The Assistant (44 page)

I watched as her own eyes started to gloss over with tears, before she swallowed and nodded briefly. Not saying anything else, she re-adjusted her handbag on her shoulder and turned around and walked away.

Once she was out of sight, I let out a breath I didn’t realise I had been holding in and wiped away my own tears, before turning around and running straight into a solid figure with a familiar smell of cologne. Adrian’s arms automatically wrapped themselves around my waist and pulled me into a hug as he looked down at me with a concerned expression. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“I… Rita just came here and apologised…” I whispered, not trusting my voice to reach its full extent just yet.

I felt Adrian’s chest vibrate as a low growl emanated from his throat. “What the fuck did you just say?”

I opened my mouth to re-state what I said before Adrian glared down at me angrily, cutting me off. “I know what you said. What nerve does that backstabbing bitch have to even bother showing her face near my property?” He scowled angrily.

I sighed before placing my hands on his shoulders. “Adrian. Forget it. She’s gone now, and I didn’t accept her apology anyway.”

“I’m not forgetting what that bitch did to us. I shouldn’t have listened to you and reported her to the police when David Walter’s trial was still on-going.” He glared, clenching his jaw from anger.

“Adrian. Let’s go to lunch. We’re meant to be forgetting anything related to stress. Drop it.” I ordered sternly, looking up at him with my fiercest look.

I watched as his eyes scanned my expression briefly, before I felt him physically un-tense and let out a frustrated sigh. “Fine. Let’s go.” He grumbled, reaching into his pocket and unlocking the car.

***

“Where is my lovely soon-to-be fiancé?”

“We’ve just finished filming the new real estate advertisement. They’re going to send you the final edit by this afternoon. It’s actually really funny. Where are you?”

“I’m on the way to the office, make sure you’re up there by then. Preferably naked.” A mental image of Adrian smirking instantly popped into my mind, and I shook my head with a smile.

“That’s all that’s on your mind. It’s crazy. Don’t you ever get sick of it?” I asked in an exasperated tone.

“I can’t when it involves you Shortcake,” he replied with a chuckle.

“Okay, stop imagining it right now,” I stated flatly. “You’re driving.”

His chuckle transformed into a laugh. “How did you know?”

“I have a sixth sense,” I uttered dryly, a slight smirk coming to my own lips.

“Mmmm. Yes you do.” He groaned.

My eyes widened as my face flushed crimson. “Adrian!”

“Keep going Shortcake, you’re just making the scenario in my mind clearer every second.”

I groaned in mortification before speaking up. “I’m hanging up now.”

“I’m going to get the police involved with Rita,” Adrian spoke up before I was able to press the end button.

“Adrian, no. David was the one who was behind the entire plan and Rita had her reasons behind helping. We may not approve of those reasons; but we also don’t want to turn as evil as David and ruin her life.” I frowned at the thought of Rita having to leave her husband and child to go to prison.

Adrian, however, was not on the same page. In fact, he was reading a completely different book. “I don’t give a fuck if we ruin her life. She helped a man
kidnap
you Emily; and for what? A couple of thousands of dollars which she could have asked from us. What thick part of your pretty head isn’t getting that?!” He snapped through the phone.

“Adrian, we’ll talk about this when we get home, okay?” I sighed, rubbing my temple tiredly and ignoring the insult. I was not in the mood to argue – especially if this was the topic.

“Don’t use that tired voice with me. You’re the one that’s making this shit so complicated.” He scowled, before the line went dead.

I let out a frustrated growl before throwing my phone onto the sofa in the office and began walking to the matte glass door to get away from the office for a while before soft knock sounded at the office door.

“What?” I snapped, indicating for the person to come in.

Suzie opened the door cautiously, her eyes slightly wider than usual as she took a slow step inside. “I… I’m very sorry to interrupt…” She trailed off, sounding afraid to speak.

Guilt instantly shot through my veins and my scowl instant dropped. “I’m so sorry Suzie, I didn’t mean to snap at you like that.”

“It’s okay sweetie, what else am I here for?” She laughed.

A guilty smile played at my lips before she spoke up again. “Abby has almost finalised the campaign you and Mr. Kingston confirmed two weeks ago. Did you want to see the last version or do you just want her to finish it all before she brings it up here?”

“Tell her to work on it as much as she can today and then bring up whatever she has tomorrow for us to check. Thank you for letting me know, and… I’m really sorry about before.” I brought up again, still feeling guilty.

Suzie waved me off. “Emily, it’s fine! We all have our moments, you don’t need to apologise to me about it. I’ll let Abby know and leave you alone.” She smiled, before shutting the door softly and leaving me with my thoughts again.

How was
I
making things more complicated by the fact that I didn’t want Rita to be arrested for helping David Walter? The way I saw it, Adrian would have to go through even more trouble than he did with David Walter, and the entire process with court would repeat itself. Adrian was barely able to keep his anger in after David’s trial – and by barely I mean punching him straight in the jaw – how was he going to contain his anger around Rita, someone he knew and thought he could trust?

