All Chapters of The Ex-Con billionaire war God: Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
40 chapters
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Pain.Pain was all I felt as I slowly regained consciousness. My eyes felt crusted over, and it took a great effort to open them up. Initially, everything was hazy, and everything hurt. I couldn’t say where my body began or ended, nor could I say where it hurt.Or why I hurt.Panic came about almost instantly. I couldn’t move, at least, it felt like that, because my arms and legs were jelly. I tried to open my mouth, but I couldn’t because something was tied to it. My whole face burned, making my eyes fill with tears.I didn’t know where I was or how I got here. I didn’t know why I hurt.All I could think about was that something bad had happened to me, bad enough to thrust my whole body into agony.Footsteps thudded, signaling numerous people entering the room where I was, and unfamiliar faces swam in my periphery.“Miss, miss, you need to calm down, everything’s alright,” multiple voices told me, but they only managed to heighten my fear. I didn’t know why I felt so trapped, perhaps
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“Hello, Kara,” Dr. Matthews, my primary care doctor, knocked on the doorframe five days later, and I raised my eyes to him. The kind doctor sent me a smile.“Dr. Matthews, hello,” I replied, sitting straighter. My body hurt a lot less five days later. I was healing well. “Um, do I need another redressing?”The doctors kept changing my bandages every few hours, stating that they needed to make sure that my burns would not get infected, as they covered a considerable area. I was used to it.“No, not yet, Kara. But the nurses will be here in a couple of hours for that. Good news for you thought, we might be able to take the bandages off for good soon,” the doctor beamed, and for the first time since I came to the hospital, I felt hope rise in my chest.“Really? That sounds great, Dr. Matthews!”Dr. Matthews smiled again. “That it does. I can only imagine how eager you are to not be mummified 24/7.”I chuckled. My mouth didn’t twinge when I laughed anymore. “That will be a relief. The b
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The whiskey stopped burning as it went down my throat a long time ago.I couldn’t remember when I’d gotten to the open bar at my family home and started to down glass after glass of whiskey. I was on my way to get absolutely drunk off my mind, something I never did. I didn’t like losing my life mind like that.But after what I found today, the thoughts running through my mind became too much.The necklace was no more than a lump of metal wrapped around a cracked opal, completely blackened. The chain had been broken, and the only reason the pendant remained on it was because it had fused with the chain. That alone proved how hot the fire had been.The inferno, the fire department as well as the police concluded, was strangely far too intense to be a mere gas fire, and definitely not enough to be an electric fire. For the temperature to get high enough to partially melt metal, there must’ve been a heck of a lot of gas leaking.The police seemed to find the fire suspicious. I didn’t care
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I was shocked to hear those words come out of Jade’s mouth.“What did you say?”“You heard me,” Jade was crying again. “I don’t want to think about it like that, I really don’t, but you literally screamed at me over her. You’re looking at a photo of her necklace and getting drunk as if…as if you loved her.”“Jade,” I said, disbelief marring my tone. “I don’t have to love someone to be upset that they died in a fire. It’s awful what happened to Kara, and I’m upset about it. Why shouldn’t I be? A woman died in a house belonging to me. I didn’t love her, but she was my life. I lived in the same house as her for three years, at the very house that burned down!”“I understand that, I do, but you’re acting like you’re mourning a lover.”“And you’re not acting like you’re mourning a friend,” I accused her, the anger I’ve tried to keep under control rising once again.The lack of sympathy on Jade’s part shocked me. I didn’t know how to feel about the fact that Jade didn’t even seem to care ab
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So, this is your office!” Axel grinned before pushing open the door to a small office. I stood by the door, and I ventured in.It was quaint and calm, unlike the rest of the office. There was a brand-new computer on the desk, along with a large drawing tablet. There was a printer and a scanner, as well as a corner for physical art, with a rack of paint supplies, placed near the window so I had a perfect view of the city as well as good sunlight for painting.The office was designed for me, and I knew Terra had supervised everything. She was the one who knew how I liked to combine digital art with physical elements. It was a part of my style.“This is amazing,” I gasped, running my fingers over the drawing tablet. When I raised my eyes at Axel, I found him looking at me with a fond expression and a small smile. For some reason, it made me blush, flustered. “I cannot imagine anything better. This feels too much…”“Don’t be. According to Terra, you’re going to be taking on the bulk of th
