Chapter 01

It was 14:00 in the office and Chloe was busy typing on her laptop. She needed to finish the proposed Summer event for their branch. She was a little too focused on her work that she was startled when she heard a knock on the office door. Chloe looked up from her screen.

Nina, the store manager's assistant, was standing in the doorway. "Miss Berg is calling for you."

"Tell her I will be right there. I am just typing some things for the event we will be having soon."

"She told me to tell you should go now", she said.

Chloe folded her laptop and stood from her seat. "Okay. I will be right there."

She went out of her office and walked towards the store manager's office. When she reached the front of Miss Berg's office door, she knocked three times. "Miss Berg, you wanted to see me?"

"Come in, Chloe. I have some news for you", said the voice from inside the office.

Chloe turned the doorknob and saw Miss Berg holding some papers.

"Sit down. I have good news for you."

Chloe sat on one of the chairs in front of Miss Berg's table.

"I remember you applied for a promotion a while ago." Miss Berg's eyes met with Chloe's.

Chloe nodded. "Yes, I did."

"I have received the papers for your promotion. This is it right here in my hands." Miss Berg waved the papers she was holding. She gently put it down the table in front of Chloe.

Chloe reached for the papers and skimmed through the content. She could not believe what was said in the papers. "I am grateful I was promoted to store manager, but do I really have to move to Stockholm for the job? I am not complaining. I am just asking if this is necessary. I could take the train to work."

Miss Berg nodded. "The store manager of one of the Stockholm branches submitted his resignation letter. Since you are the most qualified for the position, the higher ups decided you will take over. You will have to move to Stockholm within three weeks so that you don't need to commute that far. You will have Mr. Larsson show you how things are done there before you take over."

"I don't know what to say."

"Congratulations, Chloe. You are the new store manager of one of our Stockholm branches."

Chloe was in tears. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"You can leave early and finish your work tomorrow."

"Thank you so much." Chloe could not contain her smile. She grabbed the papers and hurriedly got out of the office.

After fifteen minutes of train ride, she got home.

Amanda, her older sister, greeted her at the door. "Wow. You are early today."

"I have something to show you", she bursted out with excitement. Chloe dug into her bag and brought out the paper. She handed the papers to Amanda. "I got the promotion!"

The sisters shouted and jumped with excitement.

"I am so happy for you."

Chloe stopped jumping. "I know! I've been aiming for this position for a long time now. The only thing is that we have to move to Stockholm since the branch I will be managing is there. They said I have to move there in three weeks."

"I think that is enough time to move if the company is helping you with the apartment."

Chloe gave a faint smile and nodded. "Yes."

Half a month later, Chloe was putting packaging tape on a large box to seal it shut. "I am almost done packing my stuff", she shouted. Her dark wavy brown hair was in a messy bun to keep it from getting tangled into her things.

Amanda, her older sister, was in the next room packing her own things. "Are you sure? Did you include the things in your closet?"

"No. I don't think those are important. I think those are only junk from when I was a kid that I didn't bother throwing."

Amanda entered Chloe's room. "Look into them just to make sure. You might want to bring along some of those things."

"Fine", Chloe groaned. She opened her closet and walked into it. She found a box full of things she kept since they moved into this apartment. She sat down and started taking out things one by one. She thought everything was not worth keeping and should just be thrown away until she saw an item she could not remember owning.

It was a silver necklace with angel wings on both side of the emerald pendant. At the back of the pendant, there were symbols inscribed.

"I have seen these symbols before. I just can't seem to remember what they are." She put the necklace inside her jeans' pocket and continued looking through the things in the box.

Ten minutes later, she was done sorting the things inside the box in the closet. Most of them are things she doesn't mind throwing away. The others were things that bear great memories from her childhood that she forgot she had. There was the teddy bear keychain her mom had given her when she was about to go to the university. There was also their family picture they took when they went to Germany for the summer. She wondered why it's left there and not even scanned. Then, there was the necklace she could not remember.

She brought the necklace out from her pocket and stared at it. She tried to remember when, where, or from whom she got the necklace.

She was in deep thought that she didn't notice Amanda had already entered her room. "I told you that you might want to keep some of those in the box."

Chloe looked at her sister. "Do you remember who gave me a silver necklace with an emerald pendant when I was a kid? This one?" She showed the necklace to Amanda.

Amanda shook her head. "No. Is that not from Mom?"

"I don't remember but I don't think she gave me this. You know how careful with things our mom is. She would occasionally ask me about it if it was from here. That is the reason I still have my gold earrings she gave me when I was ten."

"Valid point", Amanda replied.

"There are also these familiar symbols carved into the pendant."

Amanda took the necklace from Chloe and inspected it. She found the symbols Chloe was talking about. "I know these symbols. They are called baybayin. They are ancient symbols from the Philippines."

From the mention of the Philippines, Chloe got a clue where she got it. "So, it's given to me before we moved here."

"Surely", Amanda replied as she gave the necklace back to Chloe. "Don't think of this too much. Maybe you bought this at a shop before our flight to Sweden and just forgot about it."

Chloe nodded. "You may be right." She put the necklace inside her pocket.

Amanda went out of Chloe's room. She stopped in front of the doorway. "You might want to clean your room before we go. We have three hours before the moving truck gets here."

"If it's up to me, I don't want to move to the city. I will miss this place. We grew up here", Chloe said with a pout.

Amanda sighed. "Yes, we grew up here and this is our first apartment, but we cannot keep it if we are going to live somewhere else. We both got jobs in the city and it's pretty tiring to take the train everyday."

"I know. Mom told me that, too." Chloe stood up and went out of the closet.

Amanda walked to Chloe's side and gave her a hug. "Think of it as another new chapter of your life."

"Can you leave me in this apartment for a bit? I don't feel like going to our new apartment with the moving truck."

"Sure, if that is what you want." Amanda went out of Chloe's room and shut the door.

Chloe walked to her bedside table and reached for her phone. She tapped the screen and called her friend Valerie.

After a couple of rings, Valerie answered. "What's up? Done packing?"

"Yeah. I'm both excited and terrified."

"Don't worry. Everything will be fine. You have a new job and a new place. It's a brand new chapter of your life!"

"Will we be able to see each other like before? These are new people we are talking about. New apartment, new job, new people, big city."

"You still have Amanda with you and we can still meet every weekend. It's just a change of scenery", Val replied.

"Are you free today? Can you keep me company here? Amanda will go with the moving truck with our stuff and I asked to stay here for a bit longer."

"I thought you're done packing."

"I am but I am leaving behind my bed and bedside table. We bought new ones for our new apartment."

Chloe couldn't see Val's face since they weren't video chatting, but she was certain Val just rolled her eyes as she replied, "okay. Fine. I will be there in forty minutes."