The Wind Surrounding Us

She Must Be Found

A parched throat began to take hold of Leo. "The gangs we were trying to track down were not located," he said in an anxious tone. The odds were high that all records pertaining to them had vanished.

Bam!!

The silence of the room was broken by an abrupt rumble. Leo nearly leaped from his spot. A fistfight ensued between his employer and the table.

"What else?" as he asked, Lucas's wrath flared up. This answer eluded Assistant Leo this time. The dampness on his back was already dripping down. He continued, "A few leads led us to Miss's information, so uh... After an intense eight-month hunt, we have finally obtained some footage."

After listening to the report, his boss reached out to him. Leo presented his employer with the envelope while his hands quivered. Brown Corp.'s President opened the package and snapped the pictures.

Gangsters and a female were depicted in the photographs. Criminals dumped the female body into the Guadalquivir River, which was their way of disposing of the body of the girl they killed. All the gangsters were carbon copies of the ones from Seville nine months earlier, and the female was a dead ringer for her!

President Brown hurled his glass, which was smashed against the wall. Assistant Leo couldn't stop his legs from trembling. He peered over the second Master, who was sitting leisurely on the sofa.

"Leave!" President Lucas roared.

"Y-yes, Boss!" Leo bolted out of the room so fast that even Usain Bolt would fail if there were competition. He wept silently, 'Why did the boss's temper become so terrible?' However, it brought him relief to be able to leave the room unscathed.

Lucas trembled with rage. A bead of chilly perspiration trickled down his brow. He pondered, 'She is dead?! Impossible! She cannot die!!' It seemed someone was ruthlessly torturing him. After that incident in Spain, he slept poorly. Every night, he would be haunted by the same dream.

A dream of hers: the scene unfolded where she was lying on the docks. She watched him depart with a sad expression before smiling as if to grant him a life of love. Subsequently, she took a blow to the skull, causing her face to be stained with blood. It took him a long time to escape this nightmare.

A sense of madness washed over him. His veins were churning with blood. 'She cannot be dead. I know for sure she's alive. Yes, yes, she cannot die. She must be found! I bet she is somewhere alive!' It took him nine months of searching before he could get a small clue about her being thrown into the dark river. The final clue was supposed to take him out of his nightmares, but it only brought him despair.

From the side came a sneering voice that said, "You look like you're dying inside." The man seated on the sofa was none other than Liam Brown, the president's younger brother. Lucas gave him a cold glare.

Liam didn't care about his brother's temper. "I really don't get why you are making such an effort to locate her," he stated nonchalantly as he leaned on the couch. "You hate her to the core. You once said that you wished you would kill her with your bare hands. Then, why is that expression on your face now?"

"You will never know." An eerie response was provided. The man sitting on the couch narrowed his eyes. "Don't tell me you fell for that b***h! I will never accept that!"

"Liam," with icy stares, President Brown spat out and turned to his younger brother. If he had the power to freeze people with eyes, he wished that he could do just that to his brother.

"Yes, brother." Liam mockingly replied. His eyes were vicious. He didn't want to upset his brother more than he already was.

"If she's dead, then find her corpse," Lucas ordered.

"I got it." That was when Liam departed. His face became completely black when he left. It grew darker in a matter of seconds. 'Even if she isn't dead, I'll make sure she's dead and bring the corpse back to you, big brother,' he swore while gritting his teeth.

After he departed, Lucas returned to the photographs. He desired to tear and scatter them in the air. Yet he was unable to do so. He didn't know why he felt that way. He hated her from the day he learned of her existence. Even now, he despised her. There was no limit to his animosity toward her. But he still couldn't get her sad look out of his head.

The last memory of her. His heart ached. In the midst of his bewilderment and fury, Lucas tightened his fists. Even though he hated her with all his heart, the sight of her face kept popping into his head. Feeling disturbed and restless were the results of his internal conflicts. Regardless of his best efforts, he knew he could never forget her.

Why?

He was in pain. His thoughts were all over the place. Even though he despised her, he wished she would live. Then, he suddenly figured it out.

Exactly! He never wanted her to die. All he wanted to do was make her life a living hell.

He wanted to destroy her happiness. He sought to ruin her dream, her freedom, her smile—everything! Her tears would give him joy and peace.

Then why did she die before him?

In his dreams, he grows agitated whenever he sees her face covered in blood. He had the impression that she forgave him for all the horrible deeds that he had done. The thought of seeing his wife's face would make him even angrier; he had wedded her as a form of revenge for the girl he despised. So why was he feeling remorse for this now?

When he looked at his two-year-old son, why did his expression turn somber? He couldn't recall the last time he carried his son. He thought his child was a mistake. He should not have had a son. He should never have tied the knot.

Perhaps it was also a mistake for him to harbor hatred toward her. His hands were covering his face. "No, this isn't right," he slowly muttered. He hated her, and that was the truth.

'Please tell me, where are you? I want to see you. Very much.' He thought that if it were her, then his pain would go away.