Millicent Inc. is one of the country's most successful conglomerates with interests in business development and management, both retail and manufacturing, real estate development, banking, tourism and many other fields.
With over hundreds of branches nationwide, the corporation is the dominant player when it comes to the kind of services that they offer. The foundation has various areas of advocacy, including scholarship programs, building schoolhouses, a mall-based outreach program, health care, hospital activity centers and other community projects.
As of this moment, the Board of Directors is conducting a meeting to deliberate over the company's future plans. The one who's leading this group of distinguished individuals is none other than the main proprietor himself, Adrian.
Dressed up in a lavish formal suit, he's presently taking the spotlight, discussing one topic to another. His neat light brown hair gleams a compelling luster once streaked by light while his ocean blue irises remain breath-takingly transfixing even when deeply focused.
At one point, though, his eyes can't help but stray to one empty seat at the front, which just turns out to be his wife's.
"What's taking her so long? She never ran late before..." Adrian wondered silently, recalling how his wife decided not to go together with him this time.
"She's also acting a bit strange these days."
He remembers how Cassidy seems to be keeping her distance from him ever since the annual family reunion. She's always the one to initiate physical contact after all, and it just shows how determined she is to earn his affection.
For the past five years, Adrian has been putting up with her romantic advances - preparing a candlelit dinner almost every night, using each chance she can get to invite him to outings, pleasing him in any way she can, and the list goes on. Since they're supposed to be a couple, it's only natural that she acts this way.
However, all Adrian feels for this woman is pity.
He knows that he doesn't love her back. He knows he can't ever love her back - not just simply because he doesn't feel anything towards her, but also for the reason that love itself is a nonexistent word in his vocabulary.
"President, can you excuse me for a second?" called his secretary from the side all of the sudden, wearing a weary expression.
His secretary, an attractive man with dark blue hair and eyes, will never do this in the middle of an important assembly with the Board of Directors if it's not an emergency. With that in mind, Adrian excuses himself for a moment and approaches him.
"What is it, Charles?"
"It's about your wife, President. Ma'am Cassidy has been-"
"What about my daughter-in-law, Charles?"
That's when a blonde woman of older adulthood with sapphire blue orbs and a youthful-looking profile appears beside them out of nowhere. She has this austere expression on her face, which Charles has long been taking as her trademark reaction whenever her son's wife is being mentioned.
"Excuse me for interrupting the meeting, Madam Gertrude. But I have to inform you and the President about a call that I just received about Ma'am Cassidy-"
"Oh, right. She's not here, isn't she? I didn't notice until now... Not like her being here or not will make a difference, anyway," Gertrude cut him off again, disdain evidently laced in her condescending tone.
"Just continue the discussion, Adrian. It's almost over, anyway. Everyone here doesn't have all day either... So, save this for later, Charles," she then added out of nowhere, much to his nonplus.
"B-But Madam! This is an emergency-"
"Take care of it, then. Right now, my son is filling in the shoes of the CEO, not a husband."
In the end, Charles can't further any utterance.
While the mother continues being the heartless and indifferent in-law that she always is, the son remains as the workaholic and insouciant husband that he's been. It's not like a mere assistant such as him has any power to make them listen to begin with.
But even then, the call he received from the hospital will most definitely haunt him for the rest of his life if he fails to pass on the message as soon as possible.
"Ma'am Cassidy was caught up in a bombing incident after boarding a plane this morning. She's now in a critical state."
As soon as he dropped the news like a bomb, both Adrian and Gertrude suddenly halt on their tracks in evident flummox, eyes as wide as saucers.
Then, for the next seconds to come, a stretch of perturbing silence sprawls all around the room.
---
It takes around half an hour to get to the hospital where Cassidy has been sent to.
The aircraft bombing incident is all over the news the moment Adrian and his secretary rush there. Initial reports say that it's connected to an engine malfunction, but the authority is still in the middle of investigating the real cause.
As for Cassidy, the phone call that Charles received has mentioned that she's one of the small number of survivors. It just happened that the plane crashed on a body of water. She was able to put on her life vest on time and get out along with a few others.
But even then, she received quite a severe injury on her head for reasons that they remain unsure of.
Now, as soon as Adrian gets there, he's taken aback to find that the situation isn't as clamorous as he thought it will be. It turned out that the nurses and doctors have already finished treating Cassidy a moment ago.
"She survived the crash despite how death-dealing her injuries were. It's quite... extraordinary, you see. I'm not sure how she's able to recover so much faster than most plane crash victims. She even showed signs of regaining consciousness a few minutes ago... At this point, all I can say is it's a miracle," said the doctor who took care of his wife the moment she was sent to the emergency room.
Right after entering her hospital room, though, both Adrian and Charles instantly proved that what the doctor said was the biggest understatement of the decade.
For one, Cassidy isn't unconscious to begin with. She's wide awake - very boisterous even.
"You punks...!!!"
And the first words she said as soon as she saw them could possibly be the biggest shock of the decade.
They never saw this refined woman glare daggers at anyone before, much less her own husband. She looks extremely upset about something, her brows scrunched together and teeth clenched tightly.
"What did you do to me...???!!!"
What comes next is a scene that Adrian had never imagined before - or perhaps, anyone for that matter.
The nurses who're tending to Cassidy screech in surprise while the entire room itself seems to have gotten a lot more chaotic. Everyone there is struck confounded and stupefied, eyes flying wide open when she bolted out of her bed and jumped all of the sudden.
Like a wild animal who just got out of her cage, Cassidy unceremoniously takes a leap with one of her legs stretched out towards Adrian's direction. From that point onwards, time seems to still for all of them.
"Repent...!!!"
And alas came her flying kick, hitting her husband right in the face.