Owned by Him (rewrite)

38. Defeated Light

For the first time in a decade, Yerevan Group was in the red.

In the business world, the expression "in the red" is another way of saying that a company is losing money or being in debt. It means that the company has more expenses and bills than the funds to pay them. From an accounting perspective, numbers in the financial records are written in red ink to invoke a sense of urgency that signifies financial losses for the business.

Because of that, Marvel had been in a bad mood lately.

"I didn't do that! Please believe me!"

A loud shriek was heard in the entire central corridor of Yerevan's mansion. The man whose voice echoed in the old woods by the walls appeared to be slightly beaten, his clothes were crumpled and dirty. He was kneeling as being held by two guards on his left and right, gripping around his shoulders and wrists to limit his movement.

"At a time like this, obviously that's something you would say," Gilbert responded calmly to the frantic screams, standing before the suspect. "I've heard enough."

"I swear it wasn't me!" The poor man still desperately tried to defend himself as if his life was hanging by a threat. "I wouldn't dare do that! I was framed! I won't betray this family!"

John Ashford, aka James Laurier, was a fully disguised informant who worked for a secret agency. He officially became a member of Yerevan Family three years ago and since then had been trusted for multiple tasks.

From my search, I found that he had been secretly trading information with many organizations, even drug dealers, to gain personal profits. He became a double agent because he was motivated by a great reward and so he connected himself with drugs, which were prohibited by the Family.

Actually, James' drug dealings hadn't been found out. It was I who took the chance to make the aftermath appear sooner by causing major harm not only to Yerevan's finance and business, but also endangering its existence since important information such as the family's association were also leaked from the inside, making it prone to be attacked from the outside.

It was just a matter of time before Yerevan would eventually find out about James' betrayal. I just helped this family to save the efforts and led them straight to the traitor with every piece of evidence I gathered...

I knew it sounded cruel. For an agent myself, I had used someone in such a heartless way possible, even though it was mostly me who caused the damage. But, I needed a black sheep and James Laurier was just perfect to be mine.

In this survival mode, the crime of this Family was my enemy, this mansion was my battlefield, and the people here were either my pawn or my scapegoat. End of story.

But, I was not alone. There were so many people like me here who were aiming for a similar thing, just using different methods. Among us, there was no winner and loser, but those who got caught and those who survived until the end.

I have to be the one who survives and lives until the end, no matter what.

From the moment I arranged a meeting with Aakash in a hotel room, I wanted him to disguise himself as a normal businessman, but his actual role was to be a broker whom I met by chance who offered me the information I needed to find the traitor who caused this mess in exchange of having sex with me, and so we both acted as if we went to a hotel to do the dealing; that was the main idea for my plans.

Since I believed Marvel would likely watch me through his people after the poisoning incident, I couldn't meet my comrades and talk freely like before - I needed a stronger motive to be able to meet and talk with them. This time, I chose to divert Marvel's attention by making unusual trading with some stranger who happened to be a broker, since I expected someone like Marvel, above all his pride and his obsession with me, would mind the idea of me letting another man touch me. Moreover, that "another man" was just a nobody, even below average compared to him. That way, Aakash may be free from being the main target because Marvel's focus would be on me and what I did, not the stranger I played with.