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What do you do when the one you trust the most ends up betraying you?

What do you do when the one you love the most ends up being the one who hates you the most?

When everything you know is all just a lie?

When you've been such a fool all along?

My answer?

You run.

*****

Iris Williams

"Meeting adjourned." I finally said and my colleagues quickly stood up, pushing their chair and scramming quickly while saying goodbye to me. I laughed at how fast they left the conference room and how they all seemed to be in a hurry. Well, I don't blame them. We've been here for five hours.

I raised my arms, stretching them as far as I could and that did the trick since I felt more awake. I checked the phone for the time and decided it was time to leave the office too, it's been a long day after all. I fixed the piles of documents and as I stepped outside, the sales team's manager quickly came to me and tried to take the load.

"Thanks, Haley, but it seems I'll have to work on these more at home. Do you want me to drop you home? I'm sorry you had to go overtime." I apologized. Truth is, we have a deadline to meet by next month and we were already behind on schedule. As a marketing operations manager, I've got a stack of work to do and not finishing them on time can cause problems for our clients.

"Oh, I'd appreciate that a lot. Thank you very much." Haley said as her expression softened. I knew it was hard for her to get home late and the woman has been on over time for 2 hours.

"Don't mention it. Be ready in 5 minutes, I'm just going to get my stuffs." I said walking away towards my office. I opened the door and the automatic lights quickly lit up in my presence. I grabbed my phone from my pocket and dialled a number.

________________

Haley Kim is a 28 year old woman and equally a single mother of one. She had been taking care of her three-year-old son on her own and while she was gone out of the house, a baby-sitter took care of him. Perhaps that's why we've become such great friends, because we're both single moms. Ever since I came in the marketing firm five years ago, she's been with me through it all.

In reality, very few know this, but she's actually a very rich girl from South Korea who initially came to the western world for some experience before training at her family's company. However, she fell in love with an old co-worker that resulted to her baby Gabriel. Learning of her pregnancy, her family became furious and cut all connections with her. It's been hard for her, but fortunately, she's got everything together again.

We passed by a large poster that advertised travelling to South Korea and having seen it, Haley puffed air.

"How do you take down an advertisement as large as that?" she said quite bitterly. I laughed and went towards the exit.

"What, I think it's a pretty convincing advert. Really eye-catching." I answered. She rolled her eyes and closed her window as we were nearing her house.

"I see that everyday, it's honestly annoying. It's a false advertisement. Korea is not such a nice place as it pictures. I will sue them, I will. They just wait." she retorted, her voice filled with annoyance. Anything related to home was a very sensitive subject for her. I stopped in front of her house as she grabbed her bag from her footing.

"You have the guts to say that about South Korea? They've got great food, great sceneries and great music. Not to mention, they've got a nice products, unique fash--" she cut me off by opening the door and raising her hand.

"And great families that throw their daughter away for one mistake because their reputation matter more. Have a good night Iris." she says waving her hand.

"Aw, c'mon. Don't generalize Haley." I chuckled. Getting her riled up was entertaining to watch, though I know that beneath all her display of bitterness and hate, she missed her home and family terribly.

"Goodnight Mrs.Pa--" before she could even finish what she was about to say I raised the radio's volume.

"Can't hear you! The radio's too loud. Bye!" I waved and she laughingly closed the door. I guess we're even now. As I drove away, I noticed that my heartbeat was unusually rapid.

Damn it, Haley.

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I keyed the door carefully and entered the condo flat as quiet as I could. I wanted to surprise them. I'm sure they've been waiting for me for a long time now. I slowly made my way to the living room where I could hear loud laughters and an elderly woman telling a story. Appearing in their field of vision, three boys quickly stood up and shrieked.

"Mommy!" they cried in unison. My triplets.

"Mommy!" they cried in unison and ran towards me. I kneeled to match their heights and spread my arms widely and received them in a hug.

"Oh, I've missed you all. How have you been? I'm sorry for coming home late, I had a lot of things to do." I apologized while planting kisses on each of them.

"That's okay mommy." Jace, the oldest said.

"But we missed you too so much." Jamie the second one continue.

"But we were very good to Mrs. Anderson. We promise." Jacob finished. I smiled sheepishly and patted his head. I looked over to Mrs. Anderson who stood up and folded her knitted blanket. She was a retired neighbour who often took care of the triplets when I'm away at work. I stood up, making my way to her as I grabbed her daily salary from my bag.

