ROSE

Unedited

Chapter 1

ROSE

“Rose. . . Rose. . .” I heard his raspy voice coming from behind me.

Where I should find him, I mumbled to myself. As I spun around to discover where he was, I saw thousands of spruce trees ahead of my eyesight.

Again, I overheard his voice piercing from behind one of the trees “Rose, come and find me!”

His voice came penetrating through the ruffles of the millions of the leaves singing into my ear. I didn’t know where I was. I hadn’t even bothered to know where I was. Whenever I was with him, he made me feel safe and cherished and most importantly, loved; despite the unbearable circumstances and complexities.

Soil smell was hitting my nostril very strongly, and it was oddly comforting me in the green forest. The trees which were surrounding me, the sounds of distant and near birds, the buzzing of insects, made me feel less lonely in the forsaken forest. Sun was peeking through the leaves. All I could see was greenery behind the mist. I inhaled deeply, filling my lungs with the smell of earth. Now, I was ready to find him.

“So, you want to play hide and seek? Wait, till I find you!” I’d avowed to the one who was hiding behind god knows which one of the trees while seeking for him.

I ran around the woods to look for him, relishing our little game simultaneously. I could scarcely see anything ahead of me because of the fog. Out of the blue, while I was looking for him, resilient and brawny arms held my waist from behind me. I was startled at first. The energy which was radiating from him, secure me in the place. I knew it was him. The butterflies began titillating in my stomach as he continued holding me. I felt his chin relaxing on my right shoulder. I could feel his devotion while being in his embrace.

His hold on me wasn’t hard, but it melted my heart in a perfect way like chocolates melt on heating. His love melted my soul and solidified and mounded it into the way he wants. Into the way, he can guard and keep me eternally.

I could feel his undying love for me by the way he held me. I could feel his fear of losing me. That was all I wanted in my life - his love, his care, and him.

He held my shoulder and whirled me to face him. Cupping my face gently, he bent his face toward me to kiss me. I knew he was going to kiss me. A girl would automatically know when a boy is going to kiss her. Instincts, you know!

Because of the sun rays, which had been directly targeting my eyes, I couldn’t observe his face, acutely.

Because of the sun rays, I couldn’t open my eyes fully, and the only thing which was evident to me on his face was his green eyes. Those eyes were so richer in beauty and filled with the depth of love that I wanted to drown in it if I could. His eyes were telling so much that the words couldn’t even describe and name them. He did not need to say any words because I read it in his eyes. He wanted me.

His gaze penetrated my soul and undeviatingly hit right in the middle of my heart with full force.

I was intently waiting for him to kiss me. Our lips were about to meet each other, and at that exact moment, my alarm started singing.

God, I never despised and cursed my alarm that much.

“What the hell. . . Our lips were almost touched, and you started your stupid music.” I was expressing my annoyance to my alarm, clutching it deadly in my hands.

Yeah, you can call me crazy for reprimanding my alarm.

I had a habit of talking to my things. Keeping my alarm at the dark mahogany next to my bed, I stole a look outside the window. Waking up to seeing the ocean is always the best thing. Sun wasn’t shining brightly in the sky. So it was a brand new day for a brand new beginning. Every day is a day to start to a new beginning.

I indolently got up from my bed and headed towards the balcony which was attached to my room. A cool zephyr brushed my face when I slid open the glass door.

It was the month of November. I was sitting on the chair on my balcony and was doing unfinished work of my office when I heard a sound of a baby crying. I left all my work there and ran back into the bedroom. She was crying vehemently, that it would shake up the whole neighborhood. Her tiny hands were cycling in the air. I tried to hush her, but it was of no worth. She just wouldn’t quit yowling.

She was hungry. Taking her in my arms, I marched into the direction of the kitchen. I prepared a bottle of milk for her while carrying her on the one side of my waist. In the middle, I’d bounce her up and down to play with her. After checking the warmness of the milk, I placed it in her mouth. After drinking some milk, she yawned and drifted into sleep again.

She was Amora, almost two years old, with blonde hair just like me and captive and magnificent blue eyes. Amora was the only one I had in the world. Her, too, if that’s half dead woman counts in. If it wasn’t for Amora, I might have died long ago and you, wouldn’t have been listening to this story. She made me happy just by looking at her angelic smiley face. Because of her, I gained the strength to live this insignificant life. She was the only one for whom I was living. My happiness, my life, my world, my everything; it was her. Solely her! My world revolved around her. I hadn’t comprehended when she grew to become the center of the world to me. Her smile made me smile. Her tears crumbled my heart.

As Amora was napping, I headed to the bathroom to get fresh. I brushed my teeth and took a hot shower. I let the warm water soothe my body and mind for more than ten minutes. I try to keep his memory at the back of my mind under the hot water. I decided not to let his face consume my mind again. I punched the wall pretty hard to allow the pain to ravage my body and turned off the shower.

Sheltering a towel around my body, I stepped into the closet to search for my dresses. My closet wasn’t huge, but enough for my stuff. Choosing gray co-ordinate set, I slipped into it. It wasn’t casual because of the stern look I looked professional office worker.

The top was sleeveless, and because of the zipper on my back, it fitted me perfectly. Applying some nude lipstick, caking my face with light make-up, combing my hair and leaving it down and with that, I was ready for the office. Running into the kitchen, I began preparing breakfast for me. I was addicted to coffee. Every morning I needed a cold coffee, no matter what season it was. I also packed a couple of milk bottles for Amora.

