Her Game His Rules

THE ESCAPE

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*Chapter Two – The Escape*

Kiara didn’t remember the ride home.

One moment she was standing in the boardroom—paralyzed, betrayed, humiliated—and the next, she was back in her room, barely able to breathe. The silence wrapped around her like a straitjacket, choking out any rational thought.

Her heels lay discarded near the door, her once-flawless suit wrinkled and forgotten. She moved like a shadow, each step heavier than the last. Her reflection in the mirror startled her—her eyes were red, hollow, unfamiliar. It wasn’t just the shock that had broken her. It was the betrayal.

*Felix Alfred.*

Her father's *secret son*.

A name she had never heard until today.

A man she had never met—yet he was now the CEO of the company she'd been trained to lead her entire life.

And she? She was just… dismissed.

The tears she’d held back during the meeting came flooding in, hot and furious. She slammed her hand against the wall. How could they? How could her father—*her mentor*, *her guide*—undermine everything she had sacrificed?

And her mother…

The memory of her face—expressionless, unmoved—cut even deeper. She had looked Kiara in the eye and said *nothing*.

Kiara stormed to the closet, yanked a suitcase down, and began packing. No hesitation. No second-guessing. The house suddenly felt foreign—decorated with betrayal, furnished with lies.

Under her bed was a worn shoebox she hadn’t touched in years. She pulled it out slowly, reverently. Inside were pieces of a past she’d tried to bury: sheet music, old notebooks filled with lyrics, a photo of her at sixteen with a microphone in hand and joy in her eyes.

Before the company. Before the sacrifices.

Before she gave up everything.

Her hands trembled as she held the picture.

That girl was gone.

And the woman who stood here now had nothing left to lose.

She threw the photo into the trash, zipped her suitcase, and walked out. No dramatic speech. No confrontation. Just silence.

Her mother stood at the top of the stairs as Kiara descended. Their eyes met briefly.

“Where are you going?” her voice cracked.

“Somewhere you won’t follow,” Kiara replied.

Her mother flinched but said nothing.Kiara stepped outside, the night air cold against her skin but oddly freeing. Her car was already waiting—she had texted her assistant from the boardroom, telling her to prepare an emergency exit, just in case.

Apparently, she had known. Somewhere deep inside, she'd sensed this coming.

At the airport, she booked the next available flight—to *Singapore*. No plan. No destination. Just distance. She didn’t even bother to use her real name for the booking. Let them wonder.

As the plane took off, Kiara stared out the window, watching the city fade beneath the clouds.

This place—this life—was dead to her now.

She let the silence swallow her one last time… then closed her eyes and made a vow.

She would never beg. Never bend. Never trust blindly again.

She was done being the obedient daughter. Done living someone else’s life.

She would rebuild.

She would rise.

And when she came back…

She wouldn’t come for peace.

She’d come for *everything.*

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