chapter 1

At night, in a car that was speeding along the highway in the town of Wisbergh.

 

"I have to pick that woman up soon, otherwise..." The man's sentence was cut short when he realized something was wrong with the brakes.

 

"Akhhh!" The man shouted as a car suddenly hit his car from the side.

 

The man's car swerved and stopped after hitting the parapet hard.

 

"The car is dented," said one of the drivers who stopped his car due to the incident.

 

Everyone was excited, but no one dared to approach. After a while, a man was seen coming out of the car on all fours.

 

People who saw the incident immediately helped him get away from the location of the car that had been badly damaged. And a few seconds later...

 

BAMMM! The car exploded. A huge blaze was created that made everyone in the place hysterical.

 

But unlike the others, the man who had just survived death now let out a long breath and then said, "I'm still alive."

Yes, that was the only word that came out of the man's mouth before he finally lost consciousness.

 

**

 

        Two months passed. The man who had gotten into the accident had just finished undergoing therapy for the last time because one of his legs was broken in the incident.

 

"Kenric Osbert!" called a woman from the other direction.

 

The 25-year-old man turned around and replied, "Yes, I'm here."

 

Kenric walked casually toward the woman who was standing on one side of the room.

 

"Your name is Kenric?" asked the woman who worked as a nurse while looking at Kenric from head to toe.

 

Kenric smiled. "Yes, I'm Kenric. Why, is there a problem?"

 

"Sorry, I'm new. I was just surprised by your face, I thought I had seen you somewhere," the nurse replied with an awkward smile on her face.

 

"Maybe my face is marketable, so many people look like me," Kenric said calmly.

 

The nurse immediately blushed as she was treated warmly by a handsome, well-built man who she thought resembled a male underwear model in one of the famous magazine brands she had seen. "Of course not. Your face is so impressive, maybe I'm remembering wrong."

 

"Okay, so what did you call me, Nurse Amanda?" Kenric asked as he read the name on the nurse's uniform.

 

"Ah," the nurse said, flinching slightly when Kenric called her name.

 

"Why are you surprised? It has your name on it," Kenric said in response to the expression on the woman's face.

 

The nurse named Amanda immediately looked at what Gilsa was talking about. "Uh yes, sorry, I forgot. Hehehe." The nurse laughed awkwardly.

 

"Yes, so what is it?" asked Kenric again.

 

"I came here to deliver the doctor's message that you can go home today," said the nurse. "But for more details, you can see Dr. Arnold."

 

Kenric let out a long breath. "I'm already comfortable in this place," he joked.

 

"Ha?" The nurse was surprised.

 

"Yes, this place is very comfortable," Kenric said, clarifying his previous words.

 

 "Why do you want to stay in the hospital for so long?" The nurse frowned.

 

"That's a day or two, I've been here for two months. If not because it's comfortable, then what else?" Kenric joked, followed by laughter.

 

"Ah, you could say that," the nurse replied with a laugh.

 

After that, Kenric left the room to complete everything needed to get out of this place that had confined him for two months. He knew he could have gone home a month ago, but he stayed there as his father wanted.

 

After ten minutes of walking, Kenric finally arrived at Dr. Arnold's room—the doctor who specialized in treating and overseeing Kenric's progress at the hospital.

 

"Come in!" said Doctor Arnold after Kenric knocked on the door.

 

Kenric immediately opened the door and entered the room like a normal patient, even though the hospital was his family's hospital.

 

"Good afternoon, young mas—" Arnold's sentence was interrupted when Kenric signaled Arnold not to continue his call.

 

"Good afternoon too," Kenric replied in a friendly manner as he sat down on the patient's chair across from Arnold.

 

"How was it?" he asked, looking directly into the face of the doctor sent by his grandfather.

 

"You're very good, later (blah-blah-blah) ...." Arnold explained that Kenric was fine.

 

"Not that, how is the police investigation going? Have they found the person who hit me?" he asked.

 

"He died hanging himself in his house," replied Doctor Arnold, who then let out a long sigh.

 

"So they haven't found him yet, huh?" asked Kenric again.

 

"Huh?"

 

Kenric flashed a sardonic smile on his face. "I'm just unemployed, but I'm no fool. It's obvious that this accident was orchestrated by someone, isn't it?"

 

Arnold bowed his head.

 

"No problem, you can look into it slowly. I won't be leaving this world so soon after all," Kenric joked as he leaned back in his chair and cast his gaze at the ceiling of the room.

"I guess," he muttered later.

 

"You should be more careful, young master. Right now, Grand Master Dipo has arranged for more people in your house to watch and protect you there," Arnold said.

 

"This must all be because the elders are urging me to join the company, right?" Kenric guessed.

