|| Haphazard ||

Chapter 1

Present

***

I couldn't help but curse under my breath as I found myself in such a critical situation.

How did it come to this? I don't even know it myself but it's not like I really have the time to deeply think about it when I'm being targeted by some random thug that has been following me for a while now.

How unlucky can I get? It's way past 2 am and I'm all alone running like crazy through the dark streets of Seoul with my six inches high heels in one hand and my broken cellphone in the other.

I knew I should've stopped being the same lazy ass as always and start learning some self-defense martial art like jujitsu but I guess now it's too late to whine about it.

In an attempt to make the stranger lose track of me I enter the well-known club and pray that he will be there.

But guess that my initial and only plan backfired and everything happened as fast as a thunder, me ending up with a hand covering my mouth and my body slamming against something hard before I could even scream.

Few months earlier

***

Apparently even the skies upon me don't want to show any mercy as they allow my day to start with pouring rain.

Icy stares that seem to follow my every movement and the steamy windows contrasting with the cold marble on the floor meet me as I cross the large Hotel lobby, making the atmosphere even more gloomy.

I'd call it questionable the reason why I'm here but to make everything clear I'll just say that I have no other choice.

I'm about to meet my mother or, should I say, the nasty woman that gave birth to me. I don't know how she still has the nerve to request my presence here after everything she's done not only to me but to pretty much everyone that has ever crossed her path.

As much as I want to, I can't stay oblivious to her presence as I hear the annoying "click clack" of her high heels from across the lobby. I turn around to face her with the straightest face I can pull off, too disgusted to even retribute the cynical smile she shows me.

"Well, well... " She starts, smiling even more broadly as she gets closer, close enough for me to recognize her expensive eau de parfum."Isn't our Scarlet as lovely as always?"

"What do you want?" A sigh almost instantly leaves my mouth. "Stop beating around the bush and go straight to the point." I say as I cross my arms and tap my foot on the floor, impatient.

"Don't need to scowl at me like that sweetie... I just wanted to have some mother and daughter time with you." She spitted her poisoned words while never losing her composure, still smiling.

Although it was hard to admit it myself, the way she carried herself with such elegance was, to say the least, alluring. That was probably the secret for her success with men -specially the wealthy ones.

"But since both of us are so busy nowadays I won't waste any more of our precious time and I'll let you know right away the reason why I called you here."

"S'il vous plaît." I said smirking.

"Well to put it in a simple way- there's going to happen another wedding ." I scoffed. She could only be kidding me! I mean this is, if I'm not mistaken, her fifth wedding and she makes me travel all the way here just to tell me that?!

"You've gotta be kidding me!" I rolled my eyes a stared back at her. "Is that why you forced me to come here today? Seriously?"

"Scarlet watch your tone!" She solemnly told me as she adverted her attention from her big diamond ring straight to my eyes. "Listen carefully kid." She said dropping all her mom-who-misses-her-beloved-daughter act. "I call the shots here so you'll do whatever I say in behalf of your own good, do you understand?"

I tried my hardest not to lose my poker face but being short-tempered didn't help much. Still, somehow I managed to keep quiet and let the old lady talk.

"Please cooperate. You see, as your mother I've always raised you thinking about your future and how I wanted you to be successful. Without having your father with me, you know I went through hardships but I thought that in the end my payback would be an amazing daughter with whom I could always count on. " Taking a sip of her drink her sharp eyes eyed me from head to toe. "I was wrong." She said coldly. "And I'm really disappointed at you, Scarlet."

Nothing that she could possibly say to me right now would make me bulge. I only considerate advices from people I respect and she's clearly not one of them. Honestly, how can you respect someone who doesn't even respect herself?

I couldn't even meet my biological father since I was the final result of a one night stand. That's why this woman was left alone, only to find out a few weeks later that she was pregnant.

Since I was a kid she has been telling me to follow her own steps but she's totally the opposite of what I can call a role model. Because of that, when I made my twentieth birthday I decided to live by myself and pursue my own and independent path, without having to worry about her petty persona.

"What is this diatribe all about?" A tall man dressed in a black suit asked smiling at us. I didn't recognize his face but he surely looked like he was rather intimate with my mother.

"Oh honey, you're already here!" She got up from her seat and gave him a light peck on the cheek. He involved his arm loosely around her shoulders and looked at me expectantly. My eyes drifted back and forth between both of them until my mother introduced us. "This is my daughter, Scarlet."

He extended his hand and I reluctantly took it and gave him a handshake.

"Nice to meet you, Scarlet."

My sixth sense was already awaken as I could feel the overwhelming aura around this man. He had something captivating, almost as if he had cast a spell on me and I could feel myself getting drown in his stare. He didn't look scary but, let's say, powerful.

"Nice to meet you too, sir." I said politely trying to at least give him a small sympathetic smile.

"Scarlet, this your future father-in-law, Ryan."

Hello everyone!
If you read the whole thing until here, I'm really grateful and I hope you enjoyed!
Let me know what you thought.
Sorry if there's any kind of mistake but as you could probably realize, I'm not a native English speaker... I actually started to write this story because I'm a bored 15 year old girl from Portugal who's enjoying the Summer holidays and thought that writing something in English would help her improve her vocabulary. Not sure if it will work, though :/

See ya ;)