Her Corporate Takedown: Entangled with a Billionaire

*CHAPTER 2: MY REGRETS*

The drive home was quiet and peaceful. No more stressing over exams. No more episodes of imposter syndrome. It was the most relaxed I'd felt since starting med school, but there was also an underlying grief and anxiety at the loss of a secure future.

There was just a tinge of regret that I would miss the friends I've made here. Thinking about that for a second made me tear up a little. Even more so because I left without telling anyone. I decided not to say goodbye to my closest friends. I viciously cut my ties so that I could instantly move on. They will continue moving forward to become fine doctors while I take one hundred steps backward to a different starting line.

With no achievements, no job and no money, I have to climb again from the ground up, this time on a new playing field. Everything I learnt in med school is useless from now on. There it was again. Another tinge of regret pricked at my chest. I felt like I had wasted all my time until now. It's not that I hated med school or I didn't like serving as a doctor. It was just a place connected strongly to my hopes and dreams of my life plans that included a happy life with Daniel. Now that it is broken, it is simply too painful to go back. Plus, I feel like a used pawn tossed away in a game. And that infuriates me.

Now, things have changed. I have nothing. I'm starting from nowhere. All I have left is the vengeance fuelling my desires.

During the lonely drive home, while thinking about what I needed to do now, I couldn't help but remember how things had even gotten to this point in the first place.

Do I regret dropping out? All this time, I had been following the life plan laid out by my father, for fear of taking risks, failing and having nothing to fall back on. I didn’t know any other way. Or maybe that's not entirely true. I just turned a blind eye to it with the excuse that there was no other way to shape my future than by studying to get into med school.

Because of that, I walked a separate path from him, my ex-fiancé. It felt like he lived in a completely different world. I still thought we had a good relationship despite that. Surprisingly, I'm not upset that he broke off our engagement. People and their feelings can change and I understand that. However, I know the actual root cause for the end of our engagement. That is what irritates me the most.

On the first day of our second year of junior high, as I approached my assigned desk, I came face-to-face with Daniel. He was about 4 inches taller than me and he had short, fine brown hair that was parted to the left. The first time I saw him, he looked a little shy as he quickly averted his gaze away from me and shuffled into his seat. Coincidentally, he sat behind me in class, so I became aware of him rather quickly. Not to mention, when we first met, I found him blushing slightly as he looked away from me. Whether it was because he was shy or because he kind of liked me, that seemingly insignificant event is what eventually spiralled into a full-blown crush and the start of a romance I'd hoped to have forever.

I still remember the small moments of our budding relationship - the first time we held hands when you took me for a walk in the garden behind your house in the spring of the second year of junior high, our first date that summer in the flower fields by the lake and our first kiss after we hiked up the mountain to watch the sunrise. We were so flustered about whether we would get into the same high school and we ended up sick on the last day of junior high. Two weeks later, when we found out that we both got in, you accidentally proposed, creating a huge scene. In the end, you became more outspoken, not like the shy person you were the first time we met. Everything felt so genuinely sweet. It was too innocent to believe that brewing in the shadows, was a dark side to our relationship. Honestly, I was too scared to even ask and I didn’t want to believe you would be involved in such a thing. I really thought you would stand by my side and together our strength would overcome all trials. Sadly, I was wrong.

Daniel and I had officially been together at the beginning of September in our third year of junior high. In high school, everyone said we were madly in love 'high school sweethearts' destined to get married one day. I felt that way too. And I knew he also felt that way about us…at least initially. We did seem like the perfect couple at school and on our dates, but my doubts grew stronger every time he had a 'business meeting' with Michelle and Carlos. I couldn't stand being left out and I knew Michelle hadn't given up on him. But I wanted to believe that he truly loved me. Eventually, it turned into a cycle of anxiety before meetings and seeking relief after each one, so you can't imagine how thrilled I was when he proposed after our high school's graduation. I thought I could cast away my insecurities and doubts and we would get married when I finished medical school. But I was also overwhelmed by the volume of studying and sleepless nights as I barely kept afloat in my courses and I became complacent and careless towards our relationship.

Even though our busy and incompatible schedules kept us apart, I didn't feel like he lost interest. Or at least, he didn't act that way and I thought everything was okay. I knew she was still trying to get between us, but I thought our relationship was stronger than anyone's. I could barely even make time to take care of myself, much less tend to the weeds that infested our relationship. In a way, it was kind of my fault. He was blinded by the sunlight and didn't see the weeds creeping up all around him. And I thought I chopped them down when we got engaged. But that was my mistake.

I don't regret dropping out of med school. What I do regret is turning a blind eye to their secret project for all these years. That's what allowed the weeds to fester. I regret not tending more meticulously to the relationship I had for the past 10 years. I should have dragged the weeds out by the roots and burnt them. So that they could never grow back.

Previously, when I thought about junior high, I remembered our time together as the ambitious group of friends, the innocent romance I had with Daniel and the love triangle involving Michelle, Daniel and I. But I often got the feeling I was forgetting something…someone…from junior high. Someone…important. But whenever I try to remember, I get an awful headache, so I shouldn't try to recall that now while I'm driving.

As I was about to find out, our relationships were a whole lot messier than I thought. It all started with that memory - the person that I never wanted to remember, or see ever again.