CHAPTER 4- SHATTERED REFLECTION
849 Words
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Chapter 4: Shattered Reflection
Bella was done preparing for work. Her hair, swept into a precise high ponytail, framed her face with a no-nonsense elegance. Dressed in a tailored navy blazer and silk blouse, she was every inch the formidable CEO she once believed herself to be. She stood at her vanity, adjusting a delicate pair of diamond studs when Edward walked in.
He didn’t knock.
He never did anymore.
He stood behind her, his reflection looming over hers in the mirror. “Are you sure about this, Bella?”
Her hand froze mid-adjustment, then dropped slowly. “I’m perfectly sure, Edward. So leave. I want to be alone.”
His eyes narrowed, voice rising, almost shaking. “See! See what I’m talking about? I told you, you should rest. But you think you’re a strong woman just because of that stupid business. If you’d just given it to me, things would have been different. Things would have been good!”
He was shouting now. Unhinged.
Bella turned to face him fully. Her voice was calm — disarmingly sweet even — but her eyes glinted like shattered glass.
“Get. Out. Of my room,” she said.
Edward faltered. Her tone was soft, but her eyes burned with a quiet fury that made his spine itch. He backed out quickly, trying to make it look casual, but the tension in his shoulders betrayed his fear. He didn’t dare slam the door.
The moment he left, the mask cracked.
Bella collapsed onto the stool, staring at her own reflection. Her throat tightened as tears welled, threatening to fall, but she blinked them back. Her hands trembled slightly, resting on her knees. She felt like a ghost in her own skin — present but untouchable, suspended between disbelief and devastation.
She had tried calling her grandparents the night before — the number no longer existed. Chloe, her assistant and best friend, unreachable. It was as if her life had been surgically erased, memories burned out and contacts severed. Even the numbers she once knew by heart were now lost in the haze. Her mind reached, clawed for them, and came up empty.
She clenched her jaw and stood, brushing off the despair. “Not today,” she whispered to herself. “Nothing will bring me down.”
Bella grabbed her designer handbag and left for work, her heels clicking sharply against the marble floor — each step a defiant rhythm in a world threatening to erase her.
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The towering headquarters of her company — "Elysian Corp" — loomed before her in its familiar colors: navy blue and white. She paused outside and tilted her head, squinting up at the logo. Nostalgia clutched her chest.
She heard echoes from the past.
“Mum, Dad, why these boring colors? I don’t like them!”
A memory bloomed, sharp and golden.
“What do you mean boring?” her father’s deep chuckle. “White is your mother’s favorite, and navy’s mine.”
“If that’s the case…” little Bella had said, stroking her own cheek and beaming, “Then I love it too!”
The memory hit her like a wave. Her younger self in pigtails, twirling in the open space, joy unfiltered. The innocence of those years felt like a foreign country now.
She sniffled, blinked hard, and straightened her back.
“Nothing will bring me down,” she whispered, pushing forward.
Inside the lobby, all heads turned.
Conversations hushed. Stares lingered.
Bella walked, chin high, scanning the sea of faces.
Why are they looking at me like that?
She halted. “You should all get back to work,” she said, her voice cold, authoritative.
People flinched, then dispersed, but the tension didn’t leave.
As she entered the elevator, she bumped into someone — a woman she would have once embraced in laughter, shared secrets with.
Chloe.
Chloe stood rooted in place, eyes wide, hand clutched to her chest. She looked like she’d seen a ghost.
“Anabella…” Chloe’s voice cracked as tears spilled down her cheeks. “Is it really you?”
Before Bella could respond, Chloe ran to her, arms thrown around her in a trembling hug. Bella froze for a second… then slowly, she raised her arms and returned it, more from instinct than certainty. Her own tears escaped despite her efforts.
She pulled Chloe gently into the elevator. Neither spoke as the doors closed.
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In Bella’s office — sterile, untouched since her disappearance — the door clicked shut behind them.
Chloe spun on her heel and shoved Bella’s shoulder. Not hard, just enough to shake her.
“Where were you?” she demanded, voice breaking. “We looked everywhere. You vanished, Bella. For a year! And now you say nothing?”
Bella took a slow breath. “Even I don’t know where I’ve been, Chloe.”
Chloe stared at her, as if trying to peel back her skin to see what had been done to her best friend.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Chloe’s voice
"and what do you
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