Canaan's long fingers tapped lightly on the arm rest in the jet. He wasn't sure if Nurna ever met Lili, but she knew that he worked for her.
"Don't worry, I won't tell her about my identity and our relationship," Lili said as her fingers brushed his.
Getting to the villa, everywhere was deathly silent. The maids stood far away, watching the figure crumpled on the ground at the entrance of the mansion. Her hands bled from holding the shard of glass window she had broken in her burst of rage.
Seeing Nurna's white tee stained with blood, Canaan's throat constricted as he quickened his strides.
"She died because of me. If only I was there," Nurna lamented, beating her chest, not letting go of the glass that is now deep into her skin.
"Roe, oh, Roe," she lamented.
Canaan was close enough to hear what she said. Hearing her mention Roe made his heart skip a bit.
"Nurna," he called out carefully.
Hearing Canaan's voice, Nurna raised her head.
Her pupils were dilated and her eyes red-rimmed. More tears pooled her eyes, blurring her vision as she looked up at him but failing to extinguish the fire burning within her.
"You murderer!" Her hoarse voice came out as a weak bellow filled with rage and bitterness, as she raised the glass in her hand against him.
He took her hands gently and drove it right into his chest, over and over again.
Nurna's eyes grew larger and unblinking as she let out a gasp, her breath caught in her throat. She was in fury, but she didn't plan to cause him any harm.
That was one of the causes of her constant strife with her father. Despite her combustive nature, the highest evil she could do is put her feet on the way to make you fall. She couldn't kill; she couldn't hunt.
"It would have been a shame if I missed this," Lili said, rolling her tongue inside her mouth, as a naughty smile hung on her lips.
"Stop!" she panicked, but Canaan didn't stop. Though he winced in pain, he didn't say a word, but his eyes... they spoke more than a million words. She had never seen anything as sorry as his eyes. His hands trembled over hers as his eyes became dull, almost dead, with the weight of guilt in them.
"Stop, you're hurting me," she cried out, hoping that would work, and like magic, he stopped abruptly.
He held her hands, and when he saw the deep cut from the glass she held, he scooped her up with great care.
After the incident when she broke her bones, he had converted one of the little houses in the villa into a mini-clinic. In a matter of days, despite the difficult protocols around opening health facilities.
Soon, he reached the clinic.
"Take her into the OR. There's a cut on her palm and close to her wrist; she has lost a lot of blood," the once quiet room echoed with Canaan's panicked instruction.
"Sir, you're also in danger; we should also treat you."
"Don't worry about me. Take her and make sure she survives or you all will pay with your lives!"
Everyone in the clinic was appalled. Who is this woman that can make the quiet and sophisticated Mr. Canaan speak so vulgarly?
"I'll take him with me," it was Lili who spoke. Lili held his hand and dragged him out of the clinic towards the villa.
"Where's your room?" she said as she dragged him across the corridor, Butler D and Canaan's personal maid, following closely behind them.
"Allow us to take care of Master, your highness. I'll take you to your place," Butler D said.
Lili glanced at the duo behind them, her phoenix eyes settling on the old maid for a little longer.
"Madame Bevie knows best how to take care of Master Canaan," Butler D said, meaningfully. With that, Lili followed.
"I will take off your clothes now," the old maid in her 60s said respectfully, to which he gave a grunt of approval.
She took off his clothes, exposing his toned chest. One would expect him to have a lean stature, but he was well-built, with broad shoulders and expressive abs. The muscles of his shoulders worked as the woman cleaned his body with a wet napkin.
"Hurry," he grunted.
"It would be best if you wait in your suite for a while; you don't want to arouse suspicion," she said as she wiped his bare chest. There was no cut or any sign of injury!
"What happened when I left?"
"We don't know what exactly agitated her. Her maids broke into the room when they heard the loud noise of glass breaking. According to one of the bodyguards, her hair was glowing and whipping everyone out of her way. It was only after a while that she broke down in front of the mansion as she bled, but no one approached her so as not to agitate her further."
"Why wasn't I informed immediately?"
"Butler D gave the order."
"Then Butler D will find you a new job. Leave," he said coldly, his voice devoid of emotion.
