CHAPTER 25. MR RAPHAEL?
The doorbell of Evelyn’s apartment kept ringing repeatedly and all she wanted to do at that moment was to curse at whoever was disturbing her peace. She pushed herself from the chair and walked like a drunkard to open the door without trying to look at who it was. Well, she had it in mind that it was Kira but on opening the door…
“Hey, Ki…Mr. Raphael?” Her eyes widened and her first instinct was to slam the door against his face which she did automatically. She leaned against it as her heart skipped a beat. She wasn’t expecting him at her doorstep looking all enticing…what the hell was she thinking of in this situation?
Raphael, who was standing in front of the door, rubbed his creased forehead. Was she taken by surprise? He knocked gently on the door.
“Miss Evelyn, you are keeping me waiting.” He said and a few minutes later, the door was opened and Evelyn poked her head out before stepping out of the house, closing the door quickly. She puts on a smile on her pale face to appease her boss.
Raphael’s eyes ran across her whole appearance. She looked indeed…sick but regardless, she still looked beautiful.
Evelyn cleared her throat when the staring was already getting longer. Raphael blinked and pushed the door open behind her. He entered before she could even stop him. Evelyn was shocked beyond words and had no choice but to follow him too.
“Mr. Raphael…”
“You have a very good apartment.” Raphael complimented as he took off his suit jacket and dropped the things he brought onto the comfy sofa. Evelyn’s words got stuck in her throat and she wondered what she was supposed to say. Was her boss not aware of basic manners? He had visibly gone against two of the manners.
She chuckled nervously and pulled the hem of her cardigan to cover her palms as she stood in front of him.
“Mr. Raphael…”
“It’s Raphael.” He interrupted.
“Huh?”
“You can call me by my name without any formalities when we are alone and it is an order.” He added. Evelyn gulped.
“What are you doing here? How did you even know this place?” She asked.
“I am here to take good care of you and I know where you live with or without your permission.” He replied nonchalantly and this confused Evelyn a bit. He was here to take care of her and he knew where she lived without…
“Don’t think too much about it,” Raphael said and touched her forehead. It was hot so the touch of his cold hand made her yearn for more to cool down her body temperature.
“You are burning hot. Why don’t you go to the hospital?” Raphael asked worriedly.
“No, I don’t want to. I am…” Her eyes suddenly turned dizzy and she fell right into his arms before she could land on the floor. Raphael carried her into the room and laid her on the bed before covering her with the blanket.
“Have you eaten something yet? I bought a few recommended drugs, Evelyn. If you use them and it doesn’t aid the situation then we are going to the hospital.” He said as he pats her head softly and excused himself to the sitting room to bring the bags.
Evelyn tried to sit up and used the drugs as instructed by him before resting back on the bed. What was she doing to herself? Was she going to have high blood pressure just because of her past? Many thoughts went around her head. Raphael sat beside her on the bed and kept patting her head and rubbing her left palm while watching her doze off.
He looked around the room. It was well organized and the room seemed to blend very well especially to suit her personality. Now taking a very good note of the surroundings, there were no pictures hung on the wall except that of Tom. Though she wasn’t living a lavish lifestyle, her current lifestyle was satiable to a normal average human.
After making sure that she had fallen asleep, he stood up from the bed gently and left the room. Raphael stared at the room opposite hers and opened it. Judging from the number of toys arranged in a section of the room, he needed no one to tell him that it was their son’s bedroom. He smiled before walking over to his bed. He sat on it and opened the drawer where there were colorful books meant for his leisure time.
He took one of the books and flipped it open. At the edge of the first cover were the words ‘My mommy is crying but I don’t know why. Raphael read the sentence about three times before letting go of the book, he searched for more to get clues but none was made available.
His conversation with her last night might have something to do with this. He tried finding out something about her but everything proved abortive and he knew that there was more to her story.
“I can’t believe this, Raphael. You are totally whipped. Wait, I only admire her and like her and I also want to get to know her this way so she wouldn’t run away when she finally knows the truth. I believe that I am doing the right thing…right?” He asked rhetorically before falling flat on the bed.
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Back at the Theophilus company, work was going on as usual and there was no unnecessary attention until a red flamboyant car drove into the company at full speed.
It was one of the most expensive-looking cars in the country and a part of the limited brands. Those around couldn’t help but stare at the beauty and wonder who drove it.
