Leanna-Chapter 252: [LEANNA] 2

Side Story 2

Year 2020

"What do you think are these? What kind of drafting is this? You’re already four years in this company, but you still draft like a newbie! I don’t even know what you’re doing this past years that nothing seemed to improve your work. Do you have peas for brain?"

Jun, my superior, a certified terror wanna be with no brains and all mouth, lectured and embarrassed me in front of everyone to hear.

He shoved the papers on his table and swiveled his chair like a wannabe boss. "Re-draft those!" was all he said before he focused his important self on his monitor, pretending to busy his lazy ass.

I restrained rolling my eyes. With a poker face, I stomped my way back into my cubicle and re-layout those he thought were not worthy in his eyes.

I didn’t know why I was even doing it. I knew that after all the re-drafting, he would just humiliate me again to make himself feel important as he fed his ego.

I wish I can re-layout his face, so at least there is something to like about him. Even if it is just superficial.

I sighed through my mouth, exhaling all the stress and negative energy inside me so I could still hold myself together and wouldn’t commit murder.

There was this tiny line, holding myself from the dark side and any more of this unwarranted embarrassment and boasting of egos at my expense, and I swear –– I will sabotage this project!

I sighed again.

Rich people sure have it nice. I mused as I stared at the morning news on my web, being careful that egoistic fool of a boss wouldn’t notice me surfing the net.

----VIOS launched another software to aid designers to conceptualize buildings in a 3D settings using virtual reality----

I stared full of jealousy and bitterness on the face of the cold, handsome man who could make all women kill each other for his attention.

Cain Fay

Beside him was a stunning beauty who no woman would ever compete with, Holly Goldwood –– his wife.

Perfect couple.

Perfect lives.

Perfect . . . everything.

While I continue to rot in here, suffering every day from a being who fed on his ego and made himself felt good at the expense of others.

Life is unfair.

I sneered and closed the net. The bitterness in life made me want to become a terrorist and bombard everything to dust.

----

Year 2040

"What’s this?" I asked without an inch of emotion on my no-nonsense face.

"Uhmm . . . the details of the canopy at breezeway," said a girl with her trembling lips. She seemed unsure whether to burst out crying or to run away from me and never returned.

"You call these details when there aren’t any details at all?! Not even a single section!"

"Excuse me," interrupt my boss, who was a senior architect than me as he pointed at his watch, signaling it was time for the seniors meeting.

"We’ll discuss this when I get back." I breathed, ignoring the girl’s sigh of relief. I went to the meeting room with my heels clicking hard against the floor.

My life finally became stable after being a senior architect with a high paying salary. But with my family member’s dying one after the other, life became meaningless. Not to mention, I’d long passed my expiration date, so no men wanted to engage with me, except for those one night stands and those who wanted my money.

Not that I need men in my life.

As days passed by, life became more boring coated with shit full of stress and bills. Made me wonder why I was even living. But of course, I was not suicidal. I just gave up on this mundane dull realm full of nothing but stress. I was like a robot doing my everyday work without any shred of emotions left in my system.

"The trip to New York is this week. I hope everyone has already packed. This meeting is to discuss the workload you will leave behind while you are attending the seminar. I hope you already turned over your works to your second in command," the head senior announced once we were all inside the meeting room.

I refrained a sigh and suppressed the rolling of my eyes.

We were going to New York to attend the launching and seminar of the new design software of VIOS that used tablets to create projections and holograms to conceptualize buildings.

I didn’t hide my disinterest on my face. I no longer held any love nor passion in this field. It was burned to cinders together with my feelings of joy, hope, excitement, love, and what not –– leaving only the bitterness in life inside an empty shell of a body.

---- 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

New York, VIOS Tower

My fingers tap against the table, looking all bored and lifeless at the host doing all the introduction on the stage. I covered my mouth when a yawn threatened to escape. I then opened my phone to play something to keep me entertained and awake.

I got to say that the building took my breath away. Not in a beautiful kind of way, but in an awe amazement kind of way that I literally held my breath when I took all its grandeur in one sweep.

Inside the building, there were projections and holograms. No need for tangible things, sensors and infrareds were the latest in’s. It was like a modern high tech sci-fi with screens popping out from the air. Speaking holograms. Different gadgets, displaying games software. Tiny pieces of jewelry, displaying projection screens. Some robots, a car which literally floats and all others I didn’t know.

There was even a hologram of a city on top of a gigantic column. I don’t know why anyone wanted a city so high in the sky –– unless the ground was no longer habitable.

For a moment, I thought that the feelings of excitement and admiration came back to me, which made me feel human again –– but it was gone after a second.

We were guided inside a spacious hall where gigantic dazzling chandeliers and carefully laid exquisite linen table cloth, suggesting fine dining, and cock-tale dresses and tailored suits coupled with waiters dressed in butlers’ suits, greeted us.

Then I lost my interest when the host started to talk and entertained everyone.

My attention flicked on my phone.

GASP!

My head rose upon the series of gasps and ’oh my’s.’ Then my eyes were attracted to a pair of long slender legs, and like in slow motion, they traveled up to the man’s well-tailored suit. To his Adam’s apple. To his chiseled jawline. To his sensual lips up to his proud nose.

Each movement, my heart beat hard against my chest until my eyes saw his frosty ones. My heart slammed against my rib cage, and my spine buckled as I gasped for air.

Such unfathomable frosty aquamarine pair of eyes.

Cain Fay

The Emperor himself in the flesh was the one speaking and giving the seminar!

Everyone could hardly get over their shock as they stared at the godly man with mouths hanging open.

Who wouldn’t be surprised? The big boss of VIOS was personally giving the speech. A man who even the president of a country could hardly meet! Much less us, nobodies slaving for others for their scraps of money.

Cain Fay was already nearing his fifties, but he showed no sign of aging at all. In fact, being middle-age only added to his appeal. Most of the women emitted this heat that I was too familiar with as they batted their eyelids at him. I even smelled their heat! Wait, felt their heat! As the temperature grew a few degrees warmer.

Or is it just me?

Hmp! It paid off to be so rich. You can preserve even your beauty. I bet he had gone multiple surgeries to look this good.

I thought bitterly, yet my heart said otherwise. This specific organ had done nothing but slamming hard against my chest. Constricting every so often that I thought I was having a heart attack ever since I heard his voice that only time could make it sound so deeper and manlier.

I reached for my chest, hoping to stop it from beating so violent. I couldn’t believe that my once dead heart could beat like a teenager after taking a glimpse of her crush.

I’m already in my forties for heaven’s sake!

I lowered my head when my eyes moistened as my heart tightened. I didn’t know why I wanted to cry. But I was on the verge of it. The unspeakable feeling of sadness and unacceptance overwhelmed me.

Sadness? Why am I even sad?

I thought that nothing could make me sad anymore after the death of my parents and the twins. But this feeling of crashing sadness and longing made me feel suffocated and breathless.

I murmured my excuse and went to the toilet to calm myself.