Lady of Fire

II : BLOOMING DAFFODIL IN A SCORCHED LAND

¤ ♧ ¤

Still wearing the wounds the night he had from the very last night of his life of being a part of his grandfather's gang, Hue have ended the bond between him and his illegal inheritance from Nabil.

With a plaster on his left forehead on his thick brows, a bandage around his upper body and an aching whole body. Even after having the advice of the family's doctor to just stay put, he didn't listen at all.

He sits there at the guest's chair like he wasn't dead for a minute that night. Keeping his composure and posture, Hue leaned back to his chair with a wince from pain and watches how Nabil changes his expression when he dropped an atomic bomb right before his feet.

"You want to get out of the family, is that what you're saying?" The old Nabil repeated what he's trying to say.

Nodding his head, there's the certainty on his aura. He got to admit to himself that he can never live his whole life watching armed men kill those people who owed his grandfather the money they can't pay. Yet it wasn't just because of that.

That young woman from the last mission, her face, her eyes and her voice, it got stuck inside his head. The way she looked at him in fear, the way she spoke to him in deepwater. Somehow, she's the one to push him off the edge of being in the circle of criminals. Even if it means leaving this said "family" behind.

"Your mother died from poverty, Hue. Gail Palma was supposed to be still alive if she stayed with me, here in this house. She's my daughter and I couldn't bare losing her, but she's very pushy about it. And look at what happened to her, she died because she couldn't handle the responsibility." The old Nabil stared at his grandson, calculating his look. "If I let you go, in what way could you tell me that you're not going to end up like your mother?"

A small smile drawn on his lips before making eye contact with Nabil. "Simple, because I am me." He answered and lowered his eyes to look at the symbol of the gang, a black ring. He pulled it off of his finger and placed it above the desk. "I'm done with the job, grandpa. I don't want to count bodies anymore, I want a decent job." He explained further that itches the face of the old man.

A "decent job", it just doesn't fit in Nabil's vocabulary, it's an exotic word for him. "A decent job, huh?" He repeated while nodding his head slowly. "How?"

"The plan I have will stay with me, grandpa. I think it's time for me to keep up with my career and stop escorting the sweeper team." He chuckled softly and licked his lips wet.

Silence came in before Nabil clears his throat, still measuring the situation. "Are you sure that this is what you really want?" Nabil still gives him a chance to change his mind. "There's a lot of riches and wealth standing right in front of you when the time comes that you will take my place. Like how you wanted before, remember that? You told me you want sports cars, right? Casino clubs and all those stuffs."

Hue knows well that his grandpa is trying to convince him to change his mind. Yet he's decided. And once he get to spread his wings open, the first thing he's got to do is to find out what happened to the woman he couldn't kill.

"I'm old, Hue. And I'm in need of replacement to do this job. My own tomb waits for me at the backyard of this house, just beside your mother's grave." Nabil releases a heavy sigh before looking away. "I was actually expecting you to take this chair."

"You can have Zombie for that, I'm sure that he'll do better. He's older than me, worked better that I did. He can do things I can't, a lot of things." Shrugging his shoulders, he saw the way his grandfather twitches his lips.

Taking turns of decision, Nabil stood up slowly and looks over the window and see how wide his territory is. A ranch, a farm, hectares of farm to grow his agricultural cover for his illegal life.

"I'm sorry, grandpa. But I'm already decided. I'm leaving for good." Hue added and leaves the chair to stand. "I'm going back to the life my mother left me. But I will not make the same mistake as hers."

"Where will you go?" Nabil asked, keeping his back facing Hue.

"Home."

¤ ♧ ¤

4 years later...

"... and according to her resume, she's experienced with paper works. She once did clerking over a company before and she had a great review." Mrs. Brown, the HR head, explained the identity of the eleventh lined up interviewee.

"If she's that great, why was she fired then?" Massaging his head from the stress.

His second year of giving all his best to keep his company running, he have changed his secretary for the twenty-first time. The reason? No one knows but only him.

Scratching her head, Mrs. Brown has a dry throat but she's got no right to complain. She's being paid to find the right person to do the job he's offering.

And while she's shuffling for the next resume to present and openly skipped some, his eyes suddenly caught the face of a woman that capture his interest. One of the resumes Mrs. Brown left unread to him.

"Who's that?" He asked while pointing at at profile of an applicant.

Following the direction of his forefinger, Mrs. Brown took the paper and showed it to him. "This young lady is an inexperienced one, but when I interviewed her, she seems to be smart but she lacks of socializing skill. She must be an introverted woman but from my judgement, she's a very observant person." She shared, talking about the woman from the paper.

His eyes travels from the picture of the woman down to her file. The file states her name, Shia Rivers, she's 21 years old. She wrote not much information about her but everything's on point and directly spoke about striving to be in position. But her background isn't what made him curiouser. It's her face.

A bob cute hair that frames her blank face as her full bangs hides her forehead. Her eyes are as dark as the wings of a raven, showing how cold her gazes, colder than a glacier. Her button nose fits perfect to how thin her lips are, shaded in red. She looks an overall feminine type of a woman but shouts power through her face. Add that she wears a feminine suit, she's already spelling her name on the cross of dominion.

She looks real serious and pretty, a face that could blend in the crowd yet stood up before his eyes. But even how so her appearance snatches his attention, there's something in her that seems to leave a hole from her personality.

