Daring
"Ezra."
At the sound of her name, she abruptly turned around to see Rose standing at the end of hallway near the kitchen from where she had just come from.
"Your tutor is here for your practical lesson. She's waiting for you in the veranda." She announced before walking away, Ezra stared after her with a blank expression.
"Oh right." She huffed, abandoning her plans to escape the little kitchen situation and trade it to wallow in her room. Her room. She trudged towards the veranda, sighing as she saw the tutor set up through the large glass windows that enclosed the space. She really couldn't understand this situation. Why was Yong going out of his way to make sure she was up to date with her education? How was he even able to make these arrangments, especially with her literally studying medicine, a degree you couldn't just self-study? His power and authority scared her. The fact that he could make the Dean create a whole education plan and provide home tutoring for the practicals she was missing was crazy, unheard of infact. It had to be more than just money, the school had thousands of students paying more than thirty-thousand in fees. They were far from desperate for money. Was it intimidation? Did Yong threaten his family? Her mind went into overdrive as she tried relentlessly to figure out the puzzle behind her current predicament.
"Ezra. How are you?" Her tutor, Yuna, was in her late twenties, having recently finished her degree but was still waiting for an opening for her dream specialization, orthopedics. Ezra had already tried to find a way to use her to her advantage, perhaps send a note through Yuna to her friends or just anyone who could help but Yong was smart. Two of his armed men were with them at all times, giving her no space to say or do anything to solicitate her help. Besides, Ezra was convinced Yuna was working for Yong somehow. She was too unbothered by the presence of all the guns around them and on days when they had a lesson and it was obvious Ezra was in some kind of distress, such as after getting hit by a car, Yuna hadn't batted an eyelid in her direction.
"What do you think?" Ezra muttered nonetheless, she wasn't going to join the game everyone was playing, pretending all of this was normal because it wasn't. Yuna didn't say anything, instead handing her a stethoscope. Ezra stared at the object. It reminded her of Ian and their study sessions together. She missed him, she missed them all.
"Let's do some skills practice. Thank God you're only a second year or you'd be missing out on some serious patient contact hours." Yuna said, flicking through some pages as she spoke.
"Will I even make it third year? Will I ever get to be a student again?" Ezra asked, voice soft with emotion. Yuna paused, staring down at the page but not reading anything.
"Just do as he says and you'll be fine." Ezra wanted to ask more questions but she glanced back at one of the men who stared at her, raising his gun slightly and she knew to shut up.
***
"I need you to kill him."
Yong sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before moving the phone to his other ear as he closed his car door.
"Julian, I'm not going to kill someone just because you said so." She laughed sardonically into the phone, a sound that seemed so sweet but was filled with violence. Yong often wondered if she was the devil's incarnate or at the very least his spawn. And yet, he had still slept with her. She was a siren and he was but a man.
"Yes, you will Mason. You want to know why? Because I own you. Everything you have, everything you are today is because of me. So when I say kill, you kill. You're nothing but by my bitch darling. When I say bark, you bark. Do you understand?" His jaw was clenched, the grip on the phone so tight it was miracle it still worked. In the far distance he could see the veranda lights were still on and through the large glass windows he saw Ezra still studying with her tutor. He smiled slightly. Sure, he might be Julian's dog, but Ezra, she was his symbol of defiance, retaliation against Julian and her orders. Julian wanted her dead and here she was, alive and well. Sure, he didn't initially intend for things to turn out this way but well, shit happens.
"Yeah, loud and clear." Yong answered, before ending the phone call. He despised Julian for many reasons and one of them was the way she used his first name in such a condescending manner, knowing very well he how much hated this.
"Just got back?" His thoughts were interrupted by Noah, who smiled at him. Although they had talked it out, Yong was still weary of Noah. After all, he had gone against him once and it was clear he had some strong sense of duty when it came to Ezra. What was he doing here anyway?
"Do you need something?" Yong asked, not bothering with small talk which slightly hurt Noah.
"N-no. I was just leaving, " Yong gave him a nod before passing him by as he walked towards his front door.
"I think someones hurting her." He stopped in his tracks, turning slowly to face Noah again.
"What?"
"I think someone is hurting Ezra. She had a huge bruise on her collarbone and when I asked her about it she got all scared and flustered." Noah explained and Yong stared at the ground, deep in thought.
"Why are you so sure I didn't do that to her," Yong asked eventually and Noah scoffed, putting his hands in his pockets.
"Because you like her, you're trying to protect her."
Yong smiled callously, before walking over to him. "You're my friend, I like you and I want to protect you. And yet," He pressed his finger into Noah's stomach, somewhere where he knew there was still a healing bruise. Noah groaned slightly and Yong let go. "Look what I did to you. Don't underestimate me." He said finally before walking inside.
