It was one of those busy mornings that seemed to feel a bit like chaos. It wasn’t that they happened few and far between, it was almost a weekly occurrence due to busy schedules and the fact that Abel and Caroline seemed to constantly be adding things to their to-do lists. Caroline was talking on speaker phone, standing at the kitchen counter with her macbook open and typing rather aggressively as she half responded to emails and half argued with the voice on the other end of the line. Her glasses were perched on her nose, since she hadn’t even had time to put her contacts in. The person on the phone, a man, was arguing with Caroline about the cost of launching a full line of foundations for her beauty brand. “Caroline, we’re just saying that the money doesn’t make sense to launch with that many shades, the profit margins will be significantly lower.” he warned, causing the brunette to angrily stop typing to pick up her phone and bring it closer to her mouth.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware that this was your company. Is it your face and name that’s on the door? Oh, wait, I sign your paychecks and you work for me.” she said, surprising even herself a little at her harshness. “We will launch with at least forty shades or I won’t do it. No one will be left out because you’re worried about making money.” she repeated herself, which like the number of shades she wanted, she’d said at least forty times that this would be the way it would go. The man sighed, the fact she was arguing with some man who probably couldn’t pick out the difference in mascara and sharpie over makeup was ridiculous. “How about this? You figure out a way to do it the way that I want or your profit margins are going to be so low, it’s zero, when I fire you. Thank you.” she said hanging up the phone and wanting to toss it into the pool.
“Babe, I have to go.” She heard from behind her, her loving fiance who probably had thought the whole thing was hilarious since Caroline seemed to be the least scary person on the planet. “I love you.” she reminded him as he wrapped his arms around her, she noticed that he still held on longer. He lingered. He was scared every single time they weren’t together, she wanted to remind him that nothing had even happened lately, but she knew it wouldn’t help. It was hard, but it wasn’t like they could just ignore what needed to be done, especially since they’d be taking some time off to honeymoon in Bora Bora. “I’ll be fine.” She said, standing onto her toes to press her lips to his. “Don’t worry, boss, I’ll take care of you little miss, I'll fire you.” Jordan said as his presence was made known as he rounded the corner into the kitchen. He was taking a bite out of an apple that he grabbed from the fruit bowl that Caroline always seemed to get stocked to help remind her to eat. Jordan was Abel’s longest running security guard, and now Caroline’s. They fought like siblings, but he was by far Caroline’s favorite in her ever growing security team.
With that, he was gone and Caroline was right behind him. She was going to the location for her store front. She’d always wanted to have an actual “Xoline” store front, but it was never the right time. And with the last few successful launches, she felt like it was time. She’d bought a location, secretly, of course. She kept her name out of it, half because she didn’t want TMZ to leak that she’d be opening not just a pop up, but an actual store and for her own safety. While Caroline didn’t seem to worry as much about her safety, it was just an act. She was terrified of what the man could do to her if he wanted, and she wanted to live. She was so blissfully happy with her life that she didn’t want to lose it. So, she started listening a little more to Abel and the security team to take more precautions.
The ride to the store was only long due to the traffic. She sat in the backseat of the large black suv, with Caesar laid across her lap, and her phone in her hand trying to respond to all the things that she needed to with the time she had stuck in the car. When they arrived, Jordan dropped her off at the door. It should be safe, no one even knew that she had this property and he was just parking the car. She noticed his hesitance, and she realized that it was probably because Abel had drilled it into his head not to leave Caroline alone, basically ever. It wasn’t something he seemed to play with, her safety.
She used her finger to press against the scanner, another safety precaution that Abel had insisted on, a lock that could only be opened by certain fingerprints. It was ridiculous to Caroline, but she had to say that the whole thing was kind of cool. The doors opened and Caroline walked inside. The building was nowhere near put together, but she had a lot of things done surprisingly. She dropped her bags off in the small office area that was off to the side, and made her way into the showroom. Today, she wanted to start dressing the mannequins, start deciding what they needed more of and also confirm the choice of paint.
She didn’t notice a single thing out of place until she flipped the light switch and was face to face with fear. As the lights turned on, she wasn’t looking at the bare mannequins that she’d ordered and painstakingly choose. These mannequins were already dressed, and they looked like…they looked like Caroline.
The mannequins were exactly Caroline’s height and build, and they were all stabbed in the chest through the garment with notes present on each and every one. She froze, it was like she couldn’t even grasp what she was looking at. She walked closer, as if she couldn’t help but want to examine the details. Like, she wasn’t believing what she was seeing, she wondered what type of mean prank that this could be without it being a clear message from her stalker. As she got closer, she realized they were dressed in her clothes. Not her clothes as in from her line, as in her clothes from her closet. Most of them were things she’d worn to events, all with the notes and covered in red liquid that reminded her of blood, “I’ll see you soon, Caroline.”, or “I miss you, Caroline.”
There were other looks, like the dress she wore to meet Abel for the first time, the silk lingerie she’d worn when her phone was hacked and photos of her sleeping was leaked. The exact outfit she’d been wearing was down to the jewelry when she’d been choked out by the man in her old office. He'd written that was his favorite, and couldn’t wait to see her gasp for air again. It was f***ed. She was frozen, she couldn’t believe what she was looking at. She could hear Jordan banging on the door, his fingerprint wasn’t working.
Caesar started barking at the noise, picking up on the fact that Caroline was scared. “You’re so f***ing pretty when you’re scared.” rang over the sound system, it wasn’t a human’s voice, but one like Siri reading a text. The lights flickered and she could hear Jordan telling her to get back that he’d break the door down. But he didn’t have to, the doors unlocked and he was able to rush in. And with the sound of the backdoor slamming, it caused him to rush into action, pushing Caroline aside and running after the sound.
It didn’t matter, as Caroiline backed herself into the corner, sliding down the wall and wrapping her arms around her legs, she knew he wouldn’t catch him. She knew that he’d only be caught if he wanted to be, and he wanted to kill her too badly. She started to cry, her breathing quickening and her sobs sounding so much more sad than before. She was terrified, the anxiety making her feel as if she could throw up. Jordan returned, yelling at the other members to guard every single damn exit in the building. “Caroline. It’s okay. I’m here. I’m going to call Abel, we’re going to get you out of here, okay?” he said softly, in one of those rare moments that showed how he actually did care about her and not just because he was paid. “I’m going to call him right here, okay? So you can hear.” he said, as he tried to help Caroline calm her breathing. “He’s going to kill me, isn’t he?” she asked him, herself, and maybe even God. An answer that no one knew, they just hoped that she’d make it out alive.
