Carlos whistled as Anastasia walked further away. "She looks even hotter in person."

Miguel pushed him by the shoulder with a frown. Don't talk about her like that. She...she was my wife..." He said in a downbeat tone filled with regret.

"Mr. Sanchez?" The receptionist called out to Carlos.  Both men stood up and went to her. "The associate director would see you now. Take the elevator to the fifth floor and..."

Miguel zoned out on her speech. He kept looking behind, through the window, at Anastasia. She stood by her car, smelling a bouquet of roses. Holding up a white card, she read its content and blushed. Miguel was dying to know what was written on the card. Was Anastasia seeing someone already? He needed to stop being delusional though. It'd been five years since their divorce. She must have moved on.

The receptionist snapped her fingers at Miguel. "Hello? Mr. Tillman?" He bounced out of his thoughts and immediately faced the lady.

"Your staring is becoming too much. Don't tell me you're checking out the director!" She laughed. "You have no freaking chance!"

She handed them each a form to fill and they went to see the associate director. Afterwards, they got their work clothes.

Miguel felt ridiculous. He was used to wearing suits and Italian shoes, not suffocating overalls and boots! The blue cotton fabric looked awful on him.

Carlos looked even funnier with his slightly bulging belly showing through the clothes. He touched his moustache as he admired himself in the mirror. "Feels comfy, though," he commented.

Miguel shook his head and packed the extra bib overall into Carlo's bag. Now, it was time to get to work. They were off to see the real Ani Farms.

Behind the seven-storey office complex was a massive expanse of land. The tarred road extended between production centres on the left and right sides of it. A stable and a barn stood on the right side. There was a poultry on the left side with fish ponds close to it. Miguel and Carlos were impressed, but what they had seen was just the tip of the iceberg. 

They got to the gate of the plantation. It was wooden, just like the rest of the medium-height fence. They passed the fence and there was a brick building by their right. It was fairly large and had people walking in and out of the back of the building with garden tools.

"This should be our workstation," Carlos said.

Miguel nodded. He felt relaxed here. It offered him a moment of reprieve where he didn't have to worry about running into Anastasia yet.

Both men walked down the dirt road, watching the other farmers who were working. It was a rice farm partitioned into hectares. Some of the farmers used tractors while some worked manually.

"Did you hear that?" Carlos asked, suddenly turning around.

Miguel turned around, too. Just some metres away, there was a black Great Dane over two feet tall. It let out a threatening growl, fixing its eyes on them.

Immediately, it sprang into a chase and both men ran for their lives. The dog barked loudly behind them, catching the attention of the other workers who only shouted for it to stop.

Carlos was having a hard time keeping up. His legs almost gave way underneath him as he turned to the path by the left. When he stopped hearing the barking directly behind him, he turned around and saw that the dog was now chasing only Miguel who was still running straight ahead on their original path.

Miguel's heart raced with a cold dread when he discovered the dog was now fully focused on catching him alone. Adrenaline pumped through his body as his mind became white with fear, and he ran with all his might.

The chase was now becoming a scene for everyone at the plantation, including Anastasia, who was showing Alejandro around the place. She wondered at the horrific sight, her mouth parting in surprise. Who was this man and who let the dog out?

All of a sudden, he turned the corner without looking ahead and ran straight into her before she could run.

"Ahh!" She shouted as the both of them fell with Miguel lying on top of her. 

For a split second, Miguel's eyes widened in shock. He was too stunned to move away from her body.

Anastasia captured the structure of his face in a flash. Something about him struck a chord. He had a bit of resemblance to someone from her past -someone she could never forget.

The dog bit on Miguel's leg and he suddenly came back to his senses. A loud deafening scream escaped from his mouth. Anastasia thought his voice was familiar too. It was a bit confusing but her intuition kept reinforcing her belief that she knew the man screaming on top of her from somewhere. The same name kept replaying in her mind but she refused to believe it. Only the thought made her heart quiver. She narrowed her eyes on him as he rolled off her body, screaming in pain.

Immediately, she sat up and eyed him suspiciously. "Miguel?"

Miguel rolled over Anastasia and dropped to the ground beside her. Dust and sweat clung to his body as he held his leg groaning. Blood leaked out of the bite mark. Amid his fear, he noticed the scrutiny from Anastasia. When she eventually called out his name, his heart seemed to cease.

His face contorted into a grimace as he still held onto his leg, stifling a shout.

By that time, the dog keeper had come to take the dog. Alejandro helped Anastasia to her feet and she dusted herself.

"Are you alright?" Alejandro asked in concern.

"Yes, I'm okay," she said and faced the dog keeper. "Why did you let Rufus out? I made it explicitly clear that the plantation was off-bounds for him except at night time. Didn't farmer Peter ask for him today to guide the sheep?"

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, I just resumed my shift this afternoon and he was already out before I arrived." The dog keeper was a young man around twenty-two years of age. He and Rufus looked down sadly as Anastasia scolded them.

"Just leave I'll handle this later," she quickly dismissed them and turned to Miguel with a deep frown.