Chapter 80: The Debt (2)
Darian always carried in his memories a vivid, painful image he would never forget for the rest of his life.
It was of a beautiful, kind woman with an incredibly strong and determined gaze... but sometimes, her eyes would go distant and lonely... other times, she'd cry silently, missing someone deeply, when she thought she was alone.
Even though Darian could see the darkness in her past, she still held onto her kindness and purity.
She was his mother. But... that image of her — especially that last one — was something Darian avoided remembering at all costs.
It all happened on the day she never came home again.
A few days later, she was found... and then, the image of his once beautiful mother, now almost completely unrecognizable, appeared before him. It was the cruelest thing a son could ever witness, but he was forced to confirm it was her.
They found her in a forest near the house of the young man she worked for. There were clear signs of a brutal struggle, and the visible marks of the violence she suffered before dying were all over her disfigured body.
Was that young man even questioned? Of course not. It was like no one wanted to dig any deeper into the case.
Back then, Darian didn't understand much. But when he finally decided to act and started looking into the powerful people doing awful things in the city, he came across a memory — a conversation between that Young Master and someone else.
The guy laughed as he told how he tried to "discipline" one of his maids, but said she was like a furious lioness. She fought back with everything she had—was so stubborn that he lost control... and she died.
Darian never knew the guy's name. But from the disgusting way he described her, he knew exactly who he was talking about. It was his mother. That bastard was the one responsible for everything.