Chapter 2

Fina tried her best to get on with her day as usual. It stopped raining that day she took the bus to work. The clouds peeked over a dark cloud and took over the sky until there was nothing left but bright blue sky.

It was however, a little chilly. Before she left, David recommended that she wear a sweater just in case it got too cold.

As he walked away, Fina tried to search her mind to think about why he would suggest that. Did he just do it out of courtesy? Or was he not thinking at all?

This worried her.

In the mail room she smiled and talked with her coworkers. She, along with her coworkers Dee and Mia, were assigned to the mailroom and had to deliver packages to the employees that day.

She made sure to smile so that her expression didn’t appear cold.

“Oh no,” said Dee. She beckoned them to a package assigned to Ryan Heelriven, the CEO of the company who lived on the top floor.

“How did this get sent here?” Mia groaned. “Doesn’t he have a personal delivery service?”

“Seems so,” Fina said. “Maybe they accidentally sent it here.”

Fina, for the first time in a while, thought about this. She began talking to herself in an inner voice.

“I think this is weird,” Fina thought.

A thought! A real thought entered her head that was her own. “Someone with their own carrier to deliver packages would have a tracker. Mr. Heelriven is notoriously meticulous. He would have noticed it didn’t come to his office and would be looking for it.”

“Well, one of us has to deliver it,” Mia said, shaking her head. “He might be handsome, but I don’t want to anger him.”

Fina looked at the package.

“The address is to his office. I could forward it---”

Empty. Suddenly the thoughts in her head disappeared like steam. She opened her mouth without thinking.

“I’ll deliver it,” Fina smiled.

“Really?” Mia said, her eyes glittering. “You’re the best!”

“Just treat me to ice cream and we’re square,” Fina smiled.

Fina took the package and walked to the elevator.

***

Fina felt very angry, and she didn’t know why she felt this way. What was there to be angry about? It was like she was forced to do something she didn't want to do. However, she gladly did this for her friend, so what was she angry for? 

The elevator ride was long. Her head felt dizzy once she reached the top floor. She had never been this high up in the building. 

With the package in her hand, she walked out of the elevator and to the end of the hall that had the CEO of Heel Corporation.

Fina knocked on the door. There was no answer. She looked around and saw that there was a mail box, just the right size for her package.

Thank god, she thought! I don't have to go in. 

However, when she turned to drop it in the box, the box vanished into thin air. One moment it was here, the next it was gone like it never existed in the first place.

“This is creepy,” Fina thought as she trembled. “I want to leave.”

The door opened. It didn’t look like anyone had opened it because there was no one on the other side.

Fina opened the door slightly to squeeze the package in. When she was finished, she stepped back to close it gently.

There was a sound on the other side of the door. Two people were talking.

“Hold on, I’ll see who is there,” a man said.

Fina turned around and ran toward the exit. Realizing she didn’t have enough time to get to the door, she quickly hid behind a plant.

Mr. Heelriven opened the door, only wearing a towel.

“Wait, a towel?” Fina thought. If she had stayed any longer, she would’ve been involved in something that could only be handled by HR.

Mr. Heelriven looked down. Sighing, he picked up the package, then went back to the room shutting the door behind him.

Fina got out from behind the plant. She turned around and walked to the elevator.

“What was he thinking!” Fina thought. “No matter how good looking he is, that was just a lawsuit waiting to happen.”

Fina shook her head and shuddered. 

“That was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen,” Fina thought.

***

Ryan Heelrevin closed the door behind him. He stared at the package in his hands.

This should’ve come hours ago. Who were the idiots handling his packages, anyway? He should fire them.

The woman sitting in the chair next to window tapped her foot gently. She had been waiting for a while for him while he took a shower in his personal office.

The woman, Elaine, glared at him as he left the room to get dressed.

While putting on his tie, he couldn’t help but think that he was missing something. Like something was supposed to happen earlier that he had forgotten.

He checked his phone. All the meetings he had today had already taken place. He didn’t have any more until tomorrow.

Then what was he missing?

Whatever. His assistant will handle whatever troubles that might pop up and inform him later.

He walked out of the dressing room and walked over to the sitting area, right across from the woman he had hooked up with several times over the past month or so.

Elaine was a beauty who caught his attention earlier that year at social gatherings. But now she stormed into his office, upset for some reason.

