The Mayor’s Daughter

Untitled Episode

THE MAYOR’S Daughter

Episode 1: The Girl Who Knew Me

Chapter One — The Emergency Meeting

There are some questions in life that nobody should ask you.

For example:

“How much do you weigh?”

That question sounds harmless, right?

Wrong.

Especially when you are a university student.

I was a second-year Mechanical Engineering student at Dire Dawa University, and somehow, my body had become public property.

People felt completely free to discuss it.

If I gained a little weight, someone would look at me from head to toe and say:

“Hey, what did you gain?”

If I lost weight, another person would immediately notice and ask:

“What did you lose?”

I never understood why people were so interested in my weight.

Did they have a government assignment to monitor me?

Was there an official committee somewhere keeping records of my body?

Maybe there was a secret university department called the Ministry of Student Weight Affairs.

Every morning, perhaps, they held a meeting.

“Gentlemen, we have received new information.”

“What information?”

“Our student has gained one kilogram.”

“Impossible!”

“It is confirmed.”

“We must investigate immediately.”

Of course, I was exaggerating.

But sometimes I honestly felt that way.

The truth was that I had never been particularly good at maintaining a stable weight.

When I ate well, people complained.

When I ate less, people complained.

When I exercised, people asked why.

When I didn't exercise, people asked why I was lazy.

It seemed that no matter what I did, somebody had an opinion.

Eventually, I reached a point where I decided I had had enough.

I needed to exercise.

Not because everyone else told me to.

Not because I suddenly became passionate about fitness.

And certainly not because I had discovered some magical motivation.

I simply wanted to prove to myself that I could do something difficult and stick with it.

So, on a Wednesday afternoon, I held an emergency meeting with myself.

The meeting was very serious.

There was only one person attending.

Me.

I sat on my bed, stared at the wall, and crossed my arms.

“Listen,” I told myself.

My other self listened carefully.

“We have a problem.”

My other self nodded.

“We need to start exercising.”

My other self remained silent.

“Are you going to say something?”

Still nothing.

“Fine. Meeting concluded.”

And just like that, I had made a decision.

I changed my clothes, grabbed what I needed, and prepared to leave campus.

The date was Wednesday, Miyazya 30, 2011, according to the Ethiopian calendar.

It was around eleven in the morning.

The sun over Dire Dawa was already strong, and the heat seemed determined to remind everyone that this was not a city designed for people who hated sweating.

I walked toward one of the university gates.

Tony Gate.

My destination was a gym outside the campus area.

As I walked, I tried to convince myself that I was excited.

I wasn't.

I was already imagining myself five minutes into exercising.

My lungs would probably file a formal complaint.

My legs would resign.

My heart would send me a resignation letter.

But I continued walking.

After all, I had made a promise to myself.

This time, I would do it.

I would exercise.

I would become healthier.

Maybe, just maybe, the next time someone asked me about my weight, I would have a dramatic answer.

“It's complicated.”

I smiled at the thought.

Then I heard a car.

At first, I didn't pay much attention.

Cars passed through that area all the time.

But this one sounded different.

I turned my head.

A beautiful car was approaching.

It was the kind of car that immediately attracted attention.

I couldn't tell you exactly what model it was.

I wasn't a car expert.

I was a Mechanical Engineering student, but that did not automatically mean I could identify every expensive vehicle on the road.

Still, even I could tell this was not an ordinary car.

It moved slowly toward me.

I instinctively moved to the side of the road to give it enough space.

The car continued forward.

I moved farther.

It continued.

I moved again.

Then something strange happened.

The car stopped.

Directly in front of me.

I looked around.

There was plenty of space on the road.

So why had the driver stopped beside me?

I stood there, confused.

Then the door opened.

And a young woman stepped out.

That was the moment my ordinary Wednesday disappeared.

Chapter Two — The Stranger

The first thing I noticed was her beauty.

I know that sounds like something every romantic story begins with.

But I am not exaggerating.

She was beautiful.

Not the kind of beauty that makes you stare for a second and then move on.

She had the kind of presence that made the entire world around her feel quieter.

She looked young.

Around my age, perhaps.

And strangely, she had stepped out of the car alone.

No friend.

No family member.

No driver.

No one else.

She closed the door.

Then she looked at me.

Directly.

I looked behind me.

Maybe she was looking at someone else.

There was nobody.

I turned back toward her.

She was still looking at me.

I pointed at myself.

“Me?”

