"I'm home."
"Boss!"
Enzo, who had just returned, immediately furrowed his brows when Lily ran to greet him with a worried face. The woman's cheeks were slightly red, while sweat flowed down her smooth skin. Lily was about to continue her sentence when Enzo approached her to touch the woman's forehead.
"You have a fever, Lily. Why didn't you call a doctor or call me this morning? Since when did you start getting sick? I've reminded you not to force yourself to do many tasks at once, right?" Enzo said worriedly. The fever of the woman in front of him was very high, but Lily stubbornly shook her head and unexpectedly removed Enzo's hand from her forehead.
"My current situation is not that important, Boss. Mia... I never noticed this before because I thought the building was safe. But Boss, Mia has been acting strangely since we started letting her go around the building a few days ago. Her mood changes quickly. Sometimes she eats a lot, and sometimes she doesn't want to eat at all."
Lily tried to catch her ragged breath before continuing her speech.
"She goes out of the penthouse every day, and strangely enough, Mia got angry when I offered to accompany her this morning. At first, I thought maybe Mia did all that because she was still angry with us. But, I don't think that's the case anymore, Boss." Lily finished her sentence with a gasp.
Lily's body had reached its limit. She was tired after having to check the building's CCTV cameras all day to find out what Mia had been doing recently.
"Lily, I'll ask the doctor to come. We'll talk later. You should rest now."
Seeing Lily, who was getting more and more exhausted, Enzo tried to persuade the woman to rest first before they continued their conversation. Letting Lily continue talking would only make Enzo unable to focus on the problem in front of him. Enzo couldn't hear Lily's words properly because the man's eyes kept focusing on Lily's flushed face.
But again, Lily gently pushed away Enzo's hand, which was trying to persuade her to rest in another room. In a normal situation, Lily would probably never do that. But this time, it was an emergency. Lily had to tell Enzo the problem they were facing as soon as she could.
"I just finished checking all the CCTV history for the past few days, Boss. At first, I didn't find anything strange about the places Mia usually visits lately. However, Mia always goes to the seventh-floor room before returning to the penthouse. She also seems to deliberately enter the blind spots every time she visits that place, Boss. I'm afraid something is going on there, and Mia will unknowingly get dragged into it."
Lily swallowed hard before looking at Enzo with a regretful gaze.
"I think... Mia might be using drugs, Boss. The symptoms are the same. I've secretly checked on Mia before this. I... I don't know where she could get such things. But Boss, Mia has been using them these past few days...."
Enzo's heart seemed to stop beating when Lily finished her words. Enzo quickly led Lily to sit on one of the sofas before he turned on his phone to call his trusted doctor. Enzo turned around to check on Mia with his own eyes, but it turned out that his cousin was standing in front of his bedroom door with an angry face that Enzo had never seen before.
"Mia, you-"
"Are you going to lock me up again? Decide who I can be friends with or not?"
Enzo could only stare as he saw Mia's messy appearance. Under her eyes, there were eye bags that made Mia look much more tired than usual. Her innocent face was covered by traces of anger, while her pale lips made Enzo keep repeating Lily's words in his head.
"I think... Mia might be using drugs, Boss. The symptoms are the same. I've secretly checked on Mia before this.
"Mia... I-"
"You know, I finally met Victor. He was here earlier, accompanying me to chat as usual."
Enzo was even more frightened when Mia pointed to her room, which had no signs of Victor's presence. The man held Mia's shoulders with trembling hands before staring at Mia's pupils, which turned out to be unfocused all the time.
"Mia, what have you consumed lately? You're not okay. Please sit down first so the doctor can examine you later."
"Eh, where is Victor going?"
Like a dazed person, Mia looked around the room. Her face immediately turned angry as she roughly pushed Enzo's body.
"Are you kicking him out again?! He just came for me! He's the first friend who doesn't look scared when talking to me! Why won't you let me meet him?! Why do you hate him so much?!"
Enzo couldn't believe that the angry girl in front of him was the Mia he had known all this time. The girl in front of him looked very angry and rude, and her gaze even made it seem like Mia couldn't recognize Enzo anymore.
"It's not like that, Mia. You're not in a good condition right now. Let the doctor check you first before we talk again, okay?"
Enzo's hands stiffened as Mia pushed away his outstretched hand roughly. From her eyes, Mia began to shed tears. Her feet slowly retreated, as if Enzo was a monster she had to avoid.
"No. I must find Victor or he'll disappear again because of you!"
"Mia!"
Enzo ran after Mia as the girl suddenly ran out of their penthouse. Mia wasn't as strong as she usually was. But this time, she even managed to close the elevator door before Enzo could enter it.
"DAMN!" Enzo cursed harshly as he opened the emergency door to chase after Mia. His hand furiously dialed Rose's number, which was immediately picked up by her.
"Mia is trying to escape! Order everyone to prevent her from leaving until I arrive! She's already in the elevator!"
Without waiting for Rose to reply, Enzo ended the call before starting to focus on running down the stairs. His heart was beating fast because his fear of Mia's attempt to escape overpowered his tiredness from having to run right when he had just come home from work.
"Miss Mia!"
When Enzo finally arrived at the lobby, there was a big commotion because Mia kept walking out while pointing a gun that she got from one of Enzo's men right at her head. No one dared to approach because of it, including Enzo, who once again couldn't believe what Mia had done.
"Mia! Come back first, okay? You can ask for anything after that. But don't go anywhere in your current condition, Mia!"
Enzo unconsciously shouted desperately when Mia finally came out of the building with a gun in her hand. Enzo was afraid that many people would recognize her if she went out in a mess.
"I can't do it anymore, Enzo. I'll be free today."
Enzo's body shook when Mia finally ran out and stopped a taxi by force afterward. His entire mind seemed to go blank when he finally shouted at everyone there.
"QUICKLY GET A DAMN CAR! WE HAVE TO CHASE HER NOW!" Enzo shouted desperately.