CHAPTER 2 (ISABELLA'S POV )

"...happy birthday dear Izzy, happy birthday to you."

The small gathering of people cheered and clapped their hands as poppers went off, sending a confetti of shiny papers onto the office floor.

I felt the smile on my face grow bigger as I stared at the fondant figures that sat at the top of the cake, a twenty four. I had turned twenty four years old today and my friends had thrown this surprise party at the office. I felt so glad to be a part of this small family.

"This is the part of the song where you tell us how old you are, you dumbass." Melissa, my best friend, chuckled lightly.

I let out a loud laugh as I went over to drag her into a tight hug. "Thank you for this." I said before turning to the rest of the men and women. "Thank you all so much for this, I really appreciate it."

"Come on, you're the best boss we've had in a while. You deserve it." Marvin, Melissa's twin brother, said. He walked over to give me a tight hug too.

"Thank you, Marv." I chuckled back at him, reciprocating his hug just as tightly. "Alright everyone, thirty minutes break and then we're back to work." I clapped loudly, addressing the room.

With Marvin's help, Melissa and I carried the rest of my presents into my office and away from the small party going on outside. I went over and slumped down onto the sofa that sat by the side of the small drawer that held various paperwork. I hadn't even had time to come in and sort them out.

I checked the small clock on the wall in front of me and saw that it was only a few minutes pass nine in the morning.

"So what're your plans for tonight?" Melissa asked. "We going clubbing?"

I gave her a look. "I can't." I said with a small sigh. "Naomi already has something planned for us tonight, we're probably gonna stay in and watch a few movies."

"Oh come on, you're gonna spend your twenty forth birthday with your aunt? That's so lame." Marvin sighed, walking over to drop the presents he was carrying on my desk.

I tried not to roll my eyes at him. Yes, I was going to be spending the evening with my aunt, I didn't see anything wrong with that. Naomi had woken me up that morning with my favorite breakfast already prepared and a warm bath already running as an early birthday present, she had promised an actual present when I got back from work. I wasn't complaining, but sometimes I felt like she did too much for me.

I didn't even know what side of my family she was from, whether it was from my mother or father's side. Sometimes, it felt like a huge part of my memory had been scooped out and made blank, it felt like my brain had purposely locked out a memory that it didn't want me to re-live ever again. I had no recollection of what my childhood had been like, whether I'd had friends growing up or not, I had no idea.

Naomi and I had just always been together. She had told me about the tragic car accident that had claimed both my parent's lives at a very young age. I had grown up into adulthood with stories about how my parents had loved and cherished me, and how they had always wanted what was best for me.

But these days, I couldn't help but feel like she was hiding something from me. It felt like she was purposely leaving out some pretty important detail from the stories she told of my parents and my childhood. I found it odd how she was the only living family I had left, how she always found an excuse to tell whenever I asked of my other relatives.

Naomi was too protective of me, she always wanted to know about my whereabouts and who I was with at every given moment. I knew she cared, since she wanted to make sure I was safe, but it overwhelmed me sometimes. I was a grown up for God's sake, I turned twenty four years old today.

I let out a loud sigh that made Marvin quickly raise both of his hands in surrender.

"It's fine if you wanna spend time with your aunt, Isabella. I just think she should let you go out and have fun sometimes, you know." He explained.

Melissa rolled her eyes at her brother. "Let her be, Marv. Family time is important." She said in my defense.

I watched the twins drabble on and on, arguing back and forth as they helped me sort out the presents I'd received from the people I worked with.

By the time we were finally done, it was already a few minutes before noon and we would be going on a short break soon.

I had suggested that Melissa, Marvin and I should take a short trip to the site our company was going to be working on. It was a fenced-in portion of the woods that had laid untouched for ages. I didn't know too much about the history of the land, but since nobody had claimed it to be theirs, I figured it was the government's.

It was a simple contract the government had offered our company, to clear out the forest and convert the land into a public area that the locals could hang out in. I had been placed in charge of the project and the higher-ups had been more than thrilled when I had brought up the idea of converting the forested land into a shopping complex and a town park –since we lacked both–

I had been more than excited when I had gotten the phone call from my boss on that fateful day he had relayed the news to me. It was the biggest project I had been assigned to work on, but Naomi had been so against me taking the job. For whatever reason, she just didn't want me anywhere near that forest. It had taken a lot of convincing from me and Melissa before she had even considered it. It was weird, really.

Melissa and I got into Marvin's car and I wasted no time as I quickly connected the speaker to my phone and started playing soft music. The car drive was going to take a while and I didn't want to sit in silence the whole time.

Marvin started the car and drove off in the direction of the forest.

"Yo, Izzy." Melissa called from the passenger's seat. "Can we stop by and get food on our way back?"

I gave her a nod, forgetting that she couldn't actually see me. "Yeah sure, we can. I'm actually already getting kinda hungry too." I said, staring out the window and into the vast greenery of the dense forest on both sides of the road.

Mercury Hills was such a beautiful place to grow up in, there were so many beautiful trails to hike in and enjoy nature. It was quite sad we would have to get rid of some of them to put our vision into actualization, but it was for the best. Everyone knew the town lacked infrastructures and modernized buildings. The plans we had was only for the betterment of the town.

In a few minutes, we had arrived at the entrance of the forest and had piled out of the car. Ever since I had gotten this contract, this was actually my first time of stepping foot on this land.

As I stared out into the forest, I couldn't help the strange feeling that rushed through my body. It felt like I had been here before. I knew it was impossible –since this was my first time coming here– but something in me screamed familiarity as I watched the tree branches sway left and right.

It was the feeling of genuinely knowing something, but not remembering said thing.

I felt a weird connection to this place, I had definitely been here before.