Chapter 1: Unbreakable Bond

Eight years later...

It was a rainy Sunday afternoon at Oakridge City. A young woman was busy feeding the stray kittens with their mother cats in the isolated area of the park underneath her umbrella. It was the last week of August and the weather was fine except that it drizzled a little today.

The cats suddenly felt someone else's presence and so they ran off to hide immediately as they thought they were in danger.

Zarah could feel that presence, too. However, compared to the cats, she could tell that this person had no intentions to harm her.

Zarah pouted her lips as she didn't want them to run away and leave her alone.

"Oh! Where are you all going? Please come back!" Zarah called to them with a cute voice but they had already banished and hid in a place they deemed safe.

Suddenly, a woman's voice spoke behind her back, "If you're going to feed them always, they might not want to go back home and would stay in the streets or the park."

"They have no home, to begin with --", she refuted the woman but paused as soon as she recognized her voice.

She looked behind her and she was surprised to see that it was one of her twin best friends.

"Olivia!" She immediately got up and ran toward the woman for a hug after recognizing her.

"Zaza!" The woman replied in joy.

"When did you come back? I should have been there to meet you at the airport." Zarah sounded upset.

Olivia then replied, "It's fine. It would no longer be a surprise if I told you that I'm coming back today."

Olivia saw that Zarah was looking behind her.

"Where's Trixie?", Zarah asked.

Her best friend pouted at the mention of the name.

"Why are you looking for her when we have the same face? Don't you like me anymore, Zaza?", she said with a pout acting like a cute kitten that Zarah adored.

"Geez! Stop being a drama queen, okay?" She said while poking the latter's forehead and then continued, "I'm just always used to seeing you both together. From the sound of it, it seems like there must be a misunderstanding between you two."

"There's none! Dad let her stay behind for a week. She still has some unfinished business in Sterlington City."

"I see. How did you know that I'm here?"

"Well, I just know! You've liked coming to the park to feed them ever since our high school days." She paused and tickled her best friend but as usual, she failed.

"How about you? How are things going on between you and my brother?" Olivia excitedly probed and Zarah's face turned red. However, her tone changed when she saw that Zarah had lost weight.

"You seem to have lost weight, Zaza. Are you okay? If Josh had done something. I swear! Even if he's my brother, I will not let him off!" Olivia swore in front of her.

Ever since high school, Olivia, Trixie and Zarah were best of friends though they were a year ahead of her.

Rumors even circulated that Zarah was dating them both because of how close they were to each other. They tried to brush them off as they were baseless. The outsiders could not just understand the bond they shared as best friends.

Aside from Isaiah, it's the Irving twins who knew Zarah better.

"It's not what you think. We're good! Your brother has been treating me so well since day one when we started dating. And besides, I'm fine. My schedule is packed these days though classes have not officially started for regular students." Zarah reassured her.

This would be her final year as a university student thus she was busy building up her portfolio and at the same time making her academic papers ahead of time so she could graduate and get her degree.

Despite her busy schedule, she managed to date Josh. It has been a year since they started dating. Zarah looked like she was head over heels in love with him. Olivia knew about this because Zarah confessed that she liked her brother when she was a sophomore and Josh was in his senior year.

Her brother was a fool for turning down Zarah's confession just because she dressed boyishly and had those nerdy glasses and braces. She and her sister knew that Zarah's style had always been boyish.

And so, she was surprised to see her wearing a dress today. And she had also started wearing a little bit of make-up which highlighted her features very well.

She knew that this was for her brother's sake. Zarah probably didn't want to embarrass Josh for dating a plain girl. Which for Olivia was unnecessary.

Zarah was a very gorgeous twenty-year-old young lady. However, she liked to dress simply and not flaunt her beauty, unlike the others. Nonetheless, her natural beauty still shone.

And if her brother deeply cared for Zarah, he would accept her for who she was and not let her change.

Olivia thought that Zarah was too good for her brother. She just hoped that the latter would treat the former well.

"That's good!" Olivia said in delight.

