I was in the bathroom treating the wound that Knox and my sister caused me yesterday. Everything else was in my body, which I could easily bury with my clothes, but the one punch that Ashlee gifted me right in my face was giving me hell. I tried makeup, foundation, and concealer, but nothing was working. Instead, the redness was turning into brown shades, which was making it obvious. I had a flight to catch in just a few hours, and here I was making my face presentable.When I first saw Ashlee with Knox, I smelled the fishiness there. In which world would there be such a weird coincidence where your older sister was dating your ex-convicted boyfriend without knowing about each other? I doubt this was a plan that they both plotted together to take revenge on me. They both undoubtedly harbored a bitter grudge against me.I was in the corner of the convenience store when Knox grabbed me by the cap of my hoodie and threw me into the dark alley. Before I could realize anything, a hard slap
Eleven Years AgoThe environment of our house was never healthy. There was always something happening, and most of the time, it was my father who was screaming at the top of his lungs. After breaking up with Knox, I took another job just so I could come home when every one of the members of this house was deep in sleep. Hearing those arguments every single day was so annoying that sometimes I wandered around the town, just to escape from the ear-piercing competition that my parents loved to do at night.My time at Knox was my pathway to abscond from the toxic atmosphere of my home. If I ever sat down and thought about Knox, including the feelings I had for him, I was pretty sure I had nothing for that guy in my heart. You could say, I toyed with him, using him to get away from home for some time. I was aware of what Knox was thinking all the time, but the feeling that I felt for him was after he threatened me to be with him.Of course, I was missing him. I was thinking about him now a
“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