Chapter 2: The Useless Ring

“Mom, what’s this?” Star asked, picking up a small black box on the floor, it fitting perfectly into his tiny hands. Annie sighed, really wishing she’d thrown it away. It was a lazy Monday afternoon, Star had finished school for the day and Annie had finished her shift at the restaurant. Ever since the day that Annie almost got Harrison Xian hospitalised at work, she had felt as if the time she had at her current workplace was limited. Her manager was on leave right now, probably recovering from shock, but Annie had a feeling that as soon as the tyrant came back, Annie’s position in the company was as good as gone. Annie was irritated at the thought, but that meant that she should probably start looking for a new job sooner rather than later. Annie was about to get more annoyed than she currently was, however, she then snapped back to reality and realised that Star was right there in front of her, holding out the small black cube that Harrison had given her a few days before.

Annie took the box in her hands and sighed, “How about we find out?” She smiled at Star, sitting down on the small second-hand couch they had parked in the living room. Star promptly followed his mother, curious, before sitting down on her lap, excited to find out what secrets the tiny box could hold. Annie turned it over in her hands, realising that this was a jewellery gift box.. perhaps it was some earrings or something? Annie couldn’t really think of what use she’d have for those, though, seeing as her ears were never pierced to begin with. Not that Harrison Xian, the little bastard, would know. Annie shrugged, figuring that she could probably sell it, before opening the small cube, revealing its contents to Annie and Star. Inside the jewellery box was a diamond engagement ring, embedded with the shiny rocks, a large heart shaped diamond slapped onto the front… Annie snapped the box shut.

“That’s a ring!” Star exclaimed, stating the obvious. Annie had to take a moment to process what she had found in the box. A ring… this couldn’t mean…? No, he wouldn’t… right…? “Are you getting married, mom?”

“No.” Annie immediately replied without even a moment of hesitation. After processing what the **** just happened, Annie decided that the best course of action would to be to immediately sell the ring and use it to pay Star’s tuition fees. She could probably take the ring as child support.. right? Well, it was the most support that Harrison had ever given Annie and Star since he had abandoned them five years prior. “C’mon Star, let’s go have dinner.” Annie smiled at the small child sitting comfortably on her lap. Star’s face immediately lit up as he got up off of Annie’s lap. The day that Star was born, Annie had decided that Star would never meet his father, he didn’t need a deadbeat who had done nothing but abandon them in his life during Star’s childhood. Anyways, Annie had sworn that she would always be there to provide for Star, no matter the cost.

After tucking Star into bed that night, Annie went to her old laptop to look up a place where she could get the diamond ring appraised nearby. Since Annie Had to travel there by foot, she decided that she didn’t want to journey a long distance, especially seeing as the last time she had tried to travel so far from home, she had run into some lunatic with a gun and had almost missed out on her weekly episode of the hit reality television show The Real Housewives of Tropey Manwha. Annie shook her head, still trying to convince herself that the strange memory was indeed just a hallucination caused by heatstroke, and not a real life event. Annie quickly booted up Koogel Krome on her KP laptop, it almost having a seizure in the process, and looked up a place where she could get the ring appraises and possibly even sold. It didn’t take Annie long to find a place close by, however, she could immediately tell that the place she had found online on the second page of Koogel wouldn’t be the safest place to get the useless engagement ring appraised. Any other place was very far away though, and Annie didn’t really want to be caught up in any strange situations again… well, that was her excuse anyways, Annie really just didn’t want to walk that far for some dumb ring that was given to her by hArRiSoN xiAn. Annie jotted the address down on a piece of paper before finally turning off her KP laptop, putting the poor thing out of it’s misery. Who knew, maybe if the ring was worth a lot, she may even be able to afford a half decent laptop. Annie smiled to herself at the thought, she could finally take out her pent up rage on 8 year olds on Koblox rather than almost beating the shit out of her step-sisters every time they tried her. A small yawn slipped out of Annie’s mouth, reminding her that she shouldn’t stay up too late as she had work tomorrow. Annie decided to herself that she would visit the shady jewellery store tomorrow after work before going to bed.

This was definitely easier said than done though. Luckily enough for Annie, work ended around noon today so she definitely had time to go to the jewellery store before picking Star up from school. Unluckily for Annie, however, her manager was back from sick leave and after avoiding the mean supervisor all day, Annie had a sinking feeling that her days on the job were limited. Due to her avoidance of her manager, Annie had to clock off a bit late from work, so now instead of leaving at noon, it was now closer to 1pm. Annie sighed to herself as she made her way towards the jewellery store, nothing could ever go as planned, could it? Following the directions on the digital map on her phone, Annie managed to find her way to the small jewellery store close by to her home. It looked old and inconspicuous from the front, but Annie could tell by the reviews on Koogel that this was not just any ordinary jewellery store. Nonetheless, Annie didn’t really feel like finding another one at this stage so she made her way inside.

