Learning to Love Again

In the washroom, Bella looks at the blood red designer dress in her hand in shock.

'So beautiful,' was her first thought.

It was flared lace dress that would fall slightly above the knee. Around the neckline, red and gold sequins were embroidered into a swirl pattern giving the illusion of a necklace.

This is the kind of dress that she would only see and admire. Never would she dream of holding one, now her boss wanted her to wear one.

The people who wear things like this are bold and confident. They get a lot of stares and second glances. She, on the other hand, is always invisible and she likes it like that. Looking at the dress, she felt like a fraud.

" Miss, I think I'm fine the way I am."

Su Lian looks at the standard office outfit Bella has on. It really isn't bad, but for a girl's night out, she needs to change.

"Put it on."

"I-I okay."

Bella resigns and takes the dress with her into one of the stalls. Su Lian is her boss, she probably doesn't want any embarrassment from her while they are out.

She comes back a few minutes later with her face slightly nervous.

Su Lian nods her head in approval. "Stunning. It fits you perfectly."

Bella turns to look at herself in the full-length mirror. She is completely shocked by the reflection that stared back at her.

'Clothes make the man.'

This famous quote couldn't be more true.

The dress highlighted her long legs and fit perfectly around her slender frame. She looked like a different person and she felt like one too.

Su Lian looked satisfied with the result but she felt that the neatly packed bun sitting on top of her head was out of place.

Taking a few steps forward, she takes out the hairpins holding it up and Bella's bun brunette hair cascades down her shoulders like a waterfall. Her luscious locks perfectly frame her face.

Getting the outcome she desires, a bright smile blooms on Su Lian's face.

"Perfect. Now we can leave."

•••

After reading the report brought to him by his assistant, Han Yuan's expression turns extremely somber.

"You can't even find one woman! Tell me, what's the point of keeping you?"

He throws the papers back at the shivering assistant and slams his hand on the table in frustration.

"Th-this is all I was given."

"For the past four years that I've asked you to look for her, you say she's not in the country. So tell me what damn country she's in."

"I don't care what you do. Just find her for me." He waves his hand and the assistant scurries off as if he had been given great amnesty.

While dashing out of the office, he can't help but curse his luck. He isn't the one in charge of information. He's just the messenger. As Han Yuan's assistant, his job is to report things to him and give feedback. Why was he the one receiving all the abuse and pressure?

Han Yuan is also cursing his luck and feeling depressed. In all his life, he had never felt so defeated. With his almost infinite resources, he can find anyone and anything. Even the darkest deeds of a country's president aren't a secret to him. Why then? Why couldn't he find one woman?

Unless she was hiding from him.

She wouldn't do that, would she?

Does she hate him that much?

At the door of Han Yuan's office, a woman wearing a black pantsuit flashes a triumphant smile when she sees the assistant running out. Her eyes sparkle and she takes a deep breath of relief.

She smiles in contentment before she frowns upon remembering something.

Her hand caresses her cheek and a flash of pain and anger flickers through her eyes.

A huge scar stretches from below her left eye down to the tip of her chin. It mars her otherwise delicate features. It was covered with makeup but could not be concealed completely.

'This is the only thing that hinders her from showing her love to him.' She clenches her fists in anger before managing to calm herself down.

After a while, she walks into Han Yuan's office and is immediately met with his icy glare.

"What do you want?"

Although his tone was harsh, she didn't mind because she knew he was in a foul mood. He always gets like this after he receives a report about 'her' whereabouts still being unknown.

"The files on the new security project are here."

"Drop them and leave."

He turns around and stares at the window in deep thought, ignoring her presence.

Staring at his turned back, her expression turns tender.

She had grown up in the business world as a rich young miss and was being groomed to be the heir to her father's company. Surrounded by maids, luxury cars, and designer clothing, she had everything. This all ended when she turned sixteen.

On her way home from a party with her family, there was an accident. Her father and pregnant mother died on the spot, she alone survived. Her father's company was swallowed up by a big corporation and her so-called family squeezed everything her parents had left behind.

with no place to call home, she moved in with her aunt who had always been dissatisfied with her mother's success. Likewise, her female cousins always hated that she was going to inherit a whole company despite being a daughter, and not a son. Once she became orphaned, her aunt and cousins did not waste the opportunity to hit her while she was down.

Being the stubborn and proud woman she was, she refused to yield. She had always been a complacent peacock and did not put them in her eyes. No matter how much her situation changed, she wouldn't. She was Shen Xun, the noble daughter of her father. But that didn't mean others thought the same.

Growing impatient with her haughty behavior, her aunt and cousins felt that they were treating her too well. Since she was mooching off of them, it was necessary to have her work for it somehow. Thus began Shen Xun's life as a servant.

She started catering to her cousins' needs. If she disobeyed them, she was starved and put in solitary confinement. No longer allowed to eat at the dining table, she had her meals with the servants. When her cousins were bored, they would make her wear a maid's costume and follow them about. They derived joy from torturing her and seeing her at their beck and call. She had never felt so humiliated. It was simply a plunge from heaven to hell. She had gone from a proud and pampered young miss to maidservant.

One evening, all dressed up as a maid, she followed her cousin to a theatre park. They were cornered by a drunk thug with a knife. Her cousin threw her in front as a shield against the blade. Her face was slashed and left permanently disfigured.

Although she wasn't a world-class beauty, her face had been clean and fresh. Like any woman, she took pride in her looks, now they were gone.

Something inside her snapped.

A month later while on vacation at a beach, she drugged all three of them, her aunt and two cousins. She tied their unconscious bodies to weights and drowned them in the ocean.

She was a murderer, she had killed the family that took her in.

After seeing them sink, she ran.

She thought her life was over when she got hit by a car. She would die in a car accident just like her parents. Yet to her surprise, she woke up in a hospital. Towering over her was twenty-year-old Han Yuan. He had been driving home from a meeting when he hit a fleeing figure that came out of nowhere.

Shen Xun was in a trance. Ever since her face got scarred men would look at her like she was dirt, but he didn't.

There was no expression on his face, just indifference. At that moment she fell in love.

After she recovered she begged to stay with him. She was a seventeen-year-old orphan who had just murdered her breadwinners.

She told him her parents died and she was taken in by her cousins and woke up with them gone.

After doing a check on her and confirming that she was not a spy from his business enemies, he accepted her and she began training as a bodyguard.

Twelve years later, she is now a twenty-nine-year-old success. His parents adore her and he trusts her. Life is as it should be.

She is the only woman other than his sister that he allows to be around him. Four years ago, she had managed to get rid of that seductress who defiled him. Ever since, she has been destroying all traces of the vixen who bewitched his heart so that he can't find her. Even she herself has no idea where the woman is or what she was up to.

Han Yuan will be hers. He can only belong to her.

"Shen Xun, you're still here?" Han Yuan has his back to her but she can still sense the anger in his voice.

She shakes her head before smiling and walking away.

'It's only a matter of time.'