At first there was music. It echoed inside the white room before screams and shouting assaulted Lily’s senses. She opened her mouth to say something but no words came from her mouth. She clutched her throat, desperately trying to scream, yet it was futile.
She stumbled, her limbs turning weak. “What was happening?” she asked herself as her gaze became hazy. She eyed the door a few feet away from her. She needed to leave this place. Lily started crawling. Her body felt weak yet she persisted. Then she froze.
She could smell the rustic smell of blood before she could even see it. Her eyes roamed around the room, and there it was. A small drop of red in the corner of the room. Then she heard the sound of liquid dripping. She eyed the ceiling and trembled when she realized that the once white ceiling had now turned into a puddle of red.
She needed to leave this place! She continued to crawl. Why did it feel like she had crawled for hours? Why did it feel like she hadn’t moved an inch away from that blood? Panic rose within her as the pitter-patter of the drops of blood behind her intensified.
She needed to leave. She needed to leave now!
Lily trembled before she jolted up. Sweat trickled down her forehead.
“Hey… are you alright?” Zhou Jingren sat beside her and turned on the bedside lamp. “Are you okay?” he asked. She nodded in response before meeting his eyes. Seeing her face, Zhou Jingren pulled her into a hug. She felt him wipe her forehead with one hand as his other arm circled around her. Reminding her that he was there next to her, “I’m here,” he uttered.
“Hmmm,” she nodded and closed her eyes. The erratic beating in her chest slowly calmed down. “It was a funny one.” She ended up telling him about the dream. The latter listened to her words before getting her a bottle of water.
“Do you want to see a doctor?” he asked. Zhou Jingren feared that Jack’s death might have affected Lily more than he thought. While Lily was showing that it did not affect her, Zhou Jingren feared that she was just trying to lie to herself. Killing someone was never easy.
“No, I’m good,” she sighed and stared at him. “How do you do it?” Lily managed to ask after a few minutes of silent deliberation.
“Do what?”
“Forget,” her voice was as steady as her eyes.
“You don’t,” his hand caressed her cheeks. “There is no way to forget things. You just get used to it, and learn to live with it.”
Lily pursed her lips and nodded at his words. There was no forgetting things, only getting used to them.
“I am here for you,” he uttered. Zhou Jingren knew that Lily did not need any other assurance from him. However, a simple reminder wouldn’t hurt either. “You know that right?”
She nodded silently. She knew this man would never leave her. She stared at his gentle gaze as she wondered if he wanted her to tell him more, if he wanted her to tell him her thoughts.
“You can tell me… once you are ready,” he leaned down to kiss her lips.
“Can you read my mind?” she chuckled. How could he just say stuff as if he knew what she was thinking?
“I can’t.” He gave a low laugh. He didn’t need to know what she was thinking. Lily’s anxiety was painted all over her face. But he decided not to tell her this. Instead, he pulled her closer into his embrace. “Sleep. I am here.”
……………………..
Lee Group Head Office
The emergency board meeting was called by Thomas to discuss the matters pertaining to Zhou Jingren and Lily. He knew that somehow, Ron had already convinced the board to kick Lily out of the company.
Lily was a threat. That was the reasoning that the old man used to manipulate all the major shareholders to rally against Lily and Zhou Jingren.
“We don’t need someone like this in the company,” one of the shareholders said in disgust when he heard about Lily’s offer to sell her shares back at an extravagant price. “This is illegal.”
Of course, they had not told the board about Lily’s threats.
“Something must be wrong with this woman’s thinking,” another shareholder chimed in. He gave Thomas a suspicious gaze. “She wouldn’t be this confident if she didn’t have any leverage against us.”
“Well… she threatened to sell her shares to the competitor at a lesser price,” Ron said. “This is the reason why we called this meeting. Her threats are alarming. We need her gone from this company as soon as possible.”
“You said that she also included Zhou Jingren and his mother’s shares?”
“Yes,” Thomas answered. “I always thought it was less than forty percent. However, after talking to the lawyer, we discovered that they have a total of forty two percent.”
“Forty two? Does this mean… she could be the biggest shareholder of the company if she got Zhou Jingren and Zhou Dae Un’s shares under her name?” Gasps and murmurs echoed inside the room.
“Gentlemen… I just don’t understand one thing… why are we so adamant about kicking her out? Isn’t she a tycoon? Isn’t this great for the company? I’m sure she wouldn’t want to bankrupt us just because her husband didn’t have a good relationship with the late director, right? After all, she is a businessman.”
“Mr. Wang, what are you saying?” Ron’s face turned ugly. “I can tell you more than five reasons why she is bad for the company, but I know you already know this. The only thing that I can tell you now is that an acquisition could happen if we let her stay. And all of us here know the effect that it could have on our company, right?”
“Right,” a soft voice echoed inside the room, prompting everyone to turn their heads towards the entrance of the conference room. And there she was…
A woman, wearing an all white suit with an irritatingly beautiful smile plastered all over her face.
“Lily!”
………..
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