Chapter 1: “A broken engagement, a Friend’s betrayal and a Job Loss”
It had been 3 months since Darana, a 28-year-old girl boarded a one-way train back to her hometown. Those damning text messages exchanged between Michael and Jane that she found on her dearest fiancée’s phone 3 months ago, had shattered a once-golden dreams of a future together, turning her envisioned, white-veiled wedding into a scene of heartbreak. The pain and wounds from the betra
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of the two most precious individuals in her life remained fresh, as if the anguish of yelling, crying and throwing furniture at her ex-fiancée had happened only yesterday. Compounded by the heartbreak, Darana also found herself abruptly severed from the company that she had faithfully served for 6 steadfast years. She had no choice but coming back to this town that she had departed years ago with determination and hope for the future. Amidst the weight of her own thoughts, Darana sat on her bed, idly flipping through a newspaper. The announcement of a job opening identical to her previous position caught her eye like a cruel reminder of what she had once possessed and what she no longer believed she could achieve. Her loved one, best friend and her job had chosen to betray her and leave her to deal with a deep sense of loneliness and a crushed belief in the goodness of those she held closest to her heart. The ink on the page blurred momentarily, each line of the advertisement seemed to mock the dreams she woven into her career that had been unravelled and cast aside. Darana furiously throw the newspaper away and knocking a picture frame on the nightstand. She knelt and picked up the sharp piercing pieces of glass that can cut deeply through her vein and take away her pains. In that splendid moment, a picture of a woman hugging her young self in front of a sycamore tree fall among the shattered glass caught her attention, “Mom...…” Darana’s words stuck in her throat. She clutched the picture into her tightening chest and sob uncontrollably. How she longed for the comfort and wisdom only her mom could provide, a beacon of strength now loss to the passing time. With weary limbs and a heavy mind, Darana slowly drifted into a faint dream………