“Alright. I understand everything you are saying. But why would Knox go after you? There is no logic behind that. I assumed he felt betrayed when he realized you moved ahead in life while he was serving his sentence for a murder he committed earlier in his life. That wasn’t in your hand. I mean, it was his crime, and the law gave him a suitable punishment, I believe. At present, he is dating your older sister, or more like he is using her to get revenge on you.” I sighed. “My question here is, what revenge? You didn’t do anything wrong with him, right? Then why was he after your life like a mad dog?” I sat on the near couch while Lauren was still standing in the bathroom doorway with her hands together, just like a criminal.“I did play the foul game that night,” she whispered.“How?” I asked. “I don’t see any foul play in your tale.”“Do you know why Knox went to prison?”“Yes, for a murder that he committed.”“Whose murder? Who was that man? Do you know that man?”“No.” I shook my h
I was sitting in my office when Lily informed me that the guest of the day was already waiting for me in our waiting room. On the bright side, Knox accepted my invitation, which I sent to him through a text that Dean and I created last night by wasting thirty minutes of our precious time.“It has to be a minimal text with some unadorned words,” I told Dean when we sat down in my penthouse living room, squeezing the burner phone in our hands.Everything we wrote felt fake until the last text we typed, which somehow sounded formal enough to send to Knox.“Astor Empire’s CEO would like to have a cup of coffee with you tomorrow at his office. Please be in the Astor building at sharp 4.”It was such lame and childish stuff to forward to someone whom you would like to meet. The moment Dean typed this nonsense, the one word that came out of our mouths was the same word Archimedes said upon a significant discovery in the Physis world.“Eureka,” we both said at the same time, reading what was
Five Years LaterLaurenIt was Joy’s seventh birthday. The party that Gavin threw for his dear daughter was supposed to be a kid’s birthday party, but after cutting the cake, this blast turned out to be a boardroom meeting. Gavin was sitting with his friends, clients, investors, and business partners whose children were the same age as my daughter or a little older than her. The chocolate cake was lying on the coffee table ahead of these adult men, but they were more interested in talking about the stock market than the party that was going on.I was sitting with a bunch of the mothers from Joy’s school. It was regular mom-concerned talk, which I was getting used to, but surely needed enough time to get into the gossip that they were passing. Every time I sat with them, the only thing I heard them talking about was a teacher who got pregnant before marriage or a parent who was fighting behind closed doors. The mothers called this get-together “about the children” each time they invite
Sleep was one of the most significant things that a human body needed in order to gain strength. For me, it was indeed a crucial entity to keep my mind awake during those monotonous and dreary meetings during the time of work that was going to begin in just a few hours. In reality, it wasn’t my job that sipped away all the vitality. In fact, it was my boss’s whimsical that made my life hell.During the daytime, it was that 6 foot 4-inch man child, while at night it was my dear sister who vowed to take away the peace of my life. Sometimes I wonder if my boss hired my own blood-related sister to torture me in my house by making the sounds that were coming from her room, which was right next to me. Only one wall, a layer of brick that didn’t shy away from blocking the sound that was coming into my ears.I looked at the clock on my phone. It was 3 in the morning, and for the love of God, it was the time when any normal person in this universe loved to see their dreams or just stay dead in
The moment I entered the 30th floor of the Astor empire, I knew I was in deep, deep trouble this time.The previous two times I was late for work by just three seconds, Mr. Astor roared at me as if I was asking for his kidney. That man didn’t back down to punish me for the tardiness for which I worked in this damn office, arranging all the company marketing department files from 1990 to 2022.Moreover, that malicious man demanded I finish the entire work before he came back to the office the next morning. So yeah, I spent an entire 24 hours and more in this office. No sleep and no rest were granted.Sometimes I just wanted to snap this man’s neck out of his body. The sort of inhuman behavior that he did with me and the employees around here. It was clear as water that not a single person in this building liked him. Except for one, Mr. Astor himself.Every time I went to the cafeteria or the break room, I would be able to enjoy the story of the latest victim of Mr. Astor, a.k.a. the so
Coming home after a long day at work and finding the place ripped was something that I couldn’t stand. I was a neat freak just like Monica from Friends, perhaps worse than her, so seeing my tiny two-bedroom apartment that easily ended in just a few steps in a mess was something that didn’t sit well with me.I cleaned the entire house at night before going to bed, yet right now it looked like some sort of natural disaster hit this place and took away everything with her."What the hell is this?" I shouted, looking all around from my living room to my dining room.I ran inside the house, but it was ripped apart. Everything was out of place. The cheap couch that came with the apartment was torn in the middle as if someone had used a knife to slash it in half. The cotton was all over the room, flying, resting on the floor while the small wooden coffee table that I bought from a dollar shop was missing its feet, which I found a few inches away.The wreck didn’t stop there. My fruit bowl, w
If you asked me 48 hours ago what I was passionate about at the time, I would have said my answer would be simple. Marriage.I was excited about getting married, so much so that I bought a ring, a rose gold princess cut diamond ring, just the way she wanted. Now, who was this woman?One thing, it wasn’t my secretary in the first place. It was my childhood sweetheart and now the world-renowned model Celine. We knew one another from the moment we came into this world. We were neighbors and family friends, which made us friends, and then something more. She was always there for me, witnessed all my successes and achievements, clapped and cheered for me loudly from the crowd, and kissed me every time I came back home with trophies or medals. She was then, even after she got the tag of supermodel, not most of the time, but at least she tried to be with me, but then one day she was nowhere to be found.The little girl with blond hair who promised to marry me when she was seven didn’t want t
The world seemed to be playing some cruel game with me. The turn of the events that happened in the past 24 hours made me speechless in a distinctive way. When I kept thinking I had hit the lowest point of my life, fate came back to mock me and slapped me harder than before with the freshly baked nuisance, as if I was born to taste this dish.Everything was hazy. All I could see was a bunch of red lights in the darkness ahead of my eyes, even though it was a lovely sunny morning. Money was gone.Where? no fucking idea. There wasn’t anything I could do in that matter either until my boss plated this ultimate mouth-watering platter ahead of me that I was greedy to take. Mr. Astor would pay every penny. The amount was so huge that at one point; I thought there was no way I could ever manage to provide the treatment for my poor mother. I still worked in the hope that there would be a way or a hope that would help me.There was no hope for me when it came to arranging the amount that count