"I don"t know why you look so frightened. I told you nothing is going to happen to you. We only need your help." Fuji a.s.sured her.
"What.. is it?" She asked in a low throaty voice.
He picked up a remote from the table and switched the TV on.
When it came on, she saw a painting appear on the large screen.
"I"m sure you have seen this before" Fuji said to her when he saw her staring intently at it.
Of course, she had seen it a lot of times. It was the painting in Muchen"s house. The one he said he was going to give to his grandson.
"I have not" She moved her eyes from the TV to look at him.
"You have. Bring it to us. That"s all. We will let you be and never appear in front of you again."
Sara could not believe what she had just heard. They want her to bring the painting here? She was never going to do that!
"Why? What do you need the painting for?"
She was slightly relieved to know that Muchen was not in trouble just like she had imagined.
If it was just a painting, she thought she could easily ruin their entire plan but if it was something else, then it would have been impossible.
"Look darling... Someone needs it. I do not know why the person needs that painting in particular but according to this person, your CEO boyfriend refused to sell it. So we need to acquire it through other means. And don"t think you are going to do this for free.. We are obviously going to pay you handsomely." He a.s.sured her.
Sara could not stomach the idea of stealing from Muchen. He did not deserve that at all. How would he treat her when he found out about it? How would she comfortably look him in the eye after doing that?
He had told her the painting was his grandfather"s gift to him. He had said he would give it to his grandson also. She didn"t even want to think about the millions of dollars it was currently worth.
But why did it have to be her?
"Why me? You could have just stolen it yourself so why are you asking me to do this to him?" She asked as tears began to cloud her eyes.
"Have you forgotten how we operate? We are asking you to do this because he is your boyfriend that is why we decided to not use our usual pattern to acquire it. And apart from that, you know we like to leave our trail completely clean by using insiders. If we simply go get it ourselves, we don"t know what mess might occur. He may even end up getting hurt. So isn"t it best if you quietly do it for us?"
He spread his hands on the couch in a relaxed manner and continued...
"Now that we recently arrived this country, we need to fully establish ourselves all over the city and we cannot start doing that by breaking into your boyfriend"s home. But you.. you have a full and free access. All you have to do is walk in there, get the painting, and bring it to us. Of course, you"ll be given a fake to replace it with so he wouldn"t know about it."
"I don"t want to. I don"t want to do it" She shook her head vigorously.
"Beg him to sell it. Don"t ask me to steal from him. Why....are you doing this to me? He is the only human who genuinely cares about me and trust me aside from my family... I don"t want to pay him back this way please... I will do anything else but not this."
"It"s just a painting G.o.dd.a.m.n it!" He said in an irritated tone before pulling himself up to walk to where she was standing.
The more he approached her, the more steps she took backwards.
Fuji stopped approaching and sighed in anger.
"See why you shouldn"t have left us? See why you should have stayed beside us? You look so weak now. Back then, didn"t you do worse..didn"t you do unimaginable things? Didn"t you—"
As he kept asking those questions, she used both hands to cover her ears and shook her head. "I don"t want to hear it please stop. I don"t want to hear it!"
She kept screaming and tears began to stream down her face.
She suddenly felt his rough hands on her face and flinched back in fright.
"Do this for us. We will let you be and never appear in front of you again."
"What if I don"t want to?"
"Then we will make you do worse things like you did in the past. And not just that....your boyfriend would have to know the kind of person you really are. How scary his precious girlfriend is... Let"s see if he continues to love you" He sneered. "And not just that....your family would have to know."
Sara"s eyes widened when she heard him. He was going to tell her family and Muchen about it? Her legs could no longer support her and so she fell on the floor.
"We did a lot for you. We saved your life and gave you a good life. A life with power! But you chose this miserable and weak life instead." He paused to look at Sara whose hands were covering her tear-stained face.
"The way your life disappeared from the books years ago, I can also put back everything and more. Trust me"
"You are bluffing... It"s going to implicate you all also. You won"t do it."
"You think?" He asked with an eerie smile.
"Bring us the painting. I"ll give you three days. But if not, you better start telling everyone the kind of person you once were or else, you"ll have to hear it from the mouths of everyone who has been admiring you since yesterday. The world would have to know it."
Sara was completely broken. This was the worst day of her life. "How...how could you do this to me when it was you who made me that way?"
Sara saw him smile and then used a hand to touch his ear. He whispered something and the door suddenly opened.
"You have three days. I will see you after then"
She was lost in the dark and the only thing she could do was cry as she sat on the floor.
What was she going to do?
She was not bothered about the world finding out. If it was to go to jail, she would willingly go for the crimes she had committed.
But what about her Father? What about her aunt and Joreen hearing about it?
It was going to be terrible for her family to hear something like that about her.
Then what about Muchen?
Did she really trust his love that much to believe he was not going to leave her no matter what?
"Three days" She reminded herself.
After that, she was either going to be a thief, or a criminal.