There Are So Many moments in time when we wished that we could go back to, hitting the restart button at once to relive the life that was taken away from us. Until this moment, this was just an intrusive thought in Dove's mind like one she had this morning–what if she gets stuck in an elevator all alone with no one to save her?
A few hours ago, Dove Harrison went to the office where she worked all these years only to hear, "I apologize for the misunderstanding, Miss Harrison but the CEO decided that it would be better if Miss Pierce gives the presentation."
To say that she was feeling a volcanic eruption in her heart would be an understatement, Dove felt as if something lethal and lava-ic was forming inside her soul which was capable of ruining not just herself but anyone in her proximity. Her calm facade was cracking, bit by bit. And the truth that she didn't have her shit together like the many of them was coming out…
A sarcastic and soulless smile tugged at her lips as she found herself saying, "Oh, how foolish of me to think that history would not repeat itself. For a moment, I forget that rather than teaching a lesson, history loves to repeat itself and our excellent CEO Hunter Knightson has always been a conventional man. How could he do something out of the box this time? Cheating and stealing have been what he has been a genius at."
The Secretary stared at her face with parted lips in shock. Oh, so she was surprised to see Dove Harrison who had never lost her composure finally erupting like a damned volcano.
However, talking like this about Hunter Knightson clearly meant asking for death. He was the incarnation of Yama himself. The kind and calm Miss Harrison was losing her mind after working under him for more than eight years. Nobody could survive the attack of that Yama. She wanted to give advice to Miss Harrison but Dove was not the one to take just anyone's unsolicited advice and they all had seen a live example of it.
Dove was someone who people would bet that no matter what happens, she would never show a single excited or turbulent emotion on her face. She was calm, serene and tranquil. Nonetheless, she despised when people tried to peek into her life and tried to offer her any kind of advice. One Leah Pierce had tried and they all knew what Dove did in return for the kind advice.
Dove had always known the ultimate truth of human nature and so she had moulded herself in a pattern where she would not be taken advantage of but what happened in the end? She lost the battle that she was fighting all these years.
She gave eight years of her life to this company but what did she get in the end? Not even the recognition that she had laid the very crucial foundation of its establishment. Without her, this company would not be where it was today. Hell, it would not be in existence at all.
When she rejoined the company of traitors, she shall have guessed what would happen to her in the end. Why was she even surprised now?
"Miss Harrison, "They heard a stern tone and all of them stiffened. Some of them felt pity for her in their hearts. A man in his thirties was standing a little away from them, decked in his powerful outfit; the three-piece suit. If power and audacity were a person, it would be him– Hunter Knightson, The CEO of White Knight company, the bane of her existence and the reason for all of her miseries.
He was standing there as if he was the wind and all of them were the meek and weak grass. Again, again what was the saying?
'When grass is visited by the wind, it must surely bend.'
Then again, she had stopped being one of the meek and weak grass that he commands over just a few moments ago.
"Do you have something to say to me, Miss Harrison?" Hunter asked, his smokey grey eyes were dark like the smoke that usually came out of the chimney – dirty and polluted and sick. Yes, that's how she would always see this asshole. He was not just the bane of her existence, the reason for all of her miseries but the demon in a suit. Those smokey soulless orbs of him sucked the life out of her little by little and here she was all empty and dead inside.
A sarcastic smile was playing on her lips as she said in the most tired tone she could muster up, "What could I possibly say to Mr Knightson? I am afraid that the words that I would utter would be stolen just like how you steal something I made, be it this company many years ago or the project of today."
His soulless grey orbs were empty as he said, "So, you are finally raising your voice." A smirk on his lips and he added, "Good."
"I quit, " Dove said. It was not just him but even she could not believe that she said those words. Even when she was putting up with all the injustice, she never thought of quitting because this company was something she had worked hard to bring to life. In a way, she was an artist and the company was her art. Every artist is emotionally attached to his or her art and how could she have easily given up on it? She could not then but now she had to.
For a moment, she thought that she saw desperation and panic in those smokey orbs but she mentally slapped herself. He won in the end. She ended up quitting. Wasn't it what he wanted all these years? Nobody wanted her to quit the company more than him and today he achieved his long-pending goal.
Hunter Knightson, the bloodthirsty capitalist won. And she, Dove Harrison, lost the greatest war of life.
Dove walked past him and instead of taking the elevator, she took the stairs. The reason was simple– she was going to break down and no sane person would dare to take the stairs down to the ground floor from the twentieth floor and so she could cry tears in silence and loneliness just like she wished.
Before she could even reach the nineteenth floor, she felt someone grabbing her wrist and turning her behind. The audacity of this Demon!
"Raven, " The husky masculine voice called out her name.
"Dove, " She said in a calm tone. "It was never Raven but Dove, Knightson."
"You are throwing a tantrum because Leah is presenting the project you worked on?" Hunter asked, still holding onto her wrist tightly.
"Am I throwing a tantrum that once again your fiance gets to take the credit for something I gave my sweat and blood to?" Dove snickered.
He merely stared at her with those polluted and smokey eyes. The corruption and pollution of this capitalist's heart were reflected right in his eyes.
She spat out, "Fuck you, Knightson. I regret the time I first saw you. If there was an option and I could go back in time, I swear the first thing I would do is take a different path, so you and I will never see each other again. Sixteen years, Knightson, for the fucking sixteen years, you are haunting me. What did I ever do to deserve this life? What have I ever done to you?"
Hunter stared at her, speechless. She scoffed. "Fuck you and your empire, Knightson." With this, she pushed him away and before she could veer around to leave, she saw a girl standing at the door of the stairs, looking at two of them.
Leah Pierce, his fiance, was standing there watching the two of them with all of her emotionless facade. Oh, the woman was just like her emotions– Fake! Because no one better than Dove knew how impossible it was to be emotionless in the company of this demon who made you feel ten emotions at the same time and all of the hate and its various shades.
"Hope you find a real man this time, Leah!" Dove said. "Then again, to find a real man, you need to be a real woman first. All you have been doing since the beginning is riding on his coattails which a real woman never does."
With this said, she walked away from there. Hunter stared at Leah for a moment and then ran after Dove but the latter was long gone from his sight.
He heard her saying, "Hunter, we got the project. We defeated Jacob Astor."
"Congratulations, Leah, " Hunter said, without even bothering to turn back.
....
A/N: After finishing my book, I'm here to participate in the Romance Carnival. As you know I usually write Chinese-style books, but this time I changed my setting to Western style. However, it didn't mean I forgot my unique fun, fluffy, warm, witty and intense characters. You guys loved An Xiulan and Zuni and I promise you will adore Dove. My New heroine may have Dove as her name but she has all the characteristics of a Raven.