Chapter 75: Chapter 75

A chilling breeze sweeps across the terrace, sending our skin into goosebumps. Ara raises her arms and folds them tightly across her chest. She grits her teeth and looks at me; her body starts quivering.

“Zed, it gets too cold here. Can we get inside, please?”

Seeing that she’s not kidding, I drag my body from the floor and force myself to stand up. Ara immediately offers her hand, and I accept it. It may be shameful to show weakness, but I stopped fighting against my inner voice and allowed her to help me get into my room.

“Zed, this is not good. Please fight,” she says after we almost stumble forward because I hit a piece of furniture in a corner.

“I’m good, Ar. I’ll just have to sleep away. It’s been several days since I had a good sleep,” I tell her the truth.

Ever since Ella left, sleep has eluded me. The loneliness and the pain of her betrayal in marrying Dennis have gnawed up my battered heart. And now the news of Yen getting punished for things Kim will never understand adds up to the raw pain I am bearing up.

“Why don’t you buy some sleeping pills?”

“I don’t have time to see a doctor.”

“Why not buy decongestants or antihistamine instead? They can also induce sleep.”

I shake my head and curl my lips into a zipped smile. Anything non-narcotics can’t lull my miseries into sleep. While most people resort to numbing their pain with wine, I don’t. I tend to induce more pain instead until it numbs my senses.

Before I open my mouth to speak, a car engine roars to life, followed by the creaking sound of the opening and closing of the gate. My brows knit closer, wondering who had entered and left my premises.

“Ar, can you please check who that is? I don’t remember having deliveries today.” I turn to Ara, only to see her face contorting in fear and guilt.

“What’s wrong?” I ask her.

“It’s Ella. She asked me to check on you. We came here together, but she said she’ll stay in the car.”

“Are you sure?” I ask, my eyes sticking hard on her in disbelief.

“Yes. She even asked me to give you this,” Ara smiles, showing me a canister of melatonin. She opens the bottle, gently pours out a few tablets into the cover, then picks one and hands it to me.

A surge of happiness burst in my heart, confirming my belief that Ella still thinks of me. That the news of her marriage is just staged up.

“Now, you are smiling. So, I’ll leave. If you need anything, I’ll be in the guestroom.”

I nod and tuck myself beneath the covers. Whether it’s my welling emotion or the tablet, I feel my eyelids dropping the moment I close my eyes.

In the morning, I sit with Ara at the dining table. But before I came down, I took a quick shower, wiping away all the traces of grogginess from my system. Now feeling refreshed and invigorated, I realized how much sleep can do to your body and your mental state.

“How are you?” Ara asks, shoving a cup of coffee in front of me.

“A lot better.” The sound coming from the huge TV set muffles her voice, but I still nod and smile.

“I believe Ella’s coming marriage with Mr. D is just a business deal. It’s not too hard to analyze how James’ mind works. Of course, Mr. D works for Kim.”

“I don’t understand”, Ara replies, knitting her brows. But before I open my mouth to explain, the voice of the anchorwoman catches both our attention.

“Kim Yuan Microelectronics has announced its permanent cancellation of product launching for this quarter,” says the anchorwoman in her tight-hugging business suit.

I furrow my brows and fix my eyes at the beautiful news anchor. What’s happening?

The company has never failed in its quarterly product launching. After their product release last quarter, the company has even dropped hints about a coming product that will surely hit the writer’s world.

“The Writer’s Pad, a software that Kim Yuan’s Microelectronics has pre-announced two weeks ago, is launched by Jamella Tech instead, surprising the technology industry. So naturally, people start to suspect something fishy about this. Making the situation sound worse, a netizen who chooses to be anonymous has fed some information that Jamella Tech is now primarily owned by one of the software engineers of Kim Yuan Microelectronics.”

I hold my breath. What the hell is going on?

“Some analysts say that Jamella Tech has bought the loyalty of Kim Yuan Microelectronics’ software wizard. While some also think that an insider steals the design. However, we are still waiting for the clarification of these issues.”

“But one thing that pulls up the puzzle is the marriage announcement between Miss Ella Sahara, the previous owner of Jamella Tech, and Mr. D, one of Kim Yuan Microelectronics’ software designers.”

Despite the sudden pain, I turn to Ella, who sits like a statue across from me. I wonder if she understands anything about the news. But her stare is empty, her breathing shallow.

“Ar, what’s going on?” I ask. However, I see this as an act of revenge. Shame on James! Even if Kim is my rival, he doesn’t deserve this unlawful revenge. James is the one committing the crime; thus, he should have conceded to his fate.

Ara only shakes her head and looks at me. “No idea, Zed. What I only know is that Ella wants you to escape discreetly from the country.”

I smile. If I will, she has to be with me.

The launching of the Writer’s Pad could have been another breakthrough for Kim Yuan’s Microelectronics. It is a software that converts a human’s handwriting into typed words. It has over a million fonts in about 300 colors. It also converts into 200 languages with 98% accuracy. Thus, it’s easier for writers who love to handwrite first before typing them. With features as advanced as this, Kim Yuan Microelectronics won’t easily give up on this creation without a hard fight.

Speaking of Ella, my thoughts fly immediately to her. It must be hard for her to comply with James’ demands and be the subject of Kim’s revenge later. A stabbing pain seizes my heart, but I know I must be numb and blind to her emotional needs. Or else I will be making everything difficult for her.

Now seized by a sudden and deep longing to see her again, I rise from my seat and storm off to the monitoring room. I wonder how she looked while waiting for Ara to come down to give her updates of my whereabouts. She misses me, and so do I.

My heart starts accelerating after entering the date and time into the CCTV monitor. I’m too excited to see her!

I then see her with a heavy bulge, stepping gracefully out of her car while looking at the second floor. She then checked her phone, perhaps reading Ara’s update about me. I then see her taking a deep breath before she hurries in the direction of the entrance. But what surprised me next was her coming out a few minutes later, struggling to lift a painting!

I swiftly zoom the frame, only to see that it’s the one I hide in the locker – the portrait of a father and a child!