Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 105756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
I really was a thorough-going bastard.
In the end, I dialled her number but only received her answering message. Had she turned off her phone? Run out of battery? Panic gripped me at the thought of her parked on a random street where any scumbag or lowlife could break into her car, rob her or worse.
No, this wouldn’t do at all.
I needed to remedy the situation because I was the one who’d caused it. And as I sat there agonising, an idea sprang to mind.
The following morning, I tried calling Ada again, but like last night, it went straight to voicemail.
By lunchtime, I still hadn’t gotten through to her, and I began to worry that something awful had happened, like she’d frozen to death in her car during the night. I was short tempered and snapping at anyone who came into my office. The situation needed to be sorted for the sake of my employees’ mental health, if nothing else.
Lifting my phone, I asked Therese to have my driver, Ben, meet me out front in fifteen minutes and to reschedule my next two meetings.
“Where should I tell him he’s taking you?” Therese queried.
“Pinebrook Lodge,” I replied, resolute.
7.
Ada
Getting to work early and showering without anyone noticing made me feel fractionally better than I did yesterday. I still had to rely on my cane, though, and Rina, alongside several other members of staff, had expressed their concern. Thankfully, I was able to put it down to lost sleep due to grief rather than the fact that I hadn’t slept in an actual bed for five nights.
Remembering my encounter with Jonathan Oaks the day before, I bristled with discomfort and lingering shame. It was the single most humiliating moment of my life. He’d opened the car door, looked inside and known instantly how bad things were for me. He knew I’d been living in my car. I hadn’t expected him to demand I go back inside and sleep in his mother’s house for the night. I still remembered his furious cadence and couldn’t tell who he’d been angrier at—himself or me.
My embarrassment had me acting out of instinct, and I’d driven away from him without a word.
Almost a day later and the discomfort still lingered. I never wanted to face him again. He could keep Dad’s stuff. I’d rather lose a few precious items than undergo the shame I’d felt when he’d discovered the truth.
I was lost in thought, staring blankly at my computer screen, when someone knocked twice on my office door.
“Come in,” I called a moment before Hannah dipped her head in.
“Hi, Ada, sorry to interrupt you. Sally out in reception said there’s a man looking to see you. His name is Mr Oaks.”
Time froze, and everything inside me recoiled. What on earth was he doing here? I intensely regretted mentioning my place of work to him yesterday. Whatever he’d come for, I needed to get rid of him fast. I didn’t need him letting slip in front of anyone about my living situation.
“Thanks, Hannah. I’ll go see him now.”
I stood from my desk, smoothing my hands down my pale grey cotton dress. I rarely wore it because it was a little too smug around the hips. Unfortunately, it was my last clean item of clothing. I hadn’t found an opportunity to use the laundry room yet. There was always someone around. I was probably going to have to visit a laundromat in town.
Hannah was still idling in the doorway when I reached for my cane. “He’s very, um,” she started then seemed to think better of whatever she’d been about to say. “Who is he?”
“My late stepmother’s son,” I answered, moving by her and shutting my office door as I headed towards reception.
“Oh, so he’s like your stepbrother, then?”
“No, he’s not my stepbrother. He and his mother weren’t close. I hardly know him.”
“Alf said he arrived in a Porsche with a driver,” she went on, eyebrows raised, and I cast her a glance.
“If you’re trying to ask if he’s rich, then the answer is yes, Hannah,” I told her impatiently. I wasn’t normally so snappish, but my leg ached, and I currently had to face the only person in the world who knew I was sleeping in my car.
“I wasn’t trying to pry. We just don’t see a lot of people like him around here.”
“No, we don’t,” I agreed, imagining that not many places held individuals like Jonathan Oaks. He was certainly a rare type of man, considering he was both wealthy and strikingly attractive. It was too bad his about uppity personality, though he had offered me a glimpse of his softer side yesterday. Right before I’d endured the most humiliating moment of my life.
And I’d thought him walking in on me standing naked in the bath had been the worst that could happen.