Taken Away (3) - Evan's POV

My mom held her tears back as we noticed Rika standing at the topmost floor. She was inside her bedroom, watching us leave. Her innocent expression displayed she knew nothing that was going on. The same way we entered this mansion, not expecting the results to come out this way. I went through my memories to go to the beginning of how it started, recalling stepping out of the car to enter this extravagant villa. It resembled a mansion more than a simple vacation getaway, composed of four grand floors.

But instead of admiring the vast sign of wealth, it was an obstacle. As soon as we arrived from the football stadium, the atmosphere inside the house was delicately fragile. I stepped backwards, hesitating to enter further. My dad cautiously followed me, stepping onto the second floor to escape to our rooms. I stiffened as I discovered Ally was oddly with us, standing beside my mom.

"You're not welcome here anymore," my mom coldly faced Luke and Alex.

"What is happening here?" My dad interfered.

"Rika was almost kidnapped by a serial killer since your wife let her out of the house. She isn't waking up from inhaling potent drugs," Alex angrily spat out.

"Is this true August? Ally?" My dad was in disbelief.

"I didn't know a simple visit to the playground would lead to this," my mom guiltily avoided his eyes.

"They have every right to get angry at you. I trusted you August," he took their side.

"People from the first district are desirable targets. This is why we don't let Rika outside the house without us," Luke squeezed Rika's hand.

"This is the second time Rika nearly got kidnapped. The first time was at the competition venue," I realized.

"You never told us," my mom disappointedly turned to me.

"We will be leaving tomorrow night. I hope you understand, we are afraid this house is not safe for Rika anymore," Luke relied on my dad.

"It's our fault," my dad let them go.

Although my dad was initially understanding, he slowly changed. Luke and Alex were extremely overprotective of Rika with clear distrust present in their eyes. He was stopped one meter away from Rika, Alex blocking him by spreading his arms out. In addition to Luke fiercely hugging Rika like he was trying to shield her. My dad was viewed as a harmful person, nearly a villain in their perspective. He was utterly shocked, and found this to be ridiculous.

This was how my dad came to agree with my mom, and brought grandma with us for support. With my mom's desperate pleas, grandma gave into her, mumbling, "I told you not to take their side. I'm only helping you to convince them to take back the lawsuits alongside the process of fetching my granddaughter."

Unfreezing from staring at the grand entrance opening, we faced two people, appearing around their early twenties. I remembered seeing one of them before, inside the grocery store when Luke answered a call. Turning to my parents, they saw them as Luke's older siblings or relatives with the resemblance. The same silver hair on the older counterpart of Luke, inhumanely stunning eyes, and doll-like features.

"Please come inside," a gorgeous girl gestured.

"We came to visit Luke's parents," my mom was confused.

"I am Joanna de Roselia, and this is my husband, William de Roselia. We are Luke's parents," she introduced herself.

As the doors closed behind us, we stopped walking, not believing her words. The truth only hit us when we were confronted with the large picture frames on the walls. Several family portraits were seen with Rika present in most of them. She brightly smiled while cutely posing, completely blending in with Luke's family. Noticing my parent's curiosity, Joanna explained, "I have another son in university. The girl beside him is his fiancée."

"You must have had children at a young age," grandma commented.

"It was earlier compared to others. I think I had my oldest son around thirty-eight years old," Joanna revealed.

"Thirty-eight? If you don't mind me asking, what is your current age?" Grandma was in disbelief.

"Both my husband and I are fifty-six this year," she seemed slightly amused.

Grandma was sixty-nine this year! My parents went speechless, alongside grandma who stopped asking any questions. Grandma couldn't treat them rashly anymore, using her old age as an excuse. Instead, we silently gazed at the large presence of Rika inside this mansion. Until my mom intensely stared at a photo of Rika holding a fancy diploma, displaying her certificate from graduating middle school.

"We took those at her graduation ceremony," Joanna fondly joined my mom.

"The school never sent us an invitation," my mom was upset.

"Unfortunately, it is hard for the school to make arrangements to allow you to visit the upper districts," William reminded them.

"Is it possible to give us some photos?" My dad tried to console my mom.

"We only possess one copy," William coldly answered him.

"You have many photos of my granddaughter, it shouldn't make a large difference if you give one of them away," grandma muttered.

"We can continue our discussion inside one of our meeting rooms," William made the servants open the door.