I let out another tired sigh and turned to go into the connected room once again before the phone on my desk shrilled to life, filling the empty silence in the office.

“Kingston Corporation,” I answered once I reached my desk.

“Is this a Ms. Emily Johnson?” a female spoke through the phone.

“This is she, who, may I ask, is calling?” I asked with a slight frown. I usually never got personal calls unless another secretary was trying to reach Adrian through me.

“There’s been a car accident,” the female voice responded. “It involves Mr. Kingston -

Suddenly, everything around me disappeared from my sight. I barely heard her utter the location of the hospital he was in, before the phone dropped out of my hands and I was out of the office.

***

“I’m sorry Miss, only family is allowed-”

“I’m his girlfriend. Let me in,” I snapped, glaring at the nurse angrily.

Her eyebrows widened in shock before she stepped aside. “I’m sorry.”

I ignored her and rushed into the small hospital room; instantly coming to halt once I almost collided into a doctor who was standing at the end of the hospital bed.

He turned to me just as he flipped the pages back onto the clipboard. “Emily Johnson, I presume?”

“How… how do you know me? How is he? Is it bad?” I asked, my tone growing desperate.

The doctor turned to face me fully. “I’m Dr. Langston. Mr. Kingston is in a stable condition. He just has a minor concussion, a few broken ribs, a broken wrist and a broken leg and heavy bruising; but he should be fully recovered over the next few months. He was asking for you before the medication took over.”

We both looked over At Adrian’s sleeping figure, which had a bandage wrapped around his head and wrist. His leg was also wrapped and elevated from the bed and purple splotches covered whatever skin was uncovered.

I temporarily forgot about Dr. Langston’s figure beside me and instantly made my way to Adrian’s side as I observed his injuries at a more detailed level. His bottom lip was slightly swollen and his shoulder also had a bandage covering his skin.

Guilt replaced any blood running through my veins as tears sprung to my eyes. I recalled the conversation over the phone earlier. It was all my fault that he had an accident; all because I was too stubborn to temporarily agree with him over the phone until I had the chance to discuss it and change his mind in person. I grabbed a hold of his uninjured hand and entwined our fingers before kissing his knuckles softly.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

Somehow, I had fallen asleep with Adrian’s hand still intertwined in my own and my head resting on the edge of the hospital bed; waking up to the sound of a woman letting out a wail before my body was engulfed in a hug.

“Emily, thank god you’re here. His doctor isn’t here and the nurses here are useless. Is my son okay? What happened?” Her voice was thick from tears, and I pulled back to see a bloodshot-red-eyed Katherine, with Mason lingering in the background.

“I… He has a broken leg and wrist, and broken ribs. The doctor said he should recover over the next few months…” I trailed off, biting my lip and looking over at Adrian’s bruised sleeping figure.

“Has he woken up at all since then?” Katherine asked.

“I have. Can you guys talk any fucking louder?” Adrian groaned, making all three heads snap back to look at him. “Turn off the lights too, dammit. What does a guy have to do around here to keep his sight?”

“Adrian.” I breathed, tears springing to my eyes once again. I rapidly blinked them back in and mentally scolded my period for creating such crazy mood swings.

“Has the accident made me someone else? Obviously it’s me. Unless… shit how much damage did it do to my face? Who cares, I’m good looking either way.”

“Only my idiot of a son would say something like that after almost dying.” Mason chuckled. I looked over him to see relief hidden within his eyes even though he tried to make a joke out of it.

“Hey, I get my humour from you. Mother is too dry to be funny.”

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” Katherine wailed, before gushing over to her son and pulling him into what looked like a painful hug.

Adrian let out another groan. “I’m fine. You can stop now.” His voice came out muffled and a smile made its way to my lips as he stiffly tried to pry his mother’s grip off himself with his uninjured hand.

“What the hell did you do to get into a car accident this severe!” she exclaimed angrily.

“I was speeding because I wanted to get to Emily as quickly as possible and kind of ran a red light…” He gave a sheepish smile to his mother before his gaze landed on me.

“Why did you want to get to me so quickly? I thought you were angry with me because of-”

“We got here as fast as we could! Is Adrian okay? Where is he? Shit, is he asleep – Adrian! Man, you look like shit.” Like Mason, Allen tried to make a joke out of the situation, although there was a serious demeanour to his words.

Amy and Blake trailed in after him; Amy looking down at her feet and Blake glaring at the back of Allen’s head. My eyebrows shot up in surprise as I examined the situation more closely, before putting a mental reminder to ask Amy about that later.

“Mate, have you seen your own reflection lately? You always look like shit,” Adrian fired back, smirking slightly before grimacing in pain. “Can I get some water?” he asked no one in particular.

Katherine nodded eagerly before anyone else had the chance to react to the question, and was out the door as soon as it was mentioned.

“I’m glad you’re okay Adrian,” Amy finally spoke up, looking up at him. My eyes immediately looked over at Allen and Blake, who were both watching her before meeting each other’s gazes and glaring.