1

 “Run! Run away, Cassie!”

Amidst the loud shouts and noises, the voice rang clear in the chaos. It was familiar but she couldn’t remember who it belonged to. Whenever she felt she was close to grasping it, it vanished like a wisp of smoke.

She couldn't see anything other than shadows and hazy figures but there was a bright orange that permeated everywhere. Blazing fire filled everywhere she looked, Cassie felt breathless from the heat and smoke.

She ran desperately, trying to escape the fire and smoke when suddenly…

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Cassie sat up with a jolt, gasping for air. Beads of sweat dotted her forehead. 

Another nightmare. Cassie thought.

She took deep breaths trying to calm her racing heart.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“You’re really capable, huh. You’ve started sleeping at work now, Tori?”

Cassie was still dazed from the dream and stared at the laptop in front of her blankly.

“Tori! Tori! Hey, I’m talking to you. Are you ignoring me?” Along with the voice of the woman talking, the knocking sound continued along with the sound of fingers snapping and it finally clicked for Cassie.

Tori. She was Tori. That was her new name that she still hadn’t gotten used to.

“Tori!”

Cassie flinched slightly then turned her head to the side and looked up slowly from the fist on her table to the slim figure standing beside her with a look of disdain. 

It was Rita, the newly promoted manager of Marketing team 3. A fellow colleague until just yesterday but now she was her superior and she couldn’t wait to show her power at any chance she got.

Now, Cassie had just given her the perfect opportunity.

Cassie hurriedly stood up and explained. “Sorry, I was a bit tired. I just wanted to rest for a bit.”

Rita eyed Cassie with unconcealed contempt. “You’re just a temporary staff member, not even as good as an intern. Someone who doesn’t know would think you have an important position and so much work to do.” 

Cassie kept her eyes down and said nothing. She was used to this kind of humiliation; it was just one more person added to the party. They always used the fact that she was still a temporary staff member after nearly two years of working here. 

Those who came in with her had been promoted while she's been at the same position watching new people come in and get promoted. She was the joke of the company, even interns could boss her around.

Rita looked her up and down. “Sleeping during work hours is wrong. If you get caught, you should apologize so you don’t lose your job.”

It was a threat. 

Cassie bowed her head. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Rita’s red lips curled in satisfaction seeing Cassie’s submissive appearance. It was always like this, she never spoke back or resisted. It was good that she at least knew her place.

“Whatever.” She waved her hand nonchalantly then asked. “Where’s the presentation I asked you to do? What of the proposal for the new project? Oh and the analysis report for the last quarter.”

Cassie clenched her fist trying to suppress the anger and grievance bubbling in her chest. Rita was asking about it so casually but Cassie was the one who did all the work. She had been pulling all-nighters to complete it for today’s meeting yet Rita still criticized her for sleeping at work.

It was clearly her fault!

Cassie took a deep breath to calm herself, she couldn’t retaliate. She still needed this job, she hadn’t got what she wanted yet.

Cassie turned to her table and took a flash drive from her bag as well as the other documents and handed it to Rita. “Here it is.”

Rita took it without even glancing at it, she was that confident in Cassie’s work and the convenience of using her. Instead, she took another pile of documents and dropped it on Cassie’s table. It made a loud thud as it fell. “Prepare these as well.”

Cassie looked at the papers and finally raised her head to stare at Rita with a sharp gaze.

Rita took a step back unconsciously after being stared at by those light gray eyes, but as she looked at Cassie’s beautiful face that couldn’t be hidden even with the shabby clothes she always wore. 

A jealous look flashed in her eyes then she became angry thinking that she was intimidated by this damn woman even for a second. 

So what if she was beautiful? With her ugly black hair and horrible fashion taste she could hardly keep a man down. What if she was smart and capable? She had no degree and wouldn’t agree to unspoken rules to climb. All she could do was be stepped on and used by everyone to go higher!

“What’s with that look?” Rita snapped. “We don’t keep idle people here. I'm kindly giving you work to do, shouldn't you be grateful?”

Cassie and Rita’s conversation had attracted the attention of others in the office. There was a burst of snickers and gasps in the office, some found it funny watching others getting stepped on, while others were shocked at Rita’s shamelessness. But no one said anything, watching the show with relish as they whispered amongst themselves.

“Do you want to bet if she’ll talk back?”

