HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

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BIANCA

I had gotten exactly forty minutes into the movie before my eyes started to feel heavy, which was the most progress I had made all week. I was not even watching it properly, just letting the light and the sound fill the room, letting myself believe that was enough.

My phone suddenly buzzed on the pillow beside me. I ignored it at first, then I saw the name. It was Felix.

I picked it up immediately. “Hi Bianca.” His voice came through, “Left to me, I wouldn’t but…” He paused, and the pause lasted just long enough to make my stomach tighten.

“Is anything the problem, Felix?” Because there was something in his tone. Then he cleared his throat. “The boss needs you, to prepare. We have somewhere to be.”

I sat up slowly. “Why am I…”

“Not you forgetting that you are his assistant, Bianca.” He said it the way someone speaks when they are genuinely trying to save you time. “Get prepared. I will meet you in front of your house. Don’t pack unnecessary things.” And then he was gone. The line went dead before I had even closed my mouth properly.

I sat there with the phone still in my hand and the movie still going in the background, someone on screen laughing at something I hadn’t been following anyway. I looked at the dark screen of my phone for a moment. The laugh track felt wrong somehow like noise from another life, then I got up.

I pulled the small travel box from under the shelf and didn’t overthink it. “Two days at most,” I told myself, though I had absolutely nothing to base that on. I folded things quickly and pressed the lid down and then I sat on the edge of the bed and the room was quiet except for the television I had forgotten to pause.

Then it hit me. “What will I do with Emma?”

I couldn’t just leave or get into a car at this hour without knowing she was alright, without knowing someone was watching her closely at the hospital. The thought of her lying in that narrow bed, in that ward while I disappeared into whatever this night was didn’t sit well with me.

I called the hospital and the night receptionist picked up after the second ring.

“Good evening, I’m calling about Emma Fernandes. She is in room…”

“Ms. Fernandes.” The woman’s voice shifted into something warmer than the standard greeting. “Yes, actually. Your sister has been moved this evening. She’s been transferred to one of our VIP suites on the fourth floor.” She paused. “She’s comfortable. She’s in very good hands. You really don’t need to worry tonight.”

I didn’t say anything for a moment.

“Ms. Fernandes? Are you still there?”

“Yes.” I swallowed once. “Thank you.”

I ended the call and set the phone down on the bed. VIP suite?

I looked at the wall for a long moment and I did not pretend to wonder. I already knew who did it, so there wasn’t any need to go back and forth with the woman.

There was a version of me that would spend the next ten minutes sitting on this bed turning it over, thinking about what it meant, what he expected what I was supposed to do with the fact that Adrian had moved my sister to a better room without a single word to me about it. But that version of me would be late.

11:54 Wed, Jul 22 d

Chapter 20

I stood up, picked up the box and my bag and my phone and I walked out before I could change my mind.

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A horn sounded from the gate, and then my phone lit up with Felix’s name again. I didn’t answer it, just walked towards the front of the building.

Felix was parked directly in front of the building, engine running, hazard lights blinking in the dark. He stepped out when he saw me coming and moved to take the box before I could say anything, loading it into the boot smoothly.

“Thank you,” I said.

He nodded once and I got into the back seat. The city slid past the windows as he pulled out and I watched it without really seeing it. We drove for a few minutes in silence, just the sound of the engine and the occasional sweep of headlights going the other way. I pressed my fingers together in my lap and said nothing.

“Felix.” I kept my voice calm. “What exactly is happening?”

He glanced at me in the rearview mirror, “Something personal, I believe. On the boss’s end.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“No.” he said, and he had the grace to sound slightly uncomfortable about it. “It isn’t.” He adjusted his grip on the wheel. “I don’t have the full picture detail, Ms. Fernandes. What I can tell you is that when he called me, he was already on his way and he did not want to go alone.”

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