CHAPTER 1

Chapter 1

Eliza sighed as her lips bent to a deep frown.

“Go on vacation they said, it would be fun they said. Now look what happened.” She said to herself.

Her eyes trailed to the phone in her hand, the call log dialing her contact ‘Lyric’

“You best better pick up.” She muttered. But the call went straight to voice mail which only fueled her anger as she threw her phone behind her.

“Damn it Lyric!!” Eliza caused at her friend.

She was making a trip back to her house from the airport after her supposed ‘trapped’ vacation to Bora Bora.

Lyric, Eliza’s best friend had forced her to leave her work as a private research botanist with the government labs.

Eliza had being recruited from the university, and she had being working there since she graduated.

Her social life, love life and shameless night-life were non-existing. Lyric could bet on the heavens and the earth that she was probably the only one in her lab that has never taken a day off since she began working for them.

Which was why she was able to go on a full one-year vacation without being bothered.

But Eliza being Eliza asked for something to do while still on vacation, which they gave her, but bare minimum.

Eliza sighed as she eyed her phone on the back seat hoping it would ring or even light up.

It was really weird and also worrisome for her, as she had being trying to get in call with Lyric for a while, or to be exact, for the past seven months.

And when she would call her work place or her apartment, they would tell her she just stepped out, or she was seen this morning and she should try again.

It annoyed her, but now she was back, she was ready to drill Lyric for the nonsensical stunt that she pulled.

Eliza turned the nub of her radio to listen to some news. The radio waves made slight scratchy sounds as she continued to change stations until she found one.

“Coastal Waves FM”

Yes, Eliza wasn’t exactly the sociable, but that didn’t mean she didn’t like listening to the gossip about rich people and some of their idiotic life choices.

To her, it was her version of ‘fun’. Just to sit back, listen, and give her unsolicited opinion and also throw in some jabs here and there.

“…and now, to the story everyone is talking about,” The soft voice of the female host came in.

“That is right, Vanessa” Her male co-host chimed in. “It seems one of the billionaire bachelor, Kael Blackthorn, has done it again and has won the people’s heart.”

Eliza rolled her eyes at the name. She wasn’t living under a rock as she knew who that man was.

“Kael Blackthorn”

She had always wondered what sort of name was that and it didn’t sound English. But it wasn’t like she knew him personally to ask him.

“It sounds more like a fantasy movie name… like Targaryen or Stormborn and the likes.”

Vanessa’s voice returned, high with excitement, “Just yesterday, Kael surprised an entire coastal village by funding their struggling fishing industry—”

Blocking them out she definitely thought something was fishy about the situation.

No pun intended.

“…Well, with the net worth of over ninety billion, he probably can.”

“Life sure is dandy for him. Maybe that’s why he is unmarried. He is probably paranoid that some gold-digging woman would come and snatch half of his fortune or something.” Eliza said, steadying her hands down the rocky path.

She had followed the woods to cut off the traffic at the main road, which was why everywhere was hard and bumpy.

Seeing her phone light up in the backseat she quickly turned around half expecting it to be her friend Lyric.

Eyes off the road, she placed her hand on the fingerprint scanner to open her phone.

To her utter dismay she saw that it was empty and was merely a notification from the P*******t app.

“It sure keeps your notification rolling.” She muttered as she let out an annoyed hiss.

Bringing her attention back on the road, she noticed a figure stumble out of the woods to the front of her car.

But before she could hit the brakes, her car hit the person, sending them to the ground a couple of distance from her.

Her heart began beating wildly as her Honda Civic finally rolled to a stop.

She held on the staring wheel like her life depended on it. Lifting her head up a bit, she peeked throw the wheel to see if the person was moving.

They were not.

“No, No, No. I killed someone.” She muttered anxiously under her breath. Her heart didn’t stop beating in fact she was sure she could hear it beating through her ears.

“I should leave. I should leave here. I can’t possibly go to jail for a crime that was a complete accident.” She argued with her morality,

“Yes! It was an accident. I should leave.”

Concluding her argument, she tugged on her gears, pulling it to reverse. As the car rolled back she eyed the body that laid still on the rock ground.

She silently hoped it would move so that her guilt wouldn’t eat her up.

“What are my doing? I should move now that I still have the chance.” She whispered. But she held her foot on the break as her conscience bit at her to do the right thing.

She sighed. “I could take him home and give him first aid… Before taking him to the hospital and claiming to have seen him just laying on the road.”

Eliza nodded, having her strategic lie in the bag. She pushed open her door, and made the dreadful walk towards the person. Upon seeing them, she realized that ‘them’ was a ‘he’.

Kneeling close beside him, she analyzed his wounds. This tie she wasn’t trying to get out of her situation of hitting him, but, seeing the wounds Eliza knew there was no way the injuries on him were caused by her vehicle.

Looking around, she wondered if there were people around that were fighting.

“I should just take him home and treat him. But… what if he is like those serial killers in the movie that will sexually assault me and eat my flesh.”

Now her thoughts were only running wild for no good reason.

She sighed sitting on her heels, “I will take my chances. At least I have poisonous plants in my house—”

Pointing at him, she continued, “Try anything funny… and you die a slow poisonous death.”

Lifting his arm, she soon realized how large and heavy of a man he was, and she knew she couldn’t lift him.

She groaned, feeling annoyed at the continuous task that she had to do. Going back to her car, she drove closer to him, this time taking him by this ankle she dragged him like a sack of potatoes into her car and shut it behind her.

“You better not be a creep.”