My parents believe I am their brave daughter who will conquer the world, but they don’t know that I hide a broken world within me, all while wearing a smile. I chose to be brave and came here to fulfill my dreams, ensuring that my parents can live their lives with happiness and luxury. My dream is to make their dreams come true by the time I am 19.

My father was once a great businessman, enjoying all the luxuries of that time—luxuries few could afford. However, before I was born, he lost it all. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, unlike my brothers, who had an elite childhood. During that challenging time, my mother had to sell all her jewelry to pay off loans. Now, I want to give them back everything they lost. My father was a great businessman with all the luxuries of that time; few of them had that, but before I was born, he lost it all. I wasn't born into luxury with a silver spoon in my mouth, unlike my brothers, who were elite children. At that time, my mothers had to sell all her jewellery at that time to pay the loan. Now I want to give them all back the things they lost.
I always write my feelings in my diary because I can't say them out loud, because they won't understand me or consider my feelings, so I have to put those on paper. I have 2 personalists, like a cold and ignoring one for strangers who don't know me, and another one sweet and bubbly for those who know me from the bottom of mt heart, like my friends. I have one Myra in the USA, but I have lots of my high school friends in my country who know the real me, even my family members don't know the real me because they didn't try to know me.
Now Myra is coming to my apartment for a sleepover. We will watch movies and eat lots of snacks. The bell pinged, I got up from my desk and ran towards the door to open and see that there was a rose bouquet in front of her face, and suddenly she screamed," Surprise, babe!" I laughed and hugged her tightly and took the bouquet from her, and said, "Why will I need any man in my life when you are there to spoil me, huh?" while flipping my hair " if I were a man girl I would marry you but I am not a lesbo so sorry" she replied sarcastically she picks her nose towards the kitchen " smells heaven what did you cook girl looks like you are planning to kill me by your coking's she added dramatically while I sighed by seeing her drama " I cooked your favorite biriyani and mine also so we will eat and watch your favorite k-drama " she jumped on me excitedly hugging me " girl I love you so much" she said kissing my cheeks seeing her like this I laughed and my heart filled seeing her like this. " Ok, enough of Drama, let's eat, or the biriyani will cool down," I said, putting her down. We ate while watching a drama. We talked about our childhood. Suddenly, her phone pinged with a notification. She stared at her phone, getting tense. I peeked at her phone and saw her ex had messaged her a threat to stay away from me. I snatched her phone and said angrily, "How dare he still message you? Didn't he have enough beatings from me?" Yes, I beat her ex, that's right, because he was toxic with her. He always hooker up with his girl best friends. He sometimes used to manhandle her.
Past:
When I first met Myra she was crying in the restroom I happen to be there in a stall when I see her like I ask her if she needs any help but she suddenly hugged me cry though the pain then she told me all the abuse and rapes from her boyfriend when asked her report it to the police she said he is some sort of goon and his father is some political figure if she tries to fill a complain he will hurt her so I decide to met that guy to give her a understanding you know what I meant when I said my type of understanding so there's party in her boyfriend house I decided to go there with her when I entered the house suddenly all alcohol and cigarettes smell came to nose trill overpowering I blocked my nose because I hate alcohol and cigarettes my senses we walked further into the house and saw that guys are making out with girls or they are dancing Myra pointed towards boyfriend I saw that motherfucker is sitting and two girls are grinding while sitting on his lap when he saw us standing he pushed those girl from his lap and stared at me disgustingly from head to toe he says to Myra "did you bring your friend to the party now come with your friend and sit on lap " I smile dangerously go towards him and punched him squarely at his jaw at this impact his nose started to bleed every one stopped dancing and started seeing the scene unfold " this is for raising your hands on women" I said pointing towards Myra he stands and shouts and came toward me and say" bitch how dare you punched me do you even who I am?" I replied, shouting, showing my index finger, " I don't goddamn care who you are or what your father is, but if you one more time trouble Myra anymore, I will kill you." he tried to punch me, but I ducked it. I held his right hand and twisted it backward. He screamed in pain, " This is the hand you used to manhandle her; now I will break this very hand." I twist it more until the sound of bone cracking echoes with his screams, then I kick him in his chest and throw him onto the ground, then I leave with Mayra holding her hands, stepping out of the house. After that, he started to bully us sometimes in front of our university, and sometimes in the regular place where Myra and I used to drink hot chocolates. There was no movement until now.