She didn't answer.

She simply stared.

I began to feel uncomfortable.

Maybe I had met her before.

Maybe I had forgotten.

I searched my memory.

Nothing.

I had never seen this woman in my life.

At least, I was almost certain I hadn't.

She slowly walked toward me.

I took a small step backward.

She took another step forward.

Then, without warning, she reached me.

And hugged me.

I froze.

Completely.

My arms remained beside my body.

My brain stopped working.

I didn't know what to do.

Then she kissed my cheek.

My eyes widened.

For several seconds, I couldn't even breathe properly.

What was happening?

Who was this woman?

Why was she hugging me?

Why had she kissed me?

And most importantly—

Did I know her?

I looked at her face.

She was smiling.

Not an ordinary smile.

She looked genuinely happy.

Her eyes were shining.

As if she had just found something she had been desperately searching for.

She released the hug slightly and took both of my hands.

She held them tightly.

I stared at our hands.

Then at her.

Then at our hands again.

My mind immediately began producing theories.

Maybe she had mistaken me for somebody.

That was the obvious explanation.

Perhaps she had a boyfriend who looked exactly like me.

I almost laughed.

Imagine that.

Somewhere in Dire Dawa, there was another man walking around who looked like me.

And apparently, he had a very beautiful girlfriend.

Unfortunately for him, she had found the wrong man.

I looked at her again.

There was something strange in her eyes.

Something I couldn't explain.

It looked like love.

Real love.

The kind of emotion that couldn't easily be faked.

I became nervous.

“Excuse me…”

She didn't answer.

She simply kept holding my hands.

I tried to gently pull one hand away.

She tightened her grip.

I tried again.

Even tighter.

I stared at her.

“Okay…”

My voice became uncertain.

“Can you please let go?”

She didn't.

Instead, she moved closer.

She looked into my eyes.

For one strange moment, I felt as though I had known her for years.

But that was impossible.

I didn't know her.

I was sure of it.

Then another thought entered my mind.

Is this a prank?

I immediately looked around.

Maybe someone was hiding nearby with a camera.

Perhaps my friends were watching from somewhere.

Maybe they had decided to play the greatest prank of the year on me.

I looked behind the car.

Nothing.

I looked across the street.

Nothing.

I checked the nearby buildings.

Nothing.

The street was strangely quiet.

There were no laughing students.

No camera.

No group of people waiting to reveal themselves.

Just me and this mysterious woman.

I looked at her again.

She was still staring at me.

She hadn't said a single word.

Not one.

She simply held my hands and looked at me as if I were the most important person in the world.

My confusion grew.

“Do we know each other?”

Silence.

“Have we met before?”

Nothing.

“What do you want from me?”

Still nothing.

Her expression changed.

For the first time, she looked hurt.

Deeply hurt.

Her eyes seemed to ask me a question.

How can you say that?

Her face almost seemed to say:

How can you look at me like a stranger?

Don't you remember me?

Don't you remember everything we've been through together?

I swallowed.

What was going on?

She lifted one hand and touched my cheek.

The gesture was so gentle that I didn't know how to react.

Then she adjusted my shirt.

She brushed something invisible from my shoulder.

She smiled again.

She looked at me with such affection that I felt embarrassed.

It was almost as though she were standing in front of someone she loved.

Someone she had missed terribly.

I had no idea what to say.

I felt like I had somehow walked into the middle of a story that everyone knew except me.

Chapter Three — Ten Minutes of Silence

Time became strange.

I don't know exactly how long we stood there.

Five minutes?

Ten?

Maybe more.

But it felt much longer.

She didn't let go of my hands.

I didn't know whether to leave or stay.

Part of me wanted to run.

Another part of me wanted to understand.

My thoughts were fighting each other.

Leave.

Wait.

This is dangerous.

But what if she needs help?

You don't even know her.

Exactly. Leave.

But look at her face.

I sighed internally.

I had never been good at making decisions under pressure.

Especially when the pressure came in the form of a beautiful stranger holding both of my hands and looking at me as if I had returned from the dead.

I tried again.

“Please tell me your name.”

She remained silent.

“What's your name?”

Nothing.

“Why are you doing this?”

Nothing.

“Do I look like someone you know?”

Her expression changed slightly.

She lowered her eyes.

Then she looked back at me.

I wondered whether she couldn't speak.

Maybe she was unable to talk.

Maybe she was communicating through gestures because she had some condition that prevented her from speaking.

