CHAPTER ELEVEN
ROWAN
Crash, fire, noise and cries.
That was the only thing I could see until I felt a warm hand on my forehead. Slowly, I got the courage to let myself out of that bondage and open my eyes.
The person I set my eyes on was unexpected and she gave me a small smile before retracting her hand.
“I’ve been here for a few minutes and I noticed your body was shaking, you’ve been sweating profusely even under this weather. Looks like you had a nightmare,” she pointed out and I bit on my lips.
Nightmare or rather nightmares; one of the reasons I always feared sleeping. Though it stopped while I was on the hospital bed but it returned just last night, I’d woken up twice in the middle of the night. First, it had been a dream of how I got shot at the meeting and second it was a dream about someoene chasing me with gun; obviously after my life and just when I returned to sleep that accident reoccured. That same accident I couldn’t get out of my mind for years.
“Why are you here?” I questioned as I tried to lean on the bed rest.
“I’m starting my job today, have you forgotten?” She asked as her perfectly arched brows lifted and her face crinkled. She had the most perfect brows I’d ever seen and it was obvious it wasn’t fake, she didn’t even draw any line on it or anything, her face was totally bare.
“That’s right but how come you’re inside the house let alone my room?” I asked and she rolled her eyes before getting on her feet. My eyes caught sight of what she was wearing; a floral sleeveless dress that looked like she’d been thrown into it, hardly would one notice the existence of her body except the presence of her head. I didn’t know when I bursted into laughter as I couldn’t contain it anymore.
Her brows furrowed and she pursed her lips while staring at me for a few seconds before her eyes went around the small room obviously try to see if anything was funny. When she couldn’t find any clue, she turned back to me with a scowl.
“Are you okay?” She asked in a not so concerned tone.
Then I stopped laughing. I haven’t laughed like that in such a long time. The laughter was actually what I needed to bring myself out of the other world and welcome the beautiful Monday morning; the first Monday I’ll still be on the bed at that time; the first Monday I’ll have to stay indoors all through the day. Normally. I would have left the house only to return later in the evening, I wonder how I would cope with being indoors for a whole month. Anyway, my survival was the most important.
“Who gave you this hideous gown?” I asked and her face flushed before she looked down at herself. I was sure she didn’t check the mirror before coming, why would she even have such a dress in her closet?
“It’s none of your business,” she replied while scowling at me and I chuckled.
“This dress is plus-size. Don’t you know your body shape or you decided to ignore it?”
“Mind your words,” she snapped and I resisted the urge to burst into laughter again. Her squeezed face showed she was upset but in actual fact, it made her look cute. She was as cute as a kitten and I felt like squishing her cheeks.
“You’re not going to wear that to work, right? It would be such a disaster,” I told her and she bit on her lower lips before glowering at me.
“That’s none of your concern. Just get up and let me do my job,” she said and I nodded.
“True, but you’ll need to wait for a little over thirty before we start the session,” I told her and she shrugged.
“It’s obviously from the one hour session.”
“Is that being professional?”
“I don’t know. Meet me in the living room when you’re done,” she concluded and without waiting for my response, she made her way out of the room while I smiled at her retreating figure.
I got out of bed with the aid of my crutches which was actually a burden to me. I just hope I could stop using it soon and get back to my normal life then I headed to the bathroom. I joined the doctor a couple of minutes later in the living room and I realised her name hadn’t registered in my brain. She was chatting with Maggie in the kitchen, apparently, they got along like someone who had known each other for a long time.
I cleared my throat as a way to announce my presence and they both turned towards me.
“Good morning sir,” Maggie greeted.
“Just call me Rowan,” I told her again and she nodded. I’d been insisting on it since the previous day but she never stopped.
“Should I bring your food?” She asked and I shook my head.
“No, I’ll let you know when I’m ready,” I responded before glancing at the doctor who took that as a cue to approach me.
“What’s your name?” I asked immediately she stopped in front of me. I was sitting on the couch so I had to look up at her and even with that, she was just a bit taller than my sitting position. She was probably 5’2 or something. She surely wouldn’t be up to my shoulders. Such a short lady.
She raised her brows. “You don’t know my name?” She pointed at her chest and I nodded.
“Do you know mine?”
“Of course. You’re Rowan.”
“Why did I even ask? You’ll certainly know my name, every lady knows me,” I pointed out and she scoffed.
“Sorry to deflate your ego but I didn’t know your name until that lady mentioned it yesterday and I didn’t know of your existence until you got hurt and it became the hot news,” she stated and I lifted my brows.
“How is that possible? You were even at the meeting so you…”
“Rich? Well, I’m not rich, I’m only comfortable. My house is just next door,” she cut me short and I stared at her.
“Oh, then how did you end up at the meeting?”
“I’m not entitled to tell you everything about me. Let’s just get straight to the job, I have to get to the hospital soon,” she concluded and I scrunched my brows. Fiesty much.
“Okay. You didn’t tell me your name,” I reminded her.
“April.”
“April,” I tasted her name on my tongue before continuing, “Were you born in the month of April?”
“Nope. We are starting with the upper body exercise but first let do some light walking,” And with that, our little get to know each other ended and the rehabilitaion started. About forty five minutes later, it ended.
“I’m off,” April said when I settled down on the chair and Maggie served my food.
“You’re not wearing the stupid gown to work, right?” I asked her and she tsked before heading to the door.
“Thanks, you should get going.” I told her and she lifted her brows.
“Why? I won’t be getting off until five,” she reminded me and I nodded.
“Yeah, I know that but you’ve done everything you need to do. There’s no use keeping you here when you could do other things.” Her job was to clean the house and prepare my food so, I felt it would be better for her to leave, not like she could keep me company, she probably had more important things to do.
“But…”
“You’ll still collect your full salary,” I told her and a smile graced her lips.
“Thanks but what about lunch and dinner?”
“You can prepare it now if you want or I’ll just order.”
“I’ll prepare it now. I’ll leave after that,” she said in an excited tone.
“Just prepare dinner, I’ll order lunch.”
“But…”
“Don’t worry,” I assured her and she nodded before going to the kitchen while I focused on my food.
An hour later, Maggie took her leave and I was left alone in the house. I was in the living room watching a movie; something I hadn’t done in years as I’d been so busy to even think of any form of enertainment and then I decided to spend the month enjoying myself. My phone made the annoying sound beside me and I picked it up immediately thinking it was Ailey but when I looked at the caller ID, I realised it was my secretary whom I’d handed over my job to.
“Good morning sir,” his voice came from the other end.
“Good morning. Is anything wrong?”
“We need your signature.”
“Just send whatever it is to my e-mail.”
“Okay sir. I hope you’re getting better?”
“Yeah. Take care of everyone at the company.” I ended the call after that and Ailey’s message entered immediately informing me she’d hired the private investigator and would be coming over later in the evening.
I copied the number of the investigator and placed a call to me. After talking for some minutes, the call ended and I saved his contact. Ailey always got the best and now, I could be rest assured that I’ll get to the root of the matter and the person after my life would get apprehended soon but somehow, I was scared of finding out who it was. I was sure it was someone close to me but I hope I would be able to handle it when the truth comes out.
I was that fickle.
Getting my mind off the issue, I sent every necessary information to Bentley, the private investigator and then returned my focus to the movie.