"Thank you very much again Mrs. Anderson. You're such a great help." I said and handed her the money.

She smiled and told me how she loved taking care of the kids, how polite they were and how they don't give her a hard time. She also went on about how she still didn't understand how I could handle three kids at once— alone. When she said all those, I couldn't help but smile and chuckle. She's praising me too much although I do admit that it's been very hard. Especially when they were all just babies.

This was one of our many conversations but always the same subject. Mrs. Anderson was a sweet woman who did generous deeds and never expected anything back. She didn't even want me to pay her for taking care of the kids, but of course that's unacceptable. I know how hard taking care of them can be.

As I was accompanying her to her way out, she stopped in her track and turned to me with a curious expression on her face. "Ah, that's right. I almost forgot. Some men knocked on the door earlier today and they were looking for you." she started. "They looked very suspicious and of course I asked them their reasons before giving away information. They said some relative of yours is looking for you, but I didn't believe they were looking for you for good reasons so I told them that I was the one living in the house and that you were the previous tenant here." she said sounding very proud of what she'd done. I didn't even realize that I was holding my breath until she held my hand. "Now, dear. Have you had some bad dealings in the past? If yes, you know I can always help you, alright?" she ended, her voice still sounding so sweet. No way, I thought.

"Wh-what about the kids?" I asked, the feeling of danger and uncertainty took over me. The feeling was all too familiar.

"They were in their room taking a nap so they were safe." she answered. I let out a deep sigh of relief and had to hold onto the wall.

Someone's looking for me? Is it him? No, no, that's impossible. What would he be looking for me for? And it's been five years, what can he possibly want from me? If he wanted to find me, he would've done so years ago. Whoever it is, I don't think they mean good news.

I thanked Mrs. Anderson once again and as she left, I stayed by the door for a few more minutes trying to think of who was looking for me. What do they want from me? I'm happy enough of what I have and where I am. I can't help but shake the worry of my head, all of a sudden, I didn't feel safe in my own house. I have to be more careful from now on until I find out who those people are and what their reasons are.

I walked back to the living room and found the triplets watching the television with their eyes almost closing. It was already past their bed time and they were still here. Since I was also feeling tired, I made them brush their teeth, wash their faces and change to their PJs. It was the nightly routine and they knew the drill. I did the same thing and after, I climbed into my king-sized bed where they all followed me. They had their own room, yes, but they always still sleep with me.

Jace was on the farthest left and next to him and beside me was Jamie. The one on my right was Jacob and with that, we all drifted to sleep after a long day.

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As usual, I woke up first at 7am to prepare my lovely sons their breakfast. Normally, they wake up with me but since they slept late last night, they were sleeping in today. Besides, it's Saturday and our outing to the movies today wasn't until this afternoon.

I cooked some oatmeal and cut up some bananas, a very simple but fulfilling breakfast. As I was putting their food in each of their little food trays, I hear little footsteps and a whine getting nearer.

"Mommy?" the voice said, it was Jamie. I turned to him and greeted him with a kiss on his forehead. He rubbed his eyes for a while, still looking very sleepy in blue and white-striped pyjamas. He was so cute I couldn't help but pinch his cheek in which he quickly protested against.

"Good morning, my love. Did you sleep well?" I questioned and he answered with a nod. "Good, now let's go wake up your brothers." I said and took him by an arm and effortlessly carried him off the ground. He laid his head on my shoulder as we went back to my room and wake his siblings.

As soon as we entered the room, Jacob raised his head up and seeing us, he smiled sweetly. I put Jamie down the bed and Jacob crawled to me for a hug. I kissed him on his forehead as well while Jamie went up to his brother.

"Jace. Jaceee~ wake up." he ordered, but Jace wouldn't budge. He was, after all, the heaviest sleeper out of all of them. As the oldest, he's always responsible and acts like the older brother to the two, but when it comes to getting up from bed, he was always the last one.

I put Jacob down and approached Jace. I moved the strands of hair that covered his eyes and kissed his forehead. Instantly, his eyes opened slowly. I smiled at him and greeted him good morning.

"Mornin' baby, you gotta get up now. Breakfast will get cold." I told him, but he digs his head into the pillow even more. Meanwhile, Jamie and Jacob jumped out of bed in joy and went straight to the bathroom to wash their faces before eating. I chuckled at Jace and forcefully took him out of bed and led him to the bathroom.