“Her? I bet she won’t!”

“I bet…”

Cassie’s shoulders trembled slightly as she listened to the whispers around. Everything in her was screaming to talk back, to refuse and tell Rita that she’d had enough.

She opened her mouth to speak but instead of a refusal she said. “Thank you, I’m very grateful.”

“I knew it!”

“Tsk, it’s useless. When will she finally get a backbone?”

“Haha. I won the bet.”

Rita smiled smugly at Cassie and said. “As you should be.” With that she flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked away proudly, her heels clicking against the floor.

Cassie stood with her head down feeling the burning gazes on her and the mocking laughs. She pursed her lips, her eyes had turned red, her face flushed red from shame and anger. 

She stood for a while telling herself. Breathe, Cassie. You have to endure it. This might be your only chance to know the truth. You have to hang in there. 

Cassie kept repeating this to herself until she became calm before she turned and slowly sat back in her seat. Cassie knew she had to endure it no matter how much she was looked down upon. This was the only chance she’s gotten in years to find out the truth, it was the closest she’d come to knowing what happened all those years ago and hopefully recovering her memory.

Since Cassie woke up in the hospital five years ago with no recollection of the past, she’d been trying to find out what happened and who she was but there was barely anyone that knew and the few that did refused to tell her a thing.

Almost a year ago, when she’d gotten enough and was about to quit this job, she met someone who she’d seen in her memories. Cassie didn’t know his name or how she knew him. All she knew was that his face was the first one from the past she could recall after waking up from those hazy dreams.

It was the first time it had happened and in excitement she wanted to get close and become friends with him. It was because of him she had stayed here even though she wanted to quit badly, she even agreed to go out with him just to have a chance to recover her memory.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t recalled anything useful since then and recently it was hard to see Luke, her boyfriend and…the CEO of this company.

VK wasn’t a big company. It was a small but fast growing company that her boyfriend Luke had started from scratch. He was always busy running around for investments and partnerships that most of the internal management of the company was left to the CMO, a bald middle aged man with sly eyes who valued benefits and pleasure over actual capabilities.

Maybe that’s why the company was so rotten.

“Hey, Tori! The meeting is in ten minutes. Go prepare the meeting room.”

Cassie looked up at the one who spoke, it was an average looking guy with a crew cut, a new intern. Preparing the meeting should be part of his job. 

Cassie looked at the smirk on his lips and the smug look in his eyes. Someone must have sent him, probably Rita. They were intent on thoroughly humiliating her. Cassie pursed her lips and headed for the meeting room without a word, ignoring the snickers that trailed after her.

She entered the meeting room, arranged the seats, set up the projector and placed the refreshments. Just as she finished, it was time for the meeting and people started entering the meeting room one after another.

Gradually, the meeting room filled up and all the seats were filled except one. Cassie’s eyes landed on the empty seat at the head of the table reserved for the CEO. 

He didn’t come today either. Cassie thought.

“As the CEO is absent, I’ll be presiding over the meeting and be relaying the proceeds to him.” Greg the CMO spoke from the seat to the right of the empty seat at the center. “Let’s begin then.” 

So the meeting began, different people and departments went up to give their presentations and reports, some earning praise while others got harsh criticisms.

Finally, as the meeting was drawing to an end, Greg looked at the paper in front of him and said, “Miss Bernard, you’re up next. Please go ahead.”

Rita stood up with the same documents Cassie had given her and walked to the head of the table. She stopped halfway and turned around, “Ah! Tori, please help me project my presentation.” She stretched out her hand passing the flash drive Cassie had given her only minutes before.

Cassie wordlessly took the flash drive, plugged it and projected its contents before retreating to the corner of the room. From that corner, Cassie watched as Rita presented her work like it was hers.

Rita’s presentation itself was mediocre and it was obvious she only had superficial knowledge of the project. Cassie had already spotted eight mistakes in the three minutes Rita had been presenting for. It was almost unbearable to watch and it took everything in her to stop herself from calling Rita out and correcting her. The action felt so familiar like she had done it many times.

Cassie rubbed her forehead helplessly, she sometimes had moments like these where her body would want to instinctively react to something or how she could perfectly know and do some things just like the work that Rita and the others pushed to her. 

She had no degree, she knew it and they had mocked her for it. So why was she still so familiar and proficient in these things?

