’’Are you afraid of me?’’

Corrine turned on the bathroom sink tap as she cleaned her mouth with water and let the water wash off her bloodied spit.

She raised her head from it to stare at her reflection in the mirror and for a moment she could not recognize herself.

Who was that looking so betrayed, hurt and ill staring right back at her from the mirror?

Goodness, she can count the strands of her hair present on her head.

Her lips were so pale and dead.

Her eyes were hollow and suffering from grief.

Her skin is dry and lifeless.

’’Scared of you? Why would I be scared of you?’’

She stared more at herself.

Corrine Anais Winfield. You have endured so much pain.

If there ever was an opportunity for you to survive this, take it and come out of it stronger than ever before.

You are surrendering so easily to him and it’s not fair.

She stepped into the shower and had her bath. Feeling a little fresher as she changed into new clothes.

Her favourite work clothes. A dark leather blazer over a plain cream-white top on dark corporate pants. She stood before her mirror and lowered a matching head warmer over her head, to conceal the multiple bald spots on her head. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and decided to wear gloves to cover what she suspected was low blood circulation showing on her nails and fingertips.

She put on her best shoes, the most expensive and least worn of her little shoe collection. Picked up a matching bag, one she managed to bring with her from home on the day she was thrown out and doused herself with perfume.

The best one.

That gave off a hopeful and confident scent. She checked herself one last time in the mirror, feeling satisfied with her look she grabbed her car keys and laptop and headed off to work.

*

*

*

Corrine hesitated from driving her car to work this time. Hell, she could barely see anything and she wasn’t in the right state of mind to deal with rush hour and all.

It didn’t feel like a good idea to drive herself in this state so she booked a private ride instead to work.

Luckily, Berry, Lin, Stylie and that annoying creep wouldn’t be around to notice this.

The ride to her work felt longer than usual. The air in the car was too depressing and it looked like she was heading towards a funeral procession than going to work.

’’Driver, can you turn on the radio for a second please?’’

’’Sure, Ma’am.’’

She leaned back, feeling relieved when one of her favourite songs from the Thank U, Next album kept playing. Lifting the mood and having her mumble to some of the lyrics, bobbing her head to the chorus and feeling a lot better until she received another unexpected notification from her favourite Fortune telling app.

Corrine sat up, wondering why she hadn’t deleted this useless piece of shit yet.

She was about to uninstall the app but was also curious to know what today’s prediction was going to be for her this time.

The last two predictions have been terrible ones that she threatened within her to have the app deleted, leaving a very bad review on it on playstore if it kept giving her those trashy, ai-generated predictions.

She clicked on the app icon and logged into her account. Scrolling down towards the icon that said my daily predictions.

She tapped on today’s own and read the words generated on it.

Love. Family. Rebirth.

Sadness. Anger. Revenge.

Death...

Corrine stared at the prediction, almost smiling in disbelief.

Not even a single comforting prediction.

The worst of it all happened to be Family.

What?

Will I be seeing one of them today or what?

She uninstalled the app, left a review about her experience on it so far and turned off her phone.

She rested her right arm on the door, placing a hand on her chin in thought.

Family...

That word hunted her more than the prediction about her death.

☆☆☆

’’Thank you sir,’’ she greeted after the payment for her ride was successful. The young driver flashed her a grin, nodded his head.

’’Have a good day, Ma’am.’’

Turning the wheels away from her, she watched as the cab drove off into the distance. The morning air was chilly and cold and she was grateful for the warmer clothes she had on.

A pair of dark red heels paused behind her without her noticing until she felt the quick assault of goosebump all over her skin and arms.

Corrine turned around slowly and locked eyes with the person.

For a moment, she could not see who it was clearly but it seemed her body knew who it was with the way she responded.

Dark, red polished gloves with the elegant symbol of one of her many successful clothing factories world wide moved slowly to pull the dark sunglasses from her face.

Glasses that once hid a pair of light green eyes that watered at the miserable sight of her daughter.

Corrine blinked at the sight of them.

And all Catherine Ashworth could do was cover her mouth in shame and sobbed loudly in regret.

☆☆☆

The sound of her mother’s hypocritical tears at the sight of her didn’t move one thread of emotion in her.

She stared at the stranger who could have survived three years without her and without even knowing where she was or how she managed to patch her life back together.

She wailed so loudly, it caught the attention of the security guards resuming early for work.

Oh, what have they done to her poor baby?

Catherine sobbed so much as she hit the side of her chest nonstop, as if trying to ease herself from the heartache.

She could be dramatic when she wanted to be and a great actress in making people feel bad for her and giving her what she wanted.

But Corrine had suffered through years of manipulation and neglect not to fall for this trick anymore.

She saw how the security guards cast curious side glances their way, wondering who the sobbing wealthy woman was.

Corrine, who had so much to do, buried her hands slowly in the side pockets of her blazers and walked past the rich sobbing woman fast enough to not acknowledge her presence.