With a frightened heart, disorientation and confusion, Zoe stood up momentarily as soon as Gary told her what was going on at the hospital with her grandmother. A profound sense of helplessness gnawed at her insides instantly, as she tried to contain the bad news that had hit her about her only family, just after barely surviving a night before. "How many minutes will it take the chauffeur to be here?" She asked Gary in agitation, as she grabbed the almost empty luxurious purse that she had come with that morning. "Twenty minutes at most," he answered. "I cannot wait that long," she muttered, thinking of how fast she could reach the hospital if she went herself, "Get me the car keys, please," she asked Gary."You are going yourself?" He questioned her as calmly as he could. "Yes, please," she answered."I will drive you. However, we have to be back in the next thirty minutes. You have an investor meeting in an hour," he informed her instantly, knowing well that the meeting was not
Zoe was sitting behind her desk in her office, which was stationed right in front of the floor-to-ceiling-windows, as her rapt attention was focused on the files and hologram charts that she was going through all day. It had been days since her clash with Francis Sinclair, and since her grandmother had not woken up from her unconsciousness, which was soon tagged coma. She had been trying to hold on to every pain and pressure that was threatening to suffocate her, and trying to ignore the sadness that was feasting on her insides, with nothing to offer her solace. Every breath she took at every moment felt like a deep struggle, while keeping her head up in front of people that were waiting for her to fail. Nothing had been going well.As much as Zoe knew that her only family was sick and in a coma, she could not spend time being with her because of her hefty schedule. She had been unable to eat and sleep properly for days, while suffering from anxiety every time her head reminded her o
Zoe's mind had been occupied with the memories from the previous night after she almost got belittled by some group of jealous women socialites, who could not get her to join their groups, private clubs and parties no matter how hard they tried. It was by the slightest chance, when she had almost turned to leave, that the most unexpected person had come to save her and told them to let her in. 'Just why was this same guy here again, and helping her just when she needed it?' she wondered in her mind, as she followed Martin Lincoln inside the restaurant. "What are you doing here?" She asked him as her eyebrows shot up, forming a high arch of astonishment. "Surprised?" He smiled charmingly at her, as he walked before her while she followed confusedly. "Of course, yes," she answered, matching up her steps to meet him so that she could walk by his side. "I am the new head of this restaurant," he explained to her in calm words, and her eyes raised in shock because she didn't think he
Nestled at the top floor of the gigantic skyscraper was Malcolm's office, which was the perfect modern office for a sophistication of his caliber. He sat at his desk, deeply engrossed in his work with his eyes moving through mountains of paperwork that needed to be reviewed with high precision and focus. His demeanor seemed to be off than usual as he sat authoritatively in his position, with his face deeply contorted into a deep dark glare which held the weight of many unsaid emotions. More than anymore, his secretary, Edward, was the one that received the direct smothers of his capricious mood, which bore heavy weights of rage and surliness all day.In just one week, he had made the lives of his executives stormy and put them in an extremely tight spot with canceled project declarations, while raging endlessly to lay them off if they couldn't come up with something better. He canceled every event that he was invited to, and had been working endlessly in his office without leaving or
I am not loved by anyone. No one cares. I don't deserve love. You do not deserve love, Zoe. That is why you are alone. And that is how you will continue to be..…..'"Ms. Zoe. Would you like lunch?" The voice came faintly like she was trying to struggle out of some kind of haze, unconscious of her surroundings and everything around her, her mind delving deep on her thoughts. 'Everyone just wanted her for her own selfish gain. Even her own grandfather was trying to make her irrelevant. Everyone was trying to make her miserable with her actions. People from her past are trying to pull her down.' "Ms. Zoe….." she seemed to hear the voice call again, but her gaze was distant and fixed on a point in the horizon that only she could see. It seemed like the words that seemed so near echoed so distantly that she couldn't hear them properly. "Ms. Zoe!" Suddenly, Zara's sharp voice pierced through the veil of her thoughts for an instant, which caused her to startle and turn towards the source
Struggling to part her eyelashes open, Zoe's senses awakened by the strong pemeating scent that seemed to taunt her senses even from deep slumber. A gasp escaped her throat the moment her eyes finally opened, and her heart skipped a bit when she realized that, once again, she was nowhere she would have expected herself to be.Her mind flashed to the only person her mind compulsively hoped it was not, because she didn't want to be a burden to him for the nth time. But somewhere in her heart, too, she hoped that it would be him. Even if she didn't know if she could trust him as a stranger, Martin Lincoln made her feel comfortable in some kind of way. "Zoe?" She heard the deep, hoarse voice call her name, and she shut her eyes instantly to be sure that she was not hearing wrongly. More than anything, she wished that it was truly not what she had heard.Opening her eyes again to see the towering figure that was hovering after her, Zoe almost went bonkers on the spot, ignoring the IV tube