That possibility made me feel guilty.

I had been thinking about myself the entire time.

Perhaps she was trying desperately to tell me something.

I softened my voice.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded.

Then she shook her head.

I became even more confused.

“Yes or no?”

She looked at me.

I waited.

Nothing.

She suddenly smiled.

Then she leaned closer to me.

Her expression reminded me of someone who had finally found the person they had been waiting for.

It was almost childlike.

Like a little child finding their mother after getting lost in a crowd.

That was the closest comparison I could think of.

There was relief in her eyes.

Happiness.

But also fear.

As if she was terrified that if she released my hands, I would disappear again.

I didn't understand any of it.

But I couldn't bring myself to be cruel.

So I stayed.

For another minute.

Then another.

The sun continued moving overhead.

Cars occasionally passed in the distance.

But around us, everything felt strangely still.

I looked at my watch.

I had planned to go to the gym.

Now I was standing in the street with a stranger.

My entire exercise plan had disappeared.

Apparently, my emergency meeting had failed.

I had spent all that time preparing to exercise, only to be stopped by a woman who appeared to know me better than I knew myself.

I almost laughed at the absurdity of it.

Imagine telling my friends:

“I couldn't go to the gym because a mysterious woman stopped me.”

They would never believe me.

They would probably laugh.

Then they would ask:

“Who was she?”

And I would have to answer:

“I don't know.”

That would make the story even worse.

I looked at her again.

“Listen…”

She raised her eyes.

“I really don't know you.”

She didn't move.

“I've never seen you before.”

Her smile disappeared.

I immediately regretted saying it.

She looked devastated.

Her fingers loosened slightly around mine.

I suddenly felt like a terrible person.

“I'm sorry,” I said.

She didn't answer.

I continued.

“I don't mean to hurt you. I just honestly don't understand what is happening.”

She looked into my eyes for several seconds.

Then she reached toward my face again.

Her fingers touched my cheek.

There was something so emotional about the gesture that I couldn't pull away.

She looked at me as though she had memorized my face long ago.

As though she knew every feature.

Every expression.

Every small detail.

But how?

I had no answer.

I started wondering whether perhaps I had met her somewhere and simply forgotten.

University was a big place.

Maybe she had seen me before.

Maybe she had developed feelings for me.

But the way she behaved didn't look like the behavior of someone who had simply seen me around campus.

She behaved as though we had shared something.

Something enormous.

Something I couldn't remember.

My stomach tightened.

“Who are you?”

Again, silence.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Silence.

“Did someone send you?”

Nothing.

“Are you trying to scare me?”

Nothing.

I looked toward the car.

It was expensive.

Very expensive.

The kind of vehicle that made me wonder what kind of family she came from.

She clearly wasn't an ordinary university student struggling to pay for lunch.

And that raised another question.

Why me?

I had no money.

No powerful family.

No impressive car.

No famous name.

I was simply a university student trying to survive Mechanical Engineering.

There was nothing about me that should have attracted someone like her.

At least, that's what I thought.

Chapter Four — The Girl Who Looked at Me Like a Lover

At some point, I stopped trying to escape.

Maybe I was curious.

Maybe I felt sorry for her.

Or maybe something inside me simply told me to stay.

She stepped closer again.

Then she fixed the collar of my shirt.

I looked down.

“You really like fixing my clothes, don't you?”

She smiled.

For the first time, I smiled too.

The tension eased slightly.

She touched my cheek again.

I laughed nervously.

“Seriously, who are you?”

She smiled but didn't answer.

I shook my head.

“You're making me crazy.”

She looked almost amused.

Then she placed her head briefly against my shoulder.

My heart beat faster.

I stood completely still.

I didn't know whether I should push her away.

But I didn't.

There was something deeply sad beneath her happiness.

I could feel it.

She wasn't simply excited.

She was relieved.

Like someone who had been afraid of losing me.

But I had never belonged to her.

At least, not in the life I remembered.

That thought frightened me.

What if something was wrong with me?

What if I had forgotten an important part of my own life?

What if I had somehow lost my memory?

I immediately dismissed the thought.

That was ridiculous.

I remembered my childhood.

My family.

My friends.

My university.

My studies.

Everything.

So why didn't I remember her?

She pulled back and looked at me again.

There was love in her eyes.

I had seen that look in movies.

I had seen couples look at each other that way.

It reminded me of the intense relationships in romantic dramas, where two people could say everything without speaking.

