Chapter One: The crash

No…”

My finger trembles above the keyboard as I stare at the huge rejection written on the screen. We were just about to sign a huge contract with Regal stone to be in charge of designing their new jewelry line for their campaign.

Everything was fine when I submitted the designs to my fiancé Ryan, so how can this happen? But worst of all, what am I to tell dad?

Right on cue, Dad came barging into my office, slamming the printed version of the email on my desk making me flinch at the force.

His face flushing with anger, he grabs my hands in a painful grip pulling me up from my chair.“ I can explain” I said shakily.

“Everything was fine before when I–” His grip tightens on my hand, I know it would leave a mark tomorrow.

“ I told you don’t bother coming home if this deal doesn’t fucking go through!” He barked at me.

I swallowed deeply “ I’m sorry” , my voice barely a whisper. He let go of my hand, his face flushed with anger, and raised his hand to hit me.

Closing my eyes waiting for the impact, but nothing came. Instead he pointed at my face. “ I don’t care how it happened, I want you to fix it or don’t bother coming home tonight”.

“ I was able to pull some strings to get you a meeting with the Regal stone manager”.

“You’re going to go meet him and convince him, with any means necessary to give us our contract back!”

He roars then turns to leave, slamming the glass door on his way out. I saw my colleague pretend to be busy with their computers, but I’m sure everyone heard that. I rub at my wrist, a red mark already forming there.

I pulled up to the address my Dad gave me. It’s a strip club. What a weird place to have a meeting. I thought to myself.

I was hit with neon light as I got in, girls dancing on stage with most of their clothes gone and drunk men cheering them on to take off more. Heading towards the bar, I asked the bartender for Mark. He pointed me to the second VIP room.

I got to the door and paused. This doesn’t seem right. But I took a deep breath and pushed the door open. Mark was sitting on the chair smoking, while girls surrounded him. They were barely dressed, some with just tiny pieces of lingerie, while others without their tops.

He turns to look at me “ come join us, but you would have to lose some of the clothing sweetheart or is this part of your act?” His eyes moved over my body lingering too much on my breast.

My back stiffens at his stare. “ No, I’m not here for that kind of thing.” I take a shaky step away from the door, towards him. “ I’m Eric Davidson’s daughter, he told me you were expecting me”. His brows furrowed a little bit.

“ You?” He gives me a full once over. “I thought the Davidson’s had just one daughter? Never heard of a second”.

“ That’s my sister Julia, I don’t come out much”. Or more like, I’m not allowed to be in public much. Because I would make a massive mess of myself.

“Hmmm”. He touches his jaw, trying to decide if I was telling the truth or not. But he made up his mind quickly and gave me a smile.

“ Come sit down”. He tapped on the spot next to him. I tried to keep as much distance from him as possible.

“Pour her a drink,” he told one of the girls there. “No that won’t…” but she already shoved a drink into my hands, I gave a small smile and took a sip.

“ I wanted to ask you, if you would reconsider us for the contract.” I played with my full Scotch glass.

“ No, sweetheart.” He signals for one of the guys to come over to his laps. “Not only did you guys copy someone else’s designs, you copied from the Kingston group and we don’t want to get into that mess.”

“ Can’t you do anything, we would lower our prices, just please reconsider.” I was practically begging at this point.

“No, But I can sweep things under the rug, if you…” He gave a creepy smile as his hands wrapped around my waist drawing me closer to him.

“ Get off me you bastard!” I struggled to push him off, but he wouldn’t budge. I took a bottle and shattered it on his head. He roared in pain and finally released me. I stood immediately and ran for the door.

“Bitch! You can forget about the contract at all. You would be hearing from my lawyers!” His voice got drowned by the loud music coming from the main club.

I got to my car, caught my breath and proceeded to stare at nothing. Then a laugh burst out of my mouth, uncontrollably and loud. That passerby gave me looks, like I had gone mad.

The laughter tightened in my throat and my smile crumbled. Tears gathered in my eyes before it spilled down my cheeks. I tried to force myself to laugh again, but instead I broke into a sob.

I pressed my hands over my mouth, trying to stop it. Because I knew crying wouldn’t solve shit. But it didn’t stop. Why won’t I stop crying?

Eventually my tears subsided. I pulled out my phone to text my fiancé Ryan, to meet me at our favorite restaurant.

When I got there, Ryan was already seated.“ Are you okay?” He asks, my puffy eyes giving it away that I have been crying.

“I’m fine now.” I took my seat opposite him. Pausing, wondering if I should tell him about the failed deal. Then I decided to tell him. “We lost the contract with Regal stone”.

“ What! How?”

“ I don’t know, they say we stole their designs. And we know that can’t be true, since you vetted them”. Deciding to leave out the part the manager assaulted me.

“ Yes”. He looks away in thought and his hand clenches around the glass of wine he was holding.

“ Dad says I shouldn’t bother coming home if I don’t fix this, I don’t know where to stay tonight”. I let out a long sigh already at my limit.

Ryan took my hands and gave it a kiss, flashing me a charming smile. My tiredness reduces due to the warmth of his palms.

“You can stay with me”. He rubs my hands in a comforting manner.

“I don’t want to impose”. I gave him a weak smile. Since we started dating till we were engaged we have never stayed overnight with each other.

“ Nonsense, we will soon be married. What better time to get to know each other more, than now.”

“Okay”.

“ That brings me to the topic of getting to know each other. Since we will be getting married soon, why don’t we take our relationship to the next level.” My heart sank when I heard Ryan say that. I knew exactly what he was talking about.

“ I’m not ready”. I pulled my hands from him. I love Ryan, but I was not ready to give him my virginity.

“Then when will you be ready?”

“ I think I will stay elsewhere tonight”.

He made a noise with his mouth, turned to check his phone and stood up. I watched confused as he put a bill on the table getting ready to leave.

“What are you doing, we are not done with dinner.”

“I don’t understand you Iris, don’t you love me?”

“Of course I do”.

“ Then why do you keep rejecting me?”

“ I’m not rejecting you”.

“Really? Because it sure feels like you are. We would soon be married and you’ve been singing the same tune for me for six months now since we got engaged”.

“I’m so over this”. With that he turned to leave the restaurant

The tear rolled down my cheeks as I drove back home, making it hard to see. It was also raining hard out, as if the universe could sense the shitty day I was having. Everything is a mess today.

The contract with Regal stone.

Ryan.

“ I can’t do this anymore”. I said to myself.

I saw headlights coming towards me from out of nowhere. I was able to swerve my car, but I hit a tree. Glass exploded around me.

My head slammed into the steering wheel. Blood trickled into my eyes.

The last thing I saw was someone forcing my car door open and a man’s deep voice saying

“She’s still breathing”.

I felt a strong arm wrap around me, lifting me up and I saw an image of electric blue eyes before it went dark.