"Get out of my fucking face!" Zoe yelled at Malcolm as she head-butted him so hard, and the unexpected blow collectively struck different strange nerves in his body as they all tried to process the intensity of the pain. He took a step back instantly as his body instinctively retreated as a defensive response, and his hand held his nose firmly like it would prevent the pain from spreading. Blood drained from his face as he felt a red liquid trickle down the skin beneath his nose, and his hand caught it just in time before it splashed on the floor. He blinked rapidly as he tried to clear the fog of disbelief that clouded his vision, that Zoe had hit him so hard in that manner. "What?!" His lips found the instant words he could use to express his shock, while alternating touching his nose and looking at his blood-smeared hand, in great disbelief that it actually came from his breathing holes. "What? You've never had a nosebleed?" Zoe remarked with a scowl, when she observed the kind
"Scumbag jerk!" Zoe cursed under her breath, as she scuttled away after signaling to the kid, who helped her out of the bathroom without getting noticed by the nurse. After she had lied about wanting to go to the bathroom, she began to think of possible ways in which she could escape out of the hospital without getting caught. When she thought of the window, she knew she would end her own life if she tried jumping down from the top floor. And just when she thought there was nothing she could do after spying on the nurses for minutes, she saw a young girl that entered the bathroom shortly after she did by herself, who she deemed rude at first sight. "Are you trying to steal something?" She heard the tiny voice behind her which made her turn sharply, only to see a small cute girl with big, round eyes standing before her. "What? Steal?" She scrunched up her face at the little girl, wondering how old she was and who let her into the bathroom without assistance, "Mind your business, l
But Zoe didn’t move. Instead, she just stood there, staring at the flowers with her mind tangled in a mess of resentment and something she refused to name as she rose to her feet. And somehow, her feet carried her toward the kitchen instead, as her eyes caught sight of the china and teacup. The ones she had planned to return also. ‘Goodness! Just why would he do all this without even asking her first?!’ Zoe screamed in her head even if her tired lips could utter nothing as she began a careful deliberation in her mind concerning how she would return it, knowing that she wanted to have no business stepping into his house.And just right at that moment too, the small green packet next to her microwave caught her eyes exactly where he had left it, and it was the herbal tea he had sent to her. The note he had attached to it lingered in her head and it made her scoff. ‘What business does he have with her insomnia?’And yet, her hands moved on their own, filling her kettle, lighting the
The black car glided softly into the estate as Dylan steered it through the silent, tree-lined road that led to Zoe's mansion, and pulled up smoothly to the front entrance of her house, his movements smooth and controlled, just as they always were. His eyes flashed to the front mirror for a few seconds as he turned the car off, before he reluctantly stepped out, and smartly walked around the car to the right side of the passenger seat. He hesitated for a few seconds before he pulled the door open towards his direction for Zoe, and then waited for her to step out as usual. And for a few seconds, Zoe remained sitting without stirring, as her eyes dimmed into a distant gaze as if her mind had pulled her entirety into an abyss. She was lost somewhere in her never ending thought, and Dylan knew that look. He had studied it more times than he cared to admit. His usual mask of indifference switched that moment for a few seconds as his gaze lingered on her, with a longing mixed with so
It was late in the night already, and Dylan was just driving Zoe back home. She sat in the back seat and slouched her back comfortably against the leather chair, with her neck hanging sideways against the closed window in the most elegant way ever. Somehow, she was trying not to think of it earlier. She was trying not to think of having to sit before Andre in her office, and talk so casually. It reminded her of Audrey. It reminded her of the woman whose dreams were stolen, and a woman whom somehow no one seemed to remember. It made her heart ache that even her husband seemed to have no ounce of sadness for her death. His expression turned even colder at the mention of her name. As much as Zoe tried to push the thoughts and triggering insinuations that kept creeping into her mind because of the silent investigations she had been doing, she couldn't help but remember what Audrey told her. That someone had threatened her after her encounter with Marcel, and sent an anonymous message