The car soon pulled up in front of the building and a pair of slender legs which some would have considered too skinny but appropriate for the beauty world got out of the car.
Her red glittering gown complimented the red car that she had brought along. Her hair was let down to let the wind be its partner in dancing. Her confident pose awed many and the shocked murmurings amongst the people started on realizing who it was that had blessed their average eyes with so much wealth in one glance. It was no other than Erica, the best among the A-list actresses in the country and even beyond borders.
What exactly was she doing here? Their company wasn’t into entertainment or anything of such so what could probably be the reason? These and many more questions came out of the people’s mouths.
Erica, ignoring all the stares directed her way, walked into the building confidently in her mannerism. The security man who saw her first quickly approached her politely.
“Good morning, ma’am. How may I help you?” He asked.
“I am here to speak with Mr. Raphael Theophilus. Can you please direct me to his office?”
“Of course. Right, this way.” The security man led her into the elevator that took her straight to Raphael’s working building. She met with Mrs. Conner at the first step she took out of the elevator.
“Good morning. It’s good to have you here.” Mrs. Conner greeted.
“Hello. Is Mr. Raphael around, please?” She asked.
Before Mrs. Conner could reply, Jeremy made his appearance from the corner. He was surprised to see the celebrity in their office but didn’t withhold himself from greeting her.
“Mrs. Erica, hello there.” He said and stretched his hand for a shake.
“My name is Jeremy and I am Mr. Raphael’s assistant.” He introduced himself.
“Oh really? That is good to know then.” Erica accepted the shake.
“Please, come with me.” He said with a smile and started walking ahead of her while Erica followed closely behind. Her eyes caught every inch of the place, it wasn’t different from before except for the well-coordinated workers who didn’t seem to be either surprised or nonchalant about seeing her but immediately as she walked into Raphael’s office, the chattering started.
Erica sat on the chair pointed to by Jeremy and looked at Raphael’s seat. He wasn’t there.
“Will you like to take something, Miss Erica?”
“No, I am fine, thank you. Where is Mr. Raphael? I can see that he isn’t in his seat.”
“Yes, he went out this morning.”
“When will he be back?”
“I have no idea, Miss Erica. He might come back very late, but he wasn’t specific.”
“Can you please dial his number on my behalf to let him know of my arrival?”
“That will be unnecessary, Miss Erica as he has instructed me on what to do when you arrive. You can discuss it with me.” Jeremy replied professionally. Erica was speechless but accepted involuntarily. Well, she had no other choice but she proposed in her mind to confirm if he was in his office before coming back next time.
She delivered the explanation to Jeremy while he listened carefully and jotted down some points for about thirty minutes.
“Wow, I am impressed, Miss Erica. I didn’t know you were so informed about business in this manner.” Jeremy couldn’t help but compliment her while she smiled meaningfully and stood up to leave.
“When your boss arrives, tell him that I visited.”
“It’s no problem, have a nice day.”
With this, the conversation ended between them and Jeremy set to work on the mission before his boss’s arrival.
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[Evelyn and Tom were sitting watching a movie with full interest when suddenly the light went off after a few minutes. It was so dark in the sitting room that they had to search for a means of providing light for themselves.
The door was being knocked upon and this jolted Evelyn’s memory.
“Tom, you need to stay here, okay? Don’t move.” She instructed nevertheless, she didn’t remove his hand from hers. She kept holding onto him.
“Who is it?” She asked after finding her phone. There was no response so she walked to the door and looked through the peephole. She could see the feminine wear which belonged to Kira and sighed before opening the door but surprisingly, there was no one there.
“Kira.” She called. When she turned around, Tom was no longer in her hand but in the arms of someone else in the dark whom she couldn’t see.
“I told you that I would come back for my son and here I am.”
“No…no, give me back my son. Tom…someone help…landlady!! Someone help me…”]
“Someone help me,” Evelyn screamed from her dream and this got Raphael worried that he turned into Barry Allen. In just a minute, he was already beside her. Hot tears were flowing down her cheeks and her eyes were tightly shut.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay, don’t worry…calm down.” He kept on reassuring her while she clung to his fingers and breathed out for dear life. She finally opened her tear-filled eyes and glanced at Raphael. On seeing him, she hugged him very tight while she sobbed gently. She was so scared by the horrific dream that she just had.
Raphael didn’t ask what was wrong but only pacified her and spoke soft words into her ears while she was holding him.
TBC…