"Yong, if someone is hurting her you need to find out and protect her!" Noah called out after him anyway, still certain that Yong would never harm Ezra. At least not physically.
***
Ezra bit her nail as she revised the pages left for her by Yuna. The guards had thankfully left her alone but she could still see them walking the garden through the large window. A part of her had no motivation to keep studying but a larger part of her was bored out of her mind and felt like her existance currently lacked purpose, studying was the only thing she had to turn to. She suddenly had an odd and overwhelming feeling come over her, sensing that she wasn't alone in the room. "Yong." Ezra breathed, slightly tensed, when she turned around to see her captor looking at her with crossed arms.
"Yuna told me you need someone to practice on." He said, unbuttoning his shirt slightly before walking past her to sit on the table. She didn't say anything, observing him carefully before grabbing her stethoscope.
"C-could you unbutton your shirt further." She asked softly. Yong kept his gaze on her as he did as he was told, fully unbuttoning his shirt to reveal his toned chest. Ezra noticed the burn marks that littered his skin as well as the several scars that accompanied them. Good, she thought. She needed to know that he suffered, even if it was only a little like this. She pressed the stethoscope onto his chest, trying to ignore Yong's intense gaze that she could practically feel at this point.
"Everything sound good?" He asked as she removed the stethoscope.
"Unfortunately, yes." She muttered, earning a scoff. She began putting her stuff away, stopping suddenly before turning to him.
"Why won't you follow your orders?" Yong looked at her through narrowed eyes, his attention completely on her.
"What do you mean?" He questioned, his tone so serious and stern, Ezra almost wanted to back off.
"I know somebody else wants me dead. The one that you work for, whoever they are, they're the ones who actually want me dead. That's why you're keeping me here, that's why you were so angry the day I escaped and that' why.." Ezra paused, biting her lip as she debated whether or not she should continue.
"And that's why what?" Yong pushed, getting of the table and instead leaning against it with crossed arms.
"And that's why you apologised for using my past against me and forcing me to lie to my family."
Yong stared at her for a minute before an odd smile crept up onto his face. A chuckle escaped his lips which was followed by the sound of laughter. Ezra looked back at him, slightly confused. Was he losing it?
"What, so you think all of this is what? To protect you?" He asked, wiping a tear away before looking at her again, all humour leaving his face.
"You apologised, genuinely." She tried to reason lamely.
"You don't know me Ezra," Yong began taking a step towards her. "And you never will. No part of you will ever understand what is and isn't genuine about me." He stopped, in front of her, Ezra at this point backed up into the wall as she stared up into his dark eyes. She yelped when he suddenly and roughly grabbed her chin tightly, forcing her complete attention to be on him and only him.
"You're right, I am indeed disobeying orders but not to protect you. No, please don't make me laugh. You're nothing but a pawn, a pawn in my game of defiance. Your existence, the fact that you're alive right now is only to prove my strength and retaliation. It's narcisstic for you to think otherwise." Ezra blinked by tears, grabbing on to his wrist and pulling down, trying to get him to let go but he wouldn't budge.
"B-but then why?"
"Why what? Why am I going through the trouble to see you keep up with school?" She nodded slowly, wanting, no, needing to know. "Well, for a start, to keep people of your trail and two, because it's fun." He said with a wicked smile.
Fun? Ezra felt her heart shatter into bits pieces, this was all a game to him. She was an idiot for thinking otherwise. Out of sheer desperation, her brain came to its conclusions to try and justify why she was here and suffering the way she was, a coping mechanism she supposed. She felt so stupid.
"It was fun to see me hope, to watch me cling on to the idea of getting back back home. Right?"
"Spot on." Yong responded cruelly.
"You can't do this!" Ezra yelled angrily, using all her force to push him backwards. He stumbled backwards a bit, but that's about all it did. Yong looked at her darkly and before she knew it, her back was slammed harshly against the wall as Yong held an arm against her chest, preventing her from moving.
"I can't do this?" He questioned, "Did you not a hear what I just said? You're not alive out of the goodness of my heart or out of mery or pity. You're only alive because I need you to be. Once that necessity disappears, so do you." He yelled angrily, Ezra trembled, frozen in her stance. "In fact, I could take you right here, right now. I could take this," He grabbed his gun and pressed into her abdomen, "And shoot you right now just to prove my point. But I won't." He let go of her and stood up straight. "You're simply not worth it." He answered finally before walking out the room.
Ezra slid down the wall on the floor before bringing her knees into her chest, a sob escaping her lips before she found herself crying on to her lap.
Foolish girl.
A/N: Another chapter, finally haha. Just been struggling with motivation in regards to this book. So votes and comments will help :) LMK what you think of the story so far!!!