Chapter 3

“This can’t be happening.” Ling held the brown paper bag over Meilei’s face as she attempted to breathe slowly, sitting on the toilet in the ladies' room where Ling had found her. She had run here when Kai exited her floor and could not do anything except cry for her friend to find her. Lost in panic and fear.

Meilei shook her head and gripped the bag harder to combat this infernal attack, which was not calming. She thought she might suffocate to death three times already and didn’t know how she even managed to get here unseen. Even Chou missed her erratic escape.

“Are you sure? That it’s really him?” Ling was good at soothing her with gentle touches and strokes, and Meilei at least could catch some breath with her mere presence. Her safety net was here. She could take comfort in that.

“His….name…… he’s…” Meilei couldn’t get the words out, and Ling rubbed her back again, crouching beside her in the cramped cubicle. Wrinkling her Dior suit and pants, but she had no cares about it.

“I haven’t met him. I was stuck with the new finance director all morning.” Ling pulled out her cell phone and pulled up the email she had yet to read, which detailed the company's new managerial roles. Scrolling to the CEO of OTS, she paused and frowned, becoming exceptionally calm before tucking her phone back into her suit jacket. She nodded to herself, internalizing the reaction and presenting her bosslike demeanor. She had always been excellent at hiding all emotion.

“Kai Xuchen……it’s really him. I wouldn’t forget that name in a hurry.” She couldn’t believe this was real either. Of all the companies, he had to rock up to theirs. This kind of unfortunate nonsense was unbelievable.

Ling and Suying had never met Kai… back then, the three girls had parted ways to follow their dreams. School friends said goodbye and found new lives and new social circles. Meilei hadn’t gone far, only an hour’s commute to the best IT university in the country on a scholarship, but Ling and Suying had been much further away. She had met Yuelin as her dorm mate and met Kai and his friends through her. Ling and Suying knew everything and every name, yet they had never seen them. They were just the characters in a story that ruined their friend’s life.

“What am I going to do?” Meilei finally pushed out one cohesive sentence and sank back to grapple with her bag and breathe again. It was getting easier, and her lungs were finally freeing fully, the attack subsiding. A numb shock was instead invading her psyche and calming her body and tears.

Ling didn’t know either.

She sat staring at her friend, her thoughts a mass of mess and questions, and she, too, came to the single thing that seemed the most important right now.

“If he knows you work here……. he can’t outright dismiss you without reason, but….” Ling sighed and used her free hand to press her temple. She had a major headache coming on, and for the first time in her life, she was at a loss about what to do. Knowing their history, she didn’t doubt that he would never let Meilei stay in OTS.

“He’ll find a reason to fire me…. I don’t care about that right now…what about Yue?” every time Meilei managed to calm herself, thoughts of Yue brought her back to hysteria once more. She couldn't get it out of her head.

In the same city.

One chance encounter, and he might see her. She looked almost exactly like him. She couldn’t deny the connection even if she wanted to.

“Are you sure after all these years he will still hold the same anger… maybe we’re being paranoid. Maybe he moved on with his life….” Ling tried to inject optimistic reasoning even if she knew it was unlikely.

“Would you move on and forget the woman who killed your sister and had an affair with your best friend?” Meilei spat it out with venom, her words slicing her heart open with the painful memory of his words the last time she saw him.

Yuelin’s funeral, when she tried to pay her respects. He humiliated her in front of everyone present. He made it clear that day that she was nothing to him anymore, and if he ever laid eyes on her again, he would destroy her. His venom, cold manner, and biting words had pierced her soul deeper than any knife could. His hatred for what he thought she was. He shattered her heart, and she had never mended it.

Ling fell silent, knowing it was unlikely that Kai would have gotten over the destruction of his own heart from back then. They had lived through real trauma, and he was so far down the trail of blame that he would never give her a chance in his company.

Noises in the bathroom outside had both women look up. Voices and the clatter of heels as employees entered in a flurry of giggles and chatter. Ling frowned, pulling herself to stand and relieve her awkward, cramped position.

“It’s lunch….we can’t stay here.” She turned and ran a gentle hand over Meilei's soft hair and down the length lying on her back. “Go home. I’ll inform Manager Lee you are taking half a day’s leave. There’s nothing we can do right now.”

“How is that going to help?” Meilei rasped through hushed tones so the women in the outer area would not hear. Ling leaned in close and lowered her voice.

“The tour will be done by the end of today, and then he will be upstairs and out of the way. I need time to think about what to do, and until then, it’s best he has no chance of running into you. Go home…pick up Yue, and try and relax. We will figure this out.”

Meilei knew Ling had a point. In all her years working here, she had never seen their previous CEO as a regular employee. They never ventured down to the lower floors, and everything was dealt with between levels of staff going up the chain of command. After walking the building, he wouldn’t have reason to venture to the tech team or the lower staff floors. The management liked to stay up in their executive suites and even had their own entrance from the VIP parking area at the side of the building.

“I should start looking for a new job….” Meilei let it out without thought, borne of despair, and Ling shoved her in the shoulder with her knee. Harshly following with a glare of ‘Don’t even.’

“No, you don’t…..OTS can’t lose a talent like you, and you love your job here. Stop overthinking and leave….we will talk when I get home and bring Suying up to speed. You know she’s good with problems….that’s all this is… a problem we must resolve.”

Ling had always been a practical thinker and proactive. She was the bossy one between them, keeping them on track concerning their careers when Yue was born.

Meilei nodded, wiped her face to dry her tears, and took a long breath to calm herself. She knew she must look terrible after sobbing here for the last half hour.

“You’re right…. I’m in shock,….. I never thought I would see him again. I never imagined it would be here…. “ She sighed in defeat. “I’ll go home and collect Yue early. She always makes me calm and rational….she knows how to stop me worrying so much.”

Yue was her everything. A blessing and a gift in her darkest moments. She didn’t know a mother’s love could be as intense as her feelings for her daughter.

“We all need breathing space to think….. there will be a way to navigate this. Don’t worry about Yue….you know Suying, and I will do everything possible to protect our princess and you. Trust your friends.”

“I do… you know I do. If it wasn't for you and Suying that day… I would be….” Meilei dropped her head in shame, pulling up her grandmother’s funeral in her mind’s eye, but Ling broke in sharply.

“Don’t…. I don’t want to remember that memory. You’re here now. That’s all that matters.” Ling never looked back to the past. She left hurt where hurt should live. “Dry your face - here.” Ling pushed her bag into Meilei’s lap so she could use her cosmetics and make herself presentable to get out of there. “Let me fix your hair.” She bent down to her awkward previous position to help bring calm back to her disheveled friend. Glad she was now calm and able to regulate her breathing once more. Her heart was heavy with the situation they found themselves in. Her worries were as vast as Meilei’s, her fears over Yue too, but she had always been able to hold it in and try and think of solutions before panicking. She knew she would have to do this for Meilei too.

“Thank you… for being my friend… for being my family. All these years, you and Suying have meant everything to me. I don’t deserve either of you.” Meilei let out a soft sniff, holding back tears, although this time not in despair. The genuine, heavy, heartfelt kind that comes from realizing how important someone is to you and how lost you would be without them.

“Hush now, you’re such a wet rag….. Of course, you need us. We’re fabulous.” Ling grinned the red-lipped, flashy sultress grin that made her look wicked at times, and she hugged her friend awkwardly from a weird angle. Not one for much touchy-feely or signs of affection, a hug from Ling was rare. “Okay, let’s get you fixed up and out of here unseen. Want to avoid any office gossip and people assuming I am bullying you.”