As much as I visited Mikel during the two days he was at Navian's hospital, I made sure to avoid Navian. I carefully timed my visits for when I knew Navian would be busy or away.His assistance with Owen was much appreciated, more than I could say, but what had happened at Elena's party the night before had completely shocked me.I needed time to reflect and work through the conflicting feelings that were constantly racing through my head.Emily's voice cut through my thoughts, "The meeting tonight has been canceled, ma'am," pulling me back to reality.I said, "That's not good news," but I also experienced a slight sense of relief."But I could use some rest too. I'll leave early and go get Owen. You can close on time as well; it's been a hectic weekend.""Thank you, ma'am," Emily responded, her voice filled with gratitude.I nodded, though my thoughts were already drifting back to the party. What had really happened that night? Had Elena deliberately endangered Owen? I didn’t want to
"Anna, you're still shaking. Why are you still shaking? It has been more than an hour already, ”he said concernedly.He had been trying to figure out what was going on inside me, but I could not bring myself to tell him.The terror inside me was so great that the thoughts that I would say bubbled in my mind would seem impossible to put into words.Why do you look like you have seen a ghost, Anna? Talk already, you are driving me insane with your silence, he said raising his hand in exasperation."I… I…" I began to form words but the words died in my mouth like in a man who has an enormous dry throat. The fight within me was exceptional; it was as though by expressing it, I would be ripped apart from the inside.“First, let Owen go. You’re holding him too tight,” he said, Navian gently tried to take Owen from me.It was at this point that I became conscious of the fact that despite my anger owning Owen, it seemed he had tried wriggling so that he could let go of me.I was so tragicall
We suddenly noticed Owen was no longer in my office. He liked to play around the mall and would often go meet Emily, who I believe must have left by now.“Owen!” I immediately alerted Navian, panic gripping me as I scanned the empty office. The fear was instantaneous and overwhelming.We began searching frantically around the mall for Owen. We combed through every corner we knew he usually played in, but he was nowhere to be found."Back to the main hall," Navian suggested as our eyes met, his urgency mirroring mine.The main hall? My heart skipped a beat. Please, don’t be there, I silently prayed. I tried to reassure myself by thinking that Landen and Hannah must have left; after all, it had been over an hour since we last saw them.This thought calmed me a bit, but a lingering dread gnawed at my mind—what if they hadn’t left?As we hurried towards the main hall, I heard a small voice from the other end of the mall, pulling me out of my thoughts."Hey, let it go!" a little boy’s voic
Elena's steps were slow and elegant, but my heart beat in rhythm with them, thudding hard against my chest. Each step she took felt like a countdown to disaster, and I could barely breathe.If she began her usual drama right here, in front of Landen and Hannah, everything I had been working so hard to build would crumble in just a few seconds.They would see through the lies I had carefully constructed, and that would mean Owen would be in danger again.As she approached, her eyes locked on me like a predator sizing up its prey. Navian was still holding Owen, blissfully unaware of the storm brewing behind him.I pinched him lightly, trying to bring him back to reality. The dread on my face must have registered with him because his expression quickly mirrored mine."What the hell—" Elena started, her voice sharp as a blade, but before she could continue, she was interrupted."Miss Elena!" A man dressed in a sharp suit approached her, cutting her off mid-sentence.His posture and tone s
Going around the boutique to see how well everything was going today, sales had dropped drastically, and the thought of meeting Landen and Hannah never left me in the midst of that turmoil.The first thing that I noticed in the clothing racks was a few inches of his body height—Landen. Even in a horde, one could still pick him out from the back of the boutique effortlessly.A shudder while feigning a drink would have been less than my heart did with disbelief and agony buried deep inside me years ago. Why did he come back again? At least the last time we met there it was more of a coincidence than anything else as far as I was concerned.But this time when I saw him again there in this same spot, it dawned upon me that maybe it wasn’t pure coincidence after all. Perhaps he’d been searching for me?Running away was my immediate response; I didn’t want to face him anyway. But something inside me kept me standing there, no longer was I the woman he left behind—now she had grown stronger.
A faint click rang in my ear as the door of the boutique closed behind me, but that noise got lodged in my head and battled against my heart. I dashed out of the street as if I tried as much as possible to run far away from Landen.Even when I accelerated my pace and walked as fast as my legs would carry me, I was unable to run away from the strong emotions that were triggered by the sight of him.Gripping my bag which was made of leather and which was damp from my sweaty hands, my hands were shaking hard. I had believed he was gone and out of my life.I had assured myself that I had moved on, that the impacts he had brought upon me had faded away. The rush of realizing his presence was however very painful. There are feelings I managed to bury so deep, that I thought they were long gone and would never come to surface again.Pieces of our conversation played in my mind, and his voice moved with images of us to penetrate the threatening headaches. The way he gazed at me and the way h
Hannah’s POVLanden had been acting strange for days now. Initially, I thought it was just stress from work but after observing him closely I became convinced that there was something deeper than that.He always appeared to be preoccupied with other things even when we were together. This made him seem far away yet near because he was never fully present in our midst and this started to irritate me.In the living room, Jasper played quietly with his toys on the floor and I could not resist checking out Landen every now and then. He sat in his favorite armchair staring blankly at a wall while holding an unopened book for half an hour or so.His forehead creased but there was no visible reason for this tension as he seemed to be carrying some heavy burden within himself“Landen?” I called softly, hoping to snap him out of his reverie.“Hm?” His head jerked slightly as if he had just remembered where he was. He looked over at me, his eyes dull and distant.“What is it?”“What’s going on
Anna’s POVLike an unwanted ghost from the past, the invitation had shown up in the mail. An exquisite invitation to an elite social event in the city, written in a golden envelope with fine script.The type of gathering where entrepreneurs mingled and struck up business over cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. It was the kind of thing that individuals like Hannah and Landen would surely end up at.I spent hours staring at it and considering my alternatives. It was an excellent chance. I had been putting a lot of effort into building my business, and going to this event might help me reach people I haven't even tried to reach yet.However, it also seemed like stepping into a trap.I knew Landen and Hannah would be there. I knew the moment Hannah saw me again, she’d start digging into my life. She’d start wondering why I was still alive when she thought I was long dead.I wasn’t ready to face them again. Not yet. Maybe not ever.At the window I stood clutching the invitation tightly in my ha