When I entered the house, I found Marx in the kitchen, reading a newspaper. I looked at him for a long time, then spoke in a steady voice: "Lilia is in danger. Someone is following us."
He lowered the paper slowly. He looked into my eyes. There was no surprise on his face. No indignation. Only… weariness, as if something heavy had finally fallen.
The man said simply and calmly, "I know."
The girl erupted at the coldness of his nerves and his indifference: "You know? Since when?"
"Since we took her. I knew this would happen one day."
She stepped closer, her voice trembling with anger: "Then why did you take her? Why didn't you return her? And why do you want to get rid of her now?"
He closed the paper slowly and set it aside. Then he said, "Because we can no longer protect her. The people who hunted her mother… they did not disappear. They were only waiting. And they have found us. And we… we are not strong enough to repel them."
He fell silent for a moment, then continued: "You think you know a lot, Celine. But you have only seen the surface of hell. There are men who only move when they smell weakness. And you… with your madness, you drew their attention back to us."
She said with tearful eyes, "Whatever happens, she is my sister! My sister! I will not allow you to hand her over to the darkness."
He said, "Then you will lose everything as long as you cling to your opinion."
That night, Celine sat beside Lilia while she slept. She looked at her pure, peaceful face and wondered: what if she suddenly disappeared? What if one day she woke up and found the bed empty?
It was not merely a question. It was a lurking fear on the verge of becoming reality.
She decided she would take matters into her own hands. She would not wait for Marx and Marlin to decide her sister's fate. Nor would she allow strangers to lay a hand on a hair of hers. She began to make a plan: first, temporarily smuggle Lilia to a safe place. Then, root out the truth, whatever the cost. But saying it is easier than doing it, and one cannot challenge fate lightly...
To be contineued...