Prologue

Jaden loved the way the exotic birds in the garden chirped and sang all day, and sometimes he wondered what went on in the bird world. He would have loved to ask one of the birds if they ever had meetings where they discussed business and money. He smiled at his musings as he made his way from the bathroom and into his closet where his steward had prepared his outfit for the day. He took a long look at the neat custom designed suit, shook his head and thought to himself "I feel like doing something totally different today; something that is not like the routine I'm so used to." He walked through the closet looking for the perfect outfit for the day. There was something different about the day, but he could not quite place what it was, and so he shoved it aside and thought about the meeting he was attending in less than an hour. He wished the meeting would be short, so he could attend to other matters that needed his attention. He took out a flannel shirt, wore a pair of jeans, and decided he was going to wear a pair of Chelsea boots in place of sneakers. "Perks of being rich, you can wear anything to a meeting and no one would question your choice of outfit." He mused as he prepared for the day. That feeling came to him again; it felt like his mind was trying to bring something to his notice, or remind him about something, and each time he tried to think about what it could be about, he was blank. There was a light knock on the door:

"Mister Jaden Keybridge, are you up sire?" His steward called from outside the door. He was the only one in the house that referred to him as Mr. Jaden Keybridge, and no matter how many times he told him to just call him Jaden, it just did not work.

"Yes Matthew, please come in." Jaden answered.

"May I get the chauffeur to prepare any of your automobiles?" the steward asked.

"Oh yes! The grey Ferrari; I feel different today, and I want to take a break from my daily routine." Jaden answered.

"That is a brilliant thing to do Mister Jaden Keybridge, however, the Ferrari Sir?" asked Matthew the steward.

"You know what? If I'm going to do everything different today, I should just forget the cars at home, and use the bus." Jaden said excitedly.

"The bus sire? I do not think it is a safe idea, Mister Jaden Keybridge." The steward added.

"Relax Matthew, it's only been a few decades since I used the bus, and I doubt if much has changed since then." Jaden assured.

"Perhaps, I should tag along with the sire." The steward said.

"No, that won't be necessary. The venue is just around the block. Thank you, I'll be fine." Jaden said to dismiss Matthew.

"Very well then, you have my number on the speed dial." Matthew said.

Jaden stepped out of the house, and took a deep breath; savoring the different scents from the flowers, plants, and trees around the lawn. "A full day's supply of fresh air! Today seems so different." Jaden mused as he stepped out onto the walkway.

Lorence picked her backpack and hurriedly walked out of her apartment; she got down the flight of stairs and reached the door at the same time a young man got to the door. He held the door open for her to walk through, but she refused to move.

"Would you hold the door open for me if I were a man?" Lorence asked the man who had an expression of confusion written all over his face.

"I don't understand; isn't this the right thing to do as a gentleman to anyone?" The man asked.

"But would you do it to another man? That's the question." Lorence said.

"Well, while I can give you a straightforward answer, I won't, because your question is based on a stereotypical assumption. Have a nice day." The man said and walked through, leaving Lorence behind. "Scum!" Lorence muttered as she shut the door behind her and stepped out. She did not like the fact that some men would look at a woman lustfully and pretend to do something nice just because the woman fit the description of the type of woman they could lust after. It irked her when men preyed on the vulnerability of women and wrapped it in the disguise of being chivalrous; she saw the behavior as despicable, and never failed to express her displeasure whenever she saw any man trying to act funny with her or any woman around her.

She paused for a while and looked around her, and everything looked the same from the previous day; everyone in the locality seemed to have a routine, and it was easy for Lorence to predict who would drive or jog by, she knew who she would see around the corner. She had taken note of the policeman that always came to get donuts and coffee for his partner that waited in the patrol car parked outside, and then there was the homeless man that always pushed a trolley filled with what looked like junk. She began the short walk to the bus-stop to wait for her bus; her bus was always on time, but after waiting a while, she checked her wristwatch and noticed it was running late. "That's very unusual." she thought to herself, because for as long as she could remember, the bus had never been late or missed a day. She waited a while longer, and suddenly remembered that she forgot the gift she got for her colleague Margaret. She thought about dashing back home to get the gift, but when she looked up, she saw the bus approaching the bus-stop. Okay Margie, looks like you'll get your gift tomorrow. My bus is here." She mused.

