Chapter 19 : Running Away

Fiona didn't need to worry about the dinner she didn't attend. She could tell Yulia, who was always at the door of the room, along with the two new bodyguards that Leonard had just added, to order her to get dinner. But now wasn't the right time to swallow anything other than an answer.

Sitting in front of her new laptop—Fiona focused on searching for Marionette's name on the internet.

There are several articles written by Indonesian and foreign journalists. There are even articles from Hong Kong too. Fiona read the top page of the article which showed the hot title "The richest person in Indonesia—Marionette Schev, was invited to the White House with the President for a 'Dinner and Meeting of Old Friends'.

Old friend?

In a few moments, Fiona drowned with the article. There it is explained that Marionette Schev is the owner of the number one cigarette company in the world. He beat Philip Muller's cigarette company from abroad and was able to compete with the 'unique taste' and new Indonesian processing of his cigarettes. The company is called Terin.

It is said in the article that Indonesia's finances have improved rapidly over the past ten years because of Terin. A static explanation of state finances and how Terin contributed to this financial increase made the state 'secretly' maintain good relations with Terin's company, especially with Marionette, the company owner.

Fiona tried to absorb the meaning of the article while looking at the photos there. The closeness shown by President Anwar to Marionette—a man with a European face but narrow eyes, seemed close. Fiona wonders if they are actually best friends. At a glance, she remembered Cornelius' words this afternoon.

“Marionette is a well-known pawn as well as a dark mafia who is under direct government protection. He is… one of the men we have been closely associated with up until now.”

“Marionette always wanted what I had. He took all my happiness. And he's a dangerous man. You've met him and accidentally got tagged by him. You're right, I don't know if Kian has such a plan, but we're just taking precautions to keep you safe."

Fiona's thoughts stopped at the 'meeting' that Cornelius mentioned.

Suddenly blood swished coldly around the nape of her neck.

Has Fiona ever met him? Where?

Immediately, Fiona looked closely at the photo of Marionette on the article page. That's where she found her memory again. Almost buried and lost in her brain.

That man…

Cornelius was right.

She had met him at a bar when Fiona first came to Jakarta. The first day when she was looking for a location to get drunk and a small bar near her residential block became her favorite place straight away. Only, at that time, she found a man looking at her from the other end of the room with a cigar between his fingers. The man looked at her as if he couldn't let go.

The man with narrow eyes and a square face like in the picture.

For some reason, Fiona's heart was pounding. Accompanied by a flash of when she went to the market and met a group of thugs who asked for 'rations' from the restaurant where she was having lunch.

Is it… really that bad?

So what was meant by 'marked' when Fiona accidentally met Marionette at the bar?

Before Fiona had time to think about that, someone knocked on the bedroom door. Fiona turned and saw Yulia coming in with a trolley containing dinner. She looked at the clock on the laptop screen. It's nine o'clock in the evening.

“Good evening, Miss. It's too late, and you haven't touched dinner for two hours. Not that I want to be presumptuous, but, it would be nice if you eat first and then be free to go back to doing whatever you want to do."

Fiona snorted and spun around. She had taken off her beautiful dress and only left the makeup on her face. She only wore an oversized white knee-length nightgown and covered her exposed shoulders with a thin cloth. No nightgown covered her neck and shoulders, all her tops were open and only supported by shoulder straps.

When she left the laptop, her thoughts wandered to home, Tasya, and Kian. She lamented over the trolley for a moment then nodded at Yulia. The woman smiled and happily took the containing plate of mashed potato, with sliced ​​tenderloin covered in sweet sauce and soy sauce, plus a few slices of tomato and vegetables on the side.

"Please, Miss..." Yulia put her dinner into the sitting area next to the room.

"Leonard's bodyguards are still watching outside?"

Yulia nodded slightly. “That's right, Miss. What is it?"

"Where is Giovani's room?" Fiona asked as she sat down and tasted her dinner. The European touch of the food made her suddenly miss Paris.

"It's in the left wing, in the guest room, Miss Fiona," answered Yulia.

While enjoying dinner, Fiona said, "I'll take you there later. I want to talk to her."

Worry began to fill Yulia's face. "Ehm, but, Mr. Leonard said, you can't have any more contact with Giovani..."

Fiona didn't answer, just glanced coldly at her servant. Yulia sighed to herself. “Miss Fiona, it's not that I'm being presumptuous. But Giovani was the strongest candidate that Mrs. Noura had. I don't know what made her like Giovani so much, but Mr. Leonard doesn't like Giovani."

"You talk a lot, do you know anything about Giovani and Leonard's relationship?" Fiona replied curtly.

Yulia immediately paled. “I’m—it's not like that. I've only heard of it from a few of my friends. And when I proved it myself, Giovani was not the person we wanted to be Mr. Leonard's life partner."

Life partner. Fiona scoffed in disgust. Who would want to be that pervert's life partner besides Giovani? Fiona thought while chewing.

"Why Giovani? What did she ever do to make you say that?"

Yulia froze. Her mouth immediately fell silent as if she didn't want to speak. Fiona sighed tiredly.

"Did you realize from the start that I never wanted to be here? Leonard forced me to become his wife without questioning my consent. Just because I'm an orphan, he can put me under his control as he pleases."

Immediately Yulia looked down. She said weakly, “You clearly know that everyone is protecting you. If you were not truly loved by Mr. Leonard, perhaps you would only be lucky to be maids like us.”

Fiona was stunned and stared at Yulia for a while. She stopped chewing and said, "What do you mean? You... have you ever been tagged by Marionette too?" The more Fiona said that name, for some reason Fiona's heart became more restless. It was as if there was something odd that was difficult for her to correct.

At first, Yulia didn't seem to want to answer, but then the maid considered it and slowly said, "That's right, Miss. All of us—maids, bodyguards, in this house were just strangers rescued by Mr. Harrington from Marionette. We were all office employees who worked at the construction company owned by Mr. Harrington, Cornelius. However, because Marionette still often terrorizes Mr. Harrington, and influences several of the office workers' families and relatives, Mr. Harrington is forced to keep us safe here.”

Unconsciously, Fiona furrowed her brows. “What did… Marionette do to you?”

From Yulia's expression, for some reason, Fiona preferred not to hear it.

***