Madame Bevie gave a brief sigh as she closed the door behind her. She had always been careful in her 43 years of working with Mr. Canaan. He was only 20 when she started working with him. When she was told she couldn't leave the villa once she agreed to work with him, she knew he wasn't an ordinary person.
"Young mistress must be very dear to him," she said, stroking her chin. "Thankfully, she favors me," she said with a clever grin as she walked downstairs.
"Where does the young lady stay?" Lili asked as she scanned the interior of the house. It was one of the houses along the field, the most luxurious of them all.
"Inside the mansion, your Highness."
"With Canaan?" she questioned, her voice raised by a pitch.
"Yes, your Highness."
She had a mocking smile as she caressed a piece of furniture.
"Who else lives in the mansion?"
"No one, ma'am."
"Did he really have to make it so obvious?" she asked rhetorically with a derisive chuckle.
After a couple of hours, Canaan made his way to Nurna's room. He was called some minutes earlier that she was out of the operating room.
"Master, we found this strange book in her hammock where she usually lounges, but the pages are blank."
Canaan's hands ran over the cover of the book; it had reeds with blooming flowers for a cover, and the clear white page was devoid of ink or any form of writing.
"She's fine now; she would wake up soon enough when the anaesthetic wears off," the doctor informed him when he arrived at the clinic.
Shutting the door, he walked slowly and quietly towards the king-sized bed she was laid in the luxurious hospital room fit for VIPs. Her eyes were shut closed and her face pale; her hair flowed on the bed beneath her.
"I didn't mean for you to ever find out. No matter what I say, I am still to blame. It must have been hard for you," he said, caressing her face, slowly.
Lowering slowly until their faces were only centimeters apart, he leaned inward to give her a kiss.
"What do you think you're doing?" Nurna growled before her eyelids flew open, meeting his honey-brown eyes.
Nurna glared at him, her gaze traveling down from his sharp brown eyes to his straight nose, and to his Cupid's bow lips. Her eyes settled on them a tad bit longer, and she swallowed.
A slow smirk curled across Canaan's usually unbothered face. He leaned back on the drawer as he pressed the button beside her bed.
Nurna flushed as she readjusted on her bed. "Were you always Canaan?" She allowed the benefit of doubt that it may not be this same Canaan that killed Roe.
"Since when? 7 centuries ago?"
"Yes."
"Did you kill my sister?"
"She would have died either way,"
he calmly said. "I promise, I'll explain it all to you when you're ready."
'His eyes are so sincere' Nurna thought as she sat up.
She then noticed the book in Canaan's hand.
"Why are you with that? Give it back."
"It's blank, why do you want it?"
Nurna sat up as deep lines formed on her forehead, her brows furrowed into a thin line. "What are you talking about?" She asked as she stretched out her hand.
Truly, the book was blank. Were the things she read a figment of her imaginations? She held the books in her arm, her mind wandering around; she was in grief of her sister's death.
"Little Miss!" A loud voice came from outside. It was Filo.
"Why did you do this to yourself?" She cried as she walked towards the bed, with the white bunny in her hand.
Nurna's dull eyes twinkled when she saw Tofi, the little white bunny. Filo insisted on taking care of it instead, as it was still little when Nurna took it from the garden. The light in her eyes dwindled as she caressed the bunny's fur.
Canaan had a call, so he stepped out
"Where do you stay?" Situ asked, the fast movement of his car sounding in the background.
"Stay out of this."
"She only gets hurt with you, do you want to watch her die once more?
Canaan clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white as his breath turned shallow. "Mr. Canaan." He turned back to see Filo.
"Nurna doesn't want to stay here anymore, I don't know the reason, but she seems very sad. A change of environment for a while will help her sort out her thoughts."
Canaan ended the call before speaking. "She'll stay at your place, give her anything she wants."
"Can she leave the house?"
"If that's what she wants. Also, her well-being should not be Situ's business."
Filo nodded, understanding what he meant.
It was a silent drive back to Filo's place. Nurna stared out the window. Though she knew her sister would have died, since so much time had passed, the thought of her being brutally killed with her unborn baby made her heart shatter over and over.
