Aira

Chapter 1

Joshua’s POV

Joshua Snider was the kind of guy that people liked to call calculating, cold and polite and let’s not forget greedy. He was always a couple of moves ahead of you and always thinking of the future. He had a difficult past that made him who he was but that was just an excuse he used too often. Truth was it was in his power to change, it was just so much easier to stick to something he knew very well than to throw himself into the unknown and become a better person. A person he could be proud of. That didn’t mean he wasn’t satisfied with who he was-- it just meant he couldn’t brag about things he accomplished in public since most people didn’t approve of his ways.

“Joanne, where is my coffee?!”

His secretary brought him his coffee and hurried away from his desk as he stared at the papers in front of him. He was trying really hard to concentrate but his mind wasn’t cooperating. He couldn’t stop himself from thinking about Aira.

He married Aira about a month ago and he sort of felt bad about putting her in an institution. Did he make the right decision? The thing was that she really seemed crazy with all that talk about flying and air. He might have been cold and calculating but he was human and he would never put a completely sane person in a mental hospital. She made it easy to feel like he did the right thing because he wasn’t so sure she was sane.

He used to be her neighbour for a really long time before they were officially introduced by her best friend Clare and she was the reason they became friends. I was always hanging out with them and we weren’t close for quite a while despite that fact. They only became close when he decided it was necessary since he became interested in her wealth. He faked his parents’ deaths and talked to her about his pain and successfully made her open up to him. She didn’t have any parents because they died when she was a kid. She mentioned air and flying from time to time but he never took it seriously and pretended he didn’t hear anything or if he wasn’t able to avoid it he just laughed it off. They started going out and not much later he proposed. They got married and had a honeymoon.

He started noticing her craziness more and more when they returned home and about a month and a half later she was in a mental hospital. It was surprisingly easy but while he craved money, he didn't feel the satisfaction and happiness that was supposed to come with it.

He shook off the memories. What was done was done. Thinking about it over and over again wouldn’t change a thing. He scowled and focused on the papers on the table. It was only an hour before his lunch break and he had a lot to do before that.

He was sitting behind his desk doing his job when his phone rang.

“Hello, this is Doctor Raymond! I’m sorry to disturb you but we have urgent news. It seems that your wife left the building unnoticed. Did you have any contact with her? Did she come home? Do you know where she would go?”

Hu hung up the phone and took a couple of deep calming breaths. They didn’t calm him down in the least. He then grabbed the telephone and threw it at the wall while yelling and stomped on it like a child. That did help a little.

He rushed home in hopes that he would still be able to catch her. He knew that she would come and get her stuff before leaving completely. He knew her well enough to know that it would be the last time he ever saw her. He almost ran over an old lady that was crossing the road but he ignored that and arrived home in 10 minutes. He then ran inside the house and was visibly disappointed when he discovered it was empty. She left moments before his arrival he concluded when he observed the apartment.

The lights were still on and the closets opened. Her side emptied in a hurry and he noticed he even forgot some of her stuff. That didn’t matter because she would have returned for them even if they were really important.