Chapter 38

John's POV

I waited for her at the hospital entrance. I would have loved to go in and help her get into the car since today was the day she finally got discharged, but that would cause suspicion, so I had to stay in the car.

Belinda smiled brightly when she saw my car waiting and got in. She looked way better than she did when I forced her to get admitted in the first place. She was so worried that someone would find out I rescued her that she was willing to risk harming herself. I told her I would deal with it, and after a series of pleas, she agreed.

"How are you feeling?"

"Perfect; the treatment was impeccable. It makes me proud to know I work in a hospital like that."

I figured it would be better to take her to the exact hospital she worked in, and it killed two birds with one stone. She was in the care of people she was already familiar with; she felt relaxed, and the hospital let her off work till she recovered since they had seen her condition with their eyes. Two broken ribs, bruises all over, and internal bleeding were enough to do the trick.

I rested a hand on hers as I drove her back to her place. Occasionally looking at her, I find her just staring out the window into the streets.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked.

"Nothing." She said it, but I had a feeling I knew what it was.

"He's in jail, Belinda, and he's not coming out. You're safe." I gave her hand a light squeeze, and she nodded.

It broke my heart to think about the scene that had already been imprinted in my memory; if I had been a minute later, God knows what he might have done.

I parked on the side of the street; I got a less conspicuous car since I'd be driving during the day.

I carried her stuff, and we both walked up the stairs.

"I kind of missed this place." She joked.

We got to the door, and I pulled out the keys. I had gotten a ton of new locks installed for security purposes. I was never taking the chance of someone hurting her again.

I asked Belinda to move out and come live with me, but she said no. I couldn't force her, so instead I was trying my best to make her place safe for her.

"Those are a lot of locks; someone's going to think we have something valuable inside."

"You are something valuable." I opened the door and let her step in first.

Her eyes combed the room, and I could see her struggle to keep on smiling. She hadn't been here since the day it happened; she probably still remembered it more vividly than I did.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, he's never coming back, right?" She turned to me with almost watery eyes.

"He's not." I took the time to bribe the officers in charge to hide the fact that I was the one who saved her and also make sure Brian stayed in jail. He wasn't getting out of there; my money was making sure of it.

Aria came running out of her room and hugged Belinda. She had been feeling guilty the entire time, saying if only she had believed Belinda when she first said she thought she was being followed, then none of it would have happened.

We tried calming her down a couple times, but she seemed to be convinced she should also be blamed.

"Hey, I missed you." They hugged each other and spun around.

"I'm so so..."

"Hush, I don't want to hear it. It wasn't your fault; stop apologizing or you're going to make me mad." Belinda interrupted her, and that seemed to solve that problem.

"I'll go get you something to eat. Also, hey John." She finally acknowledged my presence and hurried off.

I sat on the sofa and cuddled Belinda in my arms.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Saving me."

That was about the hundredth time she had said thank you. To be honest, it made me feel bad that he had already done so much damage before I got there. If only I had rushed out earlier; the package I was delivering ended up being a hospital gift instead, and I couldn't give it to her myself.

"I'm sorry for not getting here earlier."

"I don't want to hear apologizes from you either." She kissed my face.

I got a call from one of the board members, which was a bit off, but I had to take it either way.

"I've got to take this; I'll be right back." I got off the couch and walked a little further before answering the phone.

"Hello, Mr. Callahan?"

"Yes? What's the matter?" It was Mr. Jerrold; he hardly ever called, so I was shocked as to why he called now.

"I believe we were supposed to meet earlier this morning, but you didn't show up. I'd like to know why."

Wait, meet? Oh my gosh, that was right. I had set an appointment to meet him today, but I thought Yvonne would get the hint and cancel the meeting. Why in the world hadn't she called to remind me, at least?

"Oh, I'm so sorry. An emergency came up."

"An emergency?"

"Yes, I apologize for the inconvenience."

"Well, that's beside the point. I wanted to inform you about some anomalies in the company's finances that caught my attention, but you can look into them yourself." His voice sounded like a grandpa scolding his grandchildren. Mr. Jerald was old, but he was like the majority of the board members; he didn't seem to like me much.

"Okay, thank you for the notice." I checked the financial statements recently, and everything seemed to be in order, but regardless, I'd have to cross-check.

I walked back to the living room. Aria was already seated beside Belinda; they were talking. I rested against the kitchen door frame and watched them happily chatting.

"I'm so excited, aren't you?"

"Not really."

"Aww, why not?"

"I'm happy it's coming, but it doesn't feel so special."

I continued to ease down, confused. What was coming?"

"We could stay in and just binge-watch movies and get drunk. We could even call Madison over." Aria seemed to be bubbling with life.

I had no idea who Madison was, but Belinda smiled at the mention of the name.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

Were they celebrating something?

"Of course it's a good idea; there is no way you're going to sit here by yourself and sulk on your birthday."

That was it; they were talking about her birthday. I had no idea when her birthday was, and if not for the conversation right now, I would have never known.

"Ooh, or we could do like a bachelorette theme party; get some male strippers." Aria teased, and I coughed, making them both notice me.

"There will be no strippers." I wasn't going to let my woman be surrounded by a couple of model-like men in extra-tight spandex swinging their crown jewels in the air.

Aria looked a bit embarrassed and tried to laugh it off, but Belinda was genuinely laughing at my reaction.

"Why didn't you tell me about your birthday?" I sat beside her.

"It's next week, and it's not that big of a deal; Aria and I have a tradition of spending the day with each other."

"Well, it doesn't seem like Aria over here is a fan of that tradition anymore."

"I'm not." Aria chipped in.

"See."

"Well, what do you want me to do? Go to a strippers club too."

"Yeah." Aria muttered, and I shot her a warning glance.

"No, how about you let me throw you a party?" I saw this as an opportunity to give her something to smile about after the trauma she had to go through. It was close, so it was perfect timing to give her something joyful to overshadow any sad memories.

"A party?"

"Yeah, it is the least I can do."

She looked happy with the idea. "Wouldn't it draw attention?"

"Not if we keep it low; nothing too elaborate, just a small birthday party celebrating just you. You could bring some of your friends, or even Madison, like Aria said." I could see her liking the offer more and more.

"It sounds nice." Aria encouraged

"Okay, but no overkill. Don't overdo it and then draw attention. I can't bring friends because I don't know if it might slip up that they attended a birthday and saw John Callahan, and this apartment can't take too many people."

"Oh, we'll use my place. Even if you bring just one person, let's still use my place."

She gave into the idea, and we agreed to keep it small. I headed back to work and requested that a digital copy of the financial statements be sent to me. I opened the file, and I couldn't believe my eyes.

About half of the company's funds—billions of dollars—were gone.