ʙᴜʀɴɪɴɢ ᴅᴇꜱɪʀᴇꜱ

Chapter 1

Amelia

The newly born rays of the early morning sun fought with the thick threads of curtains that adorned the huge windows on the walls of my apartment and splashed across the shiny wooden floor. The silence echoed with its pleasant notes as the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted through the rooms, entering every crevice.

At least it was like that until 10 minutes ago, before the sound of my phone destroyed all hope that this day would start well for me.

That's why now I'm leaning with both hands over the bathroom sink, looking at the person in the mirror who is looking back at me somewhat unreadable; sometimes looking at me with condemnation and other times looking at me with silent approval.

'Please Ams, how many times do I have to repeat it? Forgive me '

A splash of icy water surprised my face and merged with the rest of the water from the faucet rushing to the sink.

'You can't always be so steadfast. At the end of the day, I'm only human. I didn't mean to hurt you like that.'

Another splash poured down my face as memories of the previous conversation came back to me.

Yes, just a human. Also the shitty one you forgot to add.

I thought to myself.

I wiped my face with a soft towel, otherwise a little rougher than I usually do. Probably as my kind of passive aggression towards all the unresolved things that were out of my control.

And I didn't like that at all. For things not to be under my control.

Like, for example, my cosmetics, neatly sorted, or my clothes, perfectly arranged in the closet, carefully ironed folds on things that hung lightly on my hangers.

But life is not like a shirt, is it? You can't simply smooth out some bumps with one stroke of the iron. Some things are made to be perfect in their imperfection.

This is something I knew, but it was very difficult for me to adopt and apply it.

After choosing a plain white shirt and a gray knee-length pencil skirt, I applied my red lipstick and closed the door behind me.

The crowd was just beginning to gather on the streets of the bustling city, exhaust fumes wafted between the rows of cars while people, it seems to me, were still trying to revive their still sleepy and sluggish bodies with hot coffee from Starbucks.

I parked my car in the underground garage and with one push of a button, the elevator launched me to the floor where our firm was located.

The first thing that greeted me was the smiling face of Olivia Roberts, whose smile this morning was a little more sour and stiff.

"Relax Olivia. We agreed to approach today's meeting as if it were, say, a normal lawsuit. There's no need to fuss."

That's what I was taught at university. If you want big cases, corporative beasts, you have to be beast yourself. On the same wavelength as them.

But the truth is a little further than that. And in my peripheral veins flowed the same nervousness that I always easily masked with my solid facade.

"Easy for you to say. I'm dying here."

She said tragicomically with all her arms flailing cutting the air around us.

"Has Gabriel arrived?"

"Yes, he is already waiting for you in his office."

I stopped at my office first, to drop off my things, and I continued to Gabriel's.