Those eyes, seems familiar to him. It's something that he wouldn't want to see every single day he live his life. There's something in her features that makes him find glimpses of his buried past to dig back up. But even how her eyes poking through his soul, it's not something that he have seen before.

"If she's that good, then why aren't you showing her file to me?"

Mrs. Brown clammed her lips before opening her mouth to speak. "Well Uh-- you told me that you're not going to hire a secretary with dark hair and eyes, Sir. So I only present blondies and red heads." She answered with an awkward chuckle.

Staring at Shia's picture attached on her file. She's different from the women that passed by his path.

Licking his lips, he drops the file above his desk and pushes it towards Mrs. Brown. Whether his decision is right or wrong, he already knows that he might mess up. Why? Because he's listening to his heart, the first time.

A man like him doesn't get worried about anything at all, why now?

"Call her, she's starting tomorrow." He told the old Mrs. Brown with a stoic look. He doesn't want to show what he really feels about this Shia Rivers, he has to keep his composure.

Trying so hard not to furrow his eyebrows, he started to wonder why is the hesitation comes in so suddenly when he finds the urge to hire the woman as his secretary? Yes, he's in need of assistance to do his work and it's on rush. And out of all people that tries to get in his company, he chose the woman that resembles the woman from his past.

No, this is not going to be a problem. Just a teeny tiny bit of banana peel on the floor that causes a massive negative butterfly effect. He knows that, but why is he still hiring her to be in position?

"Actually, Sir. She's at the lobby, right at this moment. She mentioned to me that she's frankly confident about getting in the company." Mrs. Brown gave him a look with a smile that shows amusement about the woman. "She told me earlier that she's ready to start working anytime. I liked her then, but your dislikes in appearance made it less clearer. Guess her confidence and wishful thinking made it happen." She added while piling all files above her lap.

With a lifted left eyebrow, he too got surprised with the confidence she's got. What is she, a clairvoyant or a claircognizant or something?

Thumping his finger above his knee under his desk, a curve of his lips escaped for a second there. The excitement in him awoken. Feeling the avidity to meet Shia Rivers in person and to know her more. She's mysterious, just like him. And he might need to think that he have finally found someone to equal how arcane of a person he is.

"She can start now by coming in my office with a cup of coffee."

With that, Mrs. Brown exited his office and leaving him to start the war going on inside his head.

What's wrong with him? Years have passed since it happened. Fours year to be exact since the day he decided to leave the shreds of criminal life his grandfather keeping.

The "Hue" of the past became the real him finally. To be the person his mother, Gail Palma, left behind when she died from depression. Hue came back to being the last him, his dyed brown hair was left to grow back the real color of curly white blonde. He's gotten more matured than he was with a lit of secrets. Living in a loud city in the middle of the capital, he found himself starting a new life with a money or his own.

And now it's quite successful and making it's way towards the top of business names. In return, his private life became a bit exposed to the public and making noise of his name. But after many times of press trying to pry in his life, his doors were never opened to welcome them. And so he's a huge mystery.

Four years of learning how to bury deeply the past that haunts him bad, just like what some people says, every buried secrets will have a chosen one to dig it up and expose it back to the surface.

And this time, his buried memories that he never wanted to remember, has now found its chosen one named Shia Rivers.

A knock on his door stopped him from thinking through a lot of stuffs in his head and shouted a "come in". Knowing who might be the person behind that door, he shifts his hazel eyes on the screen of his laptop and pretends that he's busy.

The sound of twisting knob made him straighten his back and clears his throat.

The moment she entered the office, the whole minty plain room abruptly became a garden full of blooming and fresh roses, so sweet to sniff it like a dog. The tacks of her stilettos tick it's way closer and closer to him like the sound of a clock in an empty, echoing room.

"Coffee, Sir. Mrs. Brown didn't tell me what kind of coffee you'd prefer so I ordered this." Her voice sounds like angels playing violin while the gates of heaven opens up for him.

Collecting all his courage to help his head to raise it, his eyes found hers. And just like how she looks like from her profile, she looks totally the same, only that her bangs has a little opened curtains than what was on the picture.

"Espresso in the morning." Her lips doesn't have any smile on it, it's like it costs the whole world to bring a little bit of curve on it. The beauty she holds is inviting, yet her expression isn't. It shows otherwise.

"Thank you, that would be fine." Clearing his throat, he gestured his hand on the guest's chair. "Please, have a sit, Ms. Rivers." He offered and she obliged without a word.

Having a quick check on her, she's wearing a maroon suit with a white buttoned down shirt inside. The tie she wears completes the conservative style in her, yet her face brings it to a conclusion of her masculinity.

"Say that you've come to this day waiting for your name to be called up, is that right?" Leaving what he's doing, he sits there at his swivel chair with his back straighter than a ballet dancer and his sweaty hands are tightly clasped above his desk.

"Yes, sir." She replied with a nod of her head.

"Your confidence brought me closer to keeping you in hand, are you willing to start your job today?" He asked, matching her cold-blooded visage.

"I am, sir." Shia answered, straight to the point and without any faltering at all.

Licking his lower lip, he nodded his head. "Then why don't you start by getting briefed further by Mrs. Brown. You can find her on 17th floor at the HR department, tell her that I sent you there." He grunts and shifts his bottom to his seat.

Standing up, Shia nodded her head showing gratitude by saying her thank you.

"And, Ms. Rivers?" It's not necessary but he just got to say it. "It's Mr. Palma, Kai Palma."