My wife died years ago, when my daughter was only in the sixth grade. I was just a regular assistant, but I was an assistant to the President/Chairman/Founder of Yoon Designs: Daniel Yoon. I became extremely close friends with him over time and our daughters, BoYoung and Stella, had played with each other a couple of times as well. However, when I looked at BoYoung’s face as we went into the Yoon mansion, I could see in her eyes that she longed for the kind of lifestyle that the Yoon family had.

            It didn’t take long for someone to find out about my jealousy and desire for the same riches for my own daughter, and use it against me. Stan tried to hire me to help him kill Daniel Yoon.

            “Why would you do that?” I couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not.

            “I want to be the president. I know so much more about running a corporation, and all Daniel really wanted is to have this company for his wife. The only reason why the company does so well as it does is because of Rachel,” Stan answered.

            “Then why try to kill the designer that’s the star of the company?”

            “She’s not the only designer out there, and if only Daniel dies, Rachel or their daughter will take over. I need to wipe out the entire family for what I want.”

            “I can’t kill Daniel or his family…”

            “You won’t have to. I got Derik to do the dirty work.”

            I looked over to Derik Jung, who had been eyeing us. The young adult had been in prison multiple of times on assault charges, and I never understood why Daniel hired someone like him. Daniel always said that Derik was a good kid, though grew up in a harsh environment; his father abusing him and his mother constantly, only to have his mother abuse him as well as a sort of stress reliever.

            “Look, I’ll tell you what I told Derik. I’ll give Derik $7million and you $4million, but you can also become the vice president as I step up.”

            It was tempting. How could it not be? With $4million and the paycheck of vice president at such an elite company, it was a guaranteed bright future. I looked up at Stan’s towering power; the face was cold as stone. I couldn’t answer no. I couldn’t say that I would go to the police… I couldn’t even say a word. I didn’t know why, but even though I knew how wrong it was, I kept thinking back at BoYoung’s longing face when she walked through the hallway of the Yoon mansion. So being the coward I truly was, I nodded my head.

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            I didn’t know what I was doing at this point; I drove to the area where I knew Derik was going to strike. I didn’t know whether I wanted to stop everything before it happened or what. However, I knew I didn’t have the courage to stop it. But right before my eyes, I saw the truck ram into the Yoon Family’s car. The car flipped hard and crashed down hard into the floor. I heard the shrieks of my friends as life had escaped them.

“Oh my gosh… No…”

            I didn’t know why I was surprised. I knew that this was going to happen. But I could hear the faint whispers, begging for mercy, from the little ten year old girl. My heart felt like it could rip into two and I wanted to drop and die with them. But I could save them before the police came… another cowardly move.

I looked around the interior of the crushed car: my best friend was dead, and from the looks of it, so was his wife. But even through the darkest night, I could see the glow of the little girl’s smile. I quickly grabbed onto her, and managed to pull out her crippled body out of the wreckage.

            “Please don’t die, Stella,” I whispered. “Uncle Brian is so sorry.”

            I could feel her head turn a little to face the car where her parents were bleeding to death, “Mommy… Dad---dy….”

            Her head slumped as the remaining energy burned out and I couldn’t breathe. The question of whether or not she was dead kept sending trembles all over my body. I couldn’t function. However, somehow I drove to the hospital.

            “Please,” I cried. “Please save her.”

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            It wasn’t hard to pretend that Stella was dead. After finding out that she had amnesia and that she was sent to an orphanage, I went on as if nothing had happened… which made me sick.

            That was probably the reason why I visited that orphanage occasionally. I could see the little girl becoming normal after the shock of the accident. I noticed a little boy, only a year older than her, take care of her. I smiled when I peeked at that little girl ramming the boy’s head down onto her lap, trying to comfort him.

            It’s sad that I never knew that her name was changed. And it’s even sadder that I ended up not going to the orphanage at all after a while. I always told myself that I would