[ Tristan ]Numbness is what I felt at the bottom of my heart. My father was gone in a blink. I had left him fine, reading newspaper in the garden and talking with the maids, and now, his coffin was being lowered in the ground right in front of my eyes.Reality dawned upon me.I am officially an orphan. The man who guided me in every step of life, gave love of both parents while dealing with his own loneliness, he is no more. I won’t be able to seek his guidance or share my problems over a glass of bourbon.I didn’t realise when tears rolled from my eyes when they began to fill the grave.“Tristan.” Claire’s soft voice and her gentle tap on my shoulder forced me to tear my gaze from the grave to her.She was also crying silently. There were many people, they came to say their last goodbye to a great man but I felt all alone.After the final prayer. Everyone passed their condolences to me before leaving one by one, the sky began to turn dark as evening grew into night. We buried Dad. I
[ Claire ]It’s been a week since we buried Thomas. We slowly moved on with our work and lives. Tristan talks very less, I gave him space to overcome his loss but it worried me how he shelled himself. Thomas advised me to stay close to Tristan because he might lose himself in his self agony.My work also took a toll over me. My father was making it difficult for me to work smoothly, he turned the senior staff against me who create hurdle in ongoing projects by putting their objections and I am running thin with my patience. I have to obtain a milestone to shut them and have an upper hand over them.“Ma’am, can we go for lunch, you skipped the breakfast today.” Miss Kim said as we buried ourselves in reading the reports submitted by the marketing team which didn’t look promising.I rubbed my throbbing temple and stretched my arms. My stomach growled with hunger.“I think you’re right. We need a break from this nerve wrecking study. We’re definitely sailing on a sinking ship, Miss Kim.
[ Claire ]I couldn’t shake my mind off from what I heard from Caleb. It was disturbing because nobody had ever mentioned to me about someone whom I loved. Who was the man? Where is he now> And most importantly, why he never bothered to contact me if he loved me?“No, Claire, you can’t trust Caleb. Perhaps, he is trying to play mind games with you.” I chanted this mantra to myself to convince me that he was lying but deep down I knew that he didn’t.How many undiscovered secrets of my past is being hidden from me and why nobody wants me to remember my past?“Mom, why are you staring at the wall for last fifteen minutes? Can you see ghosts?” Travis pulled me out of my trance and I realised that my gaze was zeroed on the wall in front of me. He was giggling.“No, I was stressed about the work, nothing to worry about and I definitely don’t see the ghosts.” I masked my stress and inner dilemma by a smile.“Can we play chess or video games if you are free?” He asked me with hope and I had
[ Tristan ]I blinked my eyes at my wife to process what she had just requested me. Caleb told her about her past’s love. I told him many times to not mention it in front of Claire because then, she’ll be chasing the blurred chapter of her life and according to her doctors, stress might have a reverse effect on her. I don’t want her to cost her life for her memories and right now, by the way her eyes hopefully looking at me, I knew she won’t sit quiet until she finds her answers.“It’s okay if you don’t want to help. I can understand that you’re dealing with a lot nowadays. Just forget it.” She said when she didn’t receive any respond from me.“Will you leave me if you find your true love?” I asked her because I wanted to know how she feels for me as a new person, for her I am still a stranger.“What kind of a question is this, Tristan? How can I answer you when I haven’t seen him yet?” She seemed speechless and unprepared to answer this.“It’s important for me to know, Claire. I am n
[ Claire ]Tristan promised to help me in finding my past’s love. I saw insecurity in his eyes and a certain fear danced in his eyes.“Why do I feel that Tristan likes me?” I asked myself, I was zoned out since our last night’s moments kept replaying in my mind. I couldn’t face him in the morning due to shyness. I initiated a kiss between us, I didn’t intend to but once we started, it ended in a passionate make out.“What’s happening to me?” I touched my cheeks, they were heated.A knock on the door forced me to shake my wild and unstable thoughts aside.“Ma’am, you won’t believe who is here?” Miss Kim, with an astonished face entered in my office.“Who is here? The president of the country?” I joked since I knew about Tristan’s plan.“No, your husband’s company’s CEO and his team of five. Did you have any knowledge about their arrival?” She asked me.“No, we don’t discuss business at home. Where are they currently? Are they meeting my father or the company has welcomed them properly
[ Claire ]“Ma’am, the food smells really delicious, we’re sure that Mr. Pierce will eat double tonight.” The maids giggled as I put the last dish on the counter and checked if everything was prepared.“I cooked my grandma’s special recipes. I hope he’ll like the food.” I said. I didn’t know I wanted him to love my food. I want to hear his praises.I put off the apron. I was smelling like spices myself. So, I decided to take a relaxing bath and shower before he arrives.“Please, check on the mousse and also arrange the table. I am going to shower.” I instructed them and rushed to my room. Travis was busy watching T.V. He was more excited than me when I told him that I’ll be cooking the dinner tonight. I really want to do something for both as they make my life more simple and pleasant.I took a long relaxing shower to get rid of sweat and tiredness. After the bath, I decided to wear a simple but elegant dress which doesn’t look over the top because I don’t want to give him a hint that
[ Claire ]Sleep was far from our eyes, we sat in the balcony, talking for hours. I enjoyed his company since he talked about many things and I was amazed to learn that he had travelled to half of the countries of the world. He can do many things, flying a small plane is one of them. We also talked business. He asked about my hobbies and we compared what we have in common but there were only few things.“It’s quite late, let’s sleep or we’ll be late for office tomorrow.” I said when I glanced at time, it showed 1:40 AM.“Tomorrow is Sunday, workaholic.” He reminded me and I slapped my forehead.“It totally slipped from my mind. I texted Miss Kim to prepare the schedule of tomorrow but she also didn’t remind me. I’ll apologize to her in the morning.’ I said with embarrassment.“It’s okay. She understands.” He patted my head and it was kind of cute.I had no reasons to leave so I sat there, we enjoyed the serenity of the night. The city never sleeps so the sky wasn’t dark and I like the
[ Claire ]“Mom, this is so much fun. I want to shot more balloons.” Travis clapped as we were on a toy shop, shooting the balloons for a big teddy bear but we failed at every attempt.“You both are losers. See, how I am going to shoot and win the big teddy bear in a single shot.” Tristan smirked giving us a stink eye like were real losers.Our mouth fell in an O shape and we glared him with crossed arms. Travis gestured me to give him my ear and he shared an evil idea with me to teach Tristan a lesson. I smirked as I thought of our plan.“You called us losers? Okay, you’ll do it and if you fail to win the teddy bear in single shot, you’ll have to do whatever we’ll ask you to do.” I challenged him.“Challenge accepted, losers.” He raised his collars and took the gun and aimed on a small balloon among big balloons of the same colour which had created ab illusion.“Hail for Mr. Champion!” We hooted.Tristan aimed the gun and narrowed his eyes for better position. We were eagerly waiting