Chapter 61 Chapter 61

Chapter 61 Chapter 61
\[PAST\]

“May I come in?” Ajax heard the knock at the door and groaned.

“Is it a bad time?” she spoke again, and Ajax felt his heart couldn’t take it anymore. He wanted quiet. He wanted to be alone. But the more he tried to push everyone away, the more they pushed back. The more they tried to make him dance to their tune. The more they galled him to the bones.

But Noemie Rochester was the only person who could try to annoy him to her uttermost will, and he wouldn’t have the heart to drive her away. He didn’t want to push her away. If anything, he wished to keep her close. Closer. All for himself. Could he? Absolutely fucking not!

And that only made everything else even worse.

After Linda passed away three months ago, he tried to be strong.

Not because he had any desire to, but because his father didn’t know the meaning of grief or the need to vent.

The man literally told him to take a day off and get his shit together.

And like the dumbass son that he was and like any other occasion in the past, Ajax exhorted himself to comply. It had almost become a quirk of his. To try everything in his power to appease his father. To not rile him up and give a reason to create an unnecessary scene that Michael Halest almost seemed hellbent to cause.

Ajax hated when that happened. Be at home or at the workplace. If at the office, his father was worse, at home, he was nothing less than a nightmare.

To save his mom and brother from enduring the brunt of his father’s bad temper, Ajax was willing to go to any extent to gratify him.

But after spending two months trying to act normal and pretending that the sadness and guilt hadn’t been eating him alive, something inside him snapped, only for him to realize that he didn’t want to act anymore. That he didn’t want to be a dutiful sone anymore. That he wouldn’t let his father control him anymore.

Enough was fucking enough!

“Mr Halest? Are you listening to me?” Noémie spoke again. Her sweet and gentle voice pressed against his ear and caressed a path straight to his broken heart.

Ajax sucked in a deep breath. Curling his fingers tightly around the glass in his hand, he gave her a reluctant nod to enter. Not quite meeting her eyes as he kept his chair half turned to face the floor-to-ceiling window behind the desk.

Heels clacked against the tiles as from the corner of his eyes, he watched her walking closer.

“I’m sorry. I know you said you wanted to be alone. But these papers couldn’t wait...”

She started talking about work when all he wanted was for her to swallow him in her arms.

He needed someone to hold him from falling apart. Someone whose sweet voice could soothe down the wildest tempest in his head and the touch of whose gaze was warm enough to melt the ice around his frozen heart.

Ajax pursed his lips and refrained from making any comment.

After that heated conversation with his father and for the first time taking a stand for himself, a strange feeling of being free and doing whatever the fuck he wanted—had gotten a hold of him.

His chest tightened and relaxed at the thought of spilling his heart out.

But he couldn’t. He shouldn’t.

Whatever the hell was going on in his life and inside him should be the least of her concerns. Noémie didn’t deserve to be dragged into the mess he was in currently. It was going to pass, anyway.

“What is it this time?” he asked with a slur, but sounding just as cold and indifferent as any other time.

“Oh, just some designs that need your approval so I can forward them to the marketing team.”

Ajax finished the drink and set the glass back on the table.

“Olivia said you threw the papers when she came….” She trod carefully. “Is everything okay, Mr Halest?”

“I’m fine!” He grunted with a scoff. “Are you guys being paid to work or gossip behind my back?”

“That’s…” she gasped, eyes wide. “That’s not what I meant. I was just worr…I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. Health-wise. There’s an important meeting coming around in a few days. I thought if you’re not feeling well, I could always push it further dates ahead.”

“No need!”

“Are you sure? It would need you to travel…”

“Will you be coming along?”

“If you want me to…?”

“Don’t push it!”

“What?”

“The meeting.”

“Oh!” she sighed. “Okay.”

Shifting the glass side, he picked the pen from the holder. “Where do I need to sign?”