“Oh, hello there dear.” The shopkeeper reacted in a kind voice when she entered the tiny store. The shopkeeper seemed to be a small old lady, perched on a chair behind her desk reading a newspaper. The small shop looked more like an antique store than a jewellery store, lined with all sorts of old knickknacks and odd pieces. At the same time though, Annie did notice the display cases holding a unique assortment of jewels and gems, most looking very old-fashioned and some even looking worn. Annie could even see a small bloodstain on one… she decided not to question it.

“Uh… Hi… Um…. I was wondering if I could get this ring appraised?” Annie quickly tore her eyes away from the bloodstained jewels and took out the small jewellery gift box that Harrison Xian had given her the other day. The old lady put down her newspaper with a smile, once seeming sweet but now seeming unsettling to Annie, before Annie slowly made her way to the front desk, opening the jewellery box. The old lady put on a pair of glasses before taking a good look at the ring. She furrowed her eyebrows before taking the ring out of the box and inspecting it more closely. All of a sudden, the old lady bit into the large diamond on the ring, surprising Annie, before taking it out of her mouth and shrugging her shoulders.

“Well dearie, you certainly haven’t got a fake.” She chuckled, wiping the ring over with a small piece of cloth on her desk before putting it back in the case. The old lady then looked up to see Annie’s extremely confused expression, before becoming equally as confused. “Do you know what this is, dear?” She asked. Annie shook her head. That fucker Harrison had better not have given Annie something fishy.

The old lady let out an even louder chuckle, creeping the **** out of Annie, before taking out the newspaper she was reading and showing the front cover to Annie. Upon further inspection, Annie could see the picture of the heart-shaped ring she had on her right now that Harrison Xian had given her. Raising her eyebrows, she began to read the text that followed: ‘… The large diamond ring, ‘Forever Yours’ valued at 1.8billion USD, was reportedly sold on auction two weeks ago, bought by none other than H…’

Annie felt as though she didn’t need to read the rest. Annie… wasn’t going to question it… she definitely wasn’t going to question it… “I’d keep that ring somewhere safe if I were you, dear.” The old lady laughed, continuing to read her newspaper.

“Where…. Can I sell this??” Annie sighed, clearly exasperated at this point.

“Certainly not here, dearie.” The old lady replied, her tone sounding a bit more ominous this time. Annie decided that this would be a good time to leave. After sighing to herself once more, she put the horrifically overpriced ring in her pocket, it now feeling rather heavy, before making her way to the door. Much to her surprise, there was someone outside the store waiting for her. Out front of the store, there were two bald men dressed in black suits standing in front of a foreboding black vehicle. Upon seeing Annie come out of the store, the two men promptly approached her. **** it, Annie was gonna question things now.

Why were there two ominous looking guys in suits approaching her? Why was it pretty much exactly as she came out of the store that they happened to be there? And why was it that as soon as she knew how valuable the ring was, the men just happened to approach her? Annie could’ve sworn they weren’t there when she walked into the store, how did they even get here so quickly??? She was only in the store for like, five minutes, how the hell did they know where to find her?? “Ma’am, the boss wishes to see you.” One of the men spoke in a monotone voice, his grey lifeless eyes seeming as if they were peering straight through Annie, right into her soul. ****, Annie could tell that she was in a bad situation right now.

“And uhhh…. Wh-what’s this about?” Annie folded her arms across her chest, trying to look less uncomfortable than she felt. The two men were like, twice her size, if she tried to run and they tried to catch her, she’d definitely be caught. The street was also pretty much empty, so she couldn’t really run and ask someone for help… then again, who would even help her with two terrifying men chasing after her?

“That is private information ma’am, please follow us.” The second guy replied. Yup, this was definitely about the ring. The two men looked exactly the same, now that Annie thought about it… did the author just get bored with making up these characters? Annie didn’t know.

“Quick! What’s that over there?” Annie impulsively yelled, pointing her finger in the opposite direction. The men didn’t even flinch. Annie then began to run as fast as she could to no avail, the men caught her in less than five seconds, tying her up and putting her in the boot of the black vehicle. The car was one of those weird cars though where the boot was at the front of the car, which really made no sense to Annie to be honest. Wait… if there was a head on collision, wouldn’t Annie be the first one to get crushed? “H-hey… we can talk this out, fellas, haha…” Annie nervously chuckled as the man who caught her slammed the boot shut, leaving Annie in complete darkness.

(DISCLAIMER: this is a work of fiction, it’s also a parody romance novel and is meant to be taken comically. All the characters etc are fictional and are not related to real people or places in any way, shape or form)

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