The night was cold, the air thick with uncertainty. Lia stood at the edge of the balcony, staring out into the city below, her fingers grazing the cold glass of the railing. The distant hum of traffic was a stark contrast to the storm raging inside her chest. It had been three days since the encounter with Adrian, and the weight of his words still echoed in her mind.
"You can't leave me, Lia. You belong with me."
His voice had been filled with desperation, a tone she'd never heard from him before. The man who had treated her like a shadow for the past three years, using her as nothing more than a pawn in his twisted game, now stood before her—regretful, pleading, vulnerable. It was a side of him she hadn't known existed, and it both terrified and captivated her.
But in the silence of the night, in the solitude she had craved for so long, the truth began to settle in. There was no room for them. No room for what had never truly existed between them. Adrian's promises, his demands, his desire for her... it was all part of a larger scheme. A scheme that, as much as it hurt to admit, she had been a part of.
A sudden knock on the door broke her reverie. Lia turned sharply, her heart skipping a beat as she instinctively reached for the small bag of belongings she'd packed just hours ago. She was ready to leave, to disappear into the life she had once dreamed of.
The knock came again, louder this time. Her pulse quickened, a sense of dread crawling up her spine. It's him, it's Adrian.
But she didn't open the door. She couldn't. Not yet. Not when her mind was still torn, when her heart still bled for the man she had once thought she could never escape from.
The door creaked open, and in the dim light of the hallway, the figure that stepped through was not Adrian. It was the mysterious man—the one who had claimed to be her lover. His face was half-lit by the moonlight, casting shadows that made his expression unreadable.
"You," Lia whispered, her voice barely above a breath.
He didn't answer at first, his gaze locked onto hers. There was a strange intensity in his eyes, as if he had been waiting for this moment, for her to finally understand the truth.
"I know you don't remember me," he began, his voice calm, almost too calm for the situation. "But I'm here to explain everything."
Lia's heart pounded in her chest. She took a step back, her mind swirling. Who are you? she wanted to ask, but the words seemed stuck in her throat. Everything about him—the familiarity of his presence, the way his voice echoed the one she had heard in her head for the last three years—was too much to comprehend.
"What do you want from me?" she finally managed to say.
"I'm not here to take anything from you," he replied. "I'm here to give you the truth."
The truth. The one thing Lia had been searching for all along.
The man stepped closer, his gaze never leaving hers. "The voice you've heard… it was mine. I'm the one who guided you, who promised you the money. I'm the one who orchestrated this whole game."
Lia blinked, her mind struggling to catch up with his words. "You... you were the voice in my head?"
He nodded. "Yes. I couldn't tell you everything at once. It was too dangerous. But now… now it's time you knew the truth."
He took a deep breath, as if gathering the courage to reveal something even more painful. "I am the one who made the deal with Adrian. I'm the one who set you up as his servant. But it wasn't because I wanted to ruin your life. I had no choice, Lia. I was trying to protect you."
"Protect me?" Lia echoed, the disbelief in her voice undeniable. "From what?"
The man's gaze softened, and for the first time, Lia saw a flicker of something close to guilt in his eyes. "From him. From Adrian. He's not who you think he is. He's not just a billionaire with a twisted sense of control. He's connected to something much darker, and I couldn't let you fall into his trap."
Lia felt the blood drain from her face. "What are you talking about?"
"Adrian is being controlled by forces beyond his understanding. He made a deal of his own—one that links his fate to yours. If you stayed with him for three years, you would free him from that deal. That's why you were told to obey him. But there's more… much more."
Lia took a step back, her legs suddenly weak beneath her. She sank into the chair by the window, her mind reeling. This can't be real. It can't be.
"I don't understand. What do you want from me?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"I'm asking you to trust me," he said softly. "I know it's a lot to take in. But there's something you need to do now—something only you can do. You're the key to breaking the chain that binds Adrian, to freeing both him and yourself."
Lia looked at him, his expression unreadable, but she could sense the urgency in his words. It felt like a moment of reckoning. The weight of everything—the years of servitude, the lies, the broken trust—suddenly seemed meaningless in the face of what he was telling her.
"I don't want to be part of this anymore," Lia said, her voice shaking. "I just want to be free. I want to live my own life."
The man nodded, as if he had expected her response. "That's what you'll get. But only if you do this last thing. If you help me break the deal, you'll both be free. Adrian won't remember any of this, and you'll have your life back."
She swallowed hard, the weight of his words crashing down on her. Adrian... he won't remember?
Lia closed her eyes, her mind finally processing everything. Adrian had been more than just a cruel billionaire. He had been trapped, just like her. And perhaps, just perhaps, he deserved a second chance, just as she had.
"I'll do it," Lia said finally, her voice strong despite the fear churning inside her. "I'll help you."
The man smiled, a look of quiet relief crossing his face. "Thank you. You don't know how much this means."
With a final, lingering look, he turned and left the room, leaving Lia standing there alone. The decision had been made. There was no turning back now.
As the first rays of dawn began to break through the window, Lia took one last look around the room, the life she had built in the past three years. She had loved, lost, and fought for her freedom. But now it was time to say goodbye to everything and everyone, to move forward into a future she could finally control.
And somewhere, far in the distance, she could hear Adrian's voice—faint, uncertain, but still calling to her. Lia was no longer the servant. She was the one in control of her fate.