CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR.
Adele arrived at the work office where she shared with three other editors and she was shocked to see that Chase had not come to work yet. He was always the first to arrive at the office and he was always made fun of by the male colleagues.
She greeted the others who were already present and walked over to her cubicle, but with her gaze focused on Chase’s. She noticed it was totally empty. His laptop and desktop were gone. Paperwork and stick notes were nowhere to be found. It was as if the place wasn’t occupied by any human at all.
“What… what happened to Chase’s cubicle.” She asked the girl close to her and she sighed heavily.
“Well, no one knows. We’ve been asking ourselves the same thing since we got in. Chase is an early bird, it’s shocking that he isn’t here already and it’s even more shocking that his cubicle looks deserted. Maybe he has been fired.”
“Fired!” Adele screamed, getting the attention of the others.
“Who has been fired?” One other guy asked as he rolled his chair towards them.
“No one, I’m just speculating. Don’t you think it’s strange that Chase is nowhere to be found and his cubicle deserted as well?” She questioned with a raised brow and the guy who just joined them nodded his head as he calmly lay on the backrest of the chair.
Adele on the other hand was still very confused because Chase had accompanied her to her car the previous day after work, but he mentioned nothing about his departure. Instead, what he said was “see you tomorrow.” Could it really be that he had been fired? And that was the case, why? Because Chase was nothing short of a hardworking and diligent employee.
He loved his job just like she did and always made sure to put in his best efforts in everything he did. The company always even acknowledged the fact that they were lucky to have him, so why would they suddenly fire him?
Heavy steps jabbed her out of her thoughts and when she looked up, she was relieved to see their supervisor, Mr. Luke, walking into their office. He was the General Manager of the firm and if there was someone who had to explain the sudden disappearance of Chase and his stuff, then it had to be him.
“Good morning Mr. Luke.” Adele and her colleagues greeted him unanimously. The man nodded his head, gesturing to them to stay seated when he saw them trying to stand up.
Once they did, he looked at them long and hard, both hands on his waist and heaved out an exasperated sigh.
“By now you all must have noticed Chase’s absence.”
“Yes we have and we are utterly stunned. what’s going on?”.
“I don’t know myself. Last night I got a call from the CEO of this publishing firm, asking me to transfer Chase to one of the company’s branches out of town. He never gave me any reason, all he asked me to do was make sure his accommodations, transportation and feeding was taken care of. So don’t you worry, Chase hasn’t been fired, he has just been transferred to another branch of the company out of town.”
“But we have to be worried, Chase is our partner and we need him.” One of the guys, Larry, lamented.
“They will be sending their best senior editor over here, it’s like a swap, so you have nothing to be worried about.”
“We want Chase and no one else!” Conor said, slamming his table.
“I’m sorry guys, I wish I could do something, but this is beyond my control. I hope you get along with your new colleague. She starts working tomorrow. Have a nice day.” He turned on his heels and exited the office.
The entire office was filled with sounds of people sighing, mumbling and grumbling out of annoyance. They were already used to each other and how they went about their work, a new person adding would distort everything.
Adele, who had now understood what was going on, placed her head on her table and bit her lips hard to prevent herself from letting out the scream that was threatening to escape her throat.
There was only one person responsible for that and that person was no one else than the almighty Jamal King Dominick. Her… husband.
That was what he meant by he would deal with the men trying to get close to her.
“Jerk!” She cursed, hitting her lower lip hard.
He kept making things more unbearable for her as the days went by.
*********************************************
Adele’s mood was gloomy the entire day at work because of Chase’s sudden transfer. Many times she wanted to call Jamal and give him the scolding of his life, but she decided against it every time she picked up her phone.
Chase was such a sweet guy and she missed him dearly. There was no one to tell her jokes or randomly bring her coffee during the day. Everything about that day at work pissed her off and she knew it would take a while for her to get used to his absence.
“Fuck you Jamal!” She hit the car steering in anger as she unstrapped her seatbelt. She was at the hospital for an appointment with her doctor.
Yes, the very one she met the previous day. The one who tried to hit on her.
As she walked into the hospital lobby, she went over to the receptionist.
“Miss Mackenzie, hello. You are welcome.” The nurse greeted with a beaming smile once she recognized her and Adele flashed a smile at her, despite the anger that was burning in her heart.
“Hello to you too and thank you. Is Doctor Craig ready to have me?” Adele asked and the smile on the nurses face instantly dropped.
“Miss Mackenzie, about Doctor Craig, there have been some arrangements. He came in earlier today and took all his stuff away. No one knows what happened. The only thing he did was drop his phone number for me to give it to you when you arrive.” The nurse explained politely.
Adele barred her teeth in anger as she plastered her gaze on the floor, thinking of the numerous evil things she would do to Jamal if she ever laid her eyes on him.
He was ruining her life!
“Can I have the number, please.”
The girl nodded in agreement and handed over a piece of paper to Adele. Without any further hesitation, Adele took her phone and dialled the number on her dial pad. It rang three times and on the fourth ring, it was answered.
“Hello, Doctor Craig talking, how may I be of service to you?” His calm voice came through and Adele’s heart melted.
She felt so sorry for what she had put him through.
“Doctor Craig, It’s Adele Mackenzie.” Adele answered and there was a long moment of silence.
“Miss Mackenzie, I’m glad you got my information. First off, I’ll start by telling you that I will no longer be the doctor in charge of your check ups. You have been transferred to Doctor Michael Fritz who now occupies my office and secondly, I would like to apologise for refusing to believe you when you told me you were married. I sincerely apologise for trying to hit on you despite your marital status and I promise never to show your face to you again. Have a nice life, Miss Mackenzie.” Then he ended the call.
Adele looked down at the phone in awe. She wanted to call him back, but she knew there would be no need.
She gripped the phone firmly in her hand, silently cursing Jamal for doing all that he was doing to her.
“Thank you very much.” She thanked the nurse who had attended to her.
“You are welcome. You can go in and see Doctor Fritz now, he’s expecting you.”
Adele bit her lips as she looked at the girl. She was not in the mood to meet another doctor and start doing introductions in her current state of mind.
“Cancel the appointment. Tell him something came up and I can’t make it.” She said and began walking out of the hospital lobby before the girl could say anything.
The moment she got into her car, she dialled Jamal’s number. She had been holding back from calling him all day to give him a piece of her mind, but she couldn’t hold back any more.
She needed to call him. She needed to make him understand how upset she was about all the things he was doing. She needed to let him know that he had no right to disrupt people’s lives the way he had just done.
“Adele.” His voice came through and immediately it hit Adele’s eardrums, it travelled up to her brain, waging a war with her nerves.
“Jamal, what the hell is wrong with you? Have you totally lost your mind?”
“Don’t you worry, the handsome doctor isn’t jobless. I placed him at another hospital, just that it’s far away from here and I promise you he’s fine and for your colleague, I’m sure your manager did well to explain to you that he is employed and fine as well. So, I haven’t ruined anyone’s life.”
“What makes you think you have the right to make such decisions for me? Who the hell do you think you are?”
“I am your husband Adele and as you already I do not like to share what is mine. You are mine alone Adele and I will make sure to get rid of anyone who dares to come close to you. No one, I mean no one is allowed to have eyes for you except me and anyone who dares to do so, will get a little uncomfortable. Let that sink!” His words were firm and Adele understood that he wasn’t bluffing.
His nonsensically possessive attitude had kicked in and she hated it.