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Two hours later, I felt like bawling.All my designs were gone. All those fabric prints I’ve worked hard on, drew on paper with watercolors, scanned to the computer, and glossed up so they fit into the satin clothes better…all of them were gone. There were a few rough drafts available, but the rest…Tears were starting to gather around my eyes, and I couldn’t believe it. How could this have happened? Had the tech department done something to the computers that accidentally deleted all of it? Even the copies in the cloud were gone! How could that have happened? It makes no sense!Hadn’t I saved them correctly? I could swear I did, I even double-checked. So, how could it have happened? Where did I go wrong?Suddenly, a bad thought occurred to me.What if…what if this wasn’t a coincidence? Every company computer had the same passwords, which meant any employee could access it. When I left the office last night, there were still some people in the design department working late.I didn’t
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For a second, I couldn’t speak. Then, Terra’s words registered in my mind, and I spluttered.“I…I don’t know what you mean…”“Kara, it’s alright,” Terra scoffed. “Come with me.”Numbly, I followed her back to her office, and she leaned against her desk, looking at me with an expression that clearly told me not to lie to her or make any excuses.I bit the insides of my mouth and tried not to catch her eyes, knowing full well that she was judging me. It was just like college, the expression on her face. I didn’t even know what to say.Finally, she sighed again.“It’s just like you, Kara, to try and save the day all by yourself,” she muttered, shaking her head. “When are you going to learn that it’s okay to defend yourself? That you can ask for help and expect to get it? It wouldn’t be tattling to the boss if you tell me when someone destroys your work.”My head whipped up at that.“How did you know?”“I have my ways,” Terra replied mysteriously. “Why didn’t you tell me yourself? I had t
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I felt like I was going crazy.Ever since grandma gave me that file, I haven’t known what to think. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t remember signing those documents. Why would I have signed them anyway? I didn’t want to divorce Kara, not yet. I didn’t know why, but for some reason, I didn’t want to do it.Kara hadn’t been the one to present those papers to me, nor had it been Theresa.There was only one other person who had access to me who could attempt such a thing.“What is the meaning of this?” I asked Jade, shoving the papers on her face.I’d tracked her down to the hotel she was staying at, because the villa had burned down, and my grandma did not want her at her house. I hadn’t spoken to her since yesterday, after I’d asked her to take a break.“Oh, hello, Derrick, nice to see you again, how are you? I’m doing fine, thanks for asking,” Jade snarked, annoyed and hurt.But I didn’t care.“Don’t take that tone with me, Jade. Do you have anything to say about those papers?”
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Kara was withdrawing from me.I didn’t know what was happening. If I were to pinpoint when it began, I’d say it was roughly the day after Kara attended her big meeting. I had no idea what I had done, because Kara was perfectly polite and reasonable about it.Her fabric designs had been a rousing success despite the hardship she faced due to her own workmates betraying her, and I remembered how bright her smile had been when Terra approved of her designs wholeheartedly. I thought we’d be able to celebrate a little later, after work, and have drinks together, or dinner.I sought her out at lunch to forget the plans, but she smiled and said she had to refuse as she had some errands to run.I didn’t doubt that she was telling the truth, but something about the way she said it seemed off. At the time, I’d brushed it off, thinking it was just a figment of my imagination, and I was just reacting to her rejection by being a paranoid idiot.But then it happened again, and again.To the point,
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I was mortified.I didn’t believe Axel was lying to me. Why would he? As far as I knew, he never lied to me. And it made a lot of sense.I realized that I hadn’t seen either Jennie or Hailey around the office, and Marshall looked more glum than usual. I didn’t think much of it. But now I realized Terra had fired them.I didn’t really think she would take that step, I truly did not. It made me feel a bit awful, because I hadn’t wanted anyone to get fired on my behalf. But then again, Terra had said it was becoming a pattern when it came to those two, and well, I couldn’t fault her for taking such an action to safeguard her company’s good name.I felt very, very bad for thinking ill of Axel, though. The poor man had been faithful to me, not spilling my secrets, and I’d gone and treated him coldly because I’d been too stupid to ask Terra how exactly she learned about Jennie and Hailey.“I’m so sorry,” I blurted out, wanting the ground to track and drag me within. “I shouldn’t have though