The CEO needs an Heir

Making waves

BLOOM

Six years later,

My heels clicked against the tiled floor as I headed for my office.

It's been six years since I left Boston for Istanbul. I barely had time to give my parents proper burial before I left. Everything had gone by in a haze. The shocking news of my pregnancy had deteriorated my health further.

Leah, God bless her beautiful heart, had been my rock of support.

Six years after coming to a new country with very little money and resources, we now own one of the best influential fashion companies in the country. We managed to keep our spot on the top ten.

"Bloom!" My best friend squealed when she saw me, "I was just coming to your office."

"Why?" I eyed her suspiciously, "it's not even break time yet."

"I have good news." She smiled, "And a bad one."

She pulled me inside my office to a sofa and sat opposite me, staring at me with so much intensity it scared me.

"Okay. Spill." I snapped when the silence stretched further.

"Good or bad?"

"Good." I answered, sitting up straight.

"Normally, people go for the bad news first. " She glared at me.

"Well, good thing I'm not normal." I shrugged and gestured for her to get on with it.

"We are in the process of signing another deal with Reno Martins."

"We got it?!" I exclaimed in shock, Leah had been dying to work Reno Martins, an Icon and a model in the fashion industry. Rumor had it that he had top leading businesses in America and was rude. Emphasis on the rude, which makes me wonder how exactly Leah made this happen.

She bobbed her head in excitement.

"That's great news!"

"He's our biggest investor," She continued, "So we like own the company together, more like partners. If I'm the CEO, he is the deputy, which means he can also call the shots."

She was rambling, which meant she's extremely nervous.

I nudged her, "The bad news, Leah."

"Yeah, right, the bad news." She looked at me with worry, "Since I'll be busy here to handle our clients and meet up with the deadline, I input your name as the CEO of the new company ."

I frowned at her, "How's that bad news? I'm basically representing both of us and our company. "

"The thing is Omah's fashion industry will be situated in Boston."

Dread washed over me like cold water.

"Before you judge me, you know I can't go back. I'm not done with studies, and there's no way u can shuffle it if I go back. You are the only less busy one among us and the one I trust."

When I spoke, my voice was barely above a whisper, "In a nutshell, you're asking me to go back to Boston? You know what that place means to me!"

"On a positive note, it'll help me overcome your fears. You need to settle with your past."

I stood up and paced around my office, agitated. "My past is supposed to remain past!" I snarled at her, "It's called past for a reason. "

"I'm sorry. " She mumbled under her breath, but that wasn't enough. How could she? She is snatching away the only place I've come to know as home.

"What about the police? They are still searching for boss."

"Not like before anymore. They couldn't continue wasting manpower and resources on a lost cause. Besides, we changed our identities, so going back should not be a problem. "

"Fine... If you don't want to think about me, think avoid Tyler. He's just settled in in his new school, and you want me to rip that away from him?" I pleaded, begging her to see reason with me.

"If there were other alternatives, I swear, I wouldn't put you through all these. Especially Tyler."

"Forget it." I snapped, "I wish you a happy life here. Where are the documents I need to take along?"

"Bloom please look at me." Her voice cracked, "If you go just like that, angry with me."

"You want me gone, so I'm going. Not to worry. I'll be out of your hair in no time. "

She visibly flinched as if I stabbed her and I was too angry to care.

She dipped her hands into her bag and stretched a big file to me. "Everything you need is here, including your ticket and address to your new home. "

I snatched the file from her hands and left the office.

"You can't stay mad at me forever!" She yelled at my back.

"Yeah, watch me." I yelled back, my head aching instantly. I'm going back to everything in my past.

For a fleeting moment, the thought of that stranger crossed my mind. I don't remember how he looks like exactly, but I can never forget those eyes. The eyes that haunt me in my dreams every night.

"I love you!" Leah screamed back.

I opened the files in my car, and scanned through it.

True to Leah's words, there were two keys, a house and car key. I skimmed through the documents, glaring at the name on my flight ticket.

"Adora Vesper."

The name I've come to embody like the second identity it is. Bloom Peters was discarded for Adora to exist.

My flight was skated to take off this evening. Damn her, she couldn't wait to be rid of me.

I dropped the document at the backseat and drove to my son's school to pick him.

Just as I turned off the car engine in the garage, my phone beeped.

Thinking it was Leah, I picked it up to tell her off..

As I opened the message, my body stilled and shook with fear. An emotion that had died with Bloom Peters.

"I know who you really are, Adora Vesper. Remember, I'm always watching you." The message read.

Whoever it was couldn't possibly know right? Only Leah and I know of our past.

My hands shook as I dialed the number, I was redirected to a voice mail.

As I watched my boy run towards me, I knew one thing with certainty.

We are no longer safe.