One night later, I was standing in front of the governor again.

"Sit down." I stood there stubbornly. He showed me his eyes, and I sat down in front of him. My hands were extended forward, but I kept my eyes fixed on him. He took his medicine and set the glass of water aside, then looked at me. As soon as his eyes met mine, goosebumps spread over my body, and I started to feel nervous.

"So, will you tell me how you came inside?" I hesitated before answering. He made himself comfortable on the bed, placing his hands together in front of him. He looked so dangerously handsome at that moment that I didn't know what to say. But when his question occupied my mind, I felt uncomfortable with the answer I gave: "Your men brought me here."

Hearing this, he tilted his head slightly to the side and frowned. "My men?" "Who?"

"I don't know them. There were four of them; they were taking me somewhere to meet someone. I seized the opportunity and escaped from there. They chased me but couldn't catch me, and honestly, they let me go halfway. If they had caught me, I wouldn't be here today."

"If I hadn't run away, I would be somewhere safe now, not waiting to be hidden in my own body."

"Why were they taking you?"

His question made me flinch, and I blinked at him. Should I tell him about Martha or not? "Just for some reason I can't tell you."

Upon hearing this, his jaw clenched tightly. "You won't be leaving here for at least two months."

I glared at him. "I will escape."

He shook his head. "You won't be able to go anywhere. As soon as you step outside, the guards will shoot you on sight."

I asked, "On whose orders?" He growled, "Mine."

"This is the rule here."

"Who made the rule?"

"I did." I was staring at him, and my hands were trembling to the point where I might choke him.

"Then break the rule and let me go outside."

His face now showed anger, and I was sweating. "You will stay here, complete all your tasks, and only then will you leave, alive."

My eyes went to his thick, long fingers pointing to his bed. I felt disgusted and jumped out of the chair. " Ugh! How dare you say this? I would prefer to die before being with you!"

His hand settled on his thighs, and he motioned for me to sit back down, but I had no intention of listening to him. I went to the gate. "Fine then."

But his changed decision stopped me. "Come back here," he said once. "Come back. Sit down. Now." Shouting the second time, I sat back down in the chair, my hands trembling.

His eyes turned black again, like last night, frightening. "I'll give you two options: either you sleep with me, or you prepare a report for me."

"Report?"

"Yes, a report." My mind was spinning with confusion. But if you ask me repeatedly which option I would choose, I will still choose the second one, over sleeping with this beast.

"What kind of report?"

"One where you will note down everything we do here, every detail, minute by minute. When I go to meetings, what I'm doing, the reason behind everything—no need to write a full script."

"But why?"

"Just because. Think of it as my way of keeping track of my efforts and work."

I scoffed at this, finding it pointless and ridiculous. He noticed and said nothing, just glared at me with his sharp gaze. Then he added, "There's no need to write about my brother."

"Brother? You have a brother too?" I asked in shock.

He simply answered, "Why? Can't girls have another child after giving birth to one?"

My eyes widened, and I gasped, "What did you just say?"

"Nothing. Just keep what I said in mind. Now go downstairs and join me for breakfast."

My mind was frozen, unable to process everything. I stood up, but the governor called me back and said, "You don't need to stay with me 24 hours a day, only when I want you to. Don't try to stick to me. If you don't want to find yourself without clothes in my bed, then—"

I didn't reply, I just nodded and ran downstairs for breakfast.

●●●●●●

They were taking me somewhere, I had no idea where, but the way everyone's faces were so serious, I felt nothing but fear. And because they had fed me a hefty piece of fresh cow meat for breakfast, I was completely silent. This reminded me that the governor hadn't come with us. Both of my hands were resting on my lap, and the governor's man had his hands on mine. To be honest, I wanted to tell him to just tie me up with a rope because his hand was starting to irritate me.

As we moved deeper into the forest, the humidity inside the car was increasing, and his sweaty hands were sticking to mine.

"Where are we going?" I mustered the courage to ask. I looked at the man sitting next to me, but he ignored my question entirely. Annoyed, I shot him a glare and pinched his thick finger that had been resting comfortably on my hand for a while. He flinched and glared back at me, but I glared right back, making my best stern face as I pushed his hand off me.

"We're taking you to Boss Adam," he finally replied.

"You have another boss?" The thought crossed my mind, so I asked. He looked at me for a moment and then said quietly, "Lord Governor said he already told you about him."

Hmm? I kept staring at him until he decided to ignore me and started looking out the window. Why does no one ever answer my questions? It's not like I'm going to write down what they say and get good grades for it.

