica was about to say something when Enrich butted in. "How about Harry Potter?" she suggested calmly while Ashley and Syriana argued over the remote and Maliyah glared at Enrich.
Veronica sighed making the siblings look over her. "I don't know what to choose…" she simply said making the siblings start to argue over it.
Veronica looked at them back and forth while trying to say something and to stop them. But none of them was listening and they just argued over small little things. She sighed to calm herself and let her cold facade take over before she walked away from the siblings. Since no one was going to listen to her, she did something that made them stop bickering against each other.
"Much better." Veronica coldly said when she turned off the television.
"WHY?!" they whined in unison. "Why did you turn it off?" Enrich pouted.
Veronica didn't utter a word but glared at them. "Time is wasted when you argue like that." She walked away but halted and looked blankly at them. "Instead of arguing there, why not take turns and watch all of them?" She was pissed.
"Nicely done, wifey." Sebastian kissed her cheek.
"Don't spice it up." Veronica rolled her eyes. "I'm pissed."
"I know, I'll prepare your dessert later." He knew already how to cool down his wife's pissed mood. Veronica sighed and smiled at her husband before proceeding to their shared office.
"Serves you right." Sebastian teased his siblings and went back to the kitchen to finish his masterpiece.
Meanwhile, inside the office, Veronica sighed in relief and went into her domain. She was cold as ice as soon as she opened her laptop and checked her account. But as soon as she gained access to it, a wave of headache started kicking on her head. She groaned as her pissed mode fall into a foul mood - a worse one.
"What the fuck?!" Veronica reacted in surprise due to the sudden drop in their finance at the Sakurai Marketing Corp. "I need to know what just happened here." She quickly called Yuna to her a legit report regarding what she saw over her account.
After a few rings, Yuna finally answered her lady boss's call. 'Yes, my lady?'
"Can you tell me why the report on my account from the Sakurai Marketing Corp dropped?" Veronica was curious about her account there. "It never happened before, so, tell me what's the cause of it?" she was trying to hold her temper but Yuna already could sense it even if it was through a phone call.
'I'm already checking it, my lady, and according to what I've gathered so far, somebody was stealing from them and they were still tracking it down.'
Veronica sighed. "Who was holding my account there?" she wondered.
'From what Mr. Sakurai sent me before, it was his heiress.'
"Hmm, Ruka…" she carefully thought before smirking. "I see, I understand now," she told herself. "Yuna, are we still preparing for the opening of the new artist in our entertainment company?"
'Yes, my lady. Oh, I remember Yohan reported to me that Mrs. Pendelton's son sent his application last week. He seems to pass the criteria of being our aspiring artist one day.'
"Good to hear," Veronica smirked and sent an email to her secretary. "I sent an email to you regarding Sakurai Ruka's contract to be the artist manager of our company."
'What about our account they lost?'
"Drop the account and prepare another one. Also, set a meeting with them. I will explain everything to them." Veronica quickly decided but something else was running to her mind.
'Understood, my lady.'
"Are there any surprising updates?" Veronica wondered since they were already talking.
'Nothing much, my lady aside from it but check your email. Asa has been checking the areas where he has been mostly seen. And Kath found some prey again.'
"Ohh, that's interesting," Veronica smirked as she checked her emails. "Keep me updated." then hung up the call without waiting for Yuna's response.
Asa's Email:
S.Lux Hotel's backdoor alley: From Wednesday and Saturday at exactly 6 pm, the target had a meeting with a small-time gangster around the area for drugs and information.
LM Diner: Tuesday and Friday around 9 pm later dinner with another transaction from one government official, Ruen Stellinski.
Sakurai Marketing Corp.'s alley/street: Monday and Thursday around 9 pm having coffee at the nearest cafe and stealing money through a hacker that he hired.
A-Star Casino Royale & RedSpot Hotel: 10 pm to 12 midnight, gambling, sex, alcohol and drugs.
"Hmm, this is getting exciting…" Veronica mumbled to herself.
Sebastian heard the last word escape from Veronica's lips. "What is?" he approached her. Veronica quickly logged out of her email and pretended that she was still checking her lost account.
"My account from Sakurai Marketing Corp was dropping." Veronica made an honest alibi.
"And exciting because you're losing money?" he wondered.
Veronica shook her head. "Believe me when I say I'm pissed over that but I am intrigued about who was stealing it and where the money will be used for," she said what she was also thinking about when she learned it. "If it was used for good then I won't be bothered by it but if it was wrong, then whoever was it needed to pay double or in the worst-case scenario, life."
"Oh, I don't want to mess with your money then." Sebastian chuckled. "Let's eat, my lovely enchantress." He smiled as he gently offered his hand to his wife.
"Shut up with your flirt." Veronica rolled her eyes but accepted her husband's gentle gesture. "You're being annoying." she was trying to hide the fact that her cheeks were warming up from his sweet gentle gesture.
"As if you didn't fall in love with it." Sebastian teased as they headed out but he earned a pinch on his side. "Ouch. I love you, Wifey." he giggled.