Present:
"Why is he harassing you again?" I asked, " he says to go back to him and take you to him, or he will post those videos that he filmed while having sex with me," she says while crying. I hold her, trying to console her, saying, "Why didn't you tell me earlier? I would have handled him earlier." She said, "I didn't want to bother you because you were too busy solving that problem of yours." I said dramatically, "Don't you know that your bestie is a great hacker who can solve this problem with my left hand?" She laughed, nodding her head, "How can I forget that my bestie has magic all over her? Around? That's right, so let's go make that bastard pay, so he will meet you." I went to my desk and started my work on my computer, and started to work on retrieving those filthy videos from his device. I cracked his password and got to his files, and deleted those videos from every device because iOS has a common problem connecting all devices as one, so it was easy. I turned off my computer and turned to say the work is done, but I see Myra is sprawled in my bed in an awkward position. I silently fixed her posture and pulled the duvet over her, and slept beside her, turning off my bedside lamp.
In the morning, we had breakfast together and started getting ready for university. We chose something formal because someone special guest is coming to our college to meet with students and sponsor an internship. We also heard that he is a very big businessman man so I got ready with a white top and formal white pants with a black blazer and a belt. I took my hair for a slick bun with black pumps a light makeup, and bold lips. We stepped out of our apartment, going towards my car, and I opened it. We sat, and I started driving towards our college, vibing with some music. We reached our college and parked my car, and started going towards the auditorium. We sat in the corner because we didn't want any attention. After a few minutes, our principal started the ceremony.
After some minutes, the air became suddenly charged in the auditorium, and someone emerged from the back area, a strong, powerful presence silenced the hall, a dangerous yet dashing man in a three-piece suit, and his eyes damn so enchanting I mumbled " Mashallah." I couldn't stop myself. This is the first time happening with me that a man has intimidated me that much. His grey eyes look like he is hiding a storm behind his eyes, and his hair is jet black and perfectly gelled behind his eyebrow is thick, and his nose is so sharp, like his nose is proud of being his nose, and his lips, damn it, are so perfect like rose petals that anyone would beg to be kissed by him and his jawline is so sharp that can cut glass, he have some stubble in both cheeks and his body is so masculine his shoulders are so board like he carry the whole world in his shoulders and his height will be like 6'4" like hell he is 1 foot taller than me. God made him with patience. Is he a model? my mind asked. I came out of the haze because Myra snapped her fingers in front of my face " where have you been already checking him out?" Mayra asked me teasingly I scoffed " why I will checking him he isn't that much handsome" liar liar pants on fire my conscience mocked.
Our principle is to introduce him. We came to know that the gorgeous man is also our university trustee. He gave the mic to the handsome stranger. He came forward, started with the greetings, "Hello, everyone, I am Adrian, the owner of Ivanov Industries. I am here to see your progress to move forward in your life. We are offering you an internship that will help you guys to secure your permanent seats in the Ivanov Company and CO.

His voice can burn the whole auditorium, and his eyes scan like a predator searching for its prey. His name sounded familiar, but I was sure I didn't see him anywhere. Why does he look so familiar after his speech? The principal came forward and said, "Now there will be a little competition between you guys with a tech specialist from Ivanov company. They will give you some tasks if you can do them within the mentioned time, you will be chosen for the internship. So there will be some of you chosen by your professors. We will choose 100 among all these students". That's so less in this auditorium, maybe 5 to 6 thousand students are here, how in all these students choose? Because everyone wants to have those lifetime opportunities. I am not gonna go. Anyone can have my seat. I also don't know if I'll go, I can make it or not, so I won't embarrass myself. All the class professors are giving their great students' names one by one. Students are going to the stage. Suddenly, my name was called to the stage, "Nazifa Anjum, please come to the stage." My anxiety kicked in beside me. Myra gets excited because they called my name, but I get anxious when I become the center of attention at any social gathering. I hate those. I hate social gatherings, but what should I do? I have to, or so I gather my courage and recite Ayatul Kursi for calming my mind, then I start going towards the stage with my head held high with confidence and courage, my face stoic without any expression, like a mask. I am not that great student, according to me, but why did my professor give them my name?
