Mentari in the Night Sky

The Past: Punishment

I went in and out of the room three times to see if Arthur had returned to his room or not and for the third time I still found Arthur's room completely dark. It's 9pm and it's 5 hours after Arthur got into my dad's study.

I don't know what happened to Arthur and what Arthur is doing right now, which I know is not in good shape. I've also been trying to get back into my dad's office but William has always been in my way. What William did made me think that if I forcefully broke into my father's study, there would be more punishment that Arthur could get. And William also told me that 2 hours ago Arthur wasn't in my office.

I slowly closed Arthur's door and headed back to my room. I went back to check my phone and still there was no reply from my mother. I complained about everything that happened to Mom, hoping that I could help Arthur out of the punishment that I was going to give him. Looks like mom is busy enough to take care of grandma to not open her cell phone. I breathed heavily and threw my phone on the bed and threw my body on the bed. I sunk my head into the big teddy bear and shouted, I hope this doll can cover the sound of my desperate cries.

Tok..

I got up from where I was lying when I heard the knocking on the door. I walked up to the door and opened it. William was at the door with two glasses of warm milk. He gave me one of the glasses that I took.

"Come with me" said Arthur, thrusting his hand, asking me to hold his hand tightly. I welcomed her hand and let my footsteps follow her every step.

William took me into the elevator. William pressed the number 4 and made the elevator move straight towards the 4th floor. Our house consists of 5 floors with floors 1 and 2 as the place we use most often. The 3rd floor contains a large room where the father meets with his business partners when the father is lazy to go to the office and there is also a storage room for food and drinks, and there is also a room for food and drinks, like a small supermarket, and a small restaurant where the service or guards eat. Arthur and I also often tried food in the small restaurant in my house until we stopped because we were lazy and tired of having to go to the 3rd floor.

The 4th floor contains fitness facilities, both fitness facilities, swimming pools, bilyards, and special places to train a match. On the 5th floor itself only contains rooms where when there are sick members and need to be hospitalized will be immediately taken to the 5th floor, because of that, my brothers and I rarely go to the hospital because at home we have provided a small clinic for us with good facilities. Our house also has a basement that contains the collection cars of father and William.

Ting.

The elevator door opened, William pulled my body to follow him once more. Now I know what happened to Arthur. At the moment he is definitely training to compete with his coach so that he does not have any energy. I started sweeping the practice room trying to find Arthur. I only found the bodyguards who seemed to have also just finished doing battle training. The guards also immediately greeted us while sweat was still pouring out. I hate social status like this.

"Uncle Stephan seems to have finished his match practice with all the bodyguards."

"What does Brother mean?" many surprised.

"Uncle must fight half the bodyguards in this house as punishment for covering up your meeting with Natasha and must fight the other half if Uncle still wants to escort you. So, the whole bodyguard that Uncle has to fight?" william replied with a small, offended smile on his lips.

I don't know why he had to give a small smile when he said that, making him look like he enjoyed the punishment given to uncle.

"I smiled because I knew I would get the same punishment if I made a mistake" William continued as he had just heard my thoughts.

As I was about to walk up to Uncle Stephan, William pulled my hand and his eyes pointed at a room. Me and some of the bodyguards followed William's line of sight. Black room is a room where two people will compete and one of the people must be seriously injured until finally the match can be stopped.

Uncle Stephan and the other bodyguards always avoid the black room because the consequences will be very large even though the rewards received will also be large. In the black room the bodyguards can go up 3 levels if they can defeat opponents who are 1 level above it. Only Uncle Stephan had ever walked into the black room when he first worked for the Allison Family, back then Uncle wanted to escort me and ended up challenging the bodyguard who was then assigned to escort me. After that, no one ever dared to challenge and enter the black room. And now Arthur is in that room.

I swept back this room, looking for bodyguards who might not be in this room and inside the black room. However, hearing William's remark that Uncle Stephan had to defeat all the bodyguards in this house, it was definitely not an ordinary bodyguard who was practicing a match with Arthur. I swept the room a third time to find William staring at me bitterly.

