The Innocent Lover

Chapter 1

Iris

I felt her hands wrap around the collar of my pajamas as she dragged me to the staircase, and we stood right in front of it.

" Why should I be stuck with you when my happily ever after died too?" She said darting her red eyes around. " If I get rid of you,  I will be fresh again. Then maybe he'll come back and we can start over. Together".

The next moment, I was propelled down the stairs, and something tugged at my wrist, before tearing the skin open and letting blood ooze from the wound.

I tried to say something, but no words came out. I was in pain.  My body wouldn't move and I felt like something heavy was pressing down on me.

Help.

Help.

Help.

All of a sudden, I woke up, my heart pumpimg loudly on my chest and I was sweating.

I thought I was over with these crazy dreams.

It was already twelve years after the incident, and yet it still haunted me.

I lightly brushed the cut I had received on my left-hand wrist, a thick and jagged mark that was a stark contrast to the smooth light skin around it as I pulled the sheets away from me.

It was ugly, and just like the day I had acquired it, a painful memory in my head that inflicted just about the same amount of damage on my flesh for twelve years.

Up until now I still couldn't understand my mother's behavior, and even when I tried countless times to think about it, a valid excuse for her attitude never came to mind. It hurt to know so little about the woman who had given birth to me just because she was closed off from me of all the people in her life.

I looked at my clock by the bed stand whilst rubbing my eyes and the red numbers highlighting the time came into focus.

3:00 AM.

Three hours before my alarm was supposed to ring, but I decided to get up and stop the turning and twisting in my bed because of the nerves running deep within the pits of my stomach.

I had to make myself relax, and what could be better than waking up in the cold morning and preparing myself for an interview that was five hours away from commencement?

That's right. In five hours I was to have an interview with one of the most prestigious magazine companies in Africa – Adder Group of companies, which required editors.

I wanted the job so that I could be able to showcase my abilities at such a prestigious organization, and most importantly, I wanted to help reduce the burden I put on my grandparents.

Not that they needed my concern over that certain issue.

Once upon a time, a young doctor married his lawyer girlfriend and together they made great financial decisions that made them bank enough money for early retirement. We were literally rich if I do say so myself, and I had practically everything anyone would ask for. But I still needed to lessen the burden so that my grandparents wouldn't get tired of me easily.

After all, pilling someone with too much burden could make them get frustrated and angry; the same way it had done to my mother after I had pilled her with unnecessary stress over something that could have been avoided together– even though I still didn't know what I had done to her.