"That's a first." She said to the bus driver with a smirk.

"What is?" He asked, looking somewhat confused.

"The bus is late today, and it has never happened." Lorence answered.

"Late?" The bus driver asked, looking from Lorence to the large LED clock above the windshield. Lorence looked at her watch and then at the LED clock, and when she looked at the date, she realized her watch had stopped working since the previous day.

"I'm so sorry. My watch stopped working, and there I was thinking I was running late already." She explained.

Lorence looked at the occupants of the bus and exchanged pleasantries with some familiar faces that used the same bus every day, but there was one person dressed in a flannel shirt that she was certain she had never seen on the bus before. There was no vacant seat for her; apparently the man in the flannel shirt had taken her spot.

Jaden looked up from his phone and noticed the lady standing, and he thought the noble thing to do would be to offer her his space, considering that his bus-stop was just a few blocks away. He looked at her again, and noticed she was beautiful, and something about her made him feel he had the responsibility to make her feel comfortable and safe

"You can sit here." The man said.

"No, thank you. I'm fine." Lorence answered with an expressionless face.

"No, I insist, I'll be getting off at the next bus-stop." The man added with a smile, and Lorence rolled her eyes because she did not like being told to do something she did not want to do, especially not from someone that had a cocky smile that he thought was charming. "It is time to see whether he is really chivalrous or whether he is scum." Lorence mused.

"I do not see why you are insisting though. I don't want your seat, and it is fine if I don't. If you think insisting scores you points as a gentleman, then you are very wrong." Lorence answered, and she saw the raised eyebrow from the man.

"Score points as a gentleman? Whatever that means?" the man asked.

"Just what you think it means. Now answer me honestly, would you be chivalrous if I was male?" Lorence asked.

"Oh well, chivalry is an ethical code for knights though, and by tradition I am a knight and the grandson of a Duke, and I don't mean that literally." The man explained with a smile that made the insides of Lorence's belly twist in disgust. "This has to be the head of the scum clan." Lorence thought to herself.

"I really do not care about who you are, I am more concerned about what you do, and you did not answer my question. Would you give up your seat for me if I was not a woman? It's a simple yes or no question, but of course you probably think women are weak and so men prey on their insecurities in order to get something out of them, even when they clearly do not need your help. It reeks of bias when you cannot offer the same help to a fellow man, and interestingly many of you only offer to help women when you hope to get something in exchange for your supposed help." Lorence said. The man was both shocked and amused at the same time. Lorence did not quite expect him to be amused; she did not expect the smile that was playing across his face, and she hated the fact that she found it attractive. "Remember he is a potential scum. Focus Lorence." She thought to herself.

"Wow! Wow! I don't know where all of that came from, but I think there is something I like about how your mind works. However, while I always extend the same arm of courtesy to everyone whether male or female, I still believe women should be looked after, looked out for, and taken care of, and I'm sure many people on this bus share the same views as me." The man said, and other passengers in the bus, both male and female applauded him to the chagrin of Lorence. Everything about what he said reminded her about her ex; she had only pleasant memories about him, and it sort of made her feel relaxed.

Jaden noticed her large eyes, and he thought they were pretty and made her lean frame look like she needed to be protected at all times. He was not in any way perturbed by her reaction to his offering, but rather he saw something in her; the will to stand for something, the will to believe in a cause and not back down or be bullied into silence.

