A pledge of loyalty

How could Remi not recognise Rowan? They had been friends for more than a decade!

They had met at a business partnership between their fathers, the Wellingtons focused on baked goods while the Sanders were in the gaming industry. The Sanders were a tier 1 wealthy family, Magnus Wellington naturally pushed Orion to befriend Rowan in hopes of strengthening the bond between their two corporations.

The two kids became good friends in elementary school and went to middle school together. Orion had the smarts while Rowan was a talented fighter this made the duo the perfect combo. Orion helped Rowan with his school work while Rowan protected him from bullies, their bond got so strong that people mistook them for brothers.

That was all until one day at the age of 14 when they were coming back from school, as usual they snuck out to avoid getting picked up by their designated guards in order to go rollerskating with the other rich kids. But in the end they were duped by their so-called friends, several grown men had come out of nowhere and tried to apprehend Rowan.

No matter how good at fighting Rowan was, he was but a 14 years old little boy, confronted by so many adult men he was bound to lose. Orion realised this and thus didn't hesitate to jump into the fire to help his best friend, after seeing an opening Rowan who was so scared of getting kidnapped ran away under the pretext of going to call for help. And he did call for help, it's just that even when he did, it was too late, the irreversible damage had already been done. Ever since then, Orion and even their friendship had never been the same.

Out of guilt or for whatever the reason, Rowan had pledged his loyalty to Orion and committed his whole life to protect Orion even at the cost of his own life. He abandoned his position as the heir of the Sanders Entertainment Inc.(SEI) and started following around Orion which displeased Mr Sanders heavily. Due to this, the relationship between the Sanders and the Wellingtons soured.

And even though they remained friends, Orion never fully trusted Rowan again, no matter what he did or how hard he tried, Orion was always wary of him. In the end when Orion was choking to death, where was he? He remembered all the faces of those who attended his bachelor's party and even though Rowan had attended, he wasn't there when Orion was dying which begged the question 'was it really a coincidence he wasn't there at such a crucial moment?'. Orion felt that his lack of trust in Rowan was justified, in his moment of need, the one who was supposed to be his best friend wasn't there, he had abandoned him...just like he had done before.

Because of his absence from the video clip on the dark web, Orion had marked Rowan as his number one prime suspect of the mystery behind his death.

Which is why Remi was disoriented and distracted the moment he heard his voice and saw his face, she felt wary of him.

'Why is he following around my brother the same way he did with me?' Remi thought worriedly.

Thinking of everything that had happened in her past life as Orion and seeing Rowan again like this set ablaze an ocean of emotions inside of Remi, she felt wronged,sad, angry, hurt, betrayed and so many complicated emotions she couldn't put into words or understand.

She suddenly felt a lump forming on her throat, she clenched her fists and bit her lip until she drew blood. Why did she suddenly feel like crying? She was confused, ever since she transmigrated into the body of a girl, she had noticed that all her emotions were amplified. A tinge of sadness felt like a boulder of sorrow making her want to cry, she didn't like it but she also couldn't control it.

When Rowan saw that the little girl before him was frozen on the spot, unmoving, with her fists clenched, tears in her eyes and her whole body shaking, his resolve wavered. He almost couldn't bear to end her life after all she was just unfortunate to have done a good deed only to be repaid with evil.

"I can see you are scared, l don't want to do this as well, l don't like it but l must keep a promise l made to a dear friend of mine. I promise it won't hurt, it will be over before it even began" Rowan said reassuringly as he sighed.

Hearing this, for some reason Remi felt angered, she really wanted to lash out at him, ask him all the questions in her heart and pour out all of her grievances. But in the end she restrained her emotions which felt as hard as trying to tame a wild horse in one go.

"Tell me your name at least, I will carry the burden of your death on my shoulders and secretly compensate your family heavily. So much that they will never have to work a day in their lives again" Rowan said generously.

He had never been a man with a lot of words ever since his loyalty pledge, with how much he had already said Remi could tell that he was really being sincere.

"We don't need your bloody money, my family is already very wealthy" Remi said after putting her emotions in check.

"Really?" Rowan asked doubtfully after observing her body thoroughly again.

Remi couldn't blame him for his deduction, after all she really didn't look like a daughter of a wealthy family, her looks had been buried by her malnourished body and the dark circles from her lack of sleep. Coupled with the blood on the sleeves of her old uniform and the messy hair that had come undone during her struggle with Jordan, she really looked like someone from a very poor family.

"Which family are you from?" Rowan asked patiently.

"My name is Remi Patel, my family runs Grape Harvest Enterprises and owns a big share of Fermenta corporation" Remi said calmly.

Rowan paused for a brief moment...

"Then your sister is..." He trailed off as if unsure of whether to say it or not.

"Yes she's Ophelia, the one who almost married your boss" Remi said while carefully looking at Rowan to see if he would have any reaction.

But unfortunately with his shades on, she couldn't grasp much of his reaction, he just hummed.

"Hmm..I know, she's my friend" he said.

Of course Remi already knew that Rowan and Ophelia were friends, she was both Orion and Rowan's junior in college after all. But because Orion had graduated earlier, Rowan dropped out, due to the pledge he couldn't graduate and chose to follow Orion.They could have graduated together but after their falling out Orion never helped Rowan with his studies, causing him to fall behind by a year.

"Now that you know, do you still want to kill your friend's sister ?" Remi tilted her head as she asked.

Looking at the skinny little girl who wasn't even afraid of talking about her death, Rowan showed a rare smile. Was she that confident that her status as Peter Patel's daughter would save her?

"Not to be cruel but am sure your family wouldn't miss you" with that said he proceeded to wipe his knife on his suit before walking towards her. He already knew that Ophelia had a sister that no one in the house cared about, so he was confident that no one would investigate Remi's death properly.

Remi's confidence wavered for the first time.

"W-wait...what about Orion? I was his friend too"- she paused for a moment before continuing "would you kill Orion's friend?" She asked.

For the first time, Rowan's indifferent expression twitched.

"Little girl, don't play with fire" he warned Remi coldly.

Remi had deliberately mentioned Orion because she knew that would get a reaction out of him, but what she didn't expect was that his reaction would be so intense. Because in that moment, she saw a cold glint flashing from the weapon raised high, her heart palpitated and her eyes opened wide in shock, he was really going to kill her!