THE CEO AND ME!

Everything happened just so fast that I could not even believe that I was an orphan from now on.

Everywhere I see, I saw people dressed in black, shoulders down, eyes mourning for my dead parents.

They just kept saying how good they were, how compassionate my father was in his work, my mother was a good woman setting an example to the society.

Every time they came up to me, they said the exact same lines over and over again. By then my mind had memorized it all.

As said, Josh's mother, Ramona stood by my side, handling everything. She acted like my guardian at the moment.

Although Anna Maria stuck by me all the time as she became my emotional support for the moment.

In the morning when I saw the top headline of the newspaper reading out " Rutherford owner and his wife passed away in a tragic car accident."

It proved Josh's text message to be true. My limbs gave up on me as I fell down on the concrete ground.

I did not remember much what happened after that but I recall, crying my eyes out in Anna Maria's chest, as she comforted me, mumbling that everything would be just fine.

Hours after that, their dead bodies were bought into the mansion. My heart cried bloody mary as I saw my birth parents, lying there static, eyes closed, and so dead.

I ran up to them and picked up my mother's head on my lap, trying to wake her up. Daddy was just beside her, eyes closed, face pale.

Ramona arrived exactly at that moment and asked Anna Maria to pull me away from the dead bodies since I had to get ready for the funeral which was to be held today itself.

Anna Maria forcefully took me away from them and led me to my room. The workers on Ramona's command got to work as they had a funeral to prepare.

She bought them all and I knew none of them.

I knew that they were gone and it was very much real...the news was very much real even when my mind was trying to tell me that it was not...that they were all some sick hallucinations.

Dealing with reality was the hardest part. Anna Maria bathed me, made me wore the black dress that Ramona bought.

It was very displeasing how our lifestyle in our class wanted us to look good every time even when attending our own parents' funeral.

Ramona did not want to deal with another media controversy as she was already dealing with addressing the Rutherford industries crisis.

When I descended the staircase, I could not believe the sight I saw. The entire living room was filled with people in black, a glass of champagne in their hands as they kept murmuring gibberish glancing at my parent's dead bodies.

Ramona saw me and then helped me get down. The funeral was started right away after that. There were a few people who gave speeches about how great my parents were in person and it made me sick when I found out that everything they were saying was scripted.

Nothing was real about it. They did not care that two persons were dead and that all this fancy stuff was really not necessary but I knew very well that even my parents would have done the same thing if they were alive.

My mother would keep whispering near my ears to stay intact in with grace and saw sympathy even when I was not feeling any of it.

Ramona was the last one to say a few words about them. She said how she was and my mother was great friends but only I knew that it was not true.

My mother never liked her, neither did she. So they very rarely visited. My mother hated her fashion style and so did she.

And here she was complimenting my mother on her looks, how it was so pure and refreshing.

I curled my palm into a fist as I controlled myself so hard to shout to the entire would to stop pretending as if they cared about my parents. Because we all knew they did not give a damn.

The father chanted out some verses from the Holy Bible as everyone stood up and repeated after him.

Anna Maria held my hands as she accompanied me in walking towards my dead parents who were sleeping so soundly to place my garland of white flowers.

I was afraid to walk down all alone as I felt myself shivering. I kissed their hands as a strand of tear poured out of my red eyes.

"I will miss you both forever. I love you both so much."

I whispered near them, not letting anyone else hear it as I could not come up as weak to the world right then.

The moment I was about to come down from the stage, Ramona insisted that I address out a few words that were necessary for the media and stuff.

I could not believe how I was bearing her presence...maybe because I was raised to be tolerant and nonobjectifying.

I breathed in deeply as I took my position in between the stage. I could hear people mutter about things that my ears could not hear. They were giving me the disappointing look, the pity eyes as if after this incident, my life would be over.

I cleared my voice, I was nervous as hell, my fingers were shaking as I curled them in a tight fist. I had not ever done a public speaking thing before this.

"My...my parents...I will miss them forever..."

I stuttered not knowing what to say. The disapproving glares from the people were not helping either.

I could see them making fun of me, mocking me with their eyes. I ignored all of them and just sprinted down the stage not caring how it looked good or not for the press.

I was just exhausted...and very tired...

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