"He has a very valid point there. Women are wired to be emotional beings, and men are wired to cater to the emotions of women, but the most important thing is extending the same arm of courtesy to everyone that he mentioned. Very valid point." A lady on the bus said, and others corroborated. The man smiled, stood up and pointed at the seat for Lorence to sit down, but she looked away, because she felt humiliated already and just wanted to get away from the bus and everyone in it. This was the first time in a long while that her talk about chivalry did not go the way she planned or expected. She chided herself for losing focus the moment she paid attention to the fact that he was amused at the important point she made about men and chivalry. However, she could not help but admire his smile, and from his defense, she could tell that he was intelligent. Lorence stole a quick glance at him, and he caught her, because he was also staring at her; Lorence was overcome with embarrassment "Young woman, yes he is good looking, but get a grip of yourself." She told herself, and looked away.

"Hi, I'm Jaden Keybridge, not that it matters anyway, but there's something attractive about your mind." The man whispered behind her so only she could hear.

"That's right, it does not matter. I would love to be left alone please." Lorence answered, and the man obliged without even the slightest resistance. However, the name sounded like she had heard it a couple of times, and out of curiosity, she took her phone out to Google the name. She was shocked at the results, and then she remembered that some years ago he had sponsored some of her friend's scholarships through college. She wanted to take a look at him again to be certain that he was the one, but she did not want to give him the benefit of catching her staring again, so she pulled out a mirror from her bag to act like she was adjusting her makeup, and then she looked at him through the mirror. "Wow! It's him, but it does not change anything." She thought to herself.

One minute she was returning the mirror to her bag as Jaden was preparing to get off the bus, and the next moment shards of glass and plastic, coupled with the screams of everyone filled the bus as a tanker lost its brakes and ran into the speeding bus from the side, causing it to climb up a ramp and tumble a couple of times before coming to a halt. It all happened so fast; Out of reflex Jaden did what he could do to protect people around him, and he had no idea what he was doing at that moment. After a while, he tried to move, but couldn't. He was covered in blood, and could barely see anything, he could feel life slowly ebb away from him; the noise around him was beginning to feel distant. He could feel hands touching him, and could feel his body being moved, slowly he moved his head to the side, and saw the lady whom he offered his seat on the bus being wheeled onto an ambulance, she looked at him too, and then he passed out.

Chapter 1

The city of New York was bubbling with activities as usual, with people going about their daily activities, from commuters finding their way to work, to pedestrians walking from one place to the other. New York was always so busy that it was dubbed "The city that never sleeps." because of the presence of every societal class, it was also referred to as "The city of dreams." While there were laws guiding everything and everyone, it did not prevent road accidents from happening every other day, and some people had come to accept the fact that fate had its way of doing things in a way that defied logical reasoning, and such was the case of Jaden and Lorence who were involved in a ghastly accident that could have taken their lives. Fortunately for them, they were the only survivors and had to spend some time at the hospital where they were rushed to save their lives.

Three weeks after the accident, Jaden and Lorence were still at the hospital. Even though they were out of the critical phase, some minor surgeries needed to be done, stitches removed, and bruises attended to. Jaden was not the one to be bedridden for such a long time, and so he tried several times to get out of bed, but only ended up stumbling.

"Mister Keybridge, I see you are a fighter, and I admire that about you, but you need to allow your body to heal properly." The doctor said to him after he had fallen from the bed the umpteenth time.

"I just want to be able to move around." Jaden said.

"Yes I know that, but the accident could have taken away your limbs and paralyzed you for life; luckily for you, it didn't. However, you need to go through physiotherapy in order to walk properly again, but before therapy, it is important that your body heals properly, to avoid complications. I hope you understand Mister Keybridge. If you allow the healing to happen as it should, you will be out of here in no time." The doctor explained. Jaden understood everything the doctor said, but he knew it was not going to stop him from trying to walk before the physiotherapy. If there was one thing Jaden hated, it was being treated like an invalid, and it irked him that he could not use his body the way he wanted.

