Chapter 59
Chapter Fifty-Nine
I poured the dregs of tea from the teapot into my cup. Across from me in the cafeteria, Neil sipped from his espresso mug with economical movements. To my right, Petra nibbled her almond croissant. I swept stray crumbs off the table into a serviette, then adjusted my legs under the table, accidentally knocking my knee against Neil’s. His stern expression didn’t change, but I felt him tense at the contact. I suppressed a smile.
Neil had suggested regrouping over morning refreshments to discuss work matters that arose during his absence. After the recap, he placed his cup down on his saucer with a decisive clunk. “I think that about catches me up on what I missed over the past week. Unless there’s anything else?”
He raised his eyebrows at Petra and me. I shook my head, but Petra jolted upright. “Oh! Um, well…” She fiddled with her scrunched-up serviette. “I’m not sure if this matters, but we did get an odd call asking for you on Friday.”
Odd call? She hadn’t told me anything about this.
Neil leaned forward. “Go on.”
“So this man—Daniel Ling, I think he said his name was—rang asking to speak with you. Well, I told him you were away on personal business. Then he started asking all these questions about where you’d gone and why.” Petra’s voice climbed in pitch as she spoke faster. “I tried not to give him any details, but he was very persuasive. He said he was your boss.”
Neil massaged his temples. “I see.”
Petra’s eyes rounded. “Sorry, was that wrong? Should I have refused to talk to him?”
“Don’t worry. Daniel Ling is the president of Zelthia Group. Thank you for telling me he called.”
Petra nodded, placated.
Neil sipped the rest of his coffee in thoughtful silence, a vein on his forehead throbbing.
“I’m just going to nip to the restroom,” Petra said, getting to her feet. “Back in a sec.”
I watched her depart, then angled myself towards Neil. “So, I’m assuming it’s a problem that Daniel was sniffing around for information on your whereabouts?”
Neil pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s certainly not ideal.”
“I wonder what Petra told him.”
“I dare say not much. She can’t tell what she doesn’t know.”
As Petra returned, Neil rose. “We’d best get back. Lots of work piled up over the week, I’m sure.”
Murmuring our agreement, Petra and I gathered our belongings.
We arrived on the twentieth floor to the sight of a massive bouquet dominating James’s desk. Blue hydrangeas, white roses, and baby’s breath burst from blue wrapping paper with a teddy bear attached, and a metallic blue helium balloon proclaiming “It’s a Boy!” in silver cursive lettering.
I wondered who on earth that was for. Then I noticed Neil’s reaction. He turned rigid, the colour draining from his face. My stomach dropped like I’d missed a step. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
Neil shouldered past me. “What is that?” he asked James, who was hidden behind the bouquet.
James beamed. “They just got delivered for you, Mr. Kingston. Aren’t they lovely? I didn’t realise you’re a new dad. Congratulations!”
My jaw unhinged. Since when was Neil a father? Was this somehow connected to Veronica’s baby? Wait. Was Veronica’s baby his baby?
Petra crowded up to Neil, practically fizzing. “Oh! Is that what the trip to Singapore was about? Did your partner give birth there? Wow, congratulations, sir!”
Neil stood motionless. Silence congealed in the space where denial should have been.
I must have the wrong end of the stick. There’s no way he’d keep something so monumental from me.
“Neil?” I managed in a strangled tone.
He seemed to register my presence again, his eyes flitting over to me. A heavy pause draped over us.
Please say something. Say it was someone’s idea of a cruel prank. Say there’s been a mistake…
Neil licked his lips, eyes drifting back to the bouquet. Each passing second of silence twisted the knife in my gut further. I swallowed through a constricted throat, the hot sting of unshed tears welling behind my lashes.
“Thank you,” Neil said. “I’ll take them to my office.” He reached for the bouquet and cradled the blooms against his shirt. Then he was off down the corridor.
Petra exchanged a confused look with me. I shrugged at her, keeping my tears held back.
If the baby was his, did that mean Veronica and Neil were a couple this whole time, and I was the other woman? Or was this all some kind of misunderstanding?
I trailed after Neil into his office, closing the door behind me with a snick.
Neil plunked the bouquet onto the coffee table. The teddy bear toppled over, grinning vacantly at us with its embroidered smile and glass bead eyes.
“Neil… What’s going on?”
He didn’t answer me. He searched the bouquet and teddy bear thoroughly, then shoved them inside a cabinet.
“Neil?” I asked again.
He dragged a hand over his face. “Someone’s just sent me a clear message that they know about Ben.”
“Are you… Are you Ben’s father?”
Neil hesitated, then replied bluntly, “Yes.”
The admission detonated inside me with the force of a bomb. I nearly lost my footing.
