Elara kept looking at the man, waiting for him to speak as she put her dagger back on her waist strap, a habit she had developed since she turned eleven and was attacked by a molester near her school.
She noticed multiple emotions pass through the man's eyes before they teared up, and she couldn't help but roll her eyes before she signaled for him to sit, which he didn't.
"Why was I the last one to know you came back, boss?" the man asked, his teary eyes becoming accusing.
Elara pressed her lips into a thin line. She already had enough drama since morning; the last thing she wanted was a yapping subordinate stalling her resting time.
"Things happened fast. I didn't get the time to inform everyone personally. I just called Xylon, and he spread the news," Elara said helplessly before she walked around the man, feeling tired after everything.
She placed her plate on the table and brought the food out from the kitchen. She was happy cooking for herself the dishes she liked after such a long time.
Elara placed some buns on her plate and was about to eat when she paused.
Right. She forgot about the second presence in her room.
She lifted her gaze and looked at the man.
"You want to join?" She asked, hoping he would say no since she didn't cook for two. And because she really wanted to eat in peace and alone after so long.
"I would be stupid to say no," The man grinned, knowing all too well how much this woman hated sharing her food with anyone.
This was payback for not informing him she was back. He nodded to himself.
Elara looked at him, annoyed, before ordering him to bring the cutlery for himself from the kitchen.
Justin didn't hesitate for a second and quickly brought out his plate, knife, and fork.
He grinned like a dork, and Elara couldn't help but find his smile contagious as she felt her lips twitching at his irritated self.
"You still didn't tell me what you are doing here. And this apartment has a door, so that you know." Elara pointed her knife towards the door, knowing all too well that this man had climbed all the way to her apartment and entered through the window.
Justin nodded.
"I am aware. It's just I didn't want to stand outside like a stranger and wait for you to open," he said.
Elara rolled her eyes and started eating the spicy pasta she had cooked.
It was delicious… uhhh… she wondered.
"You know, I never pegged you to be one, but you turned out to be quite selfish, Ma'am," he said, his expression turning solemn.
Elara's hand froze for a brief second before she continued eating, unbothered. She was well aware of what he was talking about.
"Some things are not in our hands, Justin. I made a mistake, I know. But it's not my duty alone." Elara raised her gaze to meet his.
Justin looked into her eyes intensely.
"If it were you from four years ago, you wouldn't have said that," he said.
Elara smiled at that sentence.
"My version from that time thought she was some kind of heroine. Now reality has hit her hard," she said.
Justin's fingers clenched around the fork in suppressed anger.
"I came here to ask if you were coming back to operate like you used to. But it looks like I made a mistake. You are not really back. This isn't how our leader used to be. She was righteous, always thinking of right, thinking of protecting the weaker people, the person I used to admire and respect. You are not her," Justin said before shaking his head.
He slammed his fork and spoon on the table before standing from his place.
He was about to leave just like how he arrived when Elara placed her fork down and looked up, leaning back in her seat.
"Sit the fuck down," she said, her eyes cold, almost lifeless as she looked at him, and the man, by instinct of years of working with her, sat immediately.
Justin's eyes went wide for a few seconds because he himself hadn't expected his body to surrender to that command like that. It was almost like a muscle memory that activated when her voice changed like that.
"I told you reality struck me and that things were out of my hands. When did I say that I am not returning to the business?" Elara asked before she stood from her seat and walked to her room.
When she returned, she held a stack of papers in her hand that she threw at Justin's face.
The man's eyes darkened, but he didn't dare to shout at her; he didn't dare to.
Instead, he grabbed the first paper that his hand could reach and read the details.
It was the detail of a woman who recently vanished from the alleyway near a college. He grabbed another sheet, and it was the information about a woman who was kidnapped in daylight, but no evidence was found about her kidnapping.
Paper after paper, he gathered everything and swallowed hard.
"Ma'am. No. Boss, this… were you planning to return all along?" Justin asked, his cold facade long thrown away, replaced by a cute puppy that missed its owner.
Elara rolled her eyes at his diabolical behavior before taking a deep breath.
"I really wanted to eat in peace. But you only make me want to eat after putting you to pieces," Elara said casually, and the man swallowed hard.
"But I heard Xylon has taken it upon himself to protect you himself. He has even left some dogs, I mean guards, to guard your place. I saw them disguised as normal people when I was entering," Justin said.
Elara nodded.
"And the fact that they missed you tells us how efficient they are. It looks like security is not for protecting me but for protecting others from me." She scoffed before she put another bite of the pasta in her mouth, savoring the taste.
The man copied her actions and started eating quietly, not wanting to anger her now that he knew she wasn't just back as the wife who was betrayed but as Elara Frost, the same girl whom the underground rings used to fear without even knowing her name because of how she used to operate.
He still remembered how they had met. She had come to an abandoned building to confront a mobster who had tried to molest her when she was only eleven years old.
She trained, worked hard, and learned everything about the underground world at a young age, all so she could avenge the helplessness she had gone through that day when that mobster put his hands on her chest and under her skirt.
If not for that strange man who saved her, she would've lost her dignity and probably her life, and the thought alone filled her with anger intense enough to wait for six years until she was ready to take him down alone.
At that time, Justin was just a lowly son of a farmer who had taken a loan from that man and was getting beaten up.
He remembered how Elara had arrived at the locked construction site all alone. At first, the mobster had mocked her for coming alone, but when she took out her gun, everything changed.
Not because those mobsters didn't have a gun but because her precise, practiced shots outsmarted them.
One man had acted smart and appeared behind her with a dagger, the reason she still carried that slice mark on her hand before she killed him, too.
She had opened his ropes and freed not only him but also his neighbor's daughters, whom the mobsters were taking away to sell.
That was the time when Justin decided he wanted to follow this girl and work with her. That kind of aura wasn't something that was built overnight.
At that time, he didn't even have the idea that the girl was yet to be of legal age.
That was her reason, too.
"I did it because I am not of legal age. My punishment will be low even if I get caught. Besides, they were bad people; I can always say it was self-defense. Who will speak against me? Every man who would speak in his favor is dead. And if you dared to open your mouth—" Elara didn't complete her sentence.
She didn't need to.
Even at that time, Justin knew that the mere seventeen-year-old girl was going to be his leader for the entire life.
He didn't know that she came from an influential family and already had underworld connections until he saw Xylon around her.
Everything around her was always confusing because she lived a dual life with everyone. That was why he focused on her personality only.
"We will start again, but my name will be kept hidden, like always. I have this sudden urge to take revenge for everything I went through," Elara said casually.
Justin took a sip of water anxiously when he remembered how far she went for her revenge when she was just a teenager.
"They made me write lyrics and let me steal those songs and sponsorships. They treated me like nobody; let me turn them into one. He called me insecure and jealous. Let me show him what these words really mean," Elara smirked before taking another bite of the food, the idea appealing to her.