Chapter 345 - A friend’s concern

"She is an orphan, raised in an orphanage but we met at school. She was a scholarship student, some rich people charity like that and because she was not only smart and beautiful but poor, it made her the target of all the bullies in school" he explained

"That's downright evil" she replied

He continued easily, his tone bitterly jaded "Humans for you, so I decided to protect her but the fastest way was to fake date and here we are."

"You're a good man, my love, I wish I knew you even then" she needed to say it, she wanted to do more, to wipe his worries away forever but she settled for smoothing the furrowed lines on his forehead.

"I think I'm better for having you now." He replied, his eyes filled with emotions that squeezed her heart and made it impossible for her to speak without losing control of the tears lurking in her eyes.

She pressed a kiss to his lips in response before scooting back into the crook of his arms.

"She fought the idea for the longest time, charity gets her in a mood" he continued after she settled into him

"I already have a plan, I'm going to offer her a job and who knows, she just might forget about leaving" her voice was hopeful, but Yan Mei had seen the streak of independence and strength in her house guest so she knew her plans were shaky at best

"She used to work with me" he offered

"That's even better" the idea made her perk up, it had more merit than anything she was planning anyways

"Yes, I'm going to approach her on getting her job back" Lei Zhao decided, 

"I'm glad," she murmured, her voice sleep roughened

Lei Zhao hauled her even closer, pressed a kiss to her forehead, and said "sleep, tomorrow is going to be here soon" the soothing words filled her with languid ease and in a matter of minutes, she was fast asleep.

No matter how she had casually brushed the event off or how she had told the story in a jocular manner to her husband, Yan Mei still battled a lot of anxiety about the events in the kitchen.

Enough to have her be a little hesitant to just walk into the kitchen without peeking at the activities ongoing, enough to pick the side of the breakfast table away from the chef. 

It may seem silly, in fact, it seemed silly to her but every time she closed her eyes, she couldn't help seeing the hot wave of water heading straight for her face. 

What made it even more sinister was that her nightmare was taking on the same cast, some time during the night, the usual dream of the speeding car that had hit her turned into a huge wave of lava temperature water that was aiming straight for her.

The water felt malevolent, almost alive and it telegraphed its intent so clearly that she couldn't help the fear that had frozen her screams in her throat.

The water had arced over her, and splashed down behind her, until she was stuck inside an ever-diminishing pocket of air, just waiting to die. Before she had woken up abruptly, her fear was bleeding out of her usual tight control.

Too bad her dreams only mirrored her reality, a reality she had suffered through not long ago. And when they first got married, she had woken Lei Zhao up, sometimes several times in one night screaming her head off, unable to stop her body from shaking with remembered pain.

She had learned to control it, to calm the wild fear causing her heart to race uncontrollably, to tame the screams that boiled up in her throat.

Thankfully Lei Zhao had left for work and had missed this particular episode.

*******

Yan Mei got out of her seat and walked to the bank of windows that showed her an enviable view of the city. In her line of sight, the building progressed carefully all the way from the dockside, bearing witness to the several financial strata found in this city alone.

This view had sold her, made her acquire this building for her rapidly growing company and ordinary she was willing to give herself to the view, watching people and cars like overactive ants scrambling around so far away and thinking passing thoughts.

The city was laid out for her viewing p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e but it still held its mysteries, and sometimes she found herself wondering how her life would have turned out if she had missed out on the more traumatic aspects of it.

Some days the possibilities crowded her mind as she tried to picture how she would have ended up if she had gone down another path. No matter how she viewed it, she couldn't shake the belief that she was exactly where she needed to be. With the right person, at the right place and time. It made it seem like her path was dated and therefore her pains and traumatic experiences had been important and therein lies the rub. But there was no denying that she was truly happy in her life now.

She had been fascinated with the dockside crowd, there were little more than indistinct blurs in the distance but what her eyes didn't see, her mind eagerly supplemented. Suffice it to say that the view was her number one motivation to donate to charities that were truly involved in poverty alleviation.

Maybe she was just projecting but she was still shaken by it, that despite all the ways she had tried to make herself stronger over the years and move on from one traumatic experience that had led to another, it had taken a simple wave of hot water to undo all her illusions of strength.

But that was not even the pressing issue, her best friend behind her, in a fit of fury that filled the room with strange tension.