Every night was an ordeal for him, because each time he tried to sleep naturally, flashes of the accident kept playing in his dream, and his imaginative mind seemed to make it more vivid and detailed than it actually happened. In the dream, he remembered the discussion between himself and the lady who refused to accept his seat before the accident, and each time he tried to save her and shield her from harm, it felt like all the other occupants of the bus became zombies that dragged them away from each other; He was given shots most nights, to make him relaxed enough to fall into deep sleep. During the day his thoughts always went to the day of the accident, and he smiled at the irony of the fact that the day did not turn out as he planned, but it was indeed different; he wanted a different day, and everything seemed to be different from the moment he made that decision. He wondered how every passenger in that bus was faring after the accident. Most importantly, he wondered how the lady was doing, because she was the only one he saw being taken into an ambulance before he passed out. "Is she in this hospital too? I hope she's okay. I should ask the doctor." Jaden thought to himself.

For some reason, Jaden loved reliving the memory of the lady on the bus, and he also thought he may have said some things differently. He thought about the exchange between both of them and then he arrived at the conclusion that she may have been through some harrowing experiences that made her start questioning people's goodwill towards her. Jaden knew he would give his seat up for anybody, but when he thought deeply about it he wondered if he would give his seat up for a young man. "Maybe she does have a valid point after all, howbeit a tad stereotypical, it was valid all the same." Jaden thought to himself, and he wondered what other thoughts dwelt in the inner recesses of her mind. One of the things he found fascinating about her was that she did not mind standing for what she believed in, even in public, and it made him wish they could be friends. Something about her struck a chord within him that kept resonating and getting him excited about the lady's personality, even though he barely knew her or anything about her, and something deep within him told him that she saw something in him too.

"Mr. Keybridge, how are you today?" The doctor asked, as he checked Jaden's readings.

"Hey doc, I feel better, and I just want to be able to get out of this bed without assistance." Jaden answered.

"Pretty soon, you should be able to run at the Olympics." The doctor answered with a smile as he touched and prodded different parts of Jaden's body to see his reactions.

"Tomorrow?" Jaden asked.

"Not likely, but soon." The doctor answered, and all Jaden could do was sigh at the doctor's response, because he was really eager to get back to living his life.

"One more thing doctor." Jaden said to the doctor.

"What's that?" The doctor asked.

"How are the other victims of the accident?" Jaden asked. The doctor paused and looked at Jaden with intent, like he was sizing him up to know whether he was mentally and emotionally sound to receive the news.

"Well, I don't know how to break this to you in a very comfortable way, but there's good news and bad news. Which do you want first?" The doctor asked.

"Give me the bad news first, and cushion it with the good news." Jaden answered.

"Okay, so I'll give you both the good news and bad news in one sentence. Here it comes; only two people survived the crash." The doctor said, and then he looked at Jaden's monitor to see whether there was a spike in his heart rate; there was a spike, however insignificant.

"So that means me and someone else survived. Who is the person? Is the person here?" Jaden asked.

"One lady, she's in the next ward. You should get some rest now." The doctor said and turned to leave. After the doctor left, Jaden wished the other survivor would be the lady from the bus, and the possibility that it could be her made him become more determined than ever to make the move from the bed to the next room without falling; he just wanted to satisfy his curiosity. As he lay in bed pondering how he would leave the bed to the next room, his mind wandered to his life before the accident, and how he was able to do whatever he wanted, and then he thought about all he would have done within the three weeks that he had spent at the hospital, but another thought hit him; life was going on without him and his investments were thriving. Jaden thought that if life was going on without him, then it meant that all the extra efforts and hard work he always put into everything that concerned may not have been necessary, and with that train of thoughts, he asked himself if he would really go back to his life before the accident, or have a change of lifestyle that gave him time to explore new things and discover other abilities that may have been locked away inside him. As he wandered from one thought to another, he began to drift off to sleep, the last thought in his semi-conscious sleep state was whether the lady had a place in his life; for a moment he pictured her smiling at him, before sleep took over. For the first time in a while, Jaden did not have any nightmares, and did not need to be given shots to make him calm; the nurses were surprised, and were even more surprised in the morning when Jaden woke up in high spirits.

"You look so happy today." A nurse said to Jaden.

"Do I? I guess I am." Jaden answered with a smile, and indeed he was happy and bursting with so much energy that he just wanted to jump out of the bed, but he knew that would be a terrible idea if he tried it at that moment.

