1 Chapter 1

Today has been a long day, and I am hoping after all this I can just go relax far out of town. One last meeting with a Real Estate company before I mentally shut down.

"Nica the meeting starts in a few minutes." comes in Becca's voice as she walks into my office .

"I am so tired Becca, I doubt I can last another hour."

"Come on, I don't want us to be late for this ' super important meeting' " she says emphasizing on the meeting and true to her words I do not want to upset Carter by not showing up or being late. I get up, taking my laptop with me and following Becca out.

"What is with this company anyway? Carter never walks into deals like that, we always discuss first."

" Grey Builders, they are a big deal around here. Everybody wants to work with them." She says as we walk into the empty conference room. I take a seat at my usual spot, beside the chief. Becca makes us coffee as we discuss several business plans Carter had brought up in the last meeting.

Becca is my best friend, she was working for Carter Luxury Homes before I even gave a thought about being an interior designer. So we met and just clicked, and the next thing I know she wanted to work with me on all her projects. Carter loved our work and so did most companies and individuals, so we both got promoted to being managers at Carters co. Meeting Becca was like a blessing to me for she is like a sister I never dreamt of having.

I won't lie, I love this job. There is just something about turning something so bare to look as appealing as ever. My mother was a designer, but now she just sits home and waits for her workers to do the work for her. She was so passionate about her work and that was more like a motivation to me. After all those years of hardships atleast mah is in a place she deserves.

"You two are early today for a change." Roy says walking in and dumping his tablet on the glass lectern.

"Super important meeting." I tell him and he rolls his eyes playfully.

"Tell me about it. "

Carter walks in , trailing behind him are our colleagues. He looks amazing today, he smiles handing his laptop to see some sketched designs.

"Where are they?" Becca asks peeking at the designs, I must admit this look amazing. He compiled all the good stuff we had been submitting and he added a few of his own and they look exquisite, for sure this will wow them.

"They will be here in a short while, I thought you guys might want to see the presentation."

"They look amazing."

Soon enough all my colleagues are seated at our end of the table waiting for our associates who are apparently running late. I am about to say something when everyone's attention turns to the door. There are four guys and a pretty petite blonde with a mini iPad. I am assuming that must be the secretary, she walks behind the rest of them all but that is not what quite caught my attention, I can recognize those electric blue eyes from anywhere. His aura irks of attention, it just like a part of him, he does not even have to ask for it everyone just acknowledges his existence. He is like a walking greek god, they all just worship him and it has always been that way. Our eyes meet and it seems like even the atmosphere worships him, everything stops just for a second and all the memories keep rushing back. The bitter , the sweet, the torture , the pain , the misery and for a second to think that I had entirely forgotten of his existence.

What ever is even stopping him from taking another step into the room, must be hard, he feels it too. It had even clicked for a second that Grey Builders was owned by the all mighty Mikel Grey.

When my subconscious mind snaps back to life, he walks right past me and I feel my anxiety jumping right in. He is back , he came back to rip apart all the shreds of myself I had picked up.

"Welcome gentlemen and lady. It's a pleasure to have you here." Carter starts off and I dont know what to do, maybe I should run, go get lost and never return, but why should I give up everything I have worked for all these years. I cannot let him win so I am going to stay, that choice is not debatable. " Are you okay?" I really don't know what to tell Carter right now so I just nod , gathering all the strength I have left.

"Yeah.... I ... I'm okay." I stutter. I can be okay, but not when he keeps staring at me like that.

" So where do we begin....?"

The second I get into the washroom, I feel like I can finally let my guard down and release all the bitterness and pain that I have been holding on to for so long. I cry...I cry because it is what I need right now, I need to let it all out. The images in my head are blurry no more but clear as crystal, he broke me...he tore me apart and destroyed a part of me I thought was gone forever, all along it has been hiding. And he just shows up and triggers everything, and that lost gone part of me resurfaces.

" Nica are you okay?" I hear Becca's voice outside and I quickly wash my face, trying to put myself together. " I'm coming in."

I think I look better, I don't want anyone seeing how pathetic I really am.

"I'm fine."

"Are you? You don't look so good. The meeting ended and you just flew out, I called you..."

"Becca I'm okay. Just needed to use the washroom." I can see that she doesn't buy it but she nods anyway and leaves. I make sure I'm at my best before walking out.

" I was wondering when you were going to get here." He leaning on the wall , his eyes on the magnificent view of the city. It takes a mighty willpower for me not to yell at him to get out of my life. But over the years I realized one thing, I gave him the power to walk over me, I myself let him into my life. and for that I blame nobody but myself.

"Why are you here Mikel?" I ask him, trying to not think of the bitter sweet memories flashing in my mind. Sometimes I wonder how he caused me so much pain but I cannot think of him as the monster that he is. I cannot hate him as bad as I want to, I cannot even kill him if I had a gun in my hand right now.

"I would love to say that I am here for you darling but quite the contrary, I am here for my daughter... where is she?." and right here is where I break down. The tears flow freely down my cheeks, in the back of my head I can hear Nikki's warm laughter, she did not deserve that. I did. " Where is my daughter Darnica?" he ponders, his voice reverberating though the entire room. How dare he raise his voice at me.

" You mean my daughter...you mean my Nikkita...you finally pretend to ask about her when you never even cared when she needed you..?"

" Where is the damn girl Nica?" he asks his emotions taking control of him, tears clouding his eyes. Is this the Mikel Grey I knew? and if not what happened to him.

"You finallywant to know where she is after all those years you left us begging for your help. She was your daughter anyway so why should I keep her from you?...why should I hide her? Especially after she's dead." I yell at the top most of my voice, my blouse now drenched in tears.

He does not say a word, he just stands there taking in the weight of my words. And then out of the blues, he loses his composure and the tears cascade down his cheeks. For the first time ever in my life, Mikel Grey cries, not so mighty after all.

" Wha...t....wha...what?"

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