Chương 1: 01: PROLOGUE
Agatha
Sitting outside a convenience store with this cold weather did not make me any good. It's cold inside and it's cold out here, maybe because I'm wearing nothing except the workout clothes I have worn early today. I hugged myself tighter to protect myself from the wind and I tried to breathe in and breathe out to stabilize my nearly stopping heart.
This is the coldest place I've ever been, in the place where I grew up, it's more of short mild winters and long, hot summers. The chills that I'm feeling right now could be the lacking of clothes. I am wearing a plain white shirt over my black workout legging, and a running shoe or maybe, because of the things I saw today.
All I did is go out and do my morning run, I never thought I would come home and see the two people I cared the most in this world, sleeping together on my bed, naked. My boyfriend and my best friend. You heard me right.
I didn't even bother waiting for them to get dressed and explain themselves. The moment I saw them, I bolted out, leaving everything behind including my sweater. I know it's stupid of me since I could get hypothermia in this cold weather, but who cares, I might die due to heartbreak anyway.
I felt hot tears in my eyes. I know my face is now blotched for crying too much. The two people that are supposed to be on my side turned their backs on me. I felt another tear escaped my eyes but it didn't reach my cheek. If it freezes already, I don't know. I breathed heavily trying to fight back the cold and heat I feel inside me at the same time.
New York is a beautiful place but for me, it will never be compared to the place where I grew up. My family lived on a ranch in Georgia. I'm an only child. When my parents died in a car accident when I was fifteen, it was written in their will that I should get the farm and everything in it. But unlucky that I was, they died very soon, not signing the will yet, and on top of that, my Aunt and Uncle worked their way so they can get what's mine, and I just woke up one day, I was the outcast in my own land.
I run away a year after mom and dad died and after a year of emotional, mental, and physical abuse from the relatives that should be supposed to be my guardian. My parents thought me to save when I was little, I was able to save up a few bills that I took with me when I run away.
Over the years, I lived my life one day at a time and tried to work my ass off so I can survive each day, out of my comfort zone. I lived with my best friend Stacey, we met from one of the five and dimes I worked in. Since then, we've always been together. She became the confidante I so long for since my parents died. She helped me emotionally, mentally, she was one of the healing salves, God sent to me until I met Martin a year ago. At the age of twenty-three, he became the first man in my life with who I fell in love.
Martin came from a good family. He was originally here from New York and just had a vacation in Georgia when we met. He stayed there for a year with me, and that's when I realized that he really loved me. He chose to stay to be with me, for the past year, we lived together with my best friend in a rented apartment in Atlanta, Georgia.
The three of us were inseparable.
Little did I know that between the three of us, I was the third wheel.
Martin offered me an opportunity here in New York City. For the past year that the three of us have been together, I'm the one who's working and I'm the one who's always eager to save money. He advised me to invest in one of their family businesses here in the city. He offered me a future here in New York. He made me picture out a life worth fighting for, a life worth living. He made me believe that he'll marry me one day and have children of our own and live happily ever after, and I believed him. I believed all that, because, with a girl like me who practically lost everything, it's the "Hope and Belief" that keeps me going.
With all the money I saved up and worked hard for, I decided and accepted his offer. And not wanting to leave my best friend behind, we asked her to come with us and she did.
That was two weeks ago. We flew all the way from Georgia to New York, for exactly 13 hours and 26 minutes, almost 866 miles from the town I will forever keep in my heart.
We rented a two-bedroom apartment in Bronxville. One room for Stacey and one room for Martin and me. I gave him the money I have saved for myself and he invested it all, and I was stupid enough to let him. And much more stupid by not noticing what's going on between him and Stacey.
Now with all my savings gone, together with my dignity as a woman that was crashed a moment ago, I am nowhere outside. In the cold. Alone. Broken-hearted and totally broke.
I have $3 left in my pocket. A too-small amount to buy at least a shawl to keep me warm. If only my parents didn't die, if only I didn't trust people too much like my relatives and my ex-boyfriend. If only I haven't met Stacey.
But now is not the time for "if only".
Now is the time I have to think about it. Now is the only thing that matters.
Now, what can a homeless 24-year-old woman do in Midtown Manhattan, without anyone, and without anything?
Whore myself? No way!
Ask money from passersby? Maybe.
Try to rob a bank? Definitely not.
Then a bright idea came to my mind. The best idea in fact. "Get your ass off this cold floor and move Agatha! You don't have all day." I told myself.
I smiled and hurried inside the store, and hoped my $3 would be well spent.
Shawn
I stood by the window of my suite as I look down on the busy street of Midtown Manhattan. People hug themselves to cover their bodies from the cold chilling winter. These times are the best times, spending it inside my home in Connecticut, drinking a hot chocolate, and binge-watch. But work is getting loaded now more than ever and my assistant run off two weeks ago, leaving me with a piled-up paper to sign and appointments I already lost count of.
How can a person just run off from work? A lot of people would die for this job and for the money I am ready to waste. Is it that hard to work for me?
I need an assistant as soon as possible.
I don't care how much I need to pay; I just need someone that I can trust, someone that will be reliable, and someone who would not run off when I raise my voice about their stupidity.
My mother on the other hand is also busy lining updates for me. She's so eager to have grandchildren that she wants me to marry anyone I lay my eyes on and I promised her that once I have an assistant that will run my errands and prepare my appointments smoothly, I will give a go to her matchmaking.
Being one of the highest profitable bachelors in half of the world is a title I cannot afford to lose. Most people say I got what I have from my family, yes, I came from a wealthy family. Lewis is known for being a business tycoon all over the world, but everything I have is a fruit of my blood and sweat and my hunger to have a good life.
SL Holdings Incorporated.
I was sixteen when I started this business. It took me only three years to have it established in the world. Big companies owe me money. Malls, restaurants, condominiums, none of them will be established without me, without the money I lend to them.
I also do want a family of my own someday, have a woman I can marry, and spend the rest of my life with, without thinking of work responsibilities and money to lose. Like many other men my age, I dreamed of having a woman by my side who will raise my successor. But most of the women I know are only after money and wealth, and the luxuries a man can give. Not generally, but mostly. I know, I've witnessed a lot of that in my career and every man I know has a story to tell. So maybe that's one reason I cannot bring myself to fall in love or settle down, yet.
My phone chimed and the sound took me out of my reverie. Alice, my work advisor sent me a text that plenty of applicants are waiting outside my office. This is one of the things I dread doing in my job, interview applicants. I know it should be supposed to be done by HR, but HR decided they'll do the screening and I'll do the interview, only for the personal assistant position, to make sure I know who will work for me before hiring them, which I agreed with on.
I put my phone back in my pocket, took my coat hanging on my chair, and went outside my suite.
Today will be a long day.
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