"He's practicing sparring with dad."

No. gabe. Not likely.

"They!!" william shouted as soon as I walked towards the black room.

"Arthur asked for it."

"How is that possible?" many fear.

"Dad punished Arthur by making him stay away from you for 1 month. Arthur didn't want such punishment and preferred black room."

"Why? Why?!"

"Ask that to Arthur. For now, don't do anything."

Father indeed will not be possible to make Arthur seriously injured but father mastered various types of martial arts. Even the rumors that circulated said if the father ever beat Uncle Stephan in the black room and that's why the uncle never again wanted to enter the black room. Even though they were rumors, neither father nor uncle informed us the truth, as if to make us believe what we really believe.

"Zeta, Arthur has always been my shadow. He was always known as the 'second child', no one tried to call his name. He was never angry or upset about it but that moment when he couldn't be with you that's when he would let out his emotions. The emotion that the lever is in your hand. When he was with you, he was happy because he was known as a good brother. He's no problem being known as 'the second brother of Zeta', he's happy to be known as your brother."

"Stay still..."

"Grandfather Phillip wants to leave the company to Arthur," William cut.

"What does Brother mean?"

"For 10 years the grandfather's company was controlled by Aunt Anne, there was never an official announcement that Aunt Anne and her children would inherit the company. Aunt Anne also never demanded anything and demanded that all corporate responsibilities be quickly released from her. There is no ambition and competition in the mother's family. I knew sooner or later Grandpa would definitely ask Arthur to be the heir to the company but I didn't expect it to be this fast. When people only think of Arthur as my backup, that's when grandfather tried to make Arthur an heir. Grandfather bought many shares of the company on behalf of Arthur and made Arthur the largest shareholder.”

"...."

"Compared to being a shadow of myself, I prefer Arthur standing on his own feet and being known as 'Arthur'. But, I think Arthur would rather be a shadow of me because only then can he continue with you."

"Are you asking me to make Brother Arthur stop being with me?"

"No, whatever you say and do won't affect Arthur. Only he himself can change his choice."

"..."

"What I want to say is that Arthur can throw away all the shares that are in his hands just to be with you. He does not care about wealth or power in his hands. He only cares about you, Zeta. You are a double-edged sword for Arthur and also for me."

"Zeta," I said to a halt as soon as William began to gently wipe my hair.

"Ken or Alvin, Brother please don't rush into making a decision because the decision you made will again affect the Allison Family."

I never thought that the love of my High School days that I thought would be full of all sorts of colors and flavors turned out to be a love that could bring happiness and misery simultaneously. I never knew the High School days that I thought would be filled with good memories turned into High School days that I wanted to go through quickly without the need for any memories. I never knew that my life had been at the center of my two sisters' lives. Even when I thought my sisters were looking for love in their high school days, I was wrong, they never looked for their love but they protected the love I built.

Am I being so selfish because I just realized it now after everything that's happened?

The sound of the door slamming sounded quite loud, making me and William instantly look into the black room. Dad was tidying up his messy taekwondo clothes. From this 3-meter distance, I could see there were some red stains on my father's shirt. I don't think that red stain belongs to my father but to Arthur. My face also showed no injuries. His face was the same as when I met him this afternoon. Father called some doctors who had been standing guard in front of the room.

William's still holding me back, asking me not to go into the room where Arthur was. Just as some of the bodyguards were trying to carry Arthur's body, my father discovered the whereabouts of me and William, making him ask the guards to lower back the stretcher containing Arthur on it. Dad gestured to William, a gesture I knew he meant.

"I'm sorry" William said, closing my eyes with his big hands, leaving me unable to see anything.

"I'm sorry for the selfish Zeta" I said in tears.

William lowered his hand and briefly looked me in the eye before he finally stood on his knee and hugged me. Makes me who is still sitting leaning on the chest of his field. William tightened his arms, making me able to smell his scent. The aroma that has accompanied me since I was born into this world.

"Loving others is a gift from God but loving family is God's most beautiful obligation, right?"

I'm nodding.

...-----...