12 Search for Cinderella!

Under the radiant sunlight stood a man.

His dark hair glistened as the wind softly flew across it. His board back faced the glorious skyline.

I walked closer towards him and as if noticing a sudden movement he turned around to face me. He smiled and slowly began to remove his mask.

I waited.

But before I could glimpse at his unmasked face, the world around me turned blurry.

I ran towards him but before I could touch him, another man appeared.

The blue masked man held my hand and soon the world around me faded away.

The bright morning sunlight engulfed my face. I squinted my eyes open.

I was faced with a plain white ceiling and an enormous light hanging down from the center. I rubbed my eyes awake trying to distinguish between my dream and the reality of last night.

The clock on the side table read 6:50 am, almost time for our Saturday morning jog. I quickly freshened up and put on my running outfit.

Leggings, sports bra, t-shirt, and shoes. I wore my light windproof jacket on top as it's still chilly outside.

I then put my hair in a high ponytail before going over to Rebecca's room.

"Becca, get up! Time for our morning run."

"Hmm.."

She stirred in bed before covering her face.

"Can you go alone today, I'm too tired from dancing last night." She moaned and closed her eyes again.

"Alright then, I'm off."

I told her before running downstairs and out the door.

I went on our usual weekend running route and as always I greeted several of our acquaintances along the way.

The old smiths' couple who are always bringing their sweet smiles as they stroll along the street, the uncle Jones who can easily make anyone burst out laughing with his silly jokes, the teenagers and the young couple who just moved down the road.

City life is a hectic place and only times like this can one become acquainted with the other. Over the past three months, I managed to meet some friendly people who we can easily get lost in some city gossip.

However, once our short running encounter is over we go back to being strangers. Busy with our own lives.

I finish my hour-long run and by the time I arrive at the door, it's already 15 minutes past 8.

I rang the doorbell and waited for Rebecca to open it but the house remained quiet.

I rang again but this time a loud shriek and a hurried footsteps sounded.

The door flung open.

"Hayls, where is your purse from last night?!"

Rebecca hurriedly asked me, not being able to contain her excitement.

"My purse…."

"Oh my god! I must have left it on the food table!"

Realization suddenly hit me and I gasped in horror. It had my credit card but most importantly my mother's memento. Her ring which I always take on any special occasion as a lucky charm.

Rebecca stayed on her stop, grinning from ear to ear.

"Why are you grinning? I had kept something very important to me."

I quietly cried inside, determined to find it.

I mean everyone present there last night was filthy rich so being stolen was out of the question.

"You work for the brand. You can help me find it right?"

"I already know where it is. Follow me."

Rebecca mischievously said and skipped inside.

"Here read this."

She handed me her phone.

It was the top 10 list of hot topics today, which were all from last night of course.

I clicked on the first link which read "Hot topic 1".

The page then loaded into a whole new article with a big bold heading "SEARCH FOR CINDERELLA!"

I scrolled further down and my eyes quickly landed on the image of my silver purse and the caption down the bottom "Prince Kole searches for the owner of this purse that stole his heart last night."

The article continued to talk about the lucky masked girl in a blue dress, which coincidentally happened to be me.

There was a link down the bottom which led me into his Instagram page which had over 100 million followers. I clicked on his most recent post with the picture of my purse and read his caption.

"I have truly fallen in love this time with last night's mysterious women. Please come find me, I promise to leave my playboy days behind me. I will accept anyone who can come forward and tell me the exact content inside this purse. Address - 142A Rosaland hotel. 5 pm. - Your Prince."

I stay staring at his caption and Rebecca. We both stare at each other and then back into his post again.

"Looks like he went back into posting careless things again."

I say out loud, breaking our silence.

"OMG! Do you know what this means?" Rebecca exclaimed.

"Aw, you're going to be a princess!"

"No."

"Look at his face Hayls. Sure he is a little here and there with women but look! He promised to stop just for you!"

"He could've easily mistaken me. I didn't even meet him last night."

"Now that I think about it. The blue masked man that danced with you! That was prince Kole."

"Aww, this is like a fairytale love story."

"I don't want any love story but I definitely do want what's inside my purse," I say to her.

"I have an idea."

"How about we go to the hotel secretly and steal the purse."

She says with her serious thief mode on.

"OK, but we need a plan."

"Yes, but before that let's check out other hot topics."

Rebecca snatched the phone off me and started scrolling through them.

The second trending topic was the news of Prince Kole being the hidden CEO of "Heavenly Elegance" which shook the fashion world. The article talked about all his latest designs which were worthy of all the awards available. People were willing to pay double and even triple the amount on the brand's latest product because of the fact that Prince Kole was behind the designs. The brand skyrocketed overnight causing the online shops of "Heavenly Elegance" to go out of stock on all of their dresses and bags.

The third trending topic was about the suspicion that Prince Elijah was present amongst the guests last night. They had a whole discussion box gossiping about the lucky ladies who got to dance with him.

It suddenly brought chills deep within my stomach. Could it be the man with a black mask but then again why would such a powerful person go out of his way to dance with me?

The fourth trending topic was Prince Kole's change of image. Going from a notorious playboy to a man with a respectful reputation overnight, Which I think will be gone soon if he doesn't remove that Instagram post!

The rest were about famous celebrities, socialite ladies, their outfits, and so on. I left Rebecca to read them by herself while I walked upstairs into my room to plan a perfect robbery.

*

On the other side of the city, a man stared at the article, and soon a loud sound of his phone cracking could be heard. The other man quickly ran to his side to calm him down.

In the same city, two men relaxed in front of their computer screen, unknown about the fury man.

"Are you sure about this Kole?" Sky asked.

"Yes, this is my perfect opportunity." He laughed a little, feeling content.

"You know you're playing with fire."

"I don't just want to play with it, I want to devour it. I want to see him ache with jealousy."

"Let's see how long he lasts."