The sharp, cool morning air cut through the window, waking Cherry Crystal from her dreamless sleep. She stretched slowly, the weight of another day ahead already settling on her shoulders. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was 7:30 a.m. It was January 2nd—the day after her birthday, and more importantly, the anniversary of her mother's death.
Cherry didn't need to look at the calendar to remember; the ache of loss lingered in the quiet of the morning, as familiar as the ache that had been there for the past twenty-eight years. Every year, it was the same: the subdued silence at breakfast, the careful conversations with her father, Ethan, who never quite knew how to fill the space left by her mother's absence. Even now, as the CEO of the sprawling Crystal Enterprises, the company he had built from the ground up, Ethan still couldn't escape the shadow of the woman he had lost. Or perhaps, as Cherry now realized, the woman he had never truly loved.
As she made her way to the kitchen, the memories flooded her—birthdays spent with her father, who always seemed distant, wrapped up in the world of business and unfinished regrets. There were fleeting visits from her uncle, Anaya's younger brother, who never stayed long and whose eyes always held the bitterness of a man who felt betrayed. Sometimes, a few distant relatives would send their greetings, but there was never any real celebration. It was as though her mother's death had frozen everything, leaving Cherry to navigate the void, with only the occasional flicker of warmth from the few family members who bothered to remember.
But today, Cherry had a different weight on her shoulders. Today wasn't just about remembering her mother—it was also about her father's legacy. On her twenty-eighth birthday, Ethan had officially handed over the reins of the company to her. For the past year, he had been grooming her to take over as the CEO, and today, the transition would be official. Cherry had always known this moment would come, but it hadn't fully hit her until now, as she sat at the head of the grand, polished table in the Crystal Enterprises headquarters. She was now the one holding the future of the family business in her hands, and the pressure was heavier than ever.
As she looked out the window, her gaze shifted to the grounds of the old family estate, where the cherry blossom tree stood in the distance, bathed in soft sunlight. Her thoughts wandered to her father again. He had never been the same after Anaya's death. He had poured his energy into building his empire, but the pain in his eyes whenever he spoke of her was undeniable. There were never any celebrations, no family gatherings, no visits from her maternal family except on the anniversary of her mother's death. Even then, they arrived like strangers, offering only polite nods before retreating to the cemetery to visit Anaya's grave.
Cherry had always wondered why her father seemed to live in a different world. He was a man who had it all—wealth, power, and influence—but it was clear that something inside him was missing. The sight of him beneath the cherry blossom tree, humming a song that had always seemed out of place to her, was a reminder of how little she truly understood him.
Cherry stood and walked toward the window, her heart heavy as she saw him there, sitting under the tree, his frail body hunched over with age, staring at the grave. The song he hummed floated to her ears, soft and distant:
"Love like a fire, burn everything it desires."
The lyrics seemed almost too haunting for the moment, and yet they resonated deep within her, as if they were somehow the key to understanding everything. She had heard her father sing that song for as long as she could remember, but it was always at moments like this—when the air grew thick with unspoken emotions, when the pain of memory was too much to bear.
As she stood there, watching him in the distance, Cherry couldn't help but feel a growing sense of unease. There was something about that song, something about the way he always returned to it, year after year, that made her wonder what truths lay buried beneath the surface of their family's history.
And on this day, with the weight of both her mother's memory and the mantle of her father's legacy pressing down on her, Cherry knew that the answers to those questions would soon be within her reach.