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Chapter 1 : Please read here

Chapter 2 : Please read here

~~~~~~ Chapter 3 ~~~~~~

Fifteen years later.

"Lina .... you work too hard". Lina had to smile upon hearing that voice. Saufiq had been saying that to her for the past few years. 

She looked up and gestured at Saufiq to sit. "We are supposed to go out for lunch, remember? You promised me." Saufiq pretended to whine.

"In a minute. I need to answer this important e-mail." She tried to sound stern, but it was hard. She could not help from keeping a smile from her face.

"Everything is important for you, except me." Saufiq was born a flirt. He changed girlfriends like a girl changed her shoes. So she never took his words too seriously.

After fifteen years of hard work, she was now a Senior Manager in the factory. How her life had turned 360 degrees. From a heart broken girl who took the first work being offered to her, to being a Senior Manager in the same factory. She was determined to change her life. Therefore, on the second year after she worked, she took a decision to study part time while helping her parents in supporting her three siblings with their study. Life was hard, juggling her work at the same time studying. She almost quit her study when in her third year, her father's illness took to the worst and he died. Suddenly she became the bread winner of the family. But she persevered. She needed to be, her whole family was depending on her from thereon. 

She had no time for anything else. She had became a very serious woman. Gone was the mischievous girl. In her place was a very determined and serious woman. But she was happy, as happy as she could be. She would look back over the last fifteen years with a tinge of sadness. But being a melancholy was not in her dictionary of life.

She received her first letter from Hakim after about four months after he left and he was apologetic. He was busy trying to adapt being far from his parents and concentrating on his study. She answered his letter while trying to paint a happy life. She never reveal to Hakim the true picture. But his letters were only intermittent. Then they stopped altogether. A few years after that, she heard from the grapevine that he got married to an English girl. His parents flew to UK for the wedding. She did not feel anything. Her busy life, trying to cope with her part time studies and working took most of her time and life. But she felt some accomplishment when her siblings were successful in their studies. 

Now she could breathe a sigh of relief. Though her dream to be a doctor would never materialised, she was happy with what she had accomplished. Maybe this was what God had meant her to be. Maybe this was her fate.

While closing her laptop, and gathering her handbag, she said to Saufiq "Okay. Lets go lunch, and you can tell me all about your latest girlfriend." He always could make her laugh silly, like a school kid. 

"Well .... you know, I met this cute girl. Her name is .... " His voice trailed off. She could tune out all the details while pretending to listen. She could laugh at the appropriate punch lines. She had learned to do that and showed the world a happy face.

------------------To be continued in Chapter 4 -----------------