REBIRTH: THE TYCOON DEVOTED WIFE

Chapter3: Killian Romarvo

A numbing cold crept up her leg, an uncertainty ladened by the rush of waves. Her heart twisted in a reprehensive agony like never before, as if to distort her existence. She writhed in the pool of water, nearly engrossing herself in the welcome arms of death.

“Help. Lady Eileen has fallen into the pool.”

At the sound of someone jumping straight into the water, she considered opening her eyes, where she froze at the familiar face.

“Oh Lord!! Breathe in, breathe out.” The continuous chanting of soft voices etched in her ears. She began to cough rampantly, and while a lip was connected to hers, hands pressed over her chest in rhythmical sync, she spouted the water she had swallowed.

“She’s regaining consciousness.”

Her eyes fluttered open with frank dizziness as she stopped coughing. Instinctively, her hands flew right away to her neck, where her throat had lacked comfort. Eileen rubbed her temples, feeling feverish and cold. She felt as if she had entered the gates of hell.

“My child. Are you hurt? Are you in pain?”

Eileen's lips twitched. She batted her eyes and turned them to the blurry view in her sight.

Mother?

“Don’t you ever scare me like that? I nearly conceived a heart attack” Mrs. Hawn scolded lightly, her fingers itching into the damp burgundy hair of her youngest child. Her husband, Richard, stood by her side to give his wife a chance to lecture their daughter.

“M-Mother?” Eileen cried unconsciously. She was in denial at the face in front of her. Did God pity her dirty soul and give her a spot in heaven? Was that the case? She pondered.

“Yes, my poor daughter. It’s me, your mother. I am very sorry we have been neglecting you. Just never try to harm yourself anymore and see to the therapy of Miss Claire”

This scene!! She already lived it. How could she forget this day? It was painfully vivid. The very day her parents had died in that plane crash. If not for her uproar, they wouldn’t have boarded that plane.

On second thought, why were they alive? What was happening?

“Mother. Please don’t leave me again. I will die if that ever happens. Stay by my side, please. I beg you. I can’t lose you the second time, not on my watch”

------------

Eileen looked at her image in the mirror, a deprived woman whose countenance was dull. A face she despised gradually for her villainess' behavior. She had unwantedly become a thorn in everyone’s life. A disarrayed child hungering for attention.

Cold sweat began to seep out of her palms as she fiddled with her younger face. She killed herself at the mental institution at the age of forty-five, but here she was, looking twenty-four years younger.

She was still in disbelief at the sudden turn of events. She was reborn for a second chance at life. In this life, she wouldn’t just become a side character in another’s story, but create her happy ending.

“Eileen dear, we are having dinner. Come down for a minute, and we are having a few important guests.” She heard her mother depict outside her door.

“Yes, mother,” she answered. Though this new feeling of being espied overwhelmed her, Eileen still adhered to a trivial antipathy towards them. She could have made a perfect life before, indirectly.

A few minutes went by before Eileen got ready. She was clad in an off-shoulder deep russet dress that tapered to her noticeable hips, down to her long skinny legs. At first, she thought of adding a feature to her hair to look presentable but soon ignored it. If she was going to start her life afresh, she would start with her low self-esteem.

Along the emptiness of the hall, connected to the side of her corridor, Eileen could ardently overhear the exchange of strong conversations at the dinner table. Normally, she wasn’t a timid person. On the other hand, she couldn’t stand the presence of strangers.

“There she is, my second daughter.” Mrs. Hawn excitedly leaped from her chair, across the table to settle Eileen just beside her as she introduced her to their guests.

“She looks just like the replica of an angel, doesn’t she?” Her mother complimented. Eileen was stunned because, in her past life, her mother had never considered her looks noteworthy, so it came as a shock.

Skeptically, she scanned the others on the table, and once her face met that person, her heart hitched and an abrupt churn in her stomach made her uncomfortable. She was heedless of her movement as she automatically pressed her palm to the center of her flat abdomen.

The nostalgia for her dead child made her teary. To hide her insecurity, she quickly excused herself, afraid to break down before them. She could hear the faint call of worry behind her from her mother, but shrugged it off.

She hurried outside the house with all her speed as though being pursed by a devious monster and the following sequence was the sharp pain underneath her chin. She bumped into someone. A savvy wince extorted through her lips. Did she stumble upon a stone or what? Her chin hurt miserably.

Besides, what sort of person acquired a chest as thick as a stone?

