Oddly Similar (Complete)

Chapter - XVIII

A shadow was following Rose. She was walking back from the park that was a couple of blocks from dad's place at night.

The park had swings and slides and she would do everything possible to force mum and dad to take her there every evening as a kid.

It had continued to be her haven. Time flew whenever she was there. It was 5 minutes to 11pm when she realized it was late. She almost started rushing home through well-acquainted alleys.

The shadow won't leave her alone.

For some reason her courage abandoned her.

She couldn't turn and yell or glare to scare whoever was stalking her.

All of a sudden like a wraith the shadow got stiflingly close.

Grabbed her mouth with sweaty palms and chapped lips whispered into her left ear in singsong pattern, "Roseyyyyy!"

Rose woke up with the worst start.

The nightmare was back.

Again.

She went down to the kitchen had a glass of water, pulled out Mrs. Walters' almond cake from the fridge, cutting out a big helping for her, scooped in a big chunk of Belgian dark chocolate ice-cream.

If the nightmare didn't give her a coronary before time, she was sure her sweet tooth would.

The midnight snack calmed her nerves a bit. She went back to her room, wrapped her pashmina around herself and sat on her study-table pulling up the accounts reports on her computer. Those were sent routinely by the three businesses she'd invested in since college by rotating the money she made working with dad as a designer.

One was a high-end fashion store started by a junior, Sara, at her college who'd approached her for seed money. There was no turning back since then. Her investment had yielded returns manifold.

Sara would send in couple of her creations every season exclusively to her as gifts.

Another was a bakery, run by Sicilia's niece and her husband. Rose was a 50% owner and since the past 5 years the bakery had recovered all the investment and was giving a very healthy 15% profit.

Last was an apiary and orchard set at the outskirts of Boston. Honey and a small range of skin products manufactured there were sold locally as well as nationally. There were plans to increase the bee colonies by 25% so as to start catering abroad.

Having the apiary felt like the one good deed. Rose was supposed to visit it tomorrow. The buzz from the bee colonies felt like white noise drowning away the chaos which at times overwhelmed her.

Work felt like the only elixir whenever she was hounded by her past.

Sighing loudly, her eyes strayed from the computer screen out the window cause she could very consciously feel someone observing her. Her skin used to crawl whenever she felt that.

Wrapping up the reports she got up drawing the blinds on the window, she tried to sleep for she was to set out at 6.00 am for the apiary.

Holding the blanket close she prayed tomorrow to be better than the past few days.

It felt like the more she tried to get away from drama the more it dragged her in.

Sicilia woke Rose up bright and early at 4.30am. Groaning loudly, Rose said, "Why do I have to get up, Sicilia?"

To which she smiled and responded, "Cause you are to conquer the world."

Smiling mildly she said, "I don't know about the world but the world of business awaits." Forcing herself out of her room and into the bathroom she got ready as soon as possible because the earlier she hit the road the earlier she could return.

Her staff at her apiary was not informed of her visit as always. All her visits used to be surprise ones but they never led to anything unhappy.
The people who worked for her knew what she wanted and she made sure they were happy delivering it.

Sonya, her female security guard was there to pick her up by 5am. 5'7" of pure built coupled with a really serious expression made this raven-haired woman a formidable personality. No one dared to walk up to Rose whenever Sonya was around. Dressed in a sleek business suit she was carrying her usual upholster.

"Good morning, ma'am," Sonya said with the slightest hint of a smile.

"Good morning, Sonya. Please take the highway so that we reach the apiary as soon as possible. Once the inspection is done, I intend to leave after lunch is done. I hope there won't be any surprises interrupting us," Rose said hinting at the Matt-storming-the-office episode. Sonya's face colored a bit at that, looking down for an instant, biting her inner cheek she said, "There won't be any surprises, ma'am."

Pulling the SUV out of the driveway, Sonya spoke once they'd driven for a couple of minutes, "A car has been following us since we left the house. I noticed it was parked a couple of houses away when I came to your place and the driver present in it."

Rose nodded, "It has been there since the day I returned from Matt's office. I had the number plate checked it's registered to Matt's company. I know he's keeping an eye on me." Rose explained as if reading outloud the book titles in a library.

"Pete was working at their branch office and is absconding. I think Matt has teams looking for him. Maybe they have an idea what kind of person Pete is. We don't need a backup," Rose answered sensing the question coming from Sonya.

"Pete never knew about this apiary and the most we'll be risking is running into Matt again. He's apologetic and for unknown reasons desperate to work on Regalia."

"For the time-being I'll be staying at dad's place, once things settle I'll get back to my place."

"I would've suggested the same," told Sonya seriously.

The sentence was barely out of Sonya's mouth when a biker overtook the car following them, got really close to their SUV, threw a bouquet of vintage pale pink roses into the backseat and drove off just as he'd come.

Sonya instantly screeched the car to a halt at the side of the road earning colorful words from the traffic behind them, made Rose jump out of the car and started inspecting the bouquet with the edge of a pen from her pocket so lightly as if she were a professional handling a bomb.

Rose stood with hands crossed at her chest a couple of feet away from her car. Their stalker car crossed them but came to a stop a little away. The driver got down and came enquiring to them behaving as a good Samaritan. He was obviously unaware that Rose knew who he was.

"Are you guys okay? I just saw that biker come out of nowhere," spoke the guy in an Irish accent, looking from Rose to Sonya, moving closer to Sonya saying, "You shouldn't do that. It could be dangerous," when he saw her inspecting it so closely.

Sonya returned the closest possible to no-nonsense look and said as non-chalantly possible, "It's just a bouquet of roses. Nothing scary. Probably a teen pranking. Thank you for your concern. We'll report it definitely and be getting back to our journey" , signalling Rose to get back in the car.

Rose got back nodding a polite smile to him. After they travelled for a couple of miles Rose let her attention stray to the bouquet with wariest eyes.

"He really is getting on my nerves."

Author's note:- Thank you so much for the reads. Shy as well as vocal ones. The rankings are really surreal.

Am trying to write as much as possible daily without compromising with the original idea.

Votes, comments and follows really motivate me a lot.

Lots of love to everyone out there!!

RS

XOXOXO