Chapter 33

Eight months later...
“Millan, are the new batches of chiffon and silk here yet?” Sia asked with the phone lodged between her cheek and shoulders, one of her hands flipping through the catalogue while the other took out the designs that the materials would be transformed into.
“Yes, Ma’am, they are being unloaded as we speak. It’ll take another three hours or so for them set up in the store room, according to their color schemes,” Millan’s tired voice came from across the line.
Sia sighed audibly. “Millan, why don’t you take a small break? We’ll continue from here onwards half an hour later,” Sia told her and smiled at Millan’s eager reply then hung up.
Sia sat back down on her chair, stretching her arms above her head, and heard the satisfying sound of her joints popping, but when she tried to lean further back, pain shot through her stomach, making her wince. She lowered her arms onto her lap and rested her head on the back of her chair. Most of her wounds had healed, and some were still a bit tender, but she already had the doctor’s approval to get back to work.
And that was exactly what she was doing. She had gotten back to work with all her might since her discharge. Her company had suffered greatly from her absence, and they had thousands of pending orders. The good news was that her clients had stuck around and even after the news about Arthur had gone viral, she was still getting orders. If things continued the way they were, Sia would be able to expand her company and appoint several other designers to help improve the quality of her company and speed up the process of tailoring and design. She was also pleasantly surprised that Leo was also showing some wicked artistic talents and was helping her design some of their clothes. So far, from what she had seen from his suggestions, Leo could either turn out to be a great designer or a great artist. Whichever route her precious boy chose, she would be happy for him.
Overall, everything seemed to be working out well. She didn’t mind giving the company a few extra hours of her time. It made her extremely busy and kept her mind off of other things—angry and depressing things. Sia sighed and looked at the calendar hanging on the opposite wall of her office.
Eight months. Exactly eight months have passed since she was at the hospital. Exactly eight months since Arthur died. Exactly eight months since she had last seen Julian.
Sia please, please! Stay with me. I can’t live without you Sia, please! I love you! I love you so much!
Hang in there!
I love you!
Come back to me.
I love you.
I love you!
Sia remembered those words as she lay there unconscious. She remembered the warmth of his hands as they clutched hers. She had struggled to regain consciousness, to wake up and tell Julian that she had heard him, that she was right there with him, and that she’d never leave him. But when she had opened her eyes, a month had passed and Julian was no longer beside her.
He had left.
Sia gave a humorless chuckle. She’d thought that she could handle him being gone. That she wouldn’t fall for him just like the numerous other women who had. How wrong had she been, how utterly foolish. She loved him to the point that it hurt her physically not to see him. She thought that he loved her, too. She had heard his voice, heard him saying those three words that she had longed to hear from him for a long time But maybe that was just her comatose brain’s doing, concocting images and real-like dreams to soothe her aching heart. Maybe Julian had never cared for her despite claiming several times that he wasn’t playing around.
After all, he was Julian Turner. He had acquired the name Lucifer for a reason. He was indeed her cruel beloved—the one that got away. Sia sighed, rubbing her temples. Thinking about him was now giving her a headache.
When she had woken up from her month-long coma, Christian had been the one to greet her. He was also the one who had told her that Julian had submitted his report and that the case was now closed. Now that Arthur Stone was dead, Julian was also gone from her life forever. Sia had been too shocked to ask him anything. She had only signed the cheque and handed it over to Christian. And that had been the end of it. She hadn’t heard from Julian or anyone else from Turner Security ever since.

* * *

It was nearly ten at night, and Sia was running late. Leo had called her multiple times to say that he’ll be waiting to have dinner with her. She told him not to wait but it seemed like Julian’s stubbornness had rubbed off on him.
There you go again, Sia, she thought to herself angrily. He was gone and never coming back. She just had to accept that and move on with her goddamn life just like Julian probably was doing now with some rich bimbo—Dear God, Sia! she chided herself. You had to go low and slut-shame strangers.
Finally, she shut the folder she was working on and gave it to Millan, debriefing her on what to do. The competition that she had won before the incident had made her more successful than ever and orders were piling up on every shelf. Her absence from the company for three months due to her recovery had caused delays for the orders, but her customers had been understanding and hadn’t given up on her. She almost had everything under control now, with nearly half of the orders completed, awaiting delivery, and the designs already set for the other half. It had been a productive month and she was proud of herself for having accomplished so much in such a short time.
Getting up from her seat, she went out of her office and got into her car. The drive home took another half hour since she no longer lived in the two-story house that she had built before. The garage had burned down and the memories were too harrowing for her to stay, especially that Arthur had died in that house. She decided to sell off that house to a company and rented another apartment nearby until she could find some time and buy a new one. The apartment was big enough for Leo, Martha, and herself and it had plenty of space to store her designs as well. It worked for the time being, but she had to talk with a real estate agent soon to get herself her desired house. And with the amount of progress her company was making, it wouldn’t be long for her to get the house of her dreams.
She reached home around 10:32pm and unlocked the door to her apartment. To her surprise, the house was empty. And when she called for Martha or Leo, there was no answer. She tried to switch on the lights, but they weren’t working.
“That’s weird. Why won’t the lights turn on?” Sia mused while looking around her apartment.
A sudden thought crossed her mind but she pushed it off as soon as it had formed. Arthur was dead. He was gone and not coming back...just like Julian.
She shook her head and closed the door behind her. She placed her bag on a nearby couch and went to find the candles she kept in the living room drawers, but a movement in the room made her stop.
“He isn’t here, Sia. You’re hallucinating,” she chanted to herself under her breath but stopped with a squeal when she saw the shadow was now moving towards her.
“W-Who’s there? Show y-yourself!” Sia managed to squeak out, although her legs were trembling. This is not Arthur! she reminded herself. It just can’t be.
But you didn’t see him die, her subconscious told her.
The shadow was now dangerously close to her, and she opened her mouth, ready to scream, just as all the lights in the room turned on at the same time.
“Sia.”
And her entire world came crashing down on her.