Massaging the affected spot under her chin, Eileen’s brows were furrowed, and a frown was ingrained on her forehead as she lifted her eyes to intently stare at the person. She suspiciously inclined her head to the side, and it turned out that instead of his chest, it was his back.

He appeared to be on the damned cell phone with no care of his wrongdoing.

“Hey, Mister. I am talking to you. This is not a place to smoke, and also you owe me an apology for blocking my way” She was obligated to speak freely of her mind, yet, the dark silhouette of the man failed to take her seriously. It was like she never existed.

Defeated, Eileen gasped for breath. He must be one of the ill-mannered guests of her parent, so she’d just let it go for once. She could sense the aura of the man was not ordinary. He at least towered over her with two feet. In contrast to him, she was far shorter.

“I will call you back. I seem to have been caught by a rabbit.” The man’s deep husky voice asserted to the other person on the phone, and he hung up.

Rabbit? Me?

The man had his head tilted to one side, with eyes very predatory.

Eileen’s voice was slowly but surely snatched, and her eyes were blinded by the terror in her sight. What was he doing in her house? Wait! Why would her parent invite him? What kind of business would they want to have with a ruthless man like him? A Russian Mafia, or was it Italian? Did they drink alcohol? Or perhaps their heads were smashed into the wall?

Standing in all his full grandeur before her was the infamous Killian Romarvo. A man of destruction.

His tuxedo, perfectly tailored for his body, was draped with a leather coat made of fur.

The aura he ferried was dark and powerful, especially the sharpness in those devil-may-care eyes.

Descendant of a political family, Killian Romarvo was generally posed as a filthy-rich bad man displaying why he is known as the strongest man in the world.

He was a shrewd tycoon in the business world, a man braver than the bravest. It’s not surprising he was still a bachelor at his age.

He had crew-cut blonde hair and thin S-shaped eyebrows. His hawkish nose and well-defined cheekbones sat above his concrete jaw. Although people described him as inhumane, all she could see was his twinkling blue eyes that somehow lured her into its beauty, bewitching her entity.

In her previous life, Eileen hadn’t encountered him ever. No, she did. She heard he was a shareholder in her father’s company. He must have also been there that day when she embarrassed herself.

“Your eyes speak a variety of thoughts to me” Eileen narrowed her eyes due to their proximity. She instantly jumped off like a kangaroo and glared at him, merely covering the blush coated on her cheeks.

The man had one hand coiled around the cigarette butt, and the other inside his pocket. A testament of displeasure soured Eileen’s mood until a curse escaped her mouth.

“Quite a savage mouth you’ve got there” he taunted, taking pleasure in her fright. Just like a predator luring its prey.

“I am sorry.” Eileen apologized.

Killian puffed the smoke out through his nose as his little prey seemed disoriented in front of him. He chuckled.

He pretended to be in deep thought “Quite the contrary, you haven’t offended me, then why apologize?”

Eileen shook her head. He was a dangerous man and if she wasn’t meticulous enough, he would have her head or worse, tail wagging behind him, which she didn’t wish to envision. Her plans for redemption certainly didn't ideate him inside it.

“No, I am sincere. I apologize for running my mouth. It’s an old habit of mine.”

“And old habits die hard?” He knitted his brows, staring into the depths of her soul. Exceptionally, Eileen bit her lips, another habit of hers. Killian took long steps towards her, attempting to close their gap. He chuckled darkly as each protruding angle of his steps appeared to intimidate the little rabbit.

Quite an intriguing human! He thought.

When a bird has been encumbered in a cage for such a long time to be free, yet the first person it laid his eyes upon after such freedom, was its master? Such a foolish thing.

“I will be out of your way, please excuse me” Eileen sighed in relief as she spun around to flee far away from the gazebo and the man. Accordingly, when her step filtered, she gasped from the hardness on her waist and whatever was poking her behind.

“You caught the eye of a starving lion, one that has been thirsty for too long” The hairs on her neck stood stiff the second he kissed her there. His whispers in her ear weakened her stand. Eileen subconsciously gazed into the abyss.

“Marry me, Eileen.”

*SHOCK*

Those three unforgettable words, Eileen had painted them into her mind. That very day she had decided to end her misery. The unwanted arrival of a stranger, and the deadly aura over his build, she recollected the memory vividly.

“Become my one and only. In exchange, I will see to it that the world bows before you.”

*SPLASH*