Despite the seeping feeling of cold air into the atmosphere in the office of the CEO of the RINASHONE art gallery, it did nothing to ease the storm that was brewing in Isla's heart, who sat slouched against her chair.Her eyes which had been narrowed by a disdainful glare stared again at the chart that was before her, and she could not help but scrunch up her face the more she read those numbers before her. ‘Ridiculous!’ She almost scoffed, ‘The gallery’s earnings for the month were barely enough. Barely enough!’ her eyes glanced through the pile of invoices again, and then glared at the final figure. “This is not good. Not nearly enough,” she muttered spitefully, the more she thought of her debts which loomed over her like a noose. The ones that had given her sleepless nights because somehow there was nowhere she could have pulled the funds from. Isla leaned back in her chair and gritted her teeth angrily, thinking of how the numbers were still low with the exhibition they held an
The bright lights of the city shone against the tinted windows of the car that drove through the highways of the city, but it didn't do anything to catch the attention of the man who sat back in the backseat of his luxurious car, while rubbing his temples absently with one another.As he remained mute without uttering anything all through the journey back home which was unlike his usual self, his mind momentarily flashed back to the event that happened earlier that day, as he steamed with the remnant of his frustration.It was the second time he had a face-to-face conversation with her. He had stormed into her mall straight from work with his pulse hammering with frustration without even thinking too much about it, the moment he realized that yet again, there was no reply. He was so pissed. For days, she had ignored his email. And when he was told that she asked him to be let inside at once, he was quite taken. He had expected that she would prove so difficult so that he would be ab
Her shortcomings. That had been her concern all afternoon. Not the great news Hepzy went back and forth about. Rather than the joy and excitement that usually came with it, she just felt relieved. Relieved that she was doing well. She wasn't happy about it. There was nothing to be joyful about. As she sat at her desk surrounded by neatly stacked reports and a laptop screen glowing with financial projections before her, the numbers stared back at her. Poor and unproductive in her dictionary. As much as it looked impossible, she had always aimed for every venture she had mapped out in the mall. It wasn't just a mall. It was an empire. The one that billions had been finished off on, and it would end up swallowing more if poured into it. Pulling off something that huge had taken so much willpower and mental strength even if every social psychology quotient of hers was always fluctuating. The ice skating rink and the luxury car exhibition space were doing the lowest. 8% returns was all
The faint aroma of herbal tea lingered in the air of the office, where Zoe sat uprightly behind her table, with her poised demeanor betraying no sign of the turmoil that had lingered over her for the past few days even till the night before.Across from her, Zara, who was holding a notepad clutched to her chest, continued to stare at her so overtly, while wondering what kind of woman she was. “You have been watching me like a hawk,” Zoe, whose gaze was fixated on what she was looking at on the tablet that was before her, “Spill it.”Zara hesitated before speaking, as she stared at her, with a concerned expression, “I don't want you to say I bother too much, but I really cannot help but be so worried. I mean you suddenly made me book a flight after the launching, and then left. You came back and told no one. You came in looking so sick and pale, and now you are doing so much work already. You are asking if things you've never……..”“Can you catch your breath, Zara?” Zoe cut her off ins
It was so dark in the night already, and barely anything could be heard around the estate anymore except the branches of trees moving in the movement of the wind, and the sound of crickets that buzzed amidst the gardens that were around. Malcolm was seen returning to Zoe's house after he had left many minutes ago, with big bags in his hands as he made his way to the front of her mansion. Slipping in through the front door now that he knew its password, he stepped in casually and locked the door behind it. Since he left the other inner door that led to the living room open without closing it when he left earlier, it was easier to just enter on tiptoe without disrupting her. Catching a sight of her still sleeping on the couch in her living room, he dropped the bag he was carrying on the cold, marbled floor, and walked over to her side to feel her temperature. He noticed that she was still burning with a fever. Carefully, Malcolm carried her the same way he had done the previous day,
Malcolm had stood by the window of his mansion all evening after returning from work, with his fingers tapping idly at the corners of it which he had never noticed before, but was as sparkly as ever because the cleaning services that usually cleaned his house were perfect at their job. His eyes had fixed on the road outside as he waited restlessly, with his thoughts sinking into a tangled mess of concern and yearning for the woman he had been bothered about more than ever all day because of the articles that were published. And just at the moment when his eyes caught the sight of a car which rolled into view and drove past his mansion, his heart skipped in relief, before he instantly turned away from the window and hurried out. ‘She was back.’He walked fast, and even almost ran, hoping that he would be able to still meet her outside before she entered her house. In the opposite direction, her car drove past him as he walked, and he didn't even mind anything apart from her. His ey