"Keep up this positive attitude, and you will be out of here in no time." The nurse answered with a smile as she checked his vitals and made some notes.

"Is Matthew out there?" Jaden asked.

"Yes, I'll send him in when I'm done." The nurse answered.

"How's the lady in the next room?" Jaden asked. The nurse looked at him with a raised brow, because she did not understand how Jaden knew about the lady in the next ward.

"You have not stepped out of that door in 3 weeks, how do you know there's a lady in there?" The nurse asked.

"The doctor told me." Jaden answered.

"Alright, she's doing well." The nurse added. Jaden thought about asking her to deliver a message to the lady, but came up with a different plan.

"That's good to know. Thank you." Jaden said. He felt more excited knowing that the other survivor was doing well, but he wanted to confirm that it was the same lady on the bus, and so he decided Matthew would do the confirmation for him.

Jaden got Matthew to get flowers for the lady in the next room, and then he waited excitedly for the results and description of the lady. He hoped it was the same lady, because for some reason he felt that it would be an interesting story to tell, considering that they were the only survivors of the accident, and the more he thought about it, the more inclined he was to think that perhaps God was at work on that day when he opted to do things differently. "What if God predestined and arranged everything so we would be together?" Jaden thought to himself, and he was agreeing to the thought because chances were slim that he would have the type of conversation he had with the lady if he had stuck to his routine and lived his usual lifestyle of only attending meetings and business functions. As he pondered on these things, he got to a point where he asked himself whether he was not building a bubble-based fantasy that could burst at the slightest prick.

"Mister Jaden Keybridge, she does have really large and intense eyes." Matthew said, as he filled Jaden in on how the lady reacted to his gift of flowers.

"Where did you tell her the flowers came from?" Jaden asked.

"I told her it was from someone that would want to remain anonymous. She rejected it at first, saying she could not accept flowers from a stranger." Matthew explained.

"That's her alright. She's a fighter." Jaden added excitedly.

Lorence took her stay at the hospital as an opportunity to get all the rest she had missed over the years and it also gave her some time to reflect on her life and the choices she had made. She thought about areas that needed improvement and the areas where she was doing excellently well. As Lorence pondered about her life, she looked forward to when she would leave the hospital and get back to living her life. She loved her lifestyle, especially the new lifestyle of speaking out for oppressed women who were too scared to speak up for themselves, especially women who did not get equity and justice because of the patriarchal system that seemed to favor the men more than the women. She believed in fairness and equal treatment, and she did not hesitate to let it known whenever she was in a place where some men were trying to make life unnecessarily difficult for women. Being vocal about how she felt had made her get fired at different times, but she did not care. She strongly believed that if women stood up to their rights and refused to act like slaves to men, that the world would be a better place for both men and women. However, she had come to realize that not all women saw things the way she did, and not all men were bad; she was always left with trying to balance things out, and so whenever she had the opportunity, she made it a point of duty to ask men questions whose answers would determine whether they were scum or not, and in most cases many men failed the test. Her mind traveled down to moments before the accident, and she remembered how she had felt that there was something different about that day from the moment she stepped out of her block and onto the street; she remembered how she thought the bus was running late when it was just her watch playing tricks on her mind, and then there was the issue with the man on the bus, who coincidentally had never been on that bus before. "Maybe he was the ill luck that jinxed the bus and caused the accident." Lorence thought to herself, and frowned at the thought because she knew it was not true. She had flashes from the accident, and she remembered vividly that he had used his body to shield another person as the bus got hit; the person he was trying to protect was a man, and that got her thinking that perhaps he was indeed one of noble character.