"I've heard that you're starting your internship at the Stevens Group tomorrow."

"How did you know?"

"Of course! Anything that concerns you, I should know about it." She said with a smile.

Zarah squinted her eyes as she studied her best friend.

"It's just so upsetting that you chose Stevens Group and not the Irving Corp."

"It's my Old Man's wish, you know. He said that he hopes to see me helping the company one day. I don't think that it'd be possible in the future so I want to fulfill it during my internship." As she thought of Isaiah's smiling face, she could not help but her eyes glistened with tears.

"I'm sorry, Liv." Zarah added an apology and Olivia accepted it, "Hey! It's fine."

Olivia knew for a fact that Isaiah was her bottom line. And her best friend cared a lot for her adoptive father.

"Of course! You're so smart and talented! I'm sure Chairman Stevens won't let other companies benefit from you!" Olivia said with a pout but she knew too well that Olivia was only teasing her.

"I'm just worried. I have heard that there's a power struggle between the members of the family. I don't want you to get stuck in between."

"There's nothing to worry about. After all, I'm just an outsider. I'm only connected to the family because of Old Man." Zarah stated the fact.

If one day, Isaiah died then, she had no other reason to be connected with the Stevens family.

The two decided to leave the park and went to their next destination.

St. George Hospital

Inside the makeshift Intensive Care Unit of the hospital, an old man was confined inside. He looked very pitiful as many tubes connected to the machine which kept him alive were hooked to his body.

Zarah could no longer recognize the Old Man who took her in his care eight years ago.

Gone were the smiles on his face and were replaced by his pale complexion.

Standing by the window, the two looked at him.

"I still could not believe that Mr. Jansen is the respectable Chairman Stevens of Stevens Group. I thought he was only a simple restaurant owner!"

"Mee, too. I could not believe it myself. But alas! It's the truth. He had his reasons and I don't have the right to question him about it." Zarah simply explained as she did not want to say more about it.

It was not her story to tell after all.

"I'm sorry that I was absent from your side when it happened." Olivia apologized.

"It's fine," Zarah said but Olivia knew how hard it must be for Zarah. They have been best friends since high school. Even so, they only knew that Zarah was adopted through her speech during her high school graduation.

They wanted to comfort her about it but they had to fly back to Sterlington City to continue their studies.

The family decided to move the main branch of Irving Corp. to Sterling State since Olivia's maternal family lived there. However, the Irving siblings could not abandon their birth land and so they asked their parents to go back.

That's when Josh moved back to Oakridge City two years ago after he got his degree. And hopefully, Olivia and Trixie would follow him.

With them gone, no one was there to support her emotionally. Isaiah had been her emotional rock ever since and now that he was sick, no one was going to be there for her.

Good thing she had Josh, Olivia's brother, to comfort her.

Zarah entered the ICU to take good care of Isaiah and left Olivia in the waiting area.

Zarah as usual wiped Isaiah with a sponge and also, and she started talking to him.

A private nurse could do this task but she insisted on doing this for Isaiah. It was the least that she could do for what he had done for her.

After a moment, she was done and bid goodbye.

"I'll come back right after my shift ends tomorrow, Old Man. I hope you'll wait for me." She said and planted a kiss on his left cheek.

After visiting the hospital, Zarah and Olivia went to the ramen restaurant to have a bowl of ramen.

"Gosh! I miss this! Thank you for the treat, Zaza!"

"You're welcome, Liv. Bon appetit."

"I will! No ramen restaurant in Sterlington City could defeat the delicious ramen here!"

"I should be flattered for the compliment, Liv."

"Seriously, if you decide to open a branch at Sterlington City, I'm sure that it'll be a hit!"

Olivia knew that the ownership was given by Isaiah to Zarah as a graduation gift.

However, after Isaiah's health deteriorated a year ago after that car accident, his eldest son, Nikolai snatched the restaurant away from her hands. To avoid conflict, she decided to give in.

"You know that it's no longer my call, Zaza." She said in a depressing tone.