So, it’s true.
More questions shuddered past my quivering lips. “A-Are you two… together? Have we been having an affair this whole time?”
“No. I promise you. There are reasons for everything.”
I scoffed. “Like what?”
Neil took a step towards me. “Amelia, please…”
I shrank away, shaking my head vehemently. Tears spilled free at last, blazing paths down my cheeks.
“It’s not what you think. Allow me to explain.”
But what explanation could there possibly be? He had been messing around with me while the mother of his child fended for herself in Singapore. Whichever way you looked at it, that wasn’t good.
Neil said something, but I didn’t hear it over the blood rushing in my ears. Then the shrill ring of his phone cut through the room. He swore under his breath as he plucked the device from his suit jacket and squinted at the caller ID. “It’s Ruby,” he said.
A.k.a Veronica. The mother of his child.
I crossed my arms. What was he going to say to her?
Neil shakily picked up the call. “Hello?” As he listened, his expression turned grave. “Understood,” he said. Then he faced me. “The chairman is dead. We have to leave. Right now.”
Winston drove Neil and me to our apartment building. In the basement carpark, Neil rounded the car and wrenched open my door before I’d finished fumbling with my seatbelt. His hand closed over my elbow, propelling me from the vehicle. “Hurry. Time is of the essence.”
In a daze, I allowed him to steer me towards the lift. “What’s happening?”
“The shit has officially hit the fan, and if Daniel wants to punish me, his best course of action would be to harm you.”
“I’m in danger?”
“I don’t know how much Daniel knows about us, but we have to play it safe. My priority is getting you as far away from him and his cronies as possible.”
“How?”
“You’re going to London.”
“But my flight’s still weeks away?—”
Neil shook his head. “Change of plans. You’re leaving today.”
“You want me to drop everything and flee the country?”
“Yes.”
“And if I disagree?”
“That would be very unwise indeed.”
My head swam. I swiped a shaking hand down my face.
“Pack your luggage and go straight to the airport,” Neil instructed as we rode up to my floor. “Winston will drive you there. Get on the next available flight to London—one without a stopover in Singapore.” He rummaged in his pocket, extracted his wallet, then slipped out a credit card. “Use this.” He pressed the card into my limp hand.
I stared at his name embossed on black plastic.
“And this.” He gave me another card—a business card. “I want you to contact this man—Alan Dixon—once you’re in London. Tell him you want to apply for a job. He’ll ask you to come in for an interview?—”
Neil continued to speak, but the words blurred together. I swayed on my feet.
“Whoa.” Neil caught my shoulders, steadying me.
The door lurched open, and we stepped out.
“Are you okay?” Neil asked. “I know this is a lot to take in.”
I didn’t answer.
“Hey, look at me.”
I raised my eyes to meet his. The hard lines of his face had smoothed into an expression that was tender and earnest. He cupped my cheek. “I don’t want to send you away, but I have to, to ensure you’re as far from danger as possible. Do you understand? I need you to trust me, Milly. Please. You’re everything to me, and I…” His throat worked. “I want to protect you. This is hard for me. The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Believe me. If I lost you, I—I couldn’t live with myself.” Tears had gathered in his eyes.
My heart stirred. But how could I trust him when he had concealed the truth about Veronica’s baby from me?
I remembered that day months ago on the roof, when Neil had warned me, “Trust no one.” His cynical advice had struck me as extreme—even sad. But I was starting to comprehend the hard lessons that had ingrained those words within him.
“Trust no one,” I said.
“What?”
“A few months ago, you told me to trust no one.”
“Do you still think I’m a good man?”
I hesitated. “I… I’m not sure anymore.”
Neil clasped my hands in his. “You have every reason to doubt me. I haven’t been the partner you deserve, and I wouldn’t blame you if you no longer wanted anything to do with me. But if you can find it within yourself to offer me one thing, it would be this: Stay safe. Get away from me and stay safe until I can come back for you—if you still want me to.”
I searched those fathomless eyes of his, reflecting my own scared, lost expression back at me. Behind his mask, glimpses of the real Neil shone through. The Neil who had opened himself up to me, and who was now trying to protect me, even as it gutted him inside.
“You said everything has a reason. Is that true? Because I don’t understand why you’d have a child with your ex.”
“I know it’s hard to believe?—”
“Will you tell me everything once you’re finished doing what you’ve set out to do?”
“Yes. I promise.”
I stood on a precipice. Everyone important to me in my life had abandoned me. Maybe Neil would too. I couldn’t control that. But I could control whether I’d fight for him or give up. So, in that moment, even though the odds were stacked against me, I decided to trust him.
“Okay,” I said through the lump in my throat. “I’ll go.”