Chapter 1 : Lost

         “You deserve someone so much better than me. Let’s call it a quit. It’s over. I can’t see myself having a future with you. It doesn’t work out anyway. I can’t picture it, our future together, I can’t picture it at all.”

         A good-looking man in a pristine white shirt bowed in apology. And that was how he ends it with her. Two years together, down the drain just like that. It was funny for Mikayla to think that Matthew thought himself to be a man that was not enough for her. He was a medical doctor from a good family, and he also was paid very well—although a lot smaller than her, and not to mention his expensive student loan he still has decades to pay off. She got an executive job at a thriving innovation and tech department after all. It wasn’t difficult to get an upper hand. Matthew said he loved her for her success and her confident. She had always thought that he didn’t mind that she was, at the age of 32, a lot more successful than he was. He didn’t mind at first. But his male ego seemed to mind a lot. She should have known better.

         Dating was exceptional difficult at this age. Mikayla thought. And that was why she put her career first. Her career never failed her. And she believed she had made the right decision so far. This man fit her checklist at first but he was not confident enough. Maybe the next time she picked a partner, she should pick someone who earned higher than she did. Yes, maybe that should be put as the main criteria.  

         “Sure, it’s over. But please, Matthew, don’t lie to me. We have been together long enough for me to know that you already have someone else in mind.” She said coldly. Her youthful face despite her maturity displayed no emotions. Her voice was crisp and cold and frighteningly straightforward.

         “Err…well… how do you know?” The man accepted his sin reluctantly.

         Huh…are all men like this? They always say you deserve someone better, but in fact, they still opt for someone younger and blatantly lie about it.

         “I saw a lipstick mark on your shirt the other day but I didn’t say anything. And strange perfume smell. Also, you claimed to be busy on weekends. Some extra medical consulting cases if I remember correctly. All the classic signals were all there, I only have to have half a brain to notice all that and draw a conclusion.” Mikayla explained tiredly without putting much effort.

         She understood the risks of being in a relationship and this was just one of the scenarios that could happened and did happen. She didn’t mind ending it, but she was quite mad about his disrespectfulness of cheating on her and breaking up with her in her favorite restaurant near her office. What if people in her team see us? How inconsiderate of him.

         “And how many do I have to tell you not to book my time during lunch? I have meetings in the afternoon, and I simply don’t have the time to be talking about this nonsense at lunch.” She reprimanded him with so much coldness in her voice he felt the freeze.

         “This nonsense? Mikayla… I… I’m really sorry for what happened. I didn’t mean for us to end like this. I hope we can still remain friends.” Her former boyfriend of two years said. What an audacity of him to want to be friends. She ignored that.

         “Don’t think too much about it. This must be the best for us both. Excuse me, I really need to go back to work.” A woman in black tailored suit got up and stood tall with her expensive brand name beg she bought from her visit in Paris last summer.

         “Please allow me to pay for the food and coffee. Thank you for taking the time to tell me that. Good luck with everything. And I hope we won’t run into each other ever again.” Mikayla walked away without listening to Matthew’s attempts of saying more. She paid the bill and walked away without looking back at him. Such a waste of time. She shouldn’t date someone she sensed since the beginning couldn’t work out in the end. No matter how kind he was at the beginning, she should have known it couldn’t last. She should have walk away since he complained about how her work doesn’t add value to society as much as his.

         Insulting… what a terrible insult this was.

****

11.00 PM

         Mikayla finished work later than everyone in the office despite her position of being the executive of a new innovative department in a major bank. Her department was pretty much in a growing phase, it got a lot of funding from the firm’s traditional business and major investors, and it wasn’t strange for a person to do multiple jobs. With the pay she got, Mikayla knew that the board wanted everything she could offer.

         She drove away from the office parking lot in a red sport car he father gave her at the age of twenty five when she graduated from the University of Oxford. He was accustomed to give her expensive gifts and he did that to all her sisters as rewards when we accomplished something in life. She would adore him if she didn’t know that it was his way of making us all compete. She won some, but she often lost.

         Mikayla sighed as she was waiting in traffic and looking at the time. The time was not too late for someone in her position. In fact, she loved the pressure, it was not like work could kill anyone—she thrived in high competitive environment.

         She had arrived the parking lot for her luxurious condo, but as she steered her car towards her designated parking spot, Mikayla saw a strange object in her space; it was a dark blanket on something quite big.

         She turned left and right to find a security guard whom she expected to be overseeing the area but no one was there. So, against her initial intention, Mikayla got out of the car and walked to that strange object under a blanket. Her designated parking spot was in the most private area as she lived in the best penthouse in the whole property, she could guess that someone might pull a prank on her, there was a drama earlier this month on some new tenant not getting the right to park as there was limited space. She pushed the object with her heel in hope to push it away so she could park but it was heavier than she thought.

         She exerted more force on the object, it didn’t budge but the blanket did fall off and revealed a young man covered in blood and he was waking up.

         “AAAAAAA!!”

         Mikayla screamed. She immediately tried to run away but fell a few steps after. Damn these high heels!

         What the hell happened with my day! What is this! A gang conflict? A murder? Is someone trying to frame me? What the hell!

         A million screams echoed in her head as the man stood to his full height and slowly walked towards her. She stumbled to find her phone hoping to call the police. She didn’t know if the man will harm her. But she needed someone here right now.

         The young man limped a few steps and fell to near where he was under the blanket. Mikayla was still frozen by fear watching him, forgetting where she was and what she was doing, quickly got back to the phone and call the police dispatch center.

         “H-Hello! There is a m-man, a man covered in blood, in the parking lot near my condo… please come here, please! Help!” Then she gave them the address, her hand still shaking violently, her legs now numb.

         It took minutes for her to regain her composure and tried to move away from the unconscious man near her.

         While she struggled in a normal attempt to walk back to the security of her car, she heard the man said something. There was no one else other than us at this time and the area was private and soundproof from the busy activities outside.

         “Help me… help me please…”