Chapter 201: Manipulation
Lily made her way up to the quiet second floor, following Alina’s trail. Alina took a quick turn at the end of the long hallway and slipped inside a private room. Lily stayed back in the shadows, her dark eyes scanning the corridor. There were a few security guards pacing around the area, making it difficult to approach Alina’s door directly without raising suspicion.
Looking for another way around, Lily took a quiet turn into a side hallway. Right in front of her, a slightly open door came into view. She slipped inside to avoid the patrolling guards.
The room was completely dark. Realizing it was empty, Lily turned around to leave, but the lights suddenly clicked on, bathing the space in warm yellow glow.
Sitting behind a large desk was a tall man.
"Barging in somewhere without knocking is rather inappropriate, Miss Lily," a smooth voice spoke up.
Lily stepped back, her body going still. That voice... She turned to face him directly.
Elias sat there with a slow smirk on his face.
"Mr. Elias..." she said softly, the name sliding out effortlessly.
He stood up, resting his hands on the desk. "It seems like I don’t have to introduce myself, since you already know who I am."
He began walking slowly toward her across the room.
The space fell completely silent around them. Lily stood firmly by the door, her eyes fixed on the man standing before her.
"I know your name," Lily replied, her tone remaining flat and steady. "That doesn’t mean I know who you are."
A strange feeling washed over her chest. His face felt vaguely familiar, yet every single time she tried to reach back into her mind to remember where she had seen him before, her memories became a blank, empty wall.
"...Have we met before?" she asked quietly.
"Maybe."
His answer only made her brows furrow in frustration. "Who are you?"
"Someone who knows far more about you than you know about yourself."
Lily’s gaze narrowed. "And how would you know anything about me?"
Elias took a slow step forward, closing the distance between them. "That’s not important right now."
"It is to me."
"You’ll learn eventually."
Lily crossed her arms over her dress, unbothered by his presence. "If you’re not going to answer my questions, then I’m leaving."
"Before you do..." Elias said calmly, his dark eyes locked onto hers. "Answer just one question for me."
She stayed silent, refusing to promise anything.
"Have you ever wondered where you actually came from?" Elias asked softly.
"No."
"Never?"
"I don’t remember my past, and I don’t need to," Lily stated, her voice entirely firm.
A small, mocking smile appeared on his lips. "Is that what you’ve been told all these years?"
Lily’s expression remained cold and unreadable. "My past has nothing to do with you."
"Maybe not," Elias murmured, tilting his head slightly. "But I know things you don’t."
She stared at him, her quiet curiosity getting the better of her. "What things?"
He looked at her for a long moment, taking in her composure before speaking again. "Imagine being sold into a slave market..."
His voice dropped into a quiet whisper. "...because your own family didn’t want you."
Lily’s eyes narrowed instantly, a cold discomfort settling in her chest. "...Stop talking."
"I’m only telling you what no one else in your life ever will."
"I don’t believe a word coming out of your mouth."
"You don’t have to," he shrugged lightly, looking completely unbothered by her disbelief. "Time has a funny way of proving people right."
Lily looked at him without saying another word, keeping her guard up. "My only family is Lady Viella."
"So loyal," Elias gave a soft, amused laugh, shaking his head. "I wonder if you’ll still say that after learning the whole truth."
"What truth?"
"If I told you everything right now, you wouldn’t believe a single word anyway."
"Then why bring it up at all?"
"Because I am not your enemy, Lily," he met her dark eyes directly. "I’m only here to help."
"Help me?" she scoffed softly.
"Because I know what you don’t."
A silence filled the private room once again. Lily’s fingers tightened slightly against her arms, her composure cracking just a fraction. "How do you know all of this?"
Elias smiled, but he offered no further answer. "There are some truths that aren’t meant to be spoken so easily."
He slowly walked right past her, stopping just beside her shoulder. Leaning down slightly toward her ear, he whispered in a low, dangerous tone:
"The one you’re working for..." He paused, letting the silence hang between them. "...might be the very person you’re looking for."
Lily’s eyes widened for the first time all night.
Before she could ask another question or demand a clear answer, Elias had already turned away, walking back across the room. He returned to his desk and sat down casually in his leather chair.
"You may leave now."
Lily remained still for a few long seconds, her mind racing as she tried to make sense of everything he had just said. Was he talking about Viella’s family? Was he talking about Lucian... or Dante?
Without another word, she slowly turned around and walked out of the room, her footsteps echoing down the quiet hallway. The heavy wooden door closed softly behind her.
