Hidden Flame
1033 Words
The next week was a hurricane.
Dylan Luxe had already written her an official letter of offer and Dina jumped at the words: We are pleased to have you on board.
It was a relief which had almost forced itself down like water on a dry riverbed. Finally, a momentary happiness: a steady income, a chance to prove something, a chance to cover her mother's expenses with her own finances and not to take any loans.
It was an awful day when Dina first opened her eyes to her world, and was filled with terror at finding herself in a world of solemn smiles, and heavy words, that are so graceful. She was erecting herself with slow confidence, with the assistance of Elise, knowing no idea that she herself had attracted the attention of the CEO in her interview, unlike Amelie, friend of hers.
But she was too sly a woman to think so.
Kristen was quite far up in the air, and looked down the streets through his office window. He was not used to being personally interested in new employees, and Dina was not an average employee. She was a part that connected his past, what he would pull to the extent that can be perceived.
Relaxing in his office he thought” How likely it was that she was hiding a lot even though she was smiling, questioned Kristen.
The week when Dina was very alert, other French-speaking people were in a cubicle with her and talked in short sentences and moved like things that were not in the bottle. She learnt about branding, presented and attempted to demonstrate her value.
But there was a big burden on her shoulder where Kristen was. She would creep round and peep at him as he walked up and down the corridors with a broad smile. One day they happened to be staring at each other in a meeting hall. His look was investigative, and she struck her counsel by the shock of it.
Why is he always watching me?
She drove the thought away by hiding herself in labour.
One evening Dina went to see her mum in the hospital after a hard day. Victoria lay on white sheets, smiling all the same with set lines of pain on her face.
I have taken the job, Ma, said Dina and waved her hand. At Dylan Luxe."
Are the eyes of her mother gleaming proudly through the weariness? "My Dina... always strong. Always fighting."
Dina blinked back tears. "I'll make it work. I'll take care of us. You don't have to worry."
But as she said this her mind was on the dresser in her apartment that had been stacked with old papers and photographs. Silence and forgetting the past were her way of living. The whole truth was known to nobody--not even to Amelie. Not of Paris, not of her son, not of the resolutions which troubled her night after night.
She clenched her fist around her mother's hand tighter as she desired to bank herself off the present.
At the same time, Kristen already started working on the case.
He extinguished the reports which Elise had collected in his study. Dina Atticus: twenty two. I'm a university student. Modest background. Mother is ill. There was no omission in any of the dirty resumes, and omissions had a meaning.
No, it was the papers that were unattractive to him. The gossip I went with, through other lines, was of his sour pickings in other countries, a boy; and a man that was lost. Writers were weavers of stories.
Kristen's jaw clenched. "What are you hiding, Dina?"
The insubordination with which he had presented himself in the interview, silent. And she was not a failure as a student. Something heavier was in her hand. Something which did not want to be seen by the world.
And he would uncover it.
The following day Dina came to work very early and instead of clicking her heels on the polished floor she clicked. She was reading a draft of the campaign.
She looked up and froze.
Kristen Dylan with his hands in his pockets looked at her like a hawk.
Mr. Dylan," said her, and she stood up noisily. "Good morning."
He told her, Miss Atticus. How was it in the first week?
"It's been... challenging. But good, she answered, professionally.
Kristen smiled a little at me. I cannot spare anything less than the best of my workers. Especially from you."
Words had something in them that she could not understand. She forced a polite smile. "I'll do my best, sir."
And his eyes seemed to stay there a little more, and then he shook his head, and walked away, and she was still breathing.
Dina sat back on her chair and still shook. Why me? Why does he keep... testing me?
That night she went home to her apartment with aching, aching bones. She opened the large enough draw beside her bed and took out an old photograph. Before her was a small smiling-faced fellow, who looked like a puppy, with his curly old-fashioned black hair.
Her chest tightened. My sweet Gabriel, she said.
This was almost three years after she had left him in Paris with the close relatives. She had vowed to herself that this was an interim measure in building a placid life until such time when she could provide him with a stable life. But one knife did s***h another knife each day that passed.
Kristen, who is unaware of the fact that she is under investigation, wishes she could do something good. Meanwhile, he cogitates about the unknown and mysterious Dina Atticus whose secret network is baffling him and adds to his wish to know the truth.
- Writer