Cassie knew the answer to all her questions were in her lost memories and she was going to figure it out. She had to.

Rita’s presentation ended with applause and praise, less for her presentation itself and more for the proposal being presented. 

To show how satisfied he was, Greg even stood up and gave Rita several pats on her shoulder with a bright smile on his face as the praises flowed from his mouth endlessly. “Excellent work! With this proposal, this project is as good as ours. As expected of our newly promoted manager. Keep it up and you might be getting another promotion soon.”

Rita smiled seductively, putting her hair behind her ear. “Thank you, sir. I’ll continue to work hard.” Her voice was soft and charming.

Cassie scoffed inwardly. Work hard, my foot.

Greg though didn’t see a problem with Rita’s words and laughed. “Good. Only hard workers see results. Make sure to stop by my office later and show me the rest of your hard work.” As he spoke his hand slid down Rita’s shoulder down to her butt.

Everyone looked away and someone coughed uncomfortably as they hurriedly began to pack up their things.

Disgusted, Cassie also looked away as she turned her head she happened to meet Rita’s eyes. They were smug and filled with pride. Cassie resisted the urge to roll her eyes and moved her eyes away. It was only people like Rita who would take pride in doing such things with a married man.

Cassie’s action of looking away though seemed like admitting defeat to Rita and her smile became wider, a gloating look flashing her eyes.

“That’s it for the meeting. Good work everyone. Make all the necessary changes and corrections by the next meeting.” Greg said as he left the meeting room with Rita hot on heels.

As everyone left, Cassie remained behind to tidy up the meeting room and even at the end of the day, she was the last to leave the office after working an extra three hours of overtime. She barely managed to catch the last bus home.

Cassie stepped down from the bus and began her walk home down the dark alley. Her neighborhood was old and many things needed fixing like the street lights, almost all the alleys were pitch black and you had to rely on either good eye sight or the faint light from surrounding buildings…which also required good eye sight. 

In this kind of neighbourhood, it was best to go back before it got too dark. Something Cassie always tried her best to do but with all the extra work that could come anytime, it was a pipe dream.It was usually okay on normal days, at most she’d increase her pace and use shortcuts but today, she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was following her. 

Cassie’s heart fell at the thought, she wanted to turn back to look and see if she was really being followed but there was a voice in her head telling her not to. Cassie tried to act as natural as she could and reached for the pepper spray in her bag quickening her pace.

In the shadows of the alley, a man dressed completely in black hid in the darkness watching Cassie’s retreating figure. He reached behind and pulled out a swiss knife from his waistband. 

He calmed his breathing and slowly unsheathed the blade, he squeezed the hilt and kept his eyes locked on Cassie as he began approaching her from behind. He twirled the knife between fingers expertly, the blade glinting coldly in the dark alley ready to attack anytime.

Meanwhile, at the airport, a private plane had just landed. Two rows of men in black suits stood uniformly with their hands behind their back at the entrance of the plane forming a path leading to a parked limousine at the end of the line.

The door of the plane opened and a masked man in a dark blue suit stepped out of the plane. As he descended down the steps of the plane, bodyguards bowed their heads and greeted loudly in unison.

“Welcome, Boss!”

The man’s entire face was hidden behind the black mask he wore, the silver markings on the mask glowed with a chilling light. 

His cold brown eyes, the only part of his face that was visible, remained straight ahead. A fierce aura emanated from him as he walked passed the guards indifferently only offering a slight nod of acknowledgement. 

Two men trailed closely behind him. One with a crew cut and a stern expression, the other with messy brown curls and an easy-going smile that seemed out of place in the serious atmosphere.

The guards remained bowed until the masked man and the other two entered into the waiting car. It was only then they hurriedly stood and entered into the other cars parked around and followed behind the leaving car.

It was only when they were seated that one of the bodyguards dared to speak. “Why did the boss suddenly decide to come here?”

“Right? We barely had any time to prepare.”

“I heard that he came here looking for someone.”

“Really? Who…”

“That’s enough! Stop asking questions you shouldn’t and do your job. Understood?"

“Understood!”

In the car, ahead the masked man asked the man with curly hair. “Are you sure, it’s her?”

“More than ever, boss.”

Holding a photo, only the bright gold hair of the girl was visible. “I’ve finally found you. Principessa.”