Chapter 39
The surgery had taken more of a toll on Ivory than she had expected. Coupled with the event that has happened earlier, she was exhausted.
The moment she got back home, she sank into the comfort of her bed, not bothering to take a well needed shower, and was asleep in an instant.
The moment she closed her eyes, she opened them to find herself in a place she never thought her mind would bring her back to.
The Garden in her very first family house. In front of her was a younger version of herself, crying after she had fallen down and scrapped her knee and in front of that younger version, trying to comfort her, was a young version of Gadreel.
‘Ah, I remember this day.‘ Ivory thought with a frown, yet her eyes softened as she watched the memory play out.
It had been a little while after she and Gadreel had become friends. His mother has come over to visit hers and while the adults talked, Ivory and Gadreel went to play in the Garden.
The happened to encounter a cat and she tried chasing after it, only to fall and scarp her knee.
She recalled how much pain she had been in at that very moment, but It all seemed to have faded into the background when Gadreel comforted her….
When he promised to never allow her get hurt again. When he promised he’d protect her.
Ivory clenched her jaw. Why had she believed him? Why had she clung onto those words?
She should have woken up to reality when he suddenly moved away months later, or perhaps when years later, she returned to the family house and saw him again, only then, he declared Evangeline his girlfriend.
Watching said scene play out at this very moment, Ivory felt stupid at the faint pain she felt in her chest.
Closing her eyes, she muttered. “Please go away.
Everything stilled and the next second, Gadreel’s voice sounded right beside her.
“And why should I listen to you?”
Her eyes snapped open and she turned to the male. It was clear in her eyes that his interaction had stunned her.
He was looking down at her, eyes colder than they usually were.
“Did you listen to me when I begged you to save Evangeline?”
The surprise on her face quickly turned into confusion. “Wha
“I begged you to save Evangeline,” Gadreel took a step forward and Ivory took one of hers backwards. “But you didn’t listen to me. Do you think it’s fun to see me beg…Arnett?”
She froze. Her entire body froze.
“What the hell? How…how did he know?!
That was the question she was thinking of, but the moment she met Gadreel’s gaze, she was quick to realize that the question was better asked internally.
“Did you think I’ll never find out?” He continued to advance. “Well I did. And it’s further confirmed my assumption that you’re a heartless person and someone like you, does not deserve to be loved.”
“You don’t deserve to be loved!” Gadreel roared and the moment those words left his mouth, Ivory jolted awake to the sound of her phone ringing.
Groaning, she tried to cover her eyes from the morning sun streaming into the blinds of her bedroom.
But the ringtone was persistent and she knew that if she didn’t pick up soon, whoever it was would not stop calling.
Sighing, she reached for the phone and answered it without even looking at the caller ID.
“Yes, hello?”
“y?” Lucien’s voice came through from the other end and Ivory could feel some of the bad energy incur from her dream, disappearing,
“Lucien,” She greeted as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I heard about what happened V, are you okay?”
About what happened? She was confused for a second before the previous days event came back to her.
Of course Kael went on to blabber! She groaned,
“Yes, I’m fine. It was just…it was nothing.”
“Nothing?” She could hear the frown in Lucien’s voice. “You could have gotten hurt. I don’t want you getting hurt and I certainly can’t have something like this happening again. I’ll assign some bodyguard to-
Bodyguards, no!” Ivory immediately turned down the offer, frowning at the thought of being followed. She had always hated it.
“It was just a one time thing, I assure you. No need to assign bodyguards or whatever. But,
thanks for the concern.”
A few seconds of silence passed and she could feel the reluctance in Lucien’s response.
“Fine,” He said, but quickly added. “If this ever happens again, I’ll have no choice but to assign a bodyguard.”
Ivory nodded. “Sure.” She wasn’t going to fight him on that, if he was adamant about doing something, there was no stopping him.
“I’ll be back in Paris in a little while, until then, please take care of yourself, okay?
“Yeah, sure.” Ivory responded.
“Then, I’ll see you in a bit. Bye.”
Ivory echoed his words, then ended the call. Sighing, she looked at the time and groaned.
It was still early and thanks to that stupid dream she barely felt like she had gotten any sleep.
Yet, she still has to go to work.
Groaning yet again, she forced herself to get out of bed and get ready for work. As she drank her usual morning cup of coffee, she took notice of the fact that she had heard from, nor seen Emma since yesterday.
As if on queue, her phone buzzed. Glancing down at the device, she saw it was an incoming call
from Emma.
“Em,” She greeted after answer the phone. “What happened yesterday?”
“I’m grounded, that’s what happened!” Emma sounded pretty upset as she spoke.
“Grounded? How so?” Ivory asked as she gathered her things and stepped out of the house, heading towards her ride.
“That Asshole, Cameron, got himself involved in a shooting. Got shot in the shoulder and worried my
mother and dad, endlessly. Now dad is convinced that the shooting was a planned attack on our family and we’re all instructed to stay home until further notice.”
Emma explained and Ivory frowned as she got into her car.
Ah, how could she have forgotten all about Cameron?
“Ah, that bastard is really getting on my nerves nowadays. I swear to God, Ivy, if he gets on my nerves one last time, I’m gonna stick his freaking head into the microwave and believe it or not, that’s gonna happen pretty soon seeing as were gonna be in the same house for….what, forever?”
Ivory frowned at this and before she knew it, she had asked. “Is he really that bad?”
Silence filled the other end for a few seconds, a well deserved silence, then Emma asked.
“What?”
Ivory contemplated for a few seconds before deciding it was best to tell Emma about the fact that she also had been there.
“I was also there,” she began. “At the shooting mean.
“What?! Ivy, are you hurt?”
“No, not at all, but…I only have Cameron to thank. He saved me back there, that’s why he got injured.”
Once again, silence filled the other end of the line before Emma spoke, clearly surprised.
“He did what?”
“He kinda protected me during the shooting.” Hesitating, she added. “I think if he’s as bad as you think, he won’t have protected me, but he did. So perhaps he’s not as bad.”
She didn’t know why she was defending Cameron, especially when it was him that had brought her the trouble in the first place.
Perhaps it was because she felt indebted to him, for protecting her.
Or perhaps it was simply because, he reminded her of her younger self, or the self she once
was.
“You can’t be serious,” Emma exclaimed. “Why would you defend him?”
“I’m not defending him.”
“It sure sounds like it,” Emma muttered and was quiet for a few seconds. “Does this mean I have to thank him?” she asked.
“That’s up to you, Emma.” Ivory sighed just as she pulled up to the parking lot of Elixiron.” I’ll call you back later, okay.”
“Yeah,” Emma muttered. “Bye.”
After that, the line went dead.
Once inside the building, Ivory was surprised to find Camilla waiting for her, while looking all
anxious.
“Boss, there’s a problem.”
Ivory frowned at this. “What’s wrong?”
Presenting a tablet containing data, She informed. “Odexa has just intercepted our latest collaboration work!”
Ivory frowned.
Ødexa… Gadreel had done what?
She couldn’t help but bit her lower lip as the contents of her dream flashed before her eyes.
Could it be that Gadreel had actually found out that she was Arnett?!