Slowly, the cool breeze that was coming in started to turn into a foul, sour smell, which made them close all the windows of the car. The heat began to rise, and droplets of water started to form and slide down the glass, leaving streaks. The trees and plants that we passed were all withered, and the ground looked completely barren. Then I saw the same building in the distance—the one I had gone to the first time, where I had passed out because of that powder, which had caused me so much pain.

It was the place from where that woman had taken me home, and that's how I ended up here. They suddenly hit the brakes a short distance away and told me to stay put. The man went past the wall, looked back, then pulled a gun from the back pocket of his jeans before entering.

I looked at the other two men sitting in the front seats, they were engrossed in their conversation, so I decided to keep myself busy by looking outside. There, I saw two women wearing sarees walking toward the building. Both had smiles on their faces but looked quite tired, as if they had been working for a long time and had come back to work without resting after a meal.

Seeing them reminded me of my uncle. I wonder what he might be doing. he must be crying, missing me—yeah, definitely, because I'm not his real daughter. Or maybe he's already had his meal and locked Una in the house, because by now, he must have figured out that Una was the one stealing thing. No matter how much you try, that girl just doesn't understand that things earned through hard work are more satisfying and lasting.

Now that I've been here for two months, I'm afraid that they'll get used to living without me. There's a fear that this worry of mine might grow even more, and that thought scares me. I don't know why I'm so unlucky—one sister was killed by my own mother when she was just a child, my parents left me alone, and now I might be separated from the one uncle who adopted me. Any place I've made in his heart will fade with time if I'm not there in front of him.

Uncle will start leaving his things around again, unaware that Una will go back to stealing money from his wallet, wasting it on her friends at school, and showing off. Then she'll mess around with some new boy, kiss him, and come home with swollen lips. I never did any of that in college with anyone. In fact, I always had a certain disdain for boys.

But now, with the way I've been reading romantic books, I have so many dreams—like in a dark romance, for example, where if I wanted, I could strip down right now and enjoy getting the attention of those two men, something I denied the governor. Honestly, it was a good offer, and I know I didn't overreact because what I really want is love—just once in my life, I want love. So, I can fully open up and find peace in my heart, and always remember that I'm not that unlucky, that someone did love me, and maybe still does.

I saw the man coming back out, and as soon as the driver noticed him, he quickly opened the cap of the bottle that was in the door pocket. He cracked the door open just slightly and poured some water over the man's hands, watching as the white powder washed off. The man's face twisted slightly in pain.

The guy sitting in the passenger seat broke the silence with a somewhat shocked voice, asking, "Why did you touch it?" The man shook his head and replied, "I didn't do it on purpose. Some powder fell while I was working on a machine, so I picked it up, but the powder on top fell all over me." He chuckled a bit as he said this, and my eyes caught sight of his back, where the sweat-soaked black jacket had turned white. Given how much he was sweating, I was sure it must have been burning his skin.

Before I could think, the words "Get some more water on that" slipped out of my mouth, and my eyes were drawn to the area behind his ear, where there was a whole clump of powder. He shook it off, and his ear turned bright red.

"Get out of here; we'll handle it from here," the driver said. The guy in the passenger seat got out, pulled his bag from the back, and handed it to him. The man took the bag, glanced at me, then nodded at the others, who nodded back, and he walked away. The car started moving forward again.

"So, if we don't find the boss here, we'll have to go there?" one of them asked with a shaky voice.

"Seems like it. The governor said she has to meet him today," the other replied, nodding as he sped up the car. "Then let's go."

I looked back and saw the man walking away, his back drenched in sweat as he scratched his neck. I winced when I saw him doing that.

As time passed, we started seeing posters for the "Land of the Dark" again. Sometimes we passed through crowded markets, other times down deserted roads, but it kept repeating over and over. I kept wondering when we would finally reach our destination, and somehow, without realizing it, I fell asleep.

Suddenly, I felt someone shaking my shoulders hard. My whole body jerked awake, and my eyes shot open in an instant. Without thinking, I threw an elbow at the man's face—whoever he was—and he threw me to the ground as I screamed loudly. The man groaned so loudly that everyone could probably hear it.

The two men I had come with rushed toward the man, shouting, "Boss, are you alright?"

"Boss!?" My mind scrambled—Boss? Oh no, did I just scratch their boss's chin and draw blood? I mean, if you wait a bit, that long scratch I made might just start bleeding, and a drop could fall any second now. Thinking about what he might do to me in retaliation, I quickly dropped to my knees in front of him and bowed my head, so I wouldn't have to see the anger and revenge in his eyes.

But thinking about it, when we had arrived, couldn't those idiots have just woke me up? Was there really a need to make the boss carry me on his shoulders? I glared at them, thinking that next time, I'll kick them out the gate and into a ditch. "Take her inside, quickly." I flinched and quickly lowered my head.