I shook my hand with the lady professors but not with the male professor because my religion doesn't permit me to touch any man. I gave them a nod. Maybe you are thinking that my religion doesn't permit me to touch any man, but why did I touch Myra ex because he was getting towards me to touch, so as of defense, I beat him also for raping and abusing Myra, so you can't judge me for that. I was going towards when suddenly Mr. Ivanov came into my view, my breath hitched in my throat. Our eyes locked, then I felt everything behind go blurry, and the students' murmuring's everything goes silent behind us as if nothing mattered in the world, but after a beat, the throat-clearing sound broke the spell that we were under I scurry past him then stand with all the student now I am feeling someone stare burning through me but I stand ignoring all the stares. Soon after, some computers are set up on stage 10 computers are set up in a line Then they are The students are given a task the There are timers beside the table. If they can complete the task within the time, they have to stop the timer; or if they cannot solve the problem within the time, they are disqualified. The tech specialists are giving the task to the students, and they are solving problems one by one, going to the other side. It is the 14th round, and after that, I will be on stage. Now we rest of the people are going to the stage. I will take the corner seat. There is a task on my computer I feel a burning gaze on me. I shook it off and saw that the task ahead of me is that I have to break through the firewall. My time is 15 minutes. I start with full concentration, and I am using my special codes, and after 6 full minutes, my task is complete. I have broken through the firewall and also built a safety through the software. I clicked I timer, and I got off the seat and looked around, and saw nobody had completed their task. From far, I heard Myra say," That's my girl." I smiled at her choice of words, and I joined the rest of the guys on the other side. They were asking me how I completed the task so early. I just shrugged my shoulders, then the professor asked me to give a speech because my words had made an impact on the students earlier.
I stood in front of the mic when I felt the burning gaze again. I started to find out who was doing that, but I saw no one. "How are you all? Good morning, I am Nazifa. Hope you guys are chill. I'm not, so I hope you guys are. As an international student, I have faced problems like persuading my parents to give me the freedom to go to an unknown country to start pursuing my dream as a girl like me. In my country, we girls do not have that much freedom. If at this time I were in my country, maybe I would have married a corporate guy with a government job, you know, typical brown parents with maybe 2- 3 kids, but I always hated the idea of being married to go to another house that isn't mine. I always wanted to own my house, car, and my freedom so that I wouldn't have to handle the shackles of marriage forever. isn't life strange you arrive with nothing and spend your whole life with chasing but at the end you leave with nothing So, a piece of advice for you guys is that if you believe in yourself, put in some hard work towards your dream, no one can stop you; you will be unstoppable. Now I am living my dream life, and I am still working toward my dreams. If you fail, start again and again with new confidence and hope. I hope you guys will do better in your lives, and you will get the happiness you deserve. And I wish you all good luck, thank you." The auditorium was echoing with the sound of applause. I stepped off the stage and was feeling a burning gaze. I turn and see Mr. Ivanov's piercing gaze. If he is scanning me, I hold his eye contact as I don't fear him, but my heart is trembling from inside. Then, after some time, when I heard professors calling my name, I broke eye contact.
The professor started to congratulate us for our small victory because there will be more competitions to have a position in Ivanov's industry.
We stepped out of the functions and went towards my car I felt a burning gaze behind me. I turned around and saw him with his assistant walking towards his car, and guards were scattering around him. I don't know, but my heart skipped a beat when I noticed his piercing gaze directed towards me.