BLACK CARD, SOFT HEART.

Power doesn't hurt but truth does hurt the most.

I stood alone in the frost study, long after the board meeting ended.

My reflection fractured in the glass walls.

Every surface here had once felt like safety but now it felt like a surveillance kept to monitor me.

I picked up the file again hoping all this would just be a dream, but all I see was my mother's name staring back at me. I felt trapped and betrayed.

She had written so carefully like she knew somehow I will read them in lines.

***

The clause I missed earlier seems to blurred into my vision clearly.

_in the event Leila refuses protection, all contingencies shall activates__

"What contingency?" I whispered to myself, another question of no answers unlock.

***

AIDEN

Outside the study I was, contemplating either to enter or not.

I heard the shift in her breathing, even before she spoke.

I just knew things weren't that great in there.

That was how I always knew before the distances in the moment trust collapse.

I walked in unnoticeable soft, and before I could even asked what the problem was, she snapped in with another counterattack question.

" You didn't show me this part." She asked.

I stood still and timid.

"Because I never intended for it to be activated." I replied.

Her laugh hallow in the room, I always do see the hatred and disappointment in.her eye's.

"That's not an answer" she replied.

I move closer, this time I was ready to face it.

"Leila i_."

She stepped back, even before I could continued.

And that single step did more damage than every headline combined, it shatters me.

" What's left for me to know Aiden" she asked again.

I went silent, this point, I rather not say a thing, it's better than saying things rashly.

***

I didn't wait for him to speak, I already knows contingency didn't exist on protecting people, they existed to override them.

I turned toward the dest, hands braced against it.

" So if I walk away" I asked slowly "what happens next?"

Aiden didn't answer, he didn't deny anything and he never moved form where I stood.

The room felt so tiny, I knew I will never get an answers, yet I pressed on for it .

Aiden wasn't dump after all as he never say anything no matter how hard I go on him.

"So will you stop me?" I asked .

"No" he said hoarsely, "I will stop the world from hurting you".

I laughed ironically.

A laugh so fake that it starled us both.

" You sounded just like my father" that hit him hard.

His face changed, I knew I had hit his limit but who cares.

***

I have been called many sorts of names like ruthless, cold and dangerous, but no one has ever compared me to anyone, well it was hurtful coming from her.

" You didn't mean" I said jokingly hoping to clear the air between us.

She turned, eyes glassy and sharp.

"I mean every word".

I reach for her instinctively but she flinch and step aside.

It was from there I knew, I had lost that one woman.

***

My phone vibrated one... twice... Then a message appeared.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: Ask him about the last clause.

I immediately switch the screen, I looked up at Aiden.

He was watching my phone like it was a loaded gun, and he appear clueless.

"Can I asked a question?"I asked.

"Yes" he replied

" What's the final clause to all this?"I added.

He swallows hard, and then__

Too late, another message arrived.

UNKNOWN: your mother didn't just protect you......A pause and the last line took forever to show then with a suspense it hits the screen. SHE MADE YOU A LEVERAGE.

I raised my eyes to Aiden, he was standing there innocently.

And for the first time since I met him, I wasn't sure if I was standing beside a protector or inside a cage built in control....