Siana

"Not exactly, we had an emergency yesterday so I had to stay back."

After she was done, she took the medical notes given by the recovery nurse, and started checking on his condition to make sure everything was alright. After she was done with her examination, the atmosphere somehow felt strained in the room as everyone kept silent.

"Siana -"

"Mr. Jason - "

They talked at the same time. Sia was the first to resume talking,

"After you Mr. Jason."

Jason looked at his son on the side and nodded to him in tacit understanding. Mark left to instruct the bodyguards, locked the door from the inside and only then returned to sit on his dad"s bed.

Jason took a deep breath to organise his thoughts, and spoke only after the turmoil inside of him had settled down,

"What have you discovered about my brain condition?"

Siana was expecting a question along these lines. She felt like clapping at his right choice of words: if she hadn"t discovered anything she would just think that he was talking about his pineal gland. But, alas, he was either too naive or too smart: empty sella syndrome was so obvious anyone looking at his MRI scans would notice it. It was wiser to not hit around the bush,

"I know about your pituitary gland if that is what you wanted to ascertain." From the corner of her eye she observed Mark"s expression. No one would feel good to be told on the face that their father had no biological connection to them even if they knew of the fact before.

And indeed, at her straightforward answer, both father and son were taken aback. They tensed up as hundreds of thoughts crossed their minds. Normally, dealing with such a matter would be a child"s play, but none of them could bear to hurt the innocent girl in front of them. Especially after Jason recognised her as a friend.

He sighed feeling exhausted. Why did things have to be so complicated? He loved his sons dearly and blood connection was the last thing he cared about when it came to them. They were his real sons: no more, no less. However, because of their family he couldn"t let the secret get out. This was why he couldn"t afford to undergo the surgery at his own hospital: you never knew whether there would be spies or ill-wishers or not. Even if he was the family head, there wasn"t a lack of people in the branch families that wanted him to crumble.

They had the tomography scans at home so they had performed the scans in secret and knew about the tumour on his pineal gland. When they came to the Central Hospital in Ribekia, they directly informed what the problem was. Initially, their plan was to silence Dr. Brown by making him retire or even killing him if need be.

Who would have thought that the person behind Dr. Brown"s fame was actually a young woman of only 22? How could they make her give up her aspirations? How could they threaten her? How could they even think of killing her?

Jason saw her as a friend and a daughter he always dreamed of having, while Mark felt protective towards her. His feeling were purely platonic: she was just someone he started admiring after getting to know more and more about her. In this world filled with pretentious people, she was a breath of fresh air that one didn"t want to pollute. He didn"t want to be the villain who shattered someone who deserved nothing but the best.

However, they couldn"t be too soft towards her either: if she ever betrayed them, they might not survive at all.

"Siana, you are a smart girl and I am sure you understand the severity of the situation. If it wasn"t you we would use special tactics to keep my condition a secret. But I hope that we won"t have to use anything of sorts towards you."

In the face of such masked intimidation, Sia remained calm and collected as usual. She was already grateful that they valued her enough not to silence her in a permanent way. After all, such big families would do anything to keep their skeletons in the closet hidden. Even if they appeared a charitable and n.o.ble family from the first glance, their involvement in underworld was proof enough of what they were capable of.

Normal people would get scared and swear not to disclose the information and even thank the person"s magnanimity, however, Sia was anything but normal.

"You don"t need to warn me. However, this was exactly the topic I wanted to discuss with you."

Her hawk eyes continued to intensely monitor the people in front of her. Composing her thoughts, she went on,

"This secret will die with me. But, there is one other person I have told this information to."

Her words caused shockwaves to pa.s.s through the two men"s bodies. Jason started trembling in anger: how could he be so wrong about someone!? Was he getting on in years and his ability to recognise worthy people was deteriorating? And he was even so dumb to regard her as a friend, no, as a daughter!

In his fit of raging anger, he didn"t realise when and how he gripped her neck, strangling her with his strength. At the moment he was like a tiger protecting his cubs: he had lost all his rationality at the fear that his sons could be implicated.

However, despite the pain, Sia"s retained her serene expression. She silently struggled for breath, not moving her gaze from the man"s eyes. It was Mark that stopped his dad from doing something he would later regret on.

Though everything happened hastily, the room felt even more tense than before. As soon as Jason retracted his hand, Sia fell into a coughing fit. As she relaxed a bit, she started grasping for as much air as possible. Afterwards, she quietly went back to looking at the man, who didn"t miss the opportunity to ridicule her,

"Siana, ah, Siana. And here I though you were a good person. Who knew that you were such a shrewd woman? Did you tell that someone as a safety measure so that we can"t touch you or . else they would reveal the information? Or are you going to ask for compensation? Tell me, little girl, what is it that you want?"

Sia completely ignored the man"s sinister and mocking tone. After the strangulation, Siana"s throat felt sore, and when she talked her voice sounded scratchy,

"It"s the Dragon of the Underworld: Cain Greydale."

Her statement was like an ice bucket pouring on them. Out of all people it had to be someone from the Underworld?

"Oh, never thought I would be at the mercy of his underling. Fate is truly a b.i.t.c.h," Jason scoffed feeling bitter. What he most wanted to avoid was the matter blowing off in the underworld. and now Cain had a strong collateral against him. He wondered how the Dragon was going to use this bargaining chip to manipulate them.

"He is my boyfriend not my boss. And I told him the information only because of your task on "Black Lily". Does this have anything to do with the information "Black Lily" stole three years ago?"

Her statements and her question felt like more buckets of cold water.

"Is this some kind of a fate or is this a sort of a disaster?"