Chapter 6 — Passionate About A Twisted Love

There were afternoons when it seemed like nothing happens, but it silently reveals a past that was thought to have been dormant. That Sunday, Thien Lam had to go out early, leaving Nha Dan alone in the large villa. Feeling sad, she decided to clean up the old suitcase she brought from the motel, rearrange her few belongings into a new wardrobe, not expecting that in that worn lining there was still a piece of memory that was enough to shake both lives.

While rummaging around, she found a small old paper box, inside were childhood mementos that her mother had carefully preserved over the years. Nha Dan sat down on the floor, looking through each item, feeling nostalgic.

There was a faded sandalwood bracelet, a small notebook filled with the trivial diary entries of adolescence, and an old photo of her with a teenager in the purple bougainvillea garden of the old villa.

Nha Dan picked up the photo, distant memories gradually flooding back into her mind.

She remembers when she was twelve years old, she often followed her father to meetings between her family and Uncle Nghi's family, her father's close friend. During those meetings, she always felt out of place among the business conversations of adults, until she met a seventeen-year-old boy, Uncle Nghi's son, whom everyone affectionately called "Kien".

Kien at that time was a skinny boy, wore thick glasses, had a quiet personality, always brought a book with him whenever he went to those boring meetings. He was not like other rich children she had met, not arrogant, not ostentatious, just quietly sitting in a corner reading a book, sometimes glancing at the little girl wandering alone in the garden with curious eyes.

"Do you like reading books?" She still clearly remembers the first time Kien talked to her, his voice was hoarse because his voice was breaking.

"I like fairy tales more." Nha Dan then replied, innocently looking at the thick book in his hand. "Your books look boring."

Kien laughed, a rare smile appearing on his always serious face. "This is a book about economics, not everyone can read it."

From then on, every time the two families met, Nha Dan went to the corner of the garden where Kien often sat, and the two children gradually became close. Kien told her about the books he read, about his dream of taking over his father's company, building it into an even bigger corporation. Nha Dan told him about her favorite fairy tales and her dream of becoming an artist when she grows up.

One time, Kien gave her this sandalwood bracelet, saying it was a gift he made himself during craft class at school. "This is a lucky charm, wearing it will always bring good things."

Nha Dan then blushed and received it, hiding the naive feelings of a teenage girl starting to have feelings for a boy five years older than her. It was the pure, innocent first love of a teenager that had not yet blossomed but had to end suddenly when the company collapsed, sweeping everything away.

After the company went bankrupt, Mr. Nghi's family and her family became sworn enemies. Nha Dan never saw Kien again, only heard the news that he and his mother had gone to settle abroad. She kept that bracelet as a sad memory of her past childhood, gradually forgetting it over the years, burying it along with many other sufferings of her family.

She still remembers one afternoon late that summer, when the adults were still engrossed in discussing business in the living room, Kien took her to the back garden, showed her a small sparrow nest on a star fruit branch, and patiently sat with her all afternoon just waiting for the mother bird to fly back to feed the baby birds. He didn't say much, but his eyes following her every time she screamed with joy were strangely gentle, a gentleness that a twelve-year-old girl at that time was not old enough to fully understand the meaning of.

That same afternoon, when it was about to rain, Kien took off his thin coat and put it on her shoulders, leading her to run across the large yard to the main house, both giggling under the first raindrops of the season. That was one of the rare beautiful memories that Nha Dan retained from the time before everything collapsed, a memory that for many years she had never told anyone, not even Viet Dang.

Nha Dan turned the photo over, on the back was neatly written in ink: "Kien and Dan, that summer." She smiled sadly, her finger lightly tracing the faded ink of that line as if afraid that touching it too hard would fade it further. I wonder where that teenager is now, or whether he still remembers the girl who shared childhood stories with him.

Little did she expect that young man was now Cao Thien Lam, the man who was holding her captive in this very villa.

She tried the sandalwood bracelet on her wrist, feeling strangely familiar even though many years had passed. At that moment, footsteps rang out in the hallway. Thien Lam had returned earlier than expected.