After they had their meal, Zarah and Olivia decided to go somewhere. Olivia helped Zarah buy an outfit for her internship. However, they had to strictly abide by the company's dress code.

Olivia was more excited than Zarah herself.

After buying her office outfit, Olivia tried calling her brother so he could pick them up.

"Josh is with his friends. They're out of town today and will be coming back tomorrow." Zarah told her which made Olivia disappointed with him.

"It's fine, Liv. It's his best friend Paul's birthday and he said it was a boys-only out-of-town trip." She tried to defend Josh from his sister.

Olivia scoffed in disapproval. "All boys my a**."

"It's true. Don't you trust your brother?"

"I trust him. However, I don't trust his circle of friends." Nonetheless, in reality, she was completely unsure. She heard rumors about him.

"Well, don't be so worked up. I trust your brother. He won't hurt me. He would not wait for a year to court me and then would cheat on me easily, right?" Zarah explained in her boyfriend's defense.

Olivia decided to send Zarah to the apartment she shared with Josh. Yes, the couple was now living together. It was convenient on Zarah's part as the apartment was close to her school and was closer to Irving Corp.

Zarah and Josh lived together six months after they started dating.

"Thank goodness! I thought your apartment would be lifeless," Olivia commented. Zarah knew that she was only teasing her.

"I thought so, too. However, I learned a thing or two over the years," Zarah replied.

The entire room was a three-bedroom penthouse apartment. It had a spacious living room that had minimalistic furniture in white and rustic gold themes.

There were indoor plants placed inside the house to add coziness to the place.

There was a cat tower not far from it and cat toys were spread on the floor. Aside from that, the apartment was clean.

"Meow!" A white cat immediately ran towards her feet the moment Zarah walked in.

Zarah scooped the car immediately.

"Xander, did you miss Mama?" Zarah asked and the cat responded with a meow.

"He's so cute!" Olivia praised it and was about to touch it when Xander hissed at her.

"Xander! That's not good!" Zarah scolded the cat. "She's Olivia. Mama's best friend. So she's your auntie, okay?" 

Olivia chuckled at how serious Zarah was in scolding her cat.

"I'm sorry Liv. Xander's a good boy. However, he had a traumatic past that's why he doesn't warm up to strangers easily. He is even hostile to Josh." Zarah explained and put down Xander on the floor and he ran off to his cat tower.

"It's fine, Zaza. He doesn't have to like me. Maybe he likes you because you both are the same? He can relate to you better than to me." Olivia had her guess and sat down on the sofa while Zarah followed.

"You're right. I can relate to his pain the same as he can relate to mine.", Zarah uttered sadly

Zarah then asked, "How long are you going to stay?"

"Well, it's best to say I'm staying for good."

"How about your parents? Will they be coming back, too?" Zarah asked tensely.

Ever since day one, Olivia's parents were against the fact that their son was dating an orphan though she was best friends with the twins.

Josh confessed that he turned her down before because he was afraid that his parents would do something with her.

Maybe now that they knew that she was adopted by the richest man in Oakridge City, they had decided to allow Josh to date her. It was all about benefits anyways.

Zarah did not want the twins to know about this as she did not want to draw a wedge between them.

Now, she just hoped that Olivia won't see through her.

"Well, they'll also be coming back. But I don't think they'd be coming back for good."

Zarah heaved a sigh of relief and this did not escape from Olivia.

"Why? Are you afraid that my parents would split you two apart?" Olivia said, which caught Zarah off-guard.

"You--"

"I told you, didn't I? I know everything that concerns you. If not, you won't trust me to handle --" she was not able to finish as Zarah covered her mouth.

"Liv! Geez!" Zarah sighed and Olivia chuckled at her friend's reaction.

"Now that I'm here, when are you going to visit and say hello? They missed you." Olivia asked after she calmed down.

"I don't know, yet. My hands are full."

"Okay! Maybe, some other time."

Zarah heaved a sigh of relief after Olivia finally let go of the topic.

***