Reaching shakily for the calendar, the date dumbfounded Iris.
"June 20, 2024. What is hapening here?"
She couldn't control her body from the shock, agitation, denial, joy, and a bunch of other emotions she couldn't quite place her hands on. She was back to one month before her misery began.
Her blood boiled with rage, knowing that the damn meeting was only fifteen minutes away.
"This meeting changed my entire life. A meeting I could give anything to avoid."
She couldn't help feeling sick deep down. To think she was once all over the moon about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Iris had lived this moment before. She woke up with a start, rushed for the meeting, became all groggy during the proceedings, and signed several documents she could not make out. Thanks to Mina, her assistant, who drugged her a few hours prior, she was clueless about everything that happened.
There was nothing to worry about, as she could trust Mina with her life. Or at least, that was what Iris thought when she signed the documents. Her signature sealed her fate cruelly, turning her into a public enemy overnight.
Parents advised their daughters of her name. Siblings wouldn't have a proper conversation without her stupidity included in it. All social media outlets were on her case, and finally, the blockbuster movie about her supposed biography sealed her fate in the eyes of the public.
Everything negative about Iris Bowman became a big hit. The public saw her as a hopeless romantic who willed her family's properties to her lover; so she could live her life as a junkie.
She remembered vividly that exactly one month after today, someone staged a car crash that resulted in her death.
Checking the time once again to affirm her new lease on life, she ignored the incessant ringing of her phone, switched it off, and dashed for the door. Her assistant and fiance kept calling, but she had no plans to talk to the traitors.
"I need to clear my head." She needed to feel the breeze in her waist-length, dark, and water-like hair. Iris needed to take a breather and process everything happening around her. She had to get the stuffy feeling off her chest. It was driving her crazy.
"Those so-called foreign business partners can wait the whole night or even an eternity, for all I care." She would not even bother to adjourn the meeting.
"Let them wait!"
Iris would deal with every single person later. She stepped out of her inner chamber and hurriedly left her office, but not without firmly locking the door and activating the alarm system.
She couldn't help giving an evil smile. "Someone's in for a beautiful surprise."
The driver thought he was going home early tonight, only to receive a call from his boss to get the car ready. He could only hope that she wouldn't insist he stayed deeper into the night to drive her pompous ass back home.
Seeing her approach, he swiftly opened the back door and bowed. Iris stepped to the driver's side and said, "I'll drive!"
The driver thought everything was over for him.
'Did the boss hear my inner thoughts about calling her pompous? Is that why she wants me gone? This can't be! I was only letting out my frustrations in my head. Can't I have that at least? Now she can even read minds?' The driver mused speechlessly.
Surprisingly, Iris could hear his inner thoughts as if he were talking to her, yet she didn't notice what just happened.
"Thank you for everything!"
Iris let out this statement, filled with so much emotion. However, the driver only heard her thanking him for nothing.
She thanked him for all the help he rendered her in her past life; after everyone turned their backs on her.
'How am I to tell her that this job is the best I would ever have in this lifetime? I cannot afford to lose it.'
He felt like crying, but her next action got him wondering if he was in further trouble. "Boss!...bo..sss! I swear I didn't do anything. I've been right here, just like you instructed. I… I…"
Iris smiled bitterly and shoved the stack of fifty-dollar bills to the driver without bothering to count. He didn't dare slack in accepting the money. It may as well be his last pay anyway. He stretched both hands forward and hurriedly took the cash from Iris.
The dumbfounded driver couldn't bother Iris at the moment. She had her thoughts to clear and didn't have the luxury of time to waste on encouraging the middle-aged driver right now.
She knew he would be back at work the next day. The dude would want to hear from Iris' mouth.
"Good night, Uncle Fred."
That was exactly how her parents addressed him: Uncle Fred. Iris withdrew from the middle-aged man after her parents' death, as she didn't know whether he was in on the whole conspiracy to eliminate them or not.
After pushing the driver away, a few stray tears fell from Iris' eyes as the car keys reminded her of the accident that claimed her life.
"How I miss you, babe!" Of all the names she could give for her car, she named it 'babe.' In her past life, Malcolm gifted this Ferrari to Mina after kicking Iris out. Now, it felt so surreal to have the keys in her hand once again.
Iris still couldn't believe that she'd been reborn and that too, to the moment before her entire life came crumbling. She closed her eyes to take a deep breath, feeling the presence of life all around her.
Iris took the driver's seat and turned on the ignition, ready to zoom off at top speed. At the same time that she started the car, she lifted the roof, revealing its lush interior.
Many men would marvel and drool at the sight of a pretty woman with enough beauty for seven people, sitting so carefree behind the wheels of a luxury convertible, and having the wind blow her hair everywhere. Such a beautiful sight to behold.
However, such was not the case for a certain someone. Just before Iris stepped on the pedal, someone opened the door and rushed into the car, uninvited.
The sudden presence of the intruder startled Iris, knowing fully well that she was still in some semblance of danger tonight. She was ready to defend herself in any way possible as she spun her head to the back. "Who sent you…?" The rest of the words were stuck in her throat when she finally took in the sight of the specimen in her car.
"Holy moly!"
For a moment there, Iris felt something she couldn't explain. She forgot the things that threatened to drive her insane. Her mind was totally blank.
He had a broad chest so pronounced that Iris felt she could be the shirt on his body. 'There must be some pretty impressive muscles hidden behind those,' she thought carelessly.
He had a well-chiselled jawline, a pointed nose, and beautiful blue eyes that reminded one of the deep blue seas, or even an ocean, maybe the Pacific. His eyebrows were so full, with eyelashes so long that they cast a shadow on his cheeks while he looked down at his tummy.
Iris was about to appreciate the beautiful pink lips and tender skin which should originally belong to a woman. Suddenly, her eyes trailed down to his line of sight, and a gory mess greeted her.
The stranger, or not so much of a stranger, was bleeding from his abdomen; his hand covering or maybe pressing on the wound.
Iris felt lightheaded at the bloody mess, reminding her of how she once lost her life.
"Wh..at the heck! So much blood…"