"..." Elias was speechless.
But, his expression didn't change much as he asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"You're acting strange." She pointed out. "If I didn't know who you were, I'd have thought you had been swapped."
A ghost of a smile slowly appeared on Elias's lips. She was actually right. He had really been swapped.
Seeing that he still had the guts to smile when she was being so serious, Lila was about to blow her top in anger. But anyway, she still had to give him her piece of mind.
"Look," she said. "I don't know what you're playing at but all I have to say is that I don't care. We'll keep on with our status quo. You can keep living at our place and I'll convince my parents but other than that we'll simply do our own thing. Is that clear?"
'She's quite fierce,' Elias thought.
But anyway, he barely had any opinions either. As long as he could stay hidden in this family, he really couldn't care less who he was married to or had to live with.
He gave a nod simply.
"Good." Lila's expression finally eased a little bit after that. Without another word, she turned and left in her car, leaving Elias there to find a way out for himself.
As Elias walked out, his teasing smile slowly faded. Now, this game of cat and mouse had begun. He wondered what the person who ordered his execution was feeling right now?
Meanwhile, in another part of the city, a group of unidentified people were seated at a round table.
It was originay quiet but one of them suddenly spoke up casually looking at the person across. "I heard some nonsense that your lab was up in flames two days ago. Say, Roberto, aren't you going to do something about those rumors?"
The words this person spoke seemed to be full of concern but anyone could discern the sarcasm and sneer in the tone.
Roberto who was addressed was clearly incensed by his sarcastic tone. He sprang up and pointed at his nose. "What are you playing at? Don't you know best whether it's a rumor or not?"
The other person sounded innocent. "What do you mean by that? Don't accuse the innocent."
"You—" Roberto was furious. "It must be you who did it. You must have brought the attention of the military on me on purpose!"
"Heh!" The other party laughed. "It's not like I forced you to transfer the goods. The military must have been alerted by your movements. What does that have to do with me?"
"Bastard!"
At this moment, the person was clearly offended as he was scolded by him. He sneered, "What's the use of you trying to argue with me? Your lab is under surveillance now and you almost exposed the rest of us. Aren'tyou afraidyou'll be tossed out for betraying the precepts?"
He poked directly at Roberto's wounds with those few words and the latter looked at the faces of the rest trying to find reassurance. But they only looked away guilitily and his heart sank.
Roberto turned his aggression back on that person and nearly pounced at them. "It's your fault! You set me up on purpose."
But before he could continue to wreak havoc, he was interrupted by two knocks sounding from the head of the table. He instantly froze and stood up right, looking at the person seated there.
"Leader…"
"Roberto, you broke the precepts," the person's words and tone were direct. "You lost your lab and we can not expend anymore effort to protect you. As such, you're no longer allowed to participate in our matter anymore."
Roberto's face went ashen immediately. "Leader, you can't do this to me. I've done so much for the organisation."
The other party didn't seem concerned by his protest however and simply waved his hand. In an instant, several burly men appeared and grabbed him. He instantly began to protest but the men were too ruthless and simply knocked him out, dragging him away.
The room returned to its silence and the leader looked toward the person Roberto accused earlier.
"Do you know what you did wrong?" The leader asked directly.
That person seemed to have lost their arrogance and quickly submitted under the leader's dominating presence. "Yes, leader, I was wrong."
"Good." The leader seemed satisfied by the attitude. "That lab was only a burden to us anyway. But this must not happen a second time."
"Yes, Leader. Understood."
The leader then turned to look at everyone present. "Now that things are like this, although we managed to cover our tracks and tanked some of the damage last minute, it's inevitable that some thing must have gotten out. We'll focus on defending against any attempts of exposure for now."
Everyone seated responded positively. "Understood."
"There's a matter of concern however," the leader continued. "A major general of the army was involved and it is likely he knows a few things about us. The lab exploded but it is unknown whether he survived or not. You'll receive a full background detail on him and everyone's expected to keep an eye on the lookout. Whether alive or dead, I want him handed over to me. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Leader."
***
Meanwhile, at the other side…
It was early morning. Elias had just woken up a few minutes back and he got dressed in Sebastian's clothes which he found in the closet to go for a run. When he went downstairs, there was no one there. He hadn't seen Lila since they met at the family manor the evening before and he hadn't met his in-laws either. It was the same this morning too. The house was quiet except for the servants hustling around but since none of them acknowledged his presence, he simply went about without a care.
He went out for his run and got a bottle of water on his way which he was still drinking when he returned to the mansion. But, he was shocked to find the house in chaos when he returned.
A middle-aged woman sat stiffly on the sofa, her hands clenched over her lap, while two men stood with phones pressed to their ears. One was older, his face dark with barely contained anger, and the other younger, pacing in quick strides as he barked into his receiver. Elias would have been surprised by the scene, but Sebastian's memories spared him the confusion. These were his in-laws: Thomas and Margot Beaumont, and their son, Owen who was Lila's younger brother.
When they saw him, their already anxious looks turned into scowls and they looked like they were about to pounce on him. Elias chuckled awkwardly in his heart when he saw this: Sebastian really dug a lot of holes for him.
But thankfully, they didn't have a chance to do anything because Lila suddenly rushed downstairs anxiously in her nightdress. It seemed that she had just woken up. She glanced over when she saw him but paid him no attention as she faced her father.
"Dad, there's trouble."
She was about to show him something on her phone but the man shook his head as he ended his call.
"We've seen it," he answered.
Lila was anxious. "What do we do? There are people injured."
Thomas's face was dark as he pinched his eyebrows. "I'm already doing some things. Go and get dressed for now."
"Okay. We have to visit the patients," Lila responded before she rushed up the stairs again.
Elias simply stood there awkwardly unsure what was going on. But none of them seemed to care about his presence, so he quickly slipped back into his room silently.
Yesterday, he had done a through sweep of the room and found a batch of phones stacked in the drawer. Considering what Sebastian did for a job, this was not too surprising.
Now, he simply turned on one of them and went online to find out what was going on with the people downstairs. When he saw the myriad of dramatic posts on the search engine, he pinched his eyebrows silently.
It seemed the Beaumonts were going to be in some big trouble.