Life Without You

Chapter 2 - A New Life

The basement carpark was hollow and empty that only the sound of footsteps echoed throughout the place.

She turned around to observe her surroundings to make sure that no one was following her.

A blurry image of Darryl Crews walking towards her crystalised before her. She stood still, swallowing hard. Instead of running away, her fists clenched, ready to take him down...

"OEI!"

The loud cry caused her to open her eyes immediately and throw a punch to the front, jumping to the side and kicking her opponent to the ground until he laid down, subdued by her elbow locked around his neck.

"Very good," Hiroshi praised.

"Arigatoo, sansei." (ie. in Japanese - "Thank you, teacher")

She pulled Hiroshi up.

"That's the end of your training for today," said Hiroshi as he removed the protection guards on his body and gulped down water from the water bottle. "How do you feel now?"

"Feeling better each day, and it does help me overcome my fears too," she replied, removing her helmet wiping the sweat from her forehead with a towel.

"Good to know. Keep up your Krav Maga every week and I promise you, you'll get better each time."

Hiroshi was committed to helping her both in her professional life and in her one-to-one training in Krav Maga with him, partly stemming from the guilt of not accompanying her to the ladies on that fateful gala night. The self-defence arts was heavily recommended by Evan and Hiroshi, who also had a black belt in Karate. She agreed to the training, but not after eight weeks from the head surgery had passed. Hiroshi insisted she wore a helmet so as to take extra precaution.

Ariel was relieved that the news did not go as far as revealing Darryl Crews' past connection to her and Andy, due to the police's tight lip of not revealing anything further at the request of Mr Fujita, who finally knew about it.

Ariel was profusely apologetic to him and Hiroshi about the inconvenience and shame caused and explained her life story, but Mr Fujita assured her in an almost fatherly manner, that she was in no fault whatsoever, to which she was eternally grateful for his kind understanding.

Since the day she called Hiroshi, Ariel and Andy were immediately and secretly escorted to Osaka in Japan to start their new life. The sensitive furore of what happened at the gala and the constant watch from the paparazzi meant even greater security and secrecy of her whereabouts. They had to conceal them in public donned in unrecognisable disguises.

Mr Fujita knew the media would follow her every move, so in order to clean their tracks, he had his assistant accompany her and Andy fly to India, change the flight to China, then take a train to Seoul in South Korea, drove for a few hours to the ship harbour to the south and take a small ship to Japan. The journey was very exhausting and very confusing but they finally reached to their destination.

The three months in Japan saw her training intensively for her new position as the head chef for Fujita's upcoming restaurant with the use of their sauces and as their spokeswoman for Fujita sauces, with plans to expand its chain nationwide and worldwide - all shrouded in secrecy.

In order to prepare her, she was trained in management, speech and presentation, and was given basic Japanese classes. Her entire wardrobe was replaced with luxury wear, as Fujita was grooming her to be their new celebrity spokeswoman. An image consultant was hired to teach her on grooming and etiquette, as well as train her eyes for fashionable wear and proper makeup. Her waist length hair was trimmed to her bosom, coloured in light hazelnut and styled with toussles.