11th June was their wedding anniversary, and Rose was restless. She kept looking at the pointers on
her watch, wondering why Burke still did not show up when it was already seven in the evening.
She picked up her phone from the table, eyeing the details of Burke's number. It took a few minutes of
hesitation and thinking till she finally dialed him up.
"What is it?" There was a sense of tiredness tied into his words when he finally spoke up. He must've
had a hard day from work.
Rose froze for a while, trying to register what he was saying.
She couldn't help but hate how he was always like this, so cold to her. Even when it came with making
love, it felt as if he was in a business meeting, just making similar transactions.
'Maybe he isn't like that to Amanda.'
A snide voice entered her thoughts, making her grip her phone even further.
"What's wrong?" he repeated. This time, he sounded even more impatient.
Rose covered her phone with both hands, trying to prevent all the turmoil in her head from showing.
After a few seconds of calming down, she tried to keep her thoughts in order and emotion out of her
voice. "I just wanted to ask when you'll come back."
"I'm in a meeting. I'm not sure when I'll get home, okay?" he answered coldly. However, after a few
moments of thinking it over, he paused. "I'll try to be home by nine"
"Alright," she replied softly.
He ended the call first.
As she watched the screen of her mobile phone gradually darken, she couldn't help but feel ridiculous.
Sitting alone in the quiet room, she felt nothing but disappointment overwhelming her heart.
Even after being married for a year, she still didn't know her place. What was she expecting? It was her
own wishful thinking that things would make a difference after countless months of being with one
another. She might as well get used to living in this big room alone.
Just as a mocking smile reached her lips, her phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Mrs. Gu. Would you like to get the cake today?"
She remembered that she had ordered from the bakery a week ago.
Rose built such an elaborate plan for them to celebrate their anniversary, yet he didn't even budge.
It seemed she was meant to be alone in this marriage.
"Mrs. Gu?"
Rose tightened her grasp on the phone. "I'll fetch it now. Keep it for me."
She didn't even gave him a chance to respond when she hung up the phone. Rose grabbed her car
keys and went out.
She was used to these, handling things on her own.
There was a road that was under construction on the way to the bakery shop downtown. A few vehicles
went down the deserted section. Today, even the street lights went on strike.
Driving the car, Rose felt flustered.
The phone screen on the passenger seat lit up. As she was about to check it, she heard a bang and
the whole car shook violently as it fell into a huge pit.
"That's not a good sign," she murmured to herself. As she got off the car, she found that the front of her
car had sunk deep into the construction pit.
It seemed she couldn't even push it out at this point.
This had been a birthday gift from Burke. He had given her a Ferrari without hesitation, and it'd be a
great waste if she damaged it.
With no street lights and no cars in sight, it seemed she'd be waiting for a long time to get some help.
She pushed a strand of hair from her forehead and sighed, dialing up the trailer.
However, the moment she was about to call, her phone died.
She really was helpless this time.
Although there were a few cars that passed by occasionally, they wouldn't be able to see her. Plus, it'd
be dangerous to stop them herself with no lights.
Since it was a suburb area, there weren't any houses either. Sitting at the edge of the road, her clothes
stuck to her skin as the night wind blew.
She looked around,
finding it difficult to breathe.
It should've been a great wedding anniversary, only for it turned into this howling mess.
The road was quiet at night, except for the occasional passing of cars.
Holding her knees together, she started recounting different ways to deal with this mess.
As she was thinking, she heard a frightening creak behind her.
It was a sound of a fist colliding with flesh.
Her ears perked up as she scrambled back up, trying to find the source of the sound.
As she continued to walk, the sound was growing louder and louder.
She was already shivering from fear.
In a dark alley along the road, someone was lying in a puddle of blood. He had stopped moving as two
tall men kept hitting him with sticks.
Rose screamed at the sight, wanting nothing more than to cover her eyes.
With her eyes wide open in surprise, Rose regained her footing. She was wearing high heels, if she did
run, there wouldn't be much hope for her yet. Her mind was already raising with calculations as she
dug deeper into her handbag, clutching her pepper spray and an alarm. Tina Tao, her friend, had
laughed at her back then when she was with those two every day. Who would know that she'd find
them useful today.
Noticing her, the two men sneered at Rose before advancing towards her, gripping their blood stained
sticks. At that moment, the alarm was pulled off. Then Rose grabbed her pepper spray and sprayed
them in different directions as if trying to ward them off.
The alarm had attracted the attention of a car passing by.
Seeing that the tables had turned, the men could only curse in fervor. One of them threw a stick
towards her. Unable to dodge it, it hit her right at the back of her head, causing for her to collapse at the
immense pain.
Clutching the pepper spray, Rose saw the two jumped to a motorcycle and went away. She leaned
against the wall and slid down slowly as if she had lost all her strength in an instant.
She took a glance at the man lying in the blood. She then supported herself to get up and staggered
over. The man was seriously injured and his face was covered with blood. Fortunately, he was still
conscious. He looked at Rose with his mouth moving as if he was saying something.
However, she couldn't hear him.
"Don't worry. I'll call someone to save you. Hold on," she whispered.
His injuries needed to be treated or else he'd die. She took off her high heels and stumbled into the
roadside, waving up her heels in a call for help.
Finally, it attracted some help. The next she knew was that she was also being carried into an
ambulance.
Before she could help it, everything went black.
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