Chapter 62 We need to talk.

Chapter 62 UGH!!!
Ariel

I didn’t hear Kael come up behind me until he asked. “What is wrong?” My body jolted in surprise. 

“I–I don’t know. It’s Chloe, my sister. She’s saying something happened at the hospital, that it’s destroyed or something and then I heard her yelp like she got attacked. I don’t know. We need to go there.” I tried to calm myself down even though my mind was already starting to race at the thought of something happening to either Chloe or Mom.

"Wait." Kael stopped me before I could move past him. “Your sister is there right now? At St Valerio?”

I nodded. “It sounded like it.”

"Fuck," he cursed and fished out his phone from his pocket right before it started to ring.

“What is it?” He didn’t respond and just turned away to answer the call. 

“Mike…”

“Yes. Don't do anything to her. She’s not part of them.”

“Yes.”

“You know what to do.

“Make sure you clear everything before sunrise.”

“Okay.”

“Good.”

I folded my arms and tried not to fidget as I waited for him to finish with the call. When he finally finished, he turned to face me with a blank expression. 

“What is it? Is everything okay?” I’m guessing he had called to make sure everything was okay at the hospital but instead of reassuring me that everything was in fact actually fine and that phone call had just been a fever dream, he just tucked his phone back into his pocket and signalled for me to sit down. 

“We need to talk.”

“Talk?”



My mind was racing by the time Kael finally finished talking. “So you’re saying he got into a car accident, then disappeared when the fire broke out at the hospital. But my mom is fine and she’s at a safe house, which you can’t disclose to me right now for safety reasons."

He nodded.

“What about Chloe?”

“She’s fine. The cleaners just got agitated because they hadn’t been expecting anyone on the property by this time.”

“Cleaners?” he waved it away.

“It’s nothing. Just know they’re going to get her home in good shape.”

“But…” He raised his eyebrows when I proceeded to stare at him intently for a full minute. “What?”

“Why didn’t you tell me all these at the park when we met earlier?”

He hesitated before answering. “Well for one, you hadn’t found Vincent at that time so I didn't see the need to tell you about what had happened to him. As for your mum and the hospital, we were still trying to take care of things, so… I didn't want you freaking out.”

I tried to gauge if he was telling the truth. I mean, probably right? There was literally no reason for him to be telling a lie right now, except… 

The memory of Vincent placing that gun against my head in the car popped into my head. He had seemed suspicious of something, and the fact that he disappeared, according to Kael and was asking me all those questions. I had a feeling there was something else going on that Kael was yet to tell me.

"Well, what is next then? What are we going to do with him?”

“Vincent?” I nodded. Who else?

“Well, we’ll have to monitor him for now. With enough fluids and medication, He should wake up anytime soon.”

“Do you know where you’ll be taking him yet?"

“About that… I was thinking he could just stay here.”

It took a stupid amount of time for his statement to register. “What?” I shot up to my feet.

“It’ll only be till he wakes up… and maybe gets a little stronger. Then he'll be out of your hair.”

“No. No. No. No. No. That can’t happen. I can’t—I can’t keep him here. What if somebody finds him? My manager, my sister, the press.”

“I’ll talk to Felix.”

“Talk to Felix?! That won’t change anything.”

“He’s the CEO of your agency. Trust me, he can change a lot.”

“But… what of my sister? She comes here frequently. What if she finds him?”

“It’s only for a few days. I’m sure you can find a way to keep her out.”

"But..." I was running short of excuses here. “Why? Why me? It just doesn’t make sense.”

“Actually, it makes a lot of sense. He’s already stable here. Moving him means risking another rip in his stitches. Two, this place is discreet.”

“Discreet?” Did I just hear him say "discreet"? The exact opposite of what my apartment actually is?

He nodded. “A celebrity’s apartment. No one would think of looking for him here.”

“W-what?”

He dragged his gaze back to me. “All you have to do is accommodate him. I’ll be the one to check on him every night. You don’t even need to go in the room yourself.”

“But…” I couldn't believe this was actually happening. Like, this was the one safe space I thought I had, and now these motherfuckers were going to ruin it.

UGH!!!



It took me a while to find my phone when it started to ring later that morning somewhere on the couch where I was also huddled up. 'Jeez,' I groaned as I searched around for it. Finally, I felt it in one of the deep crevices of the love seat. I picked up the call without bothering to open my eyes at all.

“Ariel?”

“Hmm…” I groaned again in response.

“Oh please don’t tell me you’re still in bed right now or not ready. I’m almost at your building.”

“Jonas?” I shot up from the couch even as I heard him sigh. “Yeah… yes. I’m ready.”

I actually was. I just needed to shower, put on my clothes and meet him outside. 

And right. Oh fuck. The memories of last night/this morning started to flood my brain. I couldn’t let him in. I thought Kael said he would talk to Felix.

I rushed straight to my room to finalize getting ready as Jonas started to whine through the phone and I put it on mute. “I told you, the final meeting is today. Then rehearsals and fittings. We don’t have all day for you to get ready.”

“Felix also said he wants to see you.”

I got into the shower and turned on the water, a yelp leaving my mouth the minute the cold water met my skin.

"Well, both of us. And also, did you see the email I sent to you?”

A pause. “Did you? This… did she cut the call?”

“Ariel.”

I rushed through my bath as his journey up my apartment building to mine echoed through the phone.

Finally, I heard the keypad beeping as someone typed in a code. I was already throwing on some sweats and jeans at this point. Then the beep I was expecting came. The loud beep that indicated that someone had just put in the wrong code. Well… Jonas in this case.

I heard him breath heavily through the phone. “Ariel… did you change your door code?!”