Back inside the office, Elias rested his chin on one hand, a deep, satisfied smile forming across his face as he stared at the closed door.
"Now..." he muttered softly to the empty room. "Let’s see how long that seed of doubt takes to grow."
Alina slowly walked out from the shadowed doorway of the private room, stepping quietly up to Elias’s desk. "Here are the papers," she said softly, handing him a thick folder. "This contains all the deep info about Dante’s business, just like you asked for."
Elias took the folder, flipping through the detailed documents with a quiet, satisfied look.
Alina watched him for a moment before her brows furrowed in annoyance. She spoke up again, her tone laced with confusion. "I really don’t get it... Why would you go through all this trouble and do everything just for a simple maid?"
Elias stopped turning the pages. He looked up, a dark smirk spreading across his face. "A maid?" He scoffed softly, shaking his head. "She is way more than just a mere maid, Alina. She is the biggest thorn in my side." He leaned back in his chair, his eyes glinting with pure cruelty. He will use her to destroy her own family... and in the end, all the blame will fall entirely on her.
Meanwhile, downstairs in the busy ballroom, Lily walked down the wide marble staircase, her mind completely racing. Elias’s strange words kept replaying on a loop inside her head: The one you’re working for might be the one you’re looking for...
Lost deep in her thoughts, she didn’t notice the tall figure stepping directly into her path.
Thump.
She bumped right into a broad chest. Lily blinked, stepping back to look up. Standing right in front of her was Lucian, his dark eyes looking down at her.
He frowned, his tone laced with his usual slight irritation. "Can’t you even see where you are going?"
Instead of making a sarcastic comment or giving a clever response like she usually did, Lily just looked at him with an unreadable, quiet expression. "I apologize, Young Master," she murmured flatly.
Without waiting for his reply, she brushed past his shoulder and walked away into the crowd.
Lucian’s brows furrowed deeply as he turned his head to watch her vanish into the room. A strange, uncomfortable feeling settled in his chest. What in the world had happened to her all of a sudden?
Later that night, long after the ball had come to an end.
Lily stood quietly in front of Dante’s wide wooden desk inside his private study. The room was dimly lit by a single warm desk lamp.
Dante leaned back in his chair, his dark eyes fixed on her. "Did you figure out who Alina is working for?"
Lily knew the truth- she knew Alina was directly tied to Elias. But after hearing those chilling words about her forgotten past and her family, she decided it was far safer to investigate the matter much further on her own before revealing anything.
"It might take a bit longer," Lily replied smoothly, her voice calm and steady. "She is being very careful."
"Hmm..." Dante hummed softly, accepting her answer without pushing further. "Very well. You are dismissed."
"Understood," Lily said, bowing her head slightly.
As she turned around and was about to leave the study, her dark eyes casually fell over the corner of his desk. Sitting right beside a stack of official files was a silver photo frame.
Lily paused for a split second. Inside the photo, a young boy with sharp features stood beside a little girl, with their smiling parents standing right behind them. The little girl in the picture was probably only around two years old at the time... yet as Lily stared at her facial features, the child looked strangely familiar- almost like looking into a mirror of her own forgotten childhood.
"You’re still here?" Dante’s cool voice rang out, breaking the quiet room.
Lily snapped out of her trance immediately, lowering her gaze. Leaving without saying another word, she opened the door and slipped out into the dark hallway, her heart beating with a sudden, restless rhythm.
A few days later, Lily stood in the quiet room once again, looking directly across at the wide desk.
"I didn’t expect you to meet me this soon," Elias said, a slow, satisfied smile spreading across his face as he leaned back in his chair.
He reached into his suit jacket, pulled out a small black card, and slid it smoothly across the dark wood toward her. Written on the card in clean silver ink was a private street address in the old district.
"Visit this place," Elias murmured, his dark eyes locking onto hers with quiet anticipation. "And you will find your own answers."
Lily looked down at the gleaming silver text on the desk.
She did not trust Elias for a single second. She knew he was a dangerous manipulator playing a hidden game, but the image of the little two-year-old girl from Dante’s office desk had haunted her thoughts for the past few nights. The seed of doubt he had planted was already taking deep root inside her mind.
Without saying a word, Lily reached out, picked up the card, and slid it into her jacket.
"Don’t keep the truth waiting too long, Lily," Elias added softly, his smile widening as he watched her turn toward the door. "After all, the past has a strange way of finding us whether we are ready for it or not."
Lily paused at the threshold for a brief second, her dark eyes looking out into the dim hallway, before stepping out and letting the door click shut behind her.
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TO BE CONTINUED