“Who are you really, Dimas?”
With slightly trembling hands, Nara immediately decided to remove the photo from its frame. She folded it in half and slipped it into her pants pocket.
“I should ask Dimas about this later,” she decided, quickly wiping away the tear that had fallen.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Nara, Dimas was caught in a rather tense situation with a woman in his office. The woman was demanding all sorts of things from the owner of the production company, refusing to accept the company’s unilateral decision to temporarily suspend her moments earlier.
“But why did you suddenly make this decision, sir? I’ve been seriously wronged here!”
“I’m sorry, Bella. As stated in the original contract, this company has never favored artists involved in legal cases. This is only temporary, until your cases are resolved. Besides, your career here is still very new, so there’s nothing else we can reconsider,” Dimas said firmly, leaving no room for argument.
Bella snorted angrily and folded her arms. She hated Nara even more now. Thanks to that woman’s confession, her career had been destroyed in an instant.
“All right. If there’s nothing else to discuss, you can leave this room,” Dimas said, gesturing toward the door.
“Wait! I can’t accept this decision, sir!” Bella snapped, still refusing to budge. “I’m the victim in this case! I didn’t know anything about my husband’s relationship with his ex-wife, sir! I’m still in shock over all of this,” the fair-skinned woman admitted, pretending to wipe away her tears.
Bella began putting on an act in front of Dimas, as though he had no idea what had really happened. Dimas let her continue because he wanted to see just how cleverly his new artist could twist the truth.
“Really?” asked the man who owned one of the most famous production companies in the city. Dimas took the phone from his pocket and showed Bella a video. “Then what do you have to say about this?”
Bella was stunned when she saw a recording of her argument with Nara from earlier. The video had captured everything in full, including her confession that she had known all along that Nara and Evan had once been married. She had never expected this, and now she could only stammer as she tried to deny it in front of Dimas.
“Well, Bella? Can you still deny this video evidence?” Dimas asked with a faint, mocking grin.
Her face burning with humiliation, Bella finally rose from her seat. Unable to argue any further, she hurried out of Dimas’s office and slammed the door shut so hard that the sound echoed painfully through the room.
“You thought you could lie to me, Bella?” Dimas thought with a victorious smile.
Remembering that Nara was still in his secret room, Dimas went to her. He opened the door slowly and furrowed his brow slightly when he saw the unusual look in Nara’s eyes.
“Who are you really, Dimas?” The question suddenly slipped from Nara’s lips as she stared unblinkingly at him.
The question had actually been on Nara’s mind for a long time, but she had only just found the courage to ask Dimas directly. Especially after seeing a photo of herself with an old friend whose whereabouts she had not heard about in a very long time.
“I think you must have hit your head when you fell earlier.” Dimas spoke as he lifted the woman again and seated her on a large sofa in the room.
“That’s not what I mean, Dimas! I mean this photo! How do you have a picture of me with one of my close friends? Have you known me all this time?” Nara pressed, showing Dimas the photo she had found.
For a moment, the man fell silent as he took the photo from Nara’s hand. Dimas studied it for a long time, then handed it back to Nara while quickly wiping the corner of one eye. For some reason, the atmosphere suddenly turned somber, though Nara had no idea what his tears meant.
“Your friend was my biological younger sister. She died.”
“What? She died?”
All strength left Nara. Her tears began to fall at once. Her sobs grew louder as Dimas nodded. Chintya had been Nara’s only close friend before she met and married Evan. She had met the woman because Chintya had researched her college assignment for months in the village where Nara lived. Then, one day, all news of her disappeared after her phone could no longer be reached.
“She was one of Evan’s exes, and…” Dimas suddenly choked up and could not continue. His eyes were no longer shedding tears, but Nara could see the immense devastation in them.
“And that’s why you hate Evan so much and wanted to form a revenge partnership with me to destroy him? Evan lied to and discarded Chintya too, just like he did to me?” Nara guessed, making Dimas nod a second time.
“It wasn’t only because of that, Nara. Evan was also the main reason Chintya died. He took my sister’s virginity, leaving Chintya so distraught that she chose to end her own life.”
Nara’s chest ached. She was utterly shocked to learn that her close friend had actually been Dimas’s biological younger sister. She had never imagined Evan could be so cruel and heartless toward Chintya. Now her hatred for her former husband surged beyond control.
“Let me avenge everything Evan did to Chintya, Dimas! I’ll never allow that man to live peacefully on this earth!” Nara declared, immediately rising from her seat and walking toward the exit, slightly limping.
Seeing this, Dimas quickly rose from where he had been sitting. He tried to stop Nara, who was charging ahead with fierce determination. Finally, he managed to grab one of her wrists, making Nara turn toward him.
“Where are you going, Nara? What are you planning to do?”