THE LIE THAT BOUND US

WHAT WAS LEFT

Johanna’s POV

When i got home the first thing that greeted me was the silence.

Our apartment had always been quiet because it was just me and my aunt.

But lately, the silence felt different. It wasn't peaceful, it was that kind of silence that reminded me of everything we had lost.

I placed my bag on the table and took off my shoes.

“You are back early” I turned towards the kitchen where aunt Lillian was standing.

“Oh!” I replied.

“I just decided not to stay out late today”

She looked at the clock before turning back to what she was cooking.

“How was work today?”

“It was Fine”.

That ended the conversation as I walked further into the apartment.

There was nothing really fancy about our home.

The sofa had been there for as long as I could remember.

The cushions had a small tear at the corner, and the dining table had little scratches scattered across its surface.

I had gotten used to it already.

There was a time when I hated anyone seeing or knowing where I lived.

Now, I simply didn't care at all.

This was what remained of the life my family had once used to live.

I walked into my room to change out of my work clothes before returning right back to the kitchen.

Aunt Lillian was already setting up the table for dinner.

"How much did you get paid this month?" she asked.

I paused for a bit.

"And why are you asking?"

"The electricity bill came today."

I sighed.

"How much is it?"

She told me.

For a few seconds, neither of us spoke.

Then I reached for my phone.

"It's fine, I'll handle it."

"You know you don't have to handle everything, Johanna."

"I know."

"Really? Do you?"

I shot her a glare.

She wasn't angry.

She looked really tired.

But that was something I had become very familiar with.

My aunt spent years trying to keep us together after my father was taken away.

She had given up more than I probably knew about just to make sure I had somewhere to call a home.

"I'll pay the bill," I repeated.

This time she didn't say anything.

Instead, she sat down across from me.

"Don't you think you are working too hard."

"Aunty, I have to."

"Why Johanna?" "Why?"

But the answer was just too obvious.

Someone had to rebuild everything we had lost because my father couldn't do that from prison. Our family name wouldn't be cleared by itself and i just couldn't accept that this was all we were going to be.

But I didn't say any of that to her.

"Aunt, I just want us to be okay that's all."

She looked at me for a moment before lowering her head.

"We are okay."

I smiled.

Deep down we both knew that wasn't true.

After seeing the article about Sebastian earlier, I thought maybe Aunt Lillian could have some answers.

“Aunt, Did my father ever mention anything to you before he was arrested?”

Her hands stopped moving and the spoon in her hand dropped to the ground.

“Johanna what is this about, why are you asking me that?”

“Well I keep thinking about it.”

She turned her head away. “There are some things you were too young to understand.”

“Aunt, that was then I'm not a child anymore you know.”

“I know.”

“So then tell me what exactly happened.”

She was silent for a few minutes then she shook her head.

“Your father always claimed that he was innocent. That's all you need to remember.”

I was disappointed again. She always does this anytime I bring up any conversation about Dad.

“That's not enough.” I replied her

“Johanna, knowing everything sometimes doesn't automatically give you the answers you're looking for.”

Those words stayed with me long after the conversation ended.

That night, after she had gone to bed, I stayed up in my room.

I opened up my laptop and looked at the spreadsheet I had been working on.

The money I was earning wasn't enough to transform our lives overnight.

I was aware of that.

I was also aware of the fact that I couldn't just spend the rest of my life complaining about what had happened in the past.

I really needed to do something.

I opened another file document on my laptop.

The name at the top made my chest tighten a bit.

Koller Holdings.

I stared at it.

The company no longer existed the way it once did, but I had spent months looking into what remained of it.

Old partnerships, properties, Old accounts statements.

Anything exactly that could help me understand what happened and how everything had disappeared.

My father always insisted that he was innocent.

And I believed him.

But belief alone wasn't enough.

I needed solid proof.

I closed my laptop and started walking towards my bed.

Then my phone screen lit up.

It was a news notification on the screen.

MOSER EMPIRE ANNOUNCES NEW THEIR NEW LEADERSHIP UNDER SEBASTIAN MOSER.

My eyes stayed fixed on the name.

Sebastian.

Then the television report from earlier crossed my mind.

The new CEO, the heir to the empire that kept growing while my family was falling apart.

For some years, I believed that the distance between our families simply meant we would never have to deal with each other again.

But maybe, I was wrong.

I clicked on the article and continued reading.

The more I read, the more interested I became.

Sebastian was making changes to the company.

He was conducting a comprehensive review of several of the empire's older business divisions and partnerships.

I kept scrolling through the article slowly.

It didn't give out much information on how Sebastian planned to carry out all the things he had said.

I paused. I realised what I had just read.

Sebastian was conducting a review on the Empire's older partnerships.

I paused.

"Older partnerships??".

I read the sentence again.

There had been countless other businesses that were also connected to the Moser Empire over the years, but there was only one partnership that I couldn't stop thinking about.

Koller and Moser.

I searched the article for it.

Page after page appeared on my screen.

Old articles, business reports and archived photographs.

Most of them just agreed to the same story I had heard all my life, nothing new.

A Successful Partnership that turned into a financial scandal which lead to my father's arrest and the end of the Koller name.

It was all the same thing.

I almost dropped my phone, but then I came across something.

One of the archived reports mentioned that there were several documents from the partnership that had never been made public.

My heart started beating faster.

Documents.

If they really existed, they could contain something that no one had ever seen before.

Something that could help prove my father had been telling the truth.

I sat back in my chair, still staring at my phone screen.

For years I had been searching for a way to restore my family's name, but every direction I followed just led to a dead end.

Now, for the first time in a while, I had hope.

Sebastian was reopening his father's old business records.

And if he came across those documents before I did, I had no idea what he would discover and what he would do.

I turned off my phone and looked toward the window.

Maybe Sebastian Moser's returning wasn't something I should fear.

Maybe just maybe this was an opportunity.

I just had to find out how to get close enough to discover what he knew.

And if those records still existed, they could be the answer to the questions I have had for years.