Chapter 3A: An intruder

"Mam, the Elder Master wishes to see you..." The guards said, and the atmosphere became tense. The assistants looked at each other nervously. By elder master, the guard referred to her maternal grandfather, George Torres. He was the one who raised her, and that villa originally belonged to him.

Amy asked them to go to the study and do the work that they were assigned.

She went to her grandfather's room, which was at the end of the hallway, and was the fanciest one in the whole mansion. The door opened, and the room was pretty dark. It was a little difficult to see anything, but she figured that her grandpa was lying on the bed.

She walked to the corner and opened the curtains, letting the rays of the sun enter that dark room. Then she sat beside the old man who was sitting on the bed. He looked weak and tired; hair turned white, and face covered with wrinkles.

"You finally got time to see me..." George said in a deep voice as he looked outside the window.

"You know I wasn't home for the past few weeks..." She replied softly and held his hand.

"So it is true..." He said and laid back, his eyes getting lost in the beauty of nature.

Amy looked pretty calm even though her mind was blank. She didn't know what to do next; it was always difficult for her to deal with him.

"Isn't this what you trained me for all these years?" Amy asked him, and he finally looked at her, making her feel a little anxious.

"I didn't expect it to turn out better than I had expected." He said, and they both chuckled.

"You're nothing like your mother," He looked at the ceiling as he remembered his precious daughter, who was actually nothing like what he wanted her to be.

"She got involved in the underworld after marrying your father but you, I feel like you're going to rule the underworld without anybody's help." She smiled after hearing the compliment.

He looked at her and was a little nervous. She was exactly how he wanted the heir of his family to be, and this fact terrified him more than anything else.

"I'm just trying to revive the old one." She said, and her expressions change; a sign of pain and torture was visible on her face.

"You can stop whenever you want..." He patted her head, and she smiled again, but it seemed like she was lying; to him and herself.

"You don't have to hide your feelings..." He squeezed her hand a little bit.

"Isn't that what you taught me...?" She said, and he went silent. "...since childhood, by beating me and forcing me not to cry...even when I lost someone I loved the most...You are the one who taught me to be heartless..." She looked at him, and that painful look in her eyes made him feel guilty.

"If I knew this would happen...I wouldn't have..." He lowered his head and had tears in his eyes.

"But if you didn't do that then we wouldn't have been here. It's all because of you that I'm strong enough to re-establish our company. So you did nothing wrong." She said, and he could tell that she was lying. She was torturing herself to not make him feel bad, just cause the truth slipped from her mouth for once.

"Feelings are just useless things that hold us back from achieving our goals...so don't be sorry." She said, but it didn't help decrease his worry.

He was about to say something, he wanted to stop her before it was too late, but suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Amy stood up and was about to walk out of that room.

"I wish you good luck in the future." He said with a faint smile.

She clenched her fists tightly. George now had no option but to support her, for he was the one who had created her- her strong self.

Amy walked outside with the excuse that she had something urgent to attend to. She was avoiding that situation, for she knew that at some point, she was wrong. But now, there was no way back; the game had already started. She knew he wanted to stop her, but she didn't want to hear it.

As she stepped outside the room, she noticed that Levi was standing there and looked scared and nervous.

"What's wrong?" She gave him a weird look.

"Mam, someone has entered our territory." He said under his breath. Amy was shocked but stayed calm.

"How?" She asked him, anger clearly visible in her eyes.

"We just got a notification through the sensors at the entrance." He handed her the tablet and showed her the live recording of the sensors and cameras placed all around the forest.

She examined the recording carefully and clenched her fist tightly to stay calm even when their disguise was at risk. There was some movement visible in the forest.

"Commoners are banned from entering this forest. How did he enter? What about all the traps you set up?" She asked and started walking towards the exit doors.

"Mam, he entered through the secret underground tunnels." He said, and Amy paused on hearing that.

He couldn't be a commoner to know about the underground tunnels, and it just meant that he was a threat to them. There were several guards around them, preparing to search the forest.

"Find that bastard right now!" Amy shouted the order.