"You'll go and meet your pregnant sister," she reminisced. That man in her first memory spoke like he murdered her sister, the same man that she felt was her lover.
'Was that all Canaan? What is his motive now?' she thought.
She opened the strange blank book once more and sighed. The white bunny gnarled at the seatbelt as it sat on Nurna's lap. This book was the only thing close to truth since it seemed like her memory had been sieved while she was unconscious.
They soon got to Filo's place, and Situ was standing at the entrance. Nurna walked into his open arms. Tears trickled down her face once more. "Roe," she sniffled.
Situ consoled her and took her in. After coaxing her to eat a bit, he tucked her in bed.
In the middle of the night, Nurna gasped awake. She had a nightmare, the nightmare that had been plaguing her for weeks now.
She sighted the book on the bedside table. The flowers had a faint fluorescent glow, and the reeds seemed to be moving.
Nurna hastily grabbed the book. Once she opened it, the pages emitted bright white light at her face. The book slipped from her hands, and her head fell back; she had gone into a trance.
In her dream, she saw fragments of her memory she didn't remember. They felt like an event playing before her in real-time.
Tears pooled in her eyes as she saw a snippet of her and Roe playing with sand. She was younger than Roe by 5 years. Roe was taller, smarter, graceful, and adorable, she was a replica of their mother. Roe was frail, and Nurna doted on her. Roe's dark blonde hair bounced as she ran after Nurna, laughing with mirth.
Another snippet showed Nurna's mother. Mama, as she fondly called her. She held little Nurna in her hands, her lips curved into a loving smile as her face faintly glowed.
She saw herself on a battlefield. Her father had taken her to war. She was only 13, her mother and a blacksmith had to make special armor and war garments for her. After the war, her father had her whipped until she couldn't walk. That was because she couldn't bring herself to kill anyone.
"How will you conquer the world for His Majesty when you can't even kill a bird in the forest?" She heard her father booming as lashes sounded on her back.
She hated "His Majesty." She never met him, but her whole life had to revolve around his ambitious and greedy plans.
She saw Roe hug her in tears on the day of her wedding; they could still visit each other as her husband's house was close, but the thought of not being able to sleep side by side broke their hearts.
She then saw a waterfall. She was now a young lady, and her body had started to change.
She was on the cliff by the waterfall. She wanted to end her own life.
"Well, that's a bit dramatic, don't you think?" a smooth baritone voice drawled from behind her, his voice similar to the soft rumbling of deep waters.
Nurna whirled around, startled. Fire, not tears, blazed in her eyes.
"Dramatic? I'll give you something dramatic!" she yelled, brandishing the little kitchen knife–clearly not standard cliff-jumping equipment.
The tall man that seemed like a stray demon in simple clothing raised an eyebrow, unfazed.
"Honey, that's a kitchen knife. You're gonna need a bigger… blade."
Nurna blinked. "Shouldn't you be...?"
"No, no, no," he said, taking a casual step closer, hands nonchalantly in his pockets.
"For all that angst, you really need to shake the heavens." Seeing her blink in confusion, he let out a grin, and Nurna's heart stopped, as her eyes moistened from opening them so wide.
"Why don't you put down the cutlery, and let's brainstorm some better options. Like this..." He offered, bringing out his sword, slowly out of its sheath.
"I've done this a lot of times, I can serve it any way you want," he said, sporting his devilish grin once more.
"Don't you dare raise your sword at me!" she yelled shakily, her eyes scanning around for an exit. "Do you know who my father is?!"
"I'm guessing the horse shit that is just a doormat to the old ugly coward?"
Nurna gasped. "How long have you been here?"
"Long enough to know that you're a brat?"
"Brat? Me?" she yelled.
As he took a step closer, she subconsciously stepped backward. Unknown to her, she was already at the very edge of the cliff.
"Mama!" she screamed as she wobbled, the cold wind blowing her backward as her hair danced around. Just as she was about to topple over, he caught her hand and pulled.
With a thud, they both landed on the ground, with Nurna on top of the devilishly handsome warrior.
I love Tofi, do you?
— Bab baru akan segera rilis — Tulis ulasan
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