The sisters sat talking at the dining table when Hart made his appearance. Myra fell silent the moment Hart stepped into the apartment. She just remembered what Jake told her. There was one way he could offer her help, but it might be uncomfortable. For the sake of her father’s businesses, she knew she had to decide soon.
Her mind returned to that lone moment with Jake at her father’s empty office three hours ago.
“I don’t know, Jake. I don’t know if I can do this,” she said.
“It’ll just be an act. Maybe one or two years, then after that, we can be on our own ways.”
“I’m not sure, Jake,” she tried to evade him, but Jake inched closer and grabbed her wrist.
Hart relived the moment where he was inside that very forest, where he found Milla. It was dark and eerie, but he continued running forward. He ran and ran, but when he reached the spot where he had found Milla, she was not there.There was no corpse. No Milla. No, nothing.He was all alone. Just silence accompanied him.Then he turned around.Milla’s eyes were bloodshot as she stared at him. He contained himself, but before he could say anything, he heard her voice. She sounded tragic.“Hatta, have you moved on well now that I’m gone?”No, this was not true, his inner voice screamed. He tried to open his mouth, but he could not find his voice.
“What’s up, Myra?”Jake was looking at her with a concerned look. She had been looking listless ever since she peeked out of the door but could not find who she saw earlier.Two months of becoming a CEO transformed him from the douchebag he was in the past, but sadly, another had taken Myra. Although he sensed that she still carried feelings for him, he had to work hard and fast to prevent Myra from progressing in her relationship with that foreign Chinese man. What was his name again? Hatta Baderan.Myra finally gave up. Was she dreaming, or was it really him?“Nothing. I must have mistaken someone for-” she stopped before she said his name. Jake understood immediately.She must have powerful fe
“Jake, I don’t know… if I am ready for this,” Myra said, twirling a loose strand of hair that remained out of her ponytail. Jake halted the sports car just before a red light before attending to her.“There’s another thing, Myra. Your father’s failing businesses. If we undergo this union, for once, you can save them. YX will be willing to lend you financial assistance. At no price.”At the green light, the sports car moved again. Jake focused his attention to the road, driving swiftly in the absence of traffic. It was not a busy day today.Myra hid her trembling fingers under the folds of her dress.“Jake, I don’t want to bother you so...much. What if I… think about it? And you think about it as we
“Dad?”The aged man looked at Myra weakly. Slumped in a wheelchair, her father looked the oldest he had ever been in the last decade. No words came from his mouth, no matter how hard he tried.Myra didn’t remember the last time she had seen him face to face. Because of living in different areas, she would often send him text messages to remind him to take his vitamins and prescriptions, but most of the time, Alfred sent instructions through his right-hand man, Will. She now wondered if he had been sick. At her father’s orders, Will had a close eye on her movements.Then it all stopped.Myra had suspected nothing when she went to Bali. She thought it was the effect Sierra’s mother had on her father and Sierra, the younger daughter herself. Sh
Two Hours Ago, Lightfall ParkHart closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he listened to the leaves rustling beneath his feet.“Are you thinking of someone else?”Hearing her voice, Hart opened his eyes and took in the sight before him. She sounded exactly like Milla, only sweeter. Her name was Waley, and she was an executive like him. When he had to leave abruptly that day for an urgent meeting, it was to discuss the cooperation between his uncle’s company and the company where Waley worked.Since the face-to-face meeting with Jake, his relationship with Myra had taken a toll. But meeting Waley officially not long after seeing her on the road made him think twice about their relationship. No matter what, he didn’t think he could defeat Jake Yu.Jake was young and capable, but it was his young age and the part that he was her childhood love that made him feel so negative about himself. Looking back at the da
When she woke up again from her afternoon nap, a beautiful pink dress lay on the bed waiting for her. She didn’t know when Jake had left the room, but as the space next to her was still warm, she assumed he hadn’t left for long. She refrained from smiling as she thought of how Jake had held her while she was just in her undergarments, while they were in bed. Just a hug; she reassured herself. But no, she knew it was wrong. By lying with a man in bed, it was already cheating. How could she resolve it with Hart? One day, such things were due to come to light. Even then, two months of feelings were difficult for her to put down in an instant. She’ll get to it when it happens. There was a Chinese idiom, “when the boat gets to the bridge-head, it will naturally go straight.” Everything would be fine. Somehow, a deep feeling nestled inside her, telling her she was wrong. Jake and his father sat at the dinner table, as if waiting for her presen
Something in Myra told her she had been here before, but she couldn’t remember when. Jake’s face was stoic, making her realise how much he resembled his father now. Accepting the hand offered to her, she ducked under his jacket. He used his jacket to cover their heads in the absence of an umbrella.“Forgot the umbrella.” His voice was low, full of emptiness and a lack of emotion. It didn’t hide the fact that he was in such a low mood.Jake never brought an umbrella with him. He never thought it was necessary, since it was always him all alone.“It’s not an issue for me,” she stated bluntly. They seemed like college sweethearts as they both ran in the rain, merely covered under his thick jacket as a canopy. It took away the tenseness in the atmosphere between them, making Myra chuckle as she ran with him, holding hands like children.At the gate, Jake stopped to retrieve the keys from his pocket before
Myra eagerly counted the days that she hadn’t heard from either Jake or Hart. Of course, life went on as normal, but she couldn’t hide her exasperation.That night, she had rejected Jake’s feelings because of her guilt for Hart. And Hart had gone missing for three weeks now. What in the world was going on? Sierra had even joked that she had lost two men in a night, but she had never felt more confused.She just wanted to speak to Hart about the betrothal and have them come to a consensus before she could tell Jake her conclusion. Either way, it wasn’t going to be pretty. She needed the help from Jake’s family to escape falling into poverty, but she wasn’t ready to let go of Hart just yet. She had grown used to him being around and helping about the house. And he had used the ‘love’ word on her. Her guilt was so ov