Chapter 12: Was it a dream?

Perfect timing, the elevator doors opened and as she stepped through the open doors she was pulled by an invisible force and thrown on the ground. When she opened her eyes, she was shivering with cold sweats on her kitchen floor.

It was 3 minutes past 4AM and she was now on her kitchen floor trying to calm down. 'What was that? It was not a dream, and did not feel like a dream. How on earth did she end up on her kitchen floor.'

"Dominic!" she said loudly in a stern voice.

The virtual assistant instantly appeared on the kitchen screen.

"How can I help you madam?"

"Dominic, please run the cctv footage from my bedroom for the past 3 minutes. Please confirm if I have left the bed." She was not panting from the sheer force of the experience.

The screen flickered and the video appeared. It showed her getting in bed, the bedside clock showed 4:01AM. This is when she went to sleep. A blinding light suddenly shone on the screen and she was gone. 4:02 AM.

She was frowning. Looking at the footage, she was gone. Not in bed anymore. She looked at herself and the clothing she was wearing. It was the same pair of jeans she picked from the woman's wardrobe and she still had the t-shirt and jacket on. 'What the hell is going on?!'.

"Dominic play the cctv footage from the kitchen starting 4:02 AM, side by side please."

Her voice sounded a bit shaky.

"Ofcourse madam. Is everything ok madam?"

The AI could identify distress in her voice and she could feel herself trembling. This was impossible. She needed to check. An idea started forming in her mind, but her rational brain refused to acknowledge it. She watched the footage.

4:03AM a blinding light manifested in the kitchen and there she was, on the floor, looking like she's been through a storm.

This was unbelievable, but her researcher mind immediately kicked in. There had to be a reasonable, rational explanation for what she was experiencing. All manner of thoughts formed in her head. It could be a parallel universe, but then, there was nothing familiar about it. A nagging thought started knocking at the edge of her rationality and perhaps sanity. Where had she heard those names before.

"Dominic, do a scan in the bedroom and kitchen for anomalies in energy readings. I'm looking for an electrical spike".

"Right away madam".

The screen showed the readings for the two rooms, and indeed there was a spike of energy and unidentifiable residual matter showing on her. Must be the clothes.

She tried to stand and get to her wardrobe to change quickly and isolate the contamination. Who knows what sort of things she might've brought back.

"Dominic call Murdoch, ask him to meet me in the lab asap."

"Of course madam. Can I assist you with anything else madam?"

She looked around to see if anything was missing or was out of place. That's when she saw it, on the floor, next to the kitchen table, the book.

"Dominic cancel the call. Do an analysis on the centre point of the energy wave and its origin."

"Madam it appears the origin point of the burst is the novel 'The powerful CEO's kind wife'."

She froze. That's where she knew all those people from. The company name, the CEO, the shrilled voice woman who told her she was inappropriate, those were all characters in the book.

'Did she just meet the second male lead?' no it couldn't be.

She abandoned her research ideas and going to the lab, and went straight for the book on the floor.

__________________

At the 52nd floor of Lanhua corporation headquarters, the stoic and unmovable CEO Li Naihe was still shocked.

It was now midnight and he hadn't left his office, contemplating the events of the morning.

'She was there, I saw her, but why can't anyone around me remember the scene she caused.' He was baffled. The rude and aggressive woman that strutted into his office this morning vanished into thin air. No one seemed to have any memory of her existence or of the scene she caused.

Was he going crazy, imagining things? He finally opened his laptop and searched for her name. He identified her as his newly appointed executive assistant, but that was not the name she gave him.

The search results for Raven Vaughn came back empty. No images, no alternate IDs, nothing. It was like she never existed.

Exhausted and worried about his own sanity, he decided to call it a night. He wasn't getting any answers just by staring at a blank screen with 'no search results'. It was late and he had to prepare for meetings the next day. 'This is my life now, no point in dwelling on the past.' With a deep sigh, he put his suit jacket on and headed out of the office.

He couldn't stop thinking about her. The cold voice, the over the top demeanour, something didn't add up. And she quit after spouting a bunch of nonsense at him. Had the pressure of the interview gotten to her? No, it couldn't be. The woman he interviewed was not the same woman that walked into his office this morning. His new executive assistant was meek, subservient, and behaved like this job was the best thing she could dream off. He scoffed at that thought ' what a silly aspiration to have. If you're competent you should aim for much higher'.

His driver was waiting for him in the executive parking. It never really sat well with him this separation between exec and non exec when it came to silly things like elevators and parking, but he had no idea how to change it, not yet. He couldn't rock the boat just yet.

"Good evening sir, where are we heading tonight?"

He didn't hear his driver's question. He kept thinking of that tornado of a woman. She was beautiful and powerful and he could feel her confidence in the way she spoke when he touched her. That must've been her real personality, not the crazy 'Karen' stunt she was pulling with him. He was intrigued by her.

Those smart, vicious eyes that looked at him like he was nothing. That beautiful hair reaching down to her waist moving in sassy waves taunting his self control. She was something else. If that woman was his assistant after all…

He felt a strong need to see her again. He's never felt like this before. She looked like she owned the world, and he wanted to be a part of that world she owned.

'What a first impression to make' he sighed inwardly replaying this morning scenes in his mind. He wouldn't dwell on it. He had more important things to do, but…if he could meet her again he wouldn't hold back.

"Hold back what, she wouldn't even give me the time of day with that attitude." He grumbled.

"Excuse me sir, I didn't catch that" His driver's interruption snapped him out of his reverie. Did he say that out loud, how pathetic.

"Nothing, don't worry about it. Let's head home."

"Of course sir. I'm told Elder Madam Li is waiting for you at home. She arrived at 10PM demanding she spoke to you."

He sighed, here we go again…