Chapter 1 The Encounter

Mariah had been on duty for the past 32 hours. She had little to no sleep and God knows when was the last time she ate because even she does not remember eating anything except a chocolate protein bar during her round break.

Being a doctor is already exhausting but being a resident is worst of all. The only thing that's been keeping her alive is her colleague and best friend Blaire and maybe some coffee too that she has been devouring for the past 3 hours. It's not like she doesn't love her job. She loves it. It's what she has been wanting to do her whole life.

She always thought of herself as a side character. Not having a fair skin or a perfect body, just a brunette with pitch black eyes and a bunny smile. Sometimes she would have to wear glasses to look a little mature as her baby face was of no help. She may not be the main character we see in movies but she's kind. Yes, she's kind and humble. She always envied those girls in the movies that had everyone head over heels for them but she knew that if she had to be likeable she needs to be kind.

She never had someone who loved her truly. Her parents were busy always busy fighting and her sister never cared for her. She was bullied by others for being fat when she was young. She tried to loose weight and achieved but the trauma was still there and even after everything she had gone through, she never complained nor did she blame or was rude to anyone. She's a great doctor who worked her ass off to get where she is right now but at this moment, she's just a human with no sleep and just wants to go home. After an hour, she is allowed to leave.

"I cannot wait to go home ,have a shower and then go straight to bed," Mariah speaks with excitement in her voice.

"Don't forget to eat before going to bed. You've been chugging down that coffee for too long.", Blaire says with concern.

"Yes I will make sure of that! Now off I go and off you go too. Now it's your time to chug that coffee down your throat", Mariah says with a grin on her face.

She knows that Blaire in on night shift today and will be handling everything alone. Blaire laughs and says her goodbye.

"Hope you have a good night Buddie!"

It is currently 2 am and there is no one to be seen on the streets. It's dark so she decides to take a taxi instead of walking home as she usually does. She sits in the taxi as soon as the taxi arrives and decides to stop by the convenience store near her apartment so she could restock her refrigerator that has been empty for days now.

She arrives at the store, buys some vegetables, snacks and drinks. After paying for all those things when she walks outside the store, she is just confused as she cannot find the taxi anywhere.

" Where did he go? Maybe there was an emergency so he just left but he should've at least taken the fare before leaving ", Mariah thinks to herself.

She decides to walk as she's just 5 minutes away from home. She's thinking about his day today on the way and how she was glad to witness a triplets delivery today. She had delivered twins before but never in her life had she seen triplets.

As she's thinking, she hears a man groan by the side of the road. She thinks that he's drunk. But when she takes a closer look, she sees a man bleeding. A lot. And when you see a person bleeding that much, its not a good sign at all. She rushes towards him. She sees a young man with a handsome face. He's tall and has brown hair with light brown eyes. Brown is not a rare color but there was something in his eyes that made him different. Any girl would fall for him instantly but right now he's bleeding as hell and now is not the time to worship his beauty. Mariah as a doctor had to make sure he's okay.

"Sir! Excuse me Sir! Can you hear me? "Mariah asks to make sure he's conscious but he has lost a lot of blood and is too injured to speak.

She examines his body to find the bleeding site. She tears his shirt and is shocked to see a bullet wound in his abdomen. All that blood came from the bullet present in his abdomen.

Mariah hadn't seen a bullet wound before but she knew she had to do something before he went into cardiac arrest due to blood loss. She quickly takes her scarf that was wrapped around her neck and tried to stop the bleeding by pushing it hard against the injured area. Then she takes her phone out and calls for an ambulance right away.

"It's going to be okay! You'll be fine. Just stay with me, okay? Just stay with me!" Mariah takes breaths heavily as he sees the man groan in pain.

But shortly after, Mariah notices the man can't breath properly as there is not enough blood being pumped by his heart and is going under cardiac arrest. This is what she feared the most and there's no one around to help her. She screams for help but no one's around and the ambulance is taking too much time .She knows what she had to do. She starts performing CPR.

"Stay with me! You can't die on me like this. You're too young. You can't die like this," Mariah says as tears fall from his eyes onto his chest. After performing chest compressions for a while she sees that he has revived. The ambulance arrives at that exact moment and takes him to the hospital. Mariah goes along with them as she just can't leave him like that.

.............................

2 Days Later

Adam opens his eyes and realizes that he is in a hospital. The reality struck him hard and he tried to get up but failed as he felt the stabbing pain in his abdomen. He starts recalling what had happened to him after he got shot by his rival's man and how he had a car wreck. He had to run as his men still chased him. Adam remembers fainting after he had dodged them. But then he suddenly remembers the girl who performed CPR on him as he was bleeding to death.

He does not know for how long he has been in this hospital so he calls for a nurse and asks what had happened. When she tells him that he had been here for 2 days Adam loses his control. He can't be here. What if someone knew that he survived. What if Ariak knew he survived and was here at a local hospital. He would do anything to kill him.

"Do you want me to call someone from your family? Dr.Mariah found you on the street and she was the one who saved you. But we weren't able to find any of your belongings so we were couldn't contact anyone from your side," the nurse explains,

"Dr.Mariah has been the one checking up on you for two days. Let me page her to let her know that you're awake."

'I don't have time for this I need to get back to Mason so he knows that I'm alive and not dead'. Adam thinks to himself.

The nurse walks outside the door and Adam does not waste any time. He gets up clenching his stomach due to the pain but he endures it. Sorry Dr.Whoever saved my life but I need to get out of here right now. Adam leaves without getting caught by anyone. He's a mafia boss for a reason.

Mariah opens the door to Adam's room but finds no one there. The rooms empty. Adam left without meeting her.

"Guess he just left without saying goodbye and now I'll never know his name or why he got shot," Mariah sighs, "but at least I know he's fine now."