Chapter 14: Missed opportunity

'Satisfaction brought it back!'

It was one of her favourite phrases. It accurately described her research and innovation mindset. She would be willing to sacrifice anything to advance her knowledge and her creations, but if she could then her life would be a million times better and feel fuller; it was worth it.

The book had changed, but there was nothing she could do about it now. It was 6 AM Saturday and her exhaustion was tugging at the edge of her mind. She needed to analyse this with a clear head, not sleep depraved and confused.

First, Raven needed to secure the book and move it far away from her 'what if the phenomenon happened again when I would be sleeping?!'; Raven couldn't risk it.

After instructing Dominic on how to contain the book in her home lab, she decided to go to bed.

Her pink fluffy pyjamas were lying on her pillow, no signs of having been disturbed or worn in the previous couple of hours. For some reason this should be an important clue, but she was so sleep deprived, it didn't matter. 'It's a tomorrow problem' she sighed, changed, and got into bed. As soon as her head touched the pillow she fell into the deepest, most dreamless sleep.

At the same time, on the other side of the city Victor was panting hard in a state of panic.

He just woke up from the strangest dream. No, it was a nightmare!

He could not understand what just happened, it all felt so real.

Victor felt trapped in someone else's body, in his dream. He was fully conscious but was experiencing what looked like real events through someone else's eyes. He had all the knowledge of this person, but he couldn't feel their presence. He was trapped and desperately trying to get out of this strange dream.

As he was struggling, the strangest thing happened in this illusion. A woman who was Raven but was not Raven was talking to him and was behaving so strange. This body had no memory of Raven being Raven, but instead this was Liehen, a moderately successful personal assistant to a CEO of a company he's never heard of before; what was more, they were all speaking Mandarin which he now seemed to understand through this woman's mind.

Seeing he was in his bed safe and nothing looking amiss around him, Victor thought he just had the strangest dream. The characters were all from the book he was reading before he went to sleep and surely his dream was influenced by that. He had the strangest desire to call Raven and talk about it, but he knew he couldn't. She'd think he's gone crazy.

Victor thought he had gone crazy, but that dream felt so real…

All of this was happening slower than it was intended. In a beautiful townhouse at the outskirts of Dublin, a gorgeous middle-aged woman, with the deepest, strangest shade of purple eyes and fiery red hair, was frowning reading a book.

Her assistant was watching her very closely, trying to understand her mood to not make her angry. She was very powerful after all.

"I just don't understand why she's fighting it, it was so clearly laid out for her… this girl is certainly stubborn. And she's so strange!" the woman exclaimed, looking at her assistant like she was expecting him to agree with her.

The man had a look of love and adoration on his beautiful, chiselled face. He had been in love with Maeve for close to what seemed like a hundred years now, but she somehow had no clue about it. He would do anything for her. He knew she was clueless from the way she was occasionally stealing glances at him, and never muster the courage to say something. He wasn't going to force it, which is why he agreed to be her assistant; just to stay close to her. He knew she couldn't bare it if he left her, and in his heart, Liam couldn't abandon his love for her either. He was meant for bigger, better things, but they had nothing, but time, and he didn't want anyone else but Maeve by his side.

She was beautiful, and yes, she was very powerful, but what mattered more was her pure and unchanging view of love and family relationships. The woman was fiercely protective of a pure love between two people, and extremely loyal, which made her the best and most attractive woman in the universe to Liam.

"Maeve, you know you can't force love overnight, it needs to happen gradually, let them get to know each other…"Liam said ,forcing himself not to laugh at the cute frown between Maeve's eyebrows; she was so adorable!

"But Liam, I made a promise! It has to be this year, or he'll never forgive me"

Hearing that, Liam's eyes suddenly changed, and a deep sadness enveloped him. It's true, they both made a promise and they will keep it, for their beloved friends who were no longer amongst them.

Both Liam and Maeve knew that somehow, they will meet again in another life, and they didn't want to live with the regret of not helping their dear friends, even if it meant they had to force some events to happen.

"You're right love, we both made a promise, but we have to be careful not to cause more damage than good. It's meant to be, we just have to be patient."

Liam felt that this was not the right time to push things ahead, even if their plan was failproof and truly following destiny's line, their actions could actually cause a fracture that would backfire in the end.

Maeve blushed and suddenly got shy. Her heart skipped a beat when he called her 'love' but she wouldn't dare say anything. She was still unclear why he wanted to be her assistant given his background, but he was so wonderful, she would do anything for him, and she has for decades now.

"Y-You're right" she stuttered a little bit "We have to be patient, I just…I can't wait to see them happy!" she explained, her eyes full of hope and her rosy cheeks now making Liam's heart skip a beat.