 

"That's-" Arnold's sentence was cut short when someone suddenly opened the door to the room.

 

"Ken," called the woman who had just entered the room.

 

"Auntie," Kenric replied while adjusting his sitting position.

 

"Honey, I'm sorry," said the woman as she sat on the chair right next to Kenric. "I've been busy this month, so I didn't have time to visit you," she said as she placed the branded bag in her hand on the table.

 

'What kind of drama is she going to do? I'll follow the plot that this woman designed first,' Kenric thought as he smiled falsely at the woman who was his stepmother.

 

"Calm down, I'm fine," Kenric replied casually without showing his true feelings.

 

"But I want to prove to you that even though I am only a stepmother, I love you very much," said the woman, still sobbing.

 

"Okay, I won't blame you," Kenric said quickly, pretending that he couldn't bear to see the middle-aged woman in front of him sad.

 

"Really?" the woman asked in confirmation.

 

"Of course."

 

"Alright then, you can go home with the car in front. Mama will take care of some things at the hospital first. Let's meet at home, is that okay?" Mrs. Reya asked with a sad look, pretending to feel guilty.

 

"Sure, it's okay," Kenric replied, leaving his stepmother because he couldn't stand the drama.

 

          Fifteen minutes passed. After changing his clothes and walking down the hospital hallways leisurely, Kenric finally arrived at the hospital yard. Kenric waited for a while until his family's car approached him.

 

"Let's go home," Kenric said while patting the shoulder of the person on the driver's side after he entered the car.

 

"Wait a moment, young master," the driver replied.

 

Kenric furrowed his brow when he heard the driver's reply. "What's wrong?"

 

A moment later, two men entered the car. They sat on Kenric's left and right.

 

"What is this, you—" Kenric's sentence was cut short when one of the two men paralyzed Kenric with an electric baton.

 

Kenric, who felt weak, was now helplessly silent. However, he could faintly hear the person beside him calling someone.

 

Already, ma'am, we've brought the person," said one of the people sitting next to Kenric.

 

"Well then, finish him off outside the city. Don't let the old man know, find his trail." A woman's voice was heard from inside the call.

 

'Damn!' Kenric cursed inwardly. Kenric knew very well who the woman called Mrs. by the person next to him was.

 

         After several hours of driving, the car finally stopped on the side of a lonely mountain road that went uphill.

 

"Take her out, quickly!" Kenric's family driver ordered.

 

Finally, the two people sitting in the back immediately carried Kenric's body out of the car as instructed.

 

Meanwhile, Kenric, whose strength had been sufficiently accumulated due to resting for several hours, finally tried to fight back with all the strength he had. However, of course, his current strengths cannot be compared to those of those two people. Up to ....

 

BAM! A hard punch hit Kenric's head, knocking him down.

 

"You idiot! You're dead!" One of the men cursed as he threw away the rock he had used to hit Kenric's head.

 

Then another person quickly grabbed Kenric's hair and made Kenric's face look up at him. "Listen, if you're going to be a ghost, then find your stepmother, not us. Got it!" The man shouted and released Kenric's bloodied head and face.

 

"Throw it quickly, make sure he dies!" ordered the driver, who was still in the car.

 

Kenric could still hear what the men were saying, but at the moment he had no strength to fight back.

 

The men immediately dragged Kenric's body to the side of the uphill road. However, suddenly a car headlight shone on them from a distance. This made the men sent by Mrs. Reya, Kenric's stepmother, roll Kenric's body carelessly.

 

Kenric, who was still semi-conscious, did roll for a while, but he quickly grasped the roots of a large tree on the side of the road to try to survive because there was a steep cliff below.

 

"Am I going to die?" thought Kenric as he looked up at his face. The drizzle was now wetting his face, washing away the blood that had covered part of his face and allowing him to clearly see the dark sky far above his head.

However, on the other hand, the drizzle also made the roots of the tree where he was holding on start to get slippery, making him have to hold on extra to survive for who knows how long.

 

A moment later, there was the sound of a car engine leaving the place, but in the next second there was also the sound of another car stopping there.

 

"He's still alive!"

 

A man's shout that Kenric had never heard before made Kenric excited again. He tightened his grip. "Help!" Kenric shouted as loudly as he could.  

 

"You're crazy, it's a ravine! And it looks like he's the victim of a robbery, if he doesn't survive, we'll be the suspects," said one of the people on the road.

 

"Help me!" Kenric tried again to ask for help.

 

Srrrk! Kenric's hand began to lose its strength.

"Ishh!" he hissed as his grip slipped a few inches and cut his fingers.  

 

"Akh," sighed Kenric, who felt his vision returning to obscurity.

 

'Am I going to end up here?' thought Kenric, whose eyes were starting to feel too heavy to keep open.