FOUR YEARS LATER...

-

"Mr. Mark, congratulations on this another great achievement!"

A man in a white suit approached Mark and congratulated him in a cheerful tone. His brown eyes sparkled as he admired the decorations of the grand hall where the celebration was taking place.

"Thank you, Mr. Bazaz. I hope you are enjoying the party." Mark replied politely as he shook the hand of the older man.

"A party organized by the Alessandro Empire. How can someone not enjoy it? Attending Alessandro's party is like living a fairytale." Another young man in a dark green suit said as he approached their group. This person was none other than the Young Master Crist.

"Ever since Star Entertainment joined hands with the mysterious and famous AIL-Labels, the movies, and dramas produced by your company have continuously topped the box office. Not only you gave us back-to-back hits, but you also have five very popular and high-rated stars working under your company. Mr. Mark, you should share the secret behind this grand success with us poor guys."

The young master of the Han family commented and they all burst out into a fit of laughter.

It was indeed true. Mark started his carrier in the entertainment industry only three and a half years ago but within the last twenty months, his company succeeded in climbing to the top - and half of the credits for his success went to the AIL Labels.

As for the mysterious AIL Labels, the first time anyone heard this name was almost around four years ago.

The weirdest thing about AIL Labels was that they did not work only in one certain field. Though they started with just an online platform for web stories and comics, it took them only a year to broaden their scope and include other businesses under their label.

Currently, they had an online writing website, an art gallery located in the central city, a sculpture house, an anime website, a gaming website, and even a lifestyle website working under their label. And coincidentally, the company was achieving success in all the areas in which it had invested.

It was the first time when people had seen a small emerging company trying to open so many businesses from the very beginning and succeeding in all of them.

The people were curious to know who was behind AIL Labels. But no matter how hard they tried, no one succeeded in finding the answer.

Not many people thought about collaborating with the mysterious company as they were not sure about what kind of future it held. Just because it was doing good currently, it did not mean its boat would have kept sailing smoothly.

Not only that but the mysteries surrounding the AIL-Labels also put many questions and insecurity in people's minds.

But then Mark Alessandro decided to sign a deal with the mysterious AIL-Labels and ended up taking both Star Entertainment and AIL-Labels to new impressive heights.

After this successful partnership between Star Entertainment and AIL-Labels, people finally started realizing that they were missing out on great opportunities just because of their insecurities about the latter.

It was the grand night of celebration as Star Entertainment had successfully produced another hit movie with the help of AIL-Labels and so many people had appeared at the success party - only for one sole reason.

***

"I seriously can't believe this." Erica once again muttered as she entered her office with Marine and another beautiful lady in a white suit following her.

"Come on, Erica. Don't be like this. You two should start practicing from right now. After all, it won't be easy for you two to call me boss from now on." Emily teased her friends as she took a seat on one of the sofas that were placed on the other end of Erica's office.

Erica took a sip of her hot chocolate before she turned her attention towards the beautiful young girl sitting in front of her.

She was 5'5" in height with an hourglass figure. Her waist-length silky brown hair and emerald-colored eyes only intensified her beauty to another level. She was barely wearing any makeup, just mascara, and a baby pink lipstick.

It was no doubt that the twenty-two-year-old Emilia Alessandro was even more beautiful than before.

But the most beautiful thing about her was her positive attitude towards life. Her warm and humble behavior. She was not judgemental, she was not cold-hearted, and most importantly, she was not fake.

Her inner self and true personality were even more beautiful and alluring than her outer appearance.

"You have changed." Erica could not help herself from commenting as she took another small sip of her hot chocolate.

"But you have changed for good. I like that seventeen-year-old Emily...but now I admire the twenty-two-year-old Emilia Alessandro."

She finished her words with a genuine smile on her face that matched the emotions that she was carrying in her eyes.

Marine also nodded her head as she agreed with every single word that her boss had just spoken for her new head boss.

Emily smiled softly as she looked at the two Vampire ladies present on the other side of the office.

"Thank you!"

That was all she said but even these two words sounded as genuine as they should.

"Alright! So, our new boss, what's your next destination?" Erica asked as she clapped her hands softly before taking another sip of her hot chocolate.

Emily stood up from her seat as she started walking towards the door while replying, "Thanks for reminding. I have a party to attend."

"Do you want me to drop you at the venue?" Erica asked and her question made the girl halt in her tracks.

Emily turned around to give a soft smile to Erica as she spoke, "No thanks, dear. I can teleport there."

***

[Flashback]

Four years ago...

-

"Where is she?" Shane asked as soon as he and Rylan entered the apartment. Both the boys looked a lot better than what they were looking just a few hours ago.

Their injuries had already healed and since both of them had taken a quick shower before heading towards Kaiden's apartment near the Academy, they were looking as normal as their usual self. No one could even guess that they just fought against a group of rogues around two hours ago.

"She's taking a shower. I'm going to prepare dinner. You two wait here for her." Kaiden replied as he closed the door and locked it before disappearing into the kitchen.

There was silence for the next few seconds before Shane turned to look towards the second floor as he eyed the closed door of the

guest room. A sigh left his lips as he took a seat beside Rylan on the sofa.

"I can't believe that this is happening to her. She doesn't deserve all this." He muttered as he shook his head while he recalled what they all saw during the fight.

"I'm just as surprised as you and the others. The moment that dark energy jumped out of her and tried to attack Mark, I was left completely shocked."

Rylan added as he too looked deep in his thoughts.

They could still picture that seen exactly how it transpired. Emily was holding Mark in her arms as she kept crying but she did not even realize that a black fog was coming out of her body and went straight towards Mark's injured chest.

If Shadow and Kaiden had not moved at the right time to push the evil energy away from Mark, no one knew what would have happened.

"I have only heard about such things in the history books of our kind. But I never thought that one day I'll see it happening in front of my eyes. Exactly how dark is her past? Dark enough to create an evil aura inside her? That black energy is so evil, Ry. It did not even recognize Mark as it tried to attack him!" Shane was almost on the point of losing his calm.

He could feel his heart beating so fast as it hurt for his best friend. He cared for Emily because she was just as dear to him as Rylan, and finding out that she had been through a lot and was still going through so many problems, he felt like he was failing as a friend.

"We should never leave her alone.......We will not leave her alone! We will help her in fighting that darkness. She's our friend and it's our responsibility to protect her and help her." Rylan suddenly spoke in a calm tone. His words were like an oath that he was making with himself and without wasting a single second, Shane too nodded his head.

But the question was how they were going to help their friend fight against the evil about which she had no idea. She did not even know that the darkness of her past had become so strong inside her, that it had taken the form of evil.

What they did not know was that Emily was standing right next to the wall that separated the stairs and the living room.

She finally knew why she was dangerous for her brother.