He entered the room, intending to inform her about the upcoming family meeting schedule, but his eyes suddenly stopped when he saw the bracelet on her wrist.

"That bracelet... where did you get it?" His voice suddenly became unusually tense, his eyes fixed on the sandalwood bracelet.

Nha Dan was surprised by his unusual reaction. "This is a souvenir from my childhood, a friend gave it to me a long time ago. What's wrong?"

Thien Lam was silent, his jaw was tight, his eyes were complicated and confusing, as if trying to suppress some intense emotion. He recognized that bracelet as a gift that the seventeen-year-old boy had made himself in the past for the girl he secretly loved at family gatherings.

But he couldn't believe it, didn't want to believe that the girl Dan from before was actually Vu Nha Dan, the daughter of the person he had hated for the past twelve years.

"Nothing." He finally spoke, trying to keep his voice calm, even though his heart was churning violently. "It's just that the bracelet looks familiar."

"Really?" Nha Dan looked at him with curious eyes, but did not suspect anything more.

Thien Lam quickly changed the subject, announced the schedule for this weekend's family meeting, then left her room immediately afterward, his steps somewhat unusually hurried.

Returning to his private office, Thien Lam sat silently in front of the desk, his trembling hands opened the secret drawer, and took out a small wooden box that he had kept for many years. Inside was an old notebook, the first page recorded the neat words of his youth, telling about the little girl Dan with big round eyes and a clear smile that he had secretly loved in the summers long ago.

He turned to the last page, where there was a small photo taken with that girl, identical to the photo that Nha Dan had just found in his souvenir box.

No way. This could just be a coincidence.

Thien Lam tightened the notebook in her hand, trying to deny the truth that was gradually revealing before her eyes. If Nha Dan is the old Dan, then it means that the girl he once had pure feelings for in his youth is now the daughter of his enemy, whom he is keeping in his own house, forcing him to live a fake life to avenge his father.

That truth was too cruel, too ironic for him to accept immediately. He put the notebook back in the wooden box, locking it tightly, as well as locking up the chaotic emotions swirling in his heart.

But no matter how hard he tried to deny it, from the moment he saw the sandalwood bracelet on Nha Dan's wrist, something in Thien Lam's heart began to crack, a small crack in the solid wall of hatred that he had built over the past twelve years, and he knew, things would no longer be the same.

Phan Dinh Long knocked on the door and entered the office carrying a few documents that needed to be signed, but as soon as he saw the owner's unusual expression, he stopped. "Are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost."

"Nothing." Thien Lam quickly put the wooden box in a drawer, locked it carefully, his face returned to its usual cold look. "Just leave that document here, I'll look at it later."

Phan Dinh Long put the stack of documents on the table, but his eyes still couldn't hide his curiosity. He has been Thien Lam's assistant for nearly ten years, since his days abroad, understanding the owner's personality better than anyone else in the group. Never before had he seen Thien Lam lose his composure like that, even in the most stressful business situations.

"Is there something related to Miss Nha Dan?" Phan Dinh Long asked, his voice cautious.

Thien Lam looked up at him, was silent for a long time before responding, his voice unusually low. "Long, do you remember when I was little I had a friend named Dan? A little girl at meetings between my family and the Vu family in the past."

Phan Dinh Long froze, trying to recall his memory. "I think I heard you mention it once, when you first came to England, when you were still sad and didn't know anyone. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just suddenly remembered." Thien Lam shook his head, signaling him to leave the room, not wanting to reveal any more clues, even to his most trusted person.

After Phan Dinh Long left, Thien Lam sat alone for a long time in the darkness of the room, the only light from the desk lamp shining on his face that was heavy with thoughts. He knew he needed to verify the truth, but at the same time he feared that truth more than anything. If Nha Dan was really the old Dan, then all the revenge plans he had carefully planned, all the arguments of hatred he had told himself over the past twelve years, would have become so shaky that they could no longer stand firm.