Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 16, 2009.

Nadine rushed back to the airport after getting a phone call from Lena, informing her about the disaster, and waiting for her to solve it. Liam went back to his hotel room to change, then went to his office; he had an important meeting with his partners discussing the recent cases they had.

The day was hectic; Liam didn’t leave his office till midnight. Throughout the day, Liam called his parents to find out when exactly they were coming to Dubai. On the next day, the firm was crowded with clients discussing their cases with each lawyer inside.

The meeting room was the busiest one. It was a glass room with three doors; one led to Liam’s office, others led to one of his partner’s offices, and the last one led to the rest of the enormous firm. The room had a massive, long table with twenty leather chairs occupied by twenty stern-looking lawyers and employees.

While Liam and one of his partners were busy discussing a complicated case, Liam’s assistant joined them for a brief minute, informing him that his father had kept calling for the last half an hour. He excused himself for five minutes and went to his office to call him.

His father answered him with an angry tone and clenched jaw. Liam immediately noticed the clock on his desk and knew the actual reason for his father’s obvious anger. Stricken by remorse, he apologized to his father and promised him to be at the airport in no time. His parents were waiting for him to pick them up after he assured them before they took their flight that he wouldn’t be late.

His parents Adaline and Donggun were college sweethearts; both were studying abroad in London; Adaline was studying medicine while Donggun was studying fine arts. They became close and eventually fell in love.

Liam’s mother was an only child. She lost her parents when she was in middle school and was raised by her aunt, who didn’t get married or have children. His father Donggun was an orphan and was adopted by a wealthy family in South Korea.

When they got married, both were obsessed with having a big family; yet Adaline suffered multiple miscarriages. It became difficult for her to get pregnant. When she finally got pregnant with Liam, the doctors told her it would be her last chance of ever getting pregnant again.

11:20 am.

As Donggun and Adaline finally rested in their hotel suite, Liam was on the balcony finishing what had left of his meetings. “We have everything to prove to them innocent. You just must take this one,” Liam said firmly, resting his free hand on the balcony railing with the full view of Jumeirah Beach across from him.

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Back inside the suite, Adaline unpacked her bag and looked at Donggun’s tired face. He was sitting on their king-sized bed, resting from unpacking and the long tiring flight. She looked fondly at him and touched his face with the back of her right hand. “You need to sleep, honey.” Donggun always suffered from insomnia, and it was impossible for him to sleep while in transportation.

“I know.” he held her hand and kissed it.

Both had busy lives with Adaline running the neurosurgery department in one of the major hospitals in Sydney and Donggun as a fine art professor and famous painter; every year they took the last three months to travel and have a romantic time together before heading back to work. Liam looked at them and admired their strong relationship. “Okay, text me with the updates” — Liam ended the call and looked at his parents — “I’m free now.”

“Good, I’m starving. Let’s go eat,” Adaline said while putting her blonde hair in a ponytail.

“I will stay here,” Donggun said, looking at the bed and yawning.

“Okay, Dad, call me if you need anything.” Donggun smiled, and Adaline kissed him before they went outside the room. Donggun closed the drapes and turned the suite into a block of darkness, then he took the no-disturbance sign on the nightstand beside his bed to put on the outside door handle. He swallowed two sleeping pills and lay on the bed peacefully.

11:45 am.

The sleeping pills took a bit of a long time to dash him into a deep long sleep. His eyes were slowly drifting off. It felt like he was one step away from falling deeply into sleep when a gentle yet loud knock on the suite door disturbed him. It was followed by seconds of silence, then heavy breathing sounds, then another knock came in. This time, it was louder and faster.

“Room service,” a man said with a broken English accent. Donggun opened his eyes repeatedly; the bills were fully active in his body, and he couldn’t answer. He felt like he was dreaming. Another loud knock cracked what was left in Donggun’s energy. “Room service.” the man sounded like a machine repeating the two words with no feeling.

Somehow, Donggun got out of bed. He felt dizziness took over his tired body. He took a sip of water beside his bed and lit up the golden-colored lamp. The light hit his eyes, making him cringe. The man behind the door knocked one more time. “Yes…” Donggun answered weakly and walked toward the door.

He opened the door to find a white-collar, tall man with the hotel tag on the front pocket of his blazer; his vision was a brief blur. He couldn’t see the man’s face clearly, yet he saw him smiling and his teeth were bright white.

He closed his eyes one more time to get his vision clearer and looked again at the man. He had an angelic face yet was very masculine with a full black beard and a bald head. Muscled, yet slim. “What?”

“Room service sir.” the man’s reaction didn’t change.

“I put the no-disturbance-sign…” — the man shook his head no — “it’s right here,” Donggun said, pointing at the door outside handle without looking at it.

“Sir, there is no sign,” the man said, confused. “You called room service to change the towels.”

“No… I didn’t.” Donggun looked at him, then looked at the door handle and saw that the sign wasn’t there. He looked back at the nightstand to find the sign on it.

“Sir? May I change the towels now or another time?” the man said.

“Yeah… just… change them and leave.” Donggun was confused but gave little thought to it. He assumed the bills made him forget. It took him two minutes to finish and before he walked to the door, Donggun called him. “Hey… can you put the sign on the handle?” Donggun was already back on the bed.

“Sure.” the man took the sign and headed outside the suite.