Fated Plans

Chapter 1

When you've least expected it, some things from the past would just pop out from nowhere and surprise the living daylights out of you. You would either shriek or even curse, but whether it's a good thing or not...it's up to you to decide.

As what they always says, life is full of surprises and there will always be difficulties and challenges along the way, but the most important thing in life is how you deal with the edge of the knife that's been handled to you.

Forget about whining, forget about nagging.

Just like that one afternoon when Andrea Macie Quinn thought that her day couldn't get any worst, rain started peeling from the sky above just as she was exploring the town with her killer heels.

Spending the day sitting idly in a not-so-comfortable chair and tiring her ears from listening to the monotone speaker just about made her wish that she was at home cuddling her soft pillow to sleep instead of being in that conference.

But alas, her conscience and sense of responsibility overruled. She was there for a reason.

After quitting her last job, she became actively involve with the Hope Orphanage, but that wasn't the main reason why she was traipsing down the Malibu pier in some primly white dress that seemed out of place, if not for the fact that she'd already let her hair down from the constricting ponytail she had on earlier. The sticky and salty sea breeze was a warm welcome to the compressing air-conditioned atmosphere from the conference room she spent the day with. Casting a sidelong glance at the outstretched pier with raindrops in the background already making her shiver and the rest of the tourists and locals scuttering off to find shelter, she oddly thought how her life did a turnabout.

A few months back, Andrea had everything a woman would wish for at her age; a stable job in a publishing company, supportive friends and family, and of course how could one forget that moment when she almost had that perfect family of her own she wished to have.

But she didn't want to go too deep on that one seeing as the sea brought some nostalgic feeling and memories to her and there's the rain that reminded her what she lost that one eventful night. Steering herself to find cover from pouring rain that she didn't anticipate because the weather app in her phone told her otherwise, she half-ran and half-walked to the nearest hotel lobby where some of the tourist took shelter also.

Andrea's hair was a wet mess as she ran her hand along the slightly sticky brown curls that ended just above her shoulders. With her 'Operation Reset' as she mentally named how she was dealing with her new life, she decided that a new haircut wouldn't harm and her loyal friends didn't think too, so she bid farewell to her long tresses. Opening her purse to search for a handkerchief, Andrea mentally groaned as she found nothing even a set of tissue to wipe the driblet of raindrops on her arms and face - and thank goodness for that that she kept her make-up lighter or else she would be like a ghost in a bad horror movie with mascara smudges running down her face. She mentally shudder at the thought and found herself shivering when gust of cold air from the hotel air-conditioning system had hit her skin leaving rows of goosebumps behind. An involuntary sneeze caught her off guard and she badly needed to change into her dry clothes but she wasn't in her hotel and the rain outside was still pouring. Hugging herself to conserve some warmth, she wandered her eyes around the place she was in. Smelling the aromatic sniff of the roasting coffee even before she spotted the coffee shop at the other end of the hotel lobby she was taking refuge in, Andrea sauntered carefully across the expanse of the room, taking gingerly steps with her four-inch heels as she was anxious to not let her derrière meet the shiny marbled floor in the daylights with a lot of people hovering around. That would just be the icing on the cake on her crap day - totally embarrassing.