Chapter Twenty _Four

Rose Alexandria Sinclair;

"Look, I don't care what you're saying—back off!" I snapped at Jessica, my voice cutting through the tension like a whip. Her glare deepened, and for a moment, it felt like her words slapped me across the face.

"How dare you?" she hissed, stepping closer. "Who the hell do you think you are? Seducing the boss, huh? I saw you!"

A smirk tugged at my lips, sharp and mocking. "Why? Feeling insecure? Haven’t you had enough of his cock? Maybe it’s time someone better takes over."

Her face twisted with rage as she lunged for my hair, but I was faster. I slapped her hand away with enough force to make her stumble.

"Enough!" I snarled, my voice low and venomous. "Try that again, and I swear, I'll ruin you. Bitch."

I spat on the ground and stormed off, leaving the backyard without sparing her another glance. Behind me, I heard her screaming, stomping her feet like a tantrum-throwing child.

Pathetic. I had bigger problems to deal with than some jealous wannabe.

Frustrated, I pulled out my phone and tried calling my PA, but it went straight to voicemail. Again.

I wanted to scream, to curse the world and everyone in it, to tell them all to leave me the hell alone. But I couldn’t.

Deep down, I envied those kids who could walk away from their fathers after all the trauma, severing the ties without a second thought. Why couldn’t I be like them? Why was I still clinging to a past that kept ripping me apart?

As I stepped into the kitchen, balancing the leftovers to take to the maid’s quarters, something hard slammed into the back of my head.

The pain was blinding, sharp, and immediate.

Oh, God.

A scream tore from my throat as I staggered, dropping the tray. The clatter of dishes echoed around me, but my focus was on the hot, sticky warmth running down my scalp. Blood.

I spun around, clutching the counter for support, my vision swimming in and out of focus. Through the haze, I caught a glimpse of a figure—a man. His low, menacing voice rumbled, though the words were garbled, lost in the chaos of my pounding head.

Before I could process anything, my knees buckled, and the ground came rushing up to meet me. Darkness pulled me under.

The moment my head hit the ground, everything around me vanished. Darkness closed in, but instead of peace, I was pulled into a familiar nightmare.

I was in a car, my voice blending with others as we sang "Happy Birthday." The faces around me were blurred, smudged like forgotten details in an old photograph. I couldn’t recognize them, but one thing stood out—a silver necklace with a swirling pendant. It caught the light as we swayed to the song, gleaming like a beacon.

The joy felt distant, like it didn’t belong to me. Something was wrong.

Suddenly, the sharp blare of a truck’s horn shattered the moment. The sound was deafening, piercing through the laughter like a warning siren. Bright headlights flooded the car, blinding me, and then came the impact.

The car lurched violently, tires screeching as we spun. My stomach twisted as the vehicle flipped, tumbling over and over. Glass shattered, metal twisted, and screams filled the air.

Then silence.

I wasn’t in the car anymore.

I was falling—or drowning. I couldn’t tell. Water surrounded me, thick and suffocating. My chest burned as I fought to breathe, clawing desperately to reach the surface. My arms flailed, grabbing at nothing but empty space. Above me, the surface shimmered, just out of reach, taunting me with every desperate struggle.

Blood swirled in the water, tendrils of red curling around me like chains. Was it mine? Someone else’s? I didn’t know. My heart pounded as I sank deeper, the weight of the water dragging me down.

The necklace appeared again, floating in front of me. It gleamed brightly, its swirling pattern mesmerizing. I reached for it, but it slipped further away, just like the memory I was trying to grasp.

Then, everything shattered. I fell into cold, empty darkness.

“Rose!!”

“Rose!!”

“Are you okay?”

Ma’am Sarah’s voice shattered the silence, pulling me from the nightmare that still clung to me. My eyes snapped open, my body drenched in cold sweat, heart racing. I was on the floor, my head throbbing, the blood still fresh. The dream—no, the memory—was so vivid, it almost felt like it was happening again.

I sat up quickly, disoriented, and that’s when I saw the blood. My hand instinctively went to my head, the sticky warmth there, confirming it wasn’t just in my mind.

“What the hell is going on with you, Rose? Why are you lying in blood?” Ma’am Sarah's voice cracked through my disarray. I could hear the panic underneath her sharp words, but all I could feel was the tightening in my chest. The dream.

I blinked, trying to clear my head. "Did something hit you? Or did someone hurt you?” She was demanding, her voice rising.

Her harsh words didn’t reach me. The dream looped over and over in my mind, the blurred faces, the blood, the truck’s headlights blinding us as we lost control, tumbling toward the abyss.

My hands shook violently, and before I could stop myself, I threw myself into Ma’am Sarah’s arms. I didn’t care that I was sobbing, I didn’t care that I was falling apart in front of her. All I could think about was that feeling, the weight of the nightmare that gripped me.

“Please… don’t leave me…” I whispered through choking sobs, my voice barely audible, but desperate. “Please… don’t let go of me, Sarah... don’t let me go... I can’t go back there. I can’t.”

__

I was at the house clinic, staring at the sterile white walls. The ticking of the clock was the only sound in the room, and it felt like it was counting down my sanity. Have I gone mad?

The dream still clung to me like a shadow, every detail replaying over and over in my mind. The faces I couldn’t remember, the blood, the truck’s blinding headlights... Was it a memory, or just some twisted creation of my mind?

The door creaked open, and I looked up to see the doctor enter.

“Miss Rose,” he said gently, taking a seat across from me. “How are you feeling?”

I hesitated before answering, still shaken. “I... I keep having these dreams,” I began, my voice barely above a whisper. “But they don’t make sense. I’m sure I’ve never experienced what’s in them. There’s this accident, these people I don’t know... but their faces, their necklaces… they feel so real.”

The doctor nodded slowly, scribbling something down on his notepad. “I see. Tell me, have you had any major trauma or stress recently? Any significant changes in your life?”