The callous meeting room was simple, a large rectangular table and many rolling chairs surrounding it. On the white walls was a large screen, a whiteboard, and otherwise decorated with plain paintings. I took a seat beside my parents, diagonally across Luke's parents.

"Where should we start?" William took out some documents.

"We initially wanted to meet you when we discovered you created a bank account for Rika," my dad started.

"It was created when Rika was four," William was confused.

"Most of the assets are inside a joint bank account with my son," he revealed.

"You really didn't need to do this for Rika. We thought about her engagement with your son and we're against continuing it. Rika is still very young, and we think it would be better for her to come back to it when she is a little older," my dad felt burdened.

"Can you give us the reasons why you have changed your minds?" William calmly approached the subject.

"Firstly, we disagree with your method of educating your son and my daughter. We saw the schedules you created, and it is incredibly strict," my mom argued.

"I want my children to succeed in school. This is why I don't spare any expenses regarding their education. The curriculum is very intense in the first district and I don't want my children to fall behind. Do you not want the best for your child?" Joanna reasoned.

"There isn't a single break other than mealtimes," my mom pointed out.

"As I have mentioned, there is a lot of material to cover. The schedules are reasonable enough that my children can handle them," she passed my parents a file.

"I am more lenient towards my daughter than my son. This is their education plan for the rest of summer vacation," she pointed out.

When I peeked at the file, I couldn't close my mouth. My sister's schedule was abnormal, seven subjects allocated around one to two hours each. The content wasn't easy, my parents going speechless while flipping through the detailed outline. However, it was generous compared to Luke's insane schedule. His outlined plan only allowed a maximum of six hours of sleep per day. More than fifteen subjects were squished inside a single day, around half an hour for each one.

The difficulty level was massively higher than my sister's while having to accomplish them in less than half the time. I could never live under such parents, no matter the privileges I gained in return. It was no wonder their team won first place in the competition. I shuddered as I recalled Rika's terrible grades, showing the first district was a terrifying place. My parents were in disbelief when Joanna pointed out my sister's recent performance in school.

"Your education plan must not be effective," my mom concluded.

"My son brings perfect grades each time. It's because I'm generous towards my daughter that she struggles to keep up with the curriculum," Joanna denied.

"The second reason we changed our mind is the rude way your son and nephew has been treating us during the past month," my mom abandoned her first argument.

"Please tell me how they have been behaving. I will immediately re-educate them," she took her seriously.

"They don't allow us to approach my daughter anymore," my dad was angry.

"My son and nephew wouldn't do this for no reason. Can you give us more details?" William waited for them.

"My wife let my daughter out of the house and an unfortunate incident occurred while I was on an outing with my son and your boys," my dad vaguely explained.

"You have to understand, a near kidnapping is extremely disappointing. I would never let this occur under our watch. Their actions are justifiable, you have immensely broken our trust," William already knew.

"My daughter recently woke up last night. The dangerous drug took longer than we expected to exit her blood," his gaze was stronger, almost angry.

"This man is known to target young girls and your wife was watching the entire time, doing nothing. We were very close to losing her," he took out a photo.

"You did nothing?" My dad turned to my mom.

"He had a gun against her back. I didn't have a choice," my mom helplessly admitted.

"The drug prevented my daughter from moving as she was lured to sleep. She was being dragged away by the time my son and nephew got to her," William added.

"It is reasonable you have lost our trust," his voice was icy.

"This still doesn't explain the behavior of your son and nephew. We would never hurt Rika," my mom was offended.

"You were equally an accomplice in our eyes. If you have never let my daughter outside or separated her from my son and nephew, this incident could have been prevented," William blamed my parents.

"Another reason we want to break this engagement is because we think our daughter was targeted due to her relationship with your family. It wouldn't be odd if the serial killer wanted her for some ransom," my mom believed.

"This shouldn't be the case. We keep our children deeply hidden from the general public. As you should know, we don't let them use any forms of social media. In addition, we tightly supervise who they can meet and where they can go," he seemed greatly insulted.

"We can continue this after lunch. My family always eats together for every meal," he checked his watch.

I followed Luke's parents to their extravagant dining room, resembling the luxurious restaurant we had visited. Many servants stood behind us, acting as servers. It was hard getting used to the great wealth they possessed, trying to distract myself with it as we waited for Rika and Luke.

"Why can't I skip lunch?" Rika complained, getting dragged by Luke.