Chapter 105
Lake:
He had not gotten the opportunity to make his presentation at my office, so I knew he had to meet with me the next morning for all the necessary discussions. Neil arrived at my home earlier than usual - I was later very grateful that he did. I made a choice not to go to work. I was not going to show up at the office or the casino or any of my hotels. I couldn't work in my current state of mind. I had to stay home and rest my head while planning the way forward. I heard a knock on the door of my study while my eyes were buried in a text on business development. I had tried to read a sci-fi novel to calm my mind down, but all I ended up doing was making myself fall asleep - which was very necessary, by the way.
"Come in," I called out, and Neil stepped in. I watched as he closed the door behind him and stood in front of me.
"Good morning, Alpha Lake."
I did not have the habit of speaking too much. But now that he was here, I wanted to say as many things as I could to take my mind off everything; my father's threat, my birthday, Jojo. And what better person was there to discuss this with than my chatterbox assistant?
"Good morning Neil. You have good news for me, do you not? Last month was quite a hectic one for all of us, but the most important thing is that we were able to sail through. And that's the way it should be, we should always be able to..."
I noticed him look down at the floor as I spoke. Neil only looked down when he was scared of delivering bad news, the type of news he knew would get me pissed and agitated. I stopped speaking and watched him for a few seconds, he did not look up at me. Instead, he swallowed hard and kept his gaze on my gray-colored marble tiles.
"Out with it." I snapped. I was in no mood for games. I was in no mood for anything at all. Whatever was wrong, I needed him to tell me and I needed him to say it straight to my face.
His eyes slowly traveled from the floor, up to my table, and landed on me. I did not miss the fear in them, the way his lips quivered and trembled. Something had happened, something very bad.
"I said, speak." I was growing impatient and agitated. My heart had started to race at an alarming rate, so fast that it was almost impossible to breathe. I was forced to adjust my posture and sit up in my chair. Yet, the air around me seemed very insufficient. This was not because of whatever bad news Neil had to give me. This was something else, I could feel it.
"Alpha Lake, the rogues attacked again. They... attacked a local kindergarten this time and took almost fifteen children with them. The parents are raging, Alpha Lake. We have to do something; we have to..."
There it was, the pain I had expected. A sharp cutting feeling across the right side of my chest followed by feeling of another sharp cut against the left side. I could not see what threatened to pull my heart away from my chest, but it felt as though a hand reached out to me and tore my chest open. I clutched my chest with my left hand, my eyes widened in terror.
"Alpha! Alpha Lake!"
Air. I needed air. The room began to spin around me. I opened my mouth to suck in oxygen, but nothing went past my throat. I felt myself leave my chair and fall to the hard ground beneath me.
The pain didn't stop. The more I tried to breathe, the more I felt the invisible blade dig deeper into my chest.
"Alpha!" I heard a distant cry from above me. I tried to answer, believe me when I say I tried. But it did not work, nothing did.
It was a struggle until I could fight it no more. Slowly, my heartbeat slowed down and I surrendered myself to the darkness that loomed above me.
Jojo:
I arrived at the hospital at exactly 10 am. I wanted my mother discharged as quickly as possible. I sent the notice for her discharge one week ago, and the hospital told me I could come today.
Valerie had begged to accompany me, but I was finally able to make her go to school instead. Mel was at the restaurant and I had taken a day off to take my mother home and stay with her. Because she could not remember me, I knew this was going to be hard.
When I got to the floor of her ward, I caught sight of a very familiar figure. I refused to believe it was the alpha's assistant hovering around the door of my mother's ward. I was no longer their employee, the alpha had made it very clear that he did not need me anywhere close to Rush Empire, so why did they have a very big problem with leaving me alone?
Maybe I should have been annoyed, or maybe I should not have, but I picked the former. My annoyance was instant. I could still remember how the alpha had rejected and fired me like I was absolutely nothing. It was with the pain of that memory that I matched to him.
Neil seemed troubled. I could see the worry in his eyes. I fought hard not to scoff.
Why was he here anyway? How had he known that I would be discharging my mother today and why did he look as though it bothered him? If Rush Empire cared about me, alpha Lake would not have stolen my only source of income away from me, just when I believed my life was getting better.
Neil finally looked up to acknowledge me. He seemed shocked to see me and turned his face to look at the door behind him; the door to my mother's room.
"I do not know how you knew that I would be discharging my mother today, but Rush Empire needs to stay away from my life." I spat out. Even I was surprised at how harsh my voice sounded. He seemed both surprised and confused, but also distant. It felt like a huge part of his focus was somewhere else.
"You're what?" He asked me.
I scoffed a bitter one. Was he going to act like he didn't know why he was here? I had no time to banter with him. I only wanted to go into my mother's room, sign the necessary documents to get her out of there, and be gone.
"This is hopeless," I said as I pushed past him. But I stopped when I got to the door of my mother's room. I could feel his eyes boring holes into my back. I turned sharply, I could feel the itching at the tip of my tongue. I surrendered to the angry female in me.
"You need to tell the alpha to stop sending me money. I know that he doesn't want to see me anywhere near Rush building, but the next time I see any money from him, I would have to return it myself." I wanted absolutely nothing from Alpha Lake.
Neil arched a brow at me.
"It is nothing special, Jojo. Rush Empire is only doing that because you were not paid adequately due to your debt and..."
"And they can save their pockets the stress. I do not need anything from them. And my debt? I would pay it accordingly, monthly even. I am not to be seen around the building so send me an email with the company's account number. You should at least have my email address, or has he erased my record already?" I did not know why, but my lips quivered and my hands shook violently as I spoke. It could not be because I wanted to cry, I didn't! Right?
I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced it down to my stomach.
Right.
Neil frowned at me.
"He?" He asked.
I shook my head and turned away from the man, before pushing my mother's door open and stepping into her room.