"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live."- Norman Cousins

The wind among the trees blew softly over her hair and the cloudy gray sky began to shower a little as Yvonne went to visit her parents' graves. Her mother had been buried in Cleveland, along with her father. Her busy schedule didn't let her visit them often, but she tried to at least once a year.

"Stay here, Gordon. I'll be back in an hour."

She walked around the corner of the graveyard. She could find her parents graves with her eyes closed. They had been buried near the willow tree, the branches of the willow providing a curtain whenever she visited them.

Strangely, the quiet of the graveyard always made her feel calm. There was no other time when she felt so much at ease. It almost felt like they were with her.

Yvonne took a seat between the graves, crossing her legs. The cool earth below her was damp from the moisture of the rain, softening as she moved to make herself more comfortable. The willow branches around her came around her like a wet curtain, making the rainy day seem darker than it was.

She leaned to face the tombstones. Her mother's grave was to the left of her father's. Slowly, she ran her fingers around the names, closing her eyes and trying to remember what they were like. Her fingers lingered over the date of their deaths. The 26th of July, nine years apart. Her birthday.

It had taken away every parental figure she had, even Ron. She tried her best to run from her pain and fill her life with work, so she didn't have time to think about the past. And she had almost achieved that. Her life was too full to think of anything else, now. Too full of work, responsibilities, dreams, aspirations and goals she had to achieve.

But there were still times like these when she let her mind succumb to ordinary thoughts and rewind into the past.

She often wondered how life would have been if her father hadn't died. Maybe she would have had a normal, happy childhood, full of little surprises. Maybe she'd have made lots of friends at school she'd bring home to taste her mother's cooking. Maybe she'd have faced the usual highschool drama. Maybe she'd have gone to prom, with a nice young man, only to have him be threatened by her father. How trivial all these things are to others, she thought. If she could have one chance to have it all again, she'd give anything for it.

She was Yvonne James, CEO of James-Carmichael Co. She had grown up too soon, had too many responsibilities. Every day was a new challenge. She had to get ahead of her competitors in the cutthroat corporate world.

One of her biggest challenges was the inauguration of the JC Towers that was coming up in another couple of weeks and she felt like a little girl about to start school for the very first time. She had never handled anything so big before.

She leaned against her dad's grave and closed her eyes, the rough stone brushing against her cheek. "I'm scared, dad," she whispered, a stray tear trailing down her cheek without her permission. She let herself be weak for once, curling into a fetal position towards the uncomfortable concrete headstone. The willow kept dripping wet, as if it was crying with her. Her chest was heavy with longing. She wanted nothing more than to be in her parents' warm embrace, being told that it was okay.

The combination of her crazy work schedule, soothing smell of the wet earth and the swaying of the vines in the gentle breeze lulled her and she found herself falling into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

A sudden gust of wind threw a spray of water onto her face, waking her up. That's when she heard it.  A rustle of leaves.

She opened her eyes, wiping the tears off her face and looked around. A few meters away, stood a man holding a camera.

Journalists. They followed her everywhere. She couldn't even sit at her parents' graves in peace.

She stood up, annoyed, and put on her sunglasses.

"Excuse me," she said, pushing the camera away. "Please put the camera away. You do not have permission to take my pictures."

The man ignored her and clicked away. Another one appeared and started doing the same. They had somehow known she would come here on this date like every year. By the time she had managed to compose herself, she was surrounded by them on every side.

"Smile, miss James!" Yelled one of them as he grabbed her shoulder to turn her around. She ignored him and started counting backwards from ten in her mind, as she tried to walk away, pulling the small scarf over her face and trying to keep her anger in control. She was not in the mood for this.

One of them came in front of her. It was skinny young man with a scruffy beard. She turned around trying to avoid his camera, when he pulled her scarf off in an attempt to get her to turn around for another picture.

Yvonne turned around and whacked the man on the side of his head, his camera dropping to the ground. She grabbed him by the collars and looked into his scared eyes. The skinny creature just whimpered, while the other paparazzi clicked away furiously, blinding her temporarily.

Disgusted, she pushed the man away and tried to shield her now uncovered face from them.

Gordon came there just in time, and they parted like the Red Sea. He threw an arm over her shoulder and guided her through the reporters, into back into the car.

**

"Angry woman CEO assaults reporter: Terrified journalist recounts tale of horror"

"Journalist assault: are women misusing power?"

"Head of JC Co. assaults journalist: reporter recalls horror"

"Another case of Celebrity tantrums comes forward as CEO Yvonne James assaults and injures a reporter."

"It does not suit such a woman's image to be so violent. What example is she setting for our children?"

"Why can a woman hit a man and not be hit back? This is hypocrisy!"

"Feminism has spoiled the women of our great nation. Developed nations do not need feminism anymore. Women are only going to misuse power like this."

"A male leading such a large company would have handled the situation much better. This goes to prove how women are not fit for a leadership role."

"Just because she's a rich woman doesn't mean she should be allowed to get away with acts like these. She should be arrested!"

She ran a hand through her hair in frustration. The reporters were blowing things way out of proportion. And now they were tarnishing her image. She needed to do something about it.

"Gordon, please call Jenna and ask her to schedule a press conference on my behalf."
***

Jenna was the head of her PR team and one of her close friends.

She was a few years older than Yvonne, a sly, conniving woman with long blonde, almost silver hair and striking green eyes.

Yvonne had met Jenna when she was twenty years of age,  while looking for a Personal Representative. Jenna had just come out of an abusive relationship with her husband who had started abusing their son, Mikey, who was just two years old at that time.

Slowly as time passed, they had learned to trust each other. Jenna was a lot like Yvonne, in that she was intelligent, tough and distrustful of people. However, unlike Yvonne, she was a calculating strategist. If Yvonne was the queen of her business empire, Jenna was the general of her military.

Over time as their friendship built, Yvonne had grown very fond of charming little Mikey, Jenna's pride and joy. He had been a mischievous toddler when she first met him and now he was growing into a wise little eight year old. Yvonne loved spoiling him. She wanted to give the little one everything she couldn't have at his age.

Jenna was great at keeping a façade and Yvonne knew she was the only one who could handle this mess she had got herself into.

"This is terrible, Yvy," said Jenna, shaking her head. Yvonne knew she was beyond furious about all the things they had written about her, but she didn't let it come to her face. That was the best part about Jenna.

"I know, I know. I also know that you are the only one who can get me out of it," said Yvonne, her head in her hands.

Jenna smiled her sly smile. "Leave it to me."

A/N: What do you guys think about Jenna? Let me know in the comments. And thanks for reading! Love you all :*