But this wasn't a movie.

This was real.

And I was standing in the middle of the street with a woman whose name I didn't even know.

I took a breath.

“Okay.”

She waited.

“Let's start from the beginning.”

She watched me.

“What's your name?”

Silence.

“Where are you from?”

Silence.

“Why did you stop your car?”

Nothing.

“Why did you hug me?”

Nothing.

“Why did you kiss me?”

Her cheeks seemed to change slightly.

I raised an eyebrow.

“That's an important question.”

She looked away.

I almost laughed.

“You understand me, at least.”

She looked back.

I smiled.

“Good.”

For a moment, everything felt normal.

Then she reached for my hand again.

She held it with both of hers.

The smile disappeared from her face.

She looked frightened.

I suddenly became serious.

“What happened?”

She didn't answer.

“Are you in trouble?”

Nothing.

“Is someone following you?”

She shook her head.

“Did someone hurt you?”

She remained silent.

I didn't know what else to ask.

I had never experienced anything like this.

Normally, when a stranger stopped you in the street, there was a reason.

They wanted directions.

They wanted money.

They needed help.

They had mistaken you for somebody else.

But this woman had done none of those things.

She had simply appeared.

Hugged me.

Kissed me.

Held my hands.

And stared into my eyes with unbearable affection.

There had to be an explanation.

There had to be.

Chapter Five — I Have to Go

I checked the time again.

It was getting late.

The gym could wait.

But I also knew I couldn't stand there forever.

Eventually, I would have to leave.

I looked at her.

“I need to go.”

Her expression changed immediately.

She tightened her grip.

“I really need to go.”

She shook her head.

“I have somewhere I need to be.”

She shook her head again.

I sighed.

“Please.”

She looked at me with those same sad eyes.

I felt guilty.

But I had to leave.

I gently tried to remove my hands from hers.

This time, I succeeded.

She looked shocked.

I took one step backward.

She didn't move.

I took another step.

Something inside me felt wrong.

I didn't understand why.

I had only known her for a few minutes.

Yet leaving her felt strangely painful.

I forced myself to turn away.

Then I heard her voice.

For the first time.

“Don't leave me.”

I stopped.

My entire body froze.

Her voice was soft.

Sad.

Almost trembling.

I slowly turned around.

She was looking at me.

Tears were running down her cheeks.

My heart dropped.

She continued.

“I have no one.”

Those words hit me harder than I expected.

I have no one.

The woman who had arrived in a beautiful car.

The woman who looked as though she came from a wealthy family.

The woman who seemed confident enough to stop a stranger in the street.

She was crying like a child who had been abandoned.

I couldn't move.

She wiped her tears, but more followed.

Her eyes were shining.

The sunlight reflected in them, making them look almost like two small suns.

I stood there staring at her.

My mind told me to leave.

My heart told me to stay.

For once, my heart won.

I walked back toward her.

She looked surprised.

I stopped in front of her.

“You should have said that earlier.”

She stared at me.

I shook my head.

“You've worried me more than you realize.”

Her lips trembled.

I didn't know what else to say.

So I did the only thing that felt natural.

I opened my arms.

She stepped forward immediately.

I hugged her.

She held me tightly.

Much tighter than before.

Her tears soaked into my shirt.

I closed my eyes.

I still didn't know her name.

I still didn't know why she had come to me.

I still didn't know why she looked at me like a man she had loved for years.

I didn't know what secret was hiding behind those tears.

But at that moment, one thing was clear.

I couldn't walk away from her.

Not anymore.

Somewhere inside me, a strange feeling had begun to grow.

A feeling I couldn't explain.

It was as if this meeting wasn't an accident.

As if she hadn't simply found me.

As if somehow—

I had been the person she was searching for all along.

I held her a little tighter.

She remained silent against my shoulder.

The road around us was quiet.

The beautiful car waited nearby.

The gym was forgotten.

My plans for the day were forgotten.

Even the ridiculous meeting I had held with myself that morning seemed meaningless now.

Because I had left my room thinking that the biggest problem in my life was my weight.

I had no idea that before the day was over, I would meet a woman who knew something about me that I didn't know about myself.

And I had absolutely no idea that this mysterious girl would eventually lead me toward a secret involving a powerful family, a mayor, and a past I could barely remember.

But for now, all I could do was hold her.

And wonder one terrifying question:

Who was she—and why did she love me as if she had already lost me once?

To be continued…