“You know that pregnancy test I took?” she said plainly.

Ryan smiled dryly. “No?”

“It was positive. It was yours,” Elain said, grimacing.

Ryan laughed. “Oh, really?”

“Yes,” she said. 

“I had a vasectomy,” he said. This was a lie, but he wanted to see how far he could push her.

Elaine's eyes widened. “W-Well, vasectomies always fail. It could've still been yours!”  

“Could?” he said.

Elaine stopped for a moment before collecting herself. “I lost the baby.”

“How convenient,” Ryan smirked. “I guess that’s why were you drinking tequila last night?”

Elaine didn’t speak for a long time. She looked like she was going to hold her tongue, but she blurted out: “How, how--!”

“I keep tabs on all my women,” he said, laughing. “Every bar you go to, every man you take home in your apartment. And judging from your receipt from last night, you purchased lots of tampons and birth control.”

“You bastard!” Elaine shouted, getting up. She picked up the teacup on the table and threw it at him. He ducked and it smashed against the wall.  

“I really was pregnant!” she shouted. "But I won't get pregnant again by you, never! You're a monster." 

Ryan knew this would happen. It happened to successful, important men like him all the time. Even if she was pregnant, who cares? She’s not anymore, and it wasn’t his problem. 

He couldn’t blame her for falling for him and wanting what he had. He had everything. Talent, looks, money. He was a certified genius that was born once in a century, no a millennium.

If only there was a woman around him who wasn’t so shallow. She would be able to appreciate his greatness and obvious superiority and dote on him.

But people were greedy. They wanted money. His mother was only with his father for money, and his future bride would surely be in this for the money too.

Ryan blinked.

He looked at the door and stared at it for a while. He got that feeling again that something was supposed to happen, but didn’t.

Elaine snapped her fingers at him. “Hey listen to me, buddy! I know your secrets. And I will tell every social media outlet I know that you're a stalker who should be in prison.”

“Ok,” he said. “Good luck getting proof. I have good lawyers.”

Elaine was quiet. She had said all she wanted to say, and was tearing up. “This isn’t over.”

She stormed out and slammed the door.

He wouldn’t let her get away, though.  Wherever she went, he’d make sure there was a private investigator there to keep track of her every move. He had her laptop and her apartment bugged. He had all his bases covered.

Getting someone to pay off her apartment complex, and even the local authorities to look away if anything happened to her was too easy. He could even kill her if he wanted to and no one would know. But he just didn't have the time. 

Having so many mistresses was fun for a while. There were no attachments and it was easy. But now it was just messy. He needed to settle down and find someone he could easily control. 

Ryan walked over to the window and looked down at the city. He hated to admit it, but he was bored. So very bored. He wanted something interesting to happen to quell it.

He thought of the games he played when he was young. Board games were too easy, and games that required atheticism were never fair because other children would complain how he hit them too hard or injured them. There were only so many angry parents his family could pay off to keep quiet, so he was left at home with the staff more often than not. 

He liked games of the mind.  Those were best ones. Ones where he was in control and made all the rules. 

When he was a child, he would play games while his mother was busy tending to guests. His favorite, which he was only able to play once before his mother chastised him, was called Freezing War.

He’d gather servants of the grand household and gather them in a line. He’d take his birthday money and put it on a table in front of them, just to let them feel like it was real.

Those servants would balk at the hundreds of dollars bundled in large stacks on a table. By the time his butler was done stacking the bills it covered the entire table and stood a one foot high. Obviously, this was pocket money to Ryan. He could always ask for more from father whenever he wanted to.

But to make this game work, he had to take servants who were being underpaid or in dire straits. The cooks, the dishwashers, the ones with sick children and debt to pay off who were desperate.

On that clear summer day when he was twelve, he turned to the row of servants he gathered and asked this question:

“If I killed someone,” he said to the servants. “How much money would you need to never tell on me?”

Their eyes widened and none dared to speak. He wasn’t getting any answers, but he knew he was on the right track. He could always increase the amount of money offered, and it looked like some of them were about to break.

“What would you do if it was one of you?” he said. “And you got to vote? Who would you choose?”

 When Ryan thought of the results of that game, he smiled. It ended too early last time. Much, much too early.

How fun it would be to play that game again?