Amora was up when it was almost time to leave the house. I gathered some of her warm clothes in the bag. I changed her diaper and clothes into the more warmer ones. In rushing, I put all scattered files in my office handbag.

Carrying her in my arms, I grabbed my handbag and the bag full of her clothes and left the house. We go into the garage, and pressing a button on my key, I unlock the car. I settled Amora in her baby car seat at the backseat of my Duster and put her stuff next to her. She liked traveling. Whenever I took her for a drive, it’d always made her happy.

After a minute of driving and arguing with Amora about which is the most delicious chocolates is, we finally reached Tove’s house. She was the one who took care of her when I was busy with my work in the office. She was the Amora’s nanny. More than her nanny she was like a grandmother to her. I never considered her as a nanny to her. She was in her late forties and lived alone. The wrinkles covered her face here and there, but still, she was infinitely lively than me.

Her children had already settled in Italy, leaving her here, in San Francisco all alone. They would only transfer the money at every starting of the month or in ending. She accepted to take care of Amora not because of money but for her love towards a kid. She loved her like her grandchildren if she had any. That poor old lady didn’t even know if she had any grandchildren. It made me felt safe to let Amora be with her.

We pushed the doorbell and waited for her to open the door.

“Here comes my baby!” Tove chirped in excitement as soon as she opened the door for us.

She would always welcome us with a wide grin. Being with Amora, Tove felt less lonely in her own house. Amora kissed me on the cheeks before I let her go in Tove’s arms.

“Nana!” Amora said aloud and snaked her tiny arms around her and kissing her on cheeks.

Walking in, I placed Amora’s stuff in the living room. Her place was tiny. With small living room attached to an open kitchen and one bedroom with a bathroom in it. There wasn’t a single frame of her children on the wall or anywhere in her house.

“Please take care of Amora and as well as of yourself,” I told her while kissing Amora on her forehead and gave Tove a warm hug.

It made Amora happy whenever she would see Tove. She was so thrilled to see her that she’d started hopping in her arms. A love toward her was apparent on Amora’s face.

Walking back to the door, I turned around to bid goodbye to Amora.

“Bye, baby.” I kissed her forehead lightly. “I love you.”

“Bye-bye, mama.” She said in her broken language.

After that, I left for my office. I was working at Horan Cosmetics as a Sales and Marketing head. It was among the top companies in the US.

I was head of the sales and marketing department because of my hard work just at the age of twenty-six. There was not a single thing that I couldn’t accomplish in my entire business life. You say I couldn’t do that. I would put my life into it to show you, how you should achieve impossible things. Now or later, but for sure I’d accomplish it. No matter what it is, I wouldn’t stop until I’d get what I want.

Some people called me Witch behind my back, but I didn’t care about that. I had never given any explanation to anyone for myself and why would I? They were no one to me, so, I didn’t care about their perspective on me.

I wasn’t like this before. I didn’t care if I had money with me or not. You had to change with circumstances. That’s what happened to me. Life changed me, the real life!

Before, I was living in fantasies. You have to come out of stupid and nonexistence fantasies to live in real life. Never be oblivion to live, or it could make your life living hell into this cruel world.

You have to step on everyone to get on the top, to survive this ruthless and merciless world. This world wouldn’t show you a heart for your heart. People would throw the stone on your kind heart and break it merely for their pleasure.

Soft-hearted people couldn’t be able to survive with the kind heart in today’s cruel and sinful world.

Eventually, your heart would fail to endure the cruelty anymore, and you’d die.

I couldn’t die.

I didn’t want to die.

I needed to live for Amora, for her, and for him. Even though, he wasn’t with me. I was waiting for him. I knew he would come to me. He wouldn’t like to see me broken. So I had to be strong.

People thought I came to where I was because of my charm. Youngers were jealous of my beauty and elders were jealous because I was their leader at the very young age. Although, others didn’t know that what I had gone through and how much dedication it had needed to gain what I had right now.

After I entered in our division, everyone greeted me with a good morning. Throwing a curt nod to everyone, I moved towards my room.

I was just a heartless and arrogant woman in their eyes. Because I’d never accepted a single mistake in the task, and sometimes I even spat harsh words on them. However, those tyrannies and strictness always lead us towards triumphs.

Following my arrival in the office, we had a meeting of a marketing team about the campaigns. We discussed the implementation of the marketing campaign. We determined to whom we’d be targeting for our current product.

I checked with our sales division about the sales graph by the end of the day. Last product sales were magnificent compared to the rest of the products sales. Amongst the women, cosmetics are the most common thing, and it is top on every purchase list. Sometimes a woman could forget to breathe, but they would never disremember to cake their faces with beautifiers. They’d apply the layer on layer till they’d think they look beautiful. Though they didn’t know to look beautiful, they didn’t need beauty products. In the process of being the beautiful person, they omit to be the real person.

After the same hectic day, I left my office and directly went to Tove’s house.

By the time I reached her house, the dinner was already ready. We had our little dinner time. By the half-past nine, Amora and I left. I messaged him as soon as I reached our home. He ordered me to at least message him whenever I went out and when I reach our home. He was in New York for a meeting with the client. After playing with Amora for another hour, I finally managed to put her to sleep. Switching off all the lights, I prepared to go to sleep as well.

I hoped the next day would bring something new.