Lorence looked at the flowers across the room and wondered who the anonymous person was that sent flowers through an assistant to her every day; none of her friends would bring her flowers, because they knew she was not really interested in things like that, and so she figured that the anonymous person was not anyone that knew her well. Each time the anonymous person's assistant came in with the flowers, it reminded her of the first time her ex had come with some flowers to see her before they dated, and she was so confused that she just stood there looking at the flowers with no idea what to do with them; in that confusion she asked him "Can I cook those as veggies or something?", and her smart ex got the cue, laughed, and never got her flowers. One thing her ex would always be grateful to her for was that she helped him unlearn many stereotypical attributes that society had placed on women; one of them being the notion that all women loved to receive flowers among other societal conditions placed on the women folk. Her thoughts drifted to memories of her ex, and she smiled at the pleasant memories and moments they shared together, but frowned when she remembered that the reason why they could not continue with the relationship was because he wanted to settle down and have kids, but she was not ready to settle down, and she did not want to have kids, because she felt the world was too damaged to bring innocent children and make them conform to standards that should not define them, but not many people understood that; the moment she said she did not want kids, people would look at her like she was a witch. Lorence had seen a lot to make her tow the path of voicing out her opinion about the oppression that women faced just for being women. She hated the fact that so many things were rigged to favor the men and put the women as dependents; she felt society stripped women of the rights to be whatever the men aspired to be, and whenever a woman rose up against all odds, such woman would need to work overtime to maintain her spot at the top among men that did not think she was good enough to be there. Interestingly, her ex was the only ex she was proud of because he supported her with all that he had, even when he had misgivings about some of the things she; he always knew how to bring balance to everything, except when it came to settling down and wanting children, and she could not fault him for that. He would always say something like "I may not agree with everything you say, but I sure as hell love how your mind works, so while you are doing the good work of being the Amazonian wonder woman, let me be the superman that has your back too. Do we have a deal?" and it made her feel good that she had finally found someone that understood her on different levels. Since the breakup with her ex, she had never met anyone who had the noble character that her boyfriend had exhibited on different occasions, not until the encounter with the man in the flannel shirt on the ill-fated bus. There was a statement he made that she would never forget "I don't know where all of that came from, but I think there is something I like about how your mind works. However, while I always extend the same arm of courtesy to everyone whether male or female, I still believe women should be looked after, looked out for, and taken care of." To her it sounded like he had just described equity and fairness without mentioning the words, and it sounded very much like the same thing that her ex would say. "I hope he survived the accident though." She thought to herself.

The nurse came into the ward to check on Lorence, and ensure that she was healing and recovering as expected, as well as attend to her dressings. She noticed the flowers and smiled at Lorence.

"This place smells like a heavenly garden." The nurse said.

"Oh no! it smells like a hospital, and I want out." Lorence said, and the nurse let out a chuckle.

"Soon! Very soon! Someone is sending you flowers to remind you how beautiful the world is outside." The nurse added.

"You believe the world is actually beautiful outside?" Lorence asked.

"I believe you can create your world and make it as beautiful as you want." The nurse answered with a wink, and Lorence felt that what she said was deep, but the bit of realist in her wanted to question the nurse's ideology about creating her world considering that there was chaos all around the world, and people were living in fear and uncertainty.

"So what's it like in your world?" Lorence asked.

"Love, light, peace and everything nice." The nurse answered with a chuckle.

"It must be nice in your world." Lorence added.

"Oh trust me, it is. I wish I had known about the ability to create my world earlier, it would have saved me a whole lot of emotional and mental stress, but then again those were the reasons I discovered freedom though." The nurse said, and Lorence sensed that she had been in a place of hurt before, and so she did not think it proper to pry further about her beautiful world, so she would not come off as an antagonist.

"I'm so happy that you found light and are in your happy place." Lorence added.

"Thank you. Not many people get a second opportunity to fix their lives and find happiness." The nurse said. That statement hit Lorence hard and she knew she was going to think about it a lot, because it came with some profundity. The statement also reminded her of the accident, and she wondered how many occupants of the bus were given a second chance at life.

"How are the other accident victims?" Lorence asked the nurse.

"Let us just say you got a second chance at life that many did not get. Please make it count. You need to rest now. I'll check on you later." The nurse said, and left the room hurriedly. "She does not want to tell me. She's hiding something. Am I the only survivor from that crash?" She asked herself as she pondered on the statement that the nurse made. A light note on the door made her look at who was coming in; it was the anonymous person's assistant that always brought flowers.