CHAPTER
RENÉE
Why does it suddenly feel so comfortable? My bed has never felt so comfortable before.
God...! The bedsheets has nice scents too.
With a smile on my face and ever so slowly I opened my eyes....to a very strange environment.
My first thought?
This is not my room. Where am I?
"Finally, you wake up. For a moment I thought you've never wake again." Came the deep voice.
I sprang up from the bed to see a set of hard brown eyes staring down at me. Sitting down in a well designed office chair with some papers in his hand, he looked like a king. An unsmiling king.
Vanda Crown.
Just like that, my encounter with him came flooding my head and my eyes widened again to unbearable degrees.
My uncle stole from him! That bastard of a man put me in such an uncomfortable position and died! He stole....
"Fifteen million dollars....!" Saying the number out loud again is enough for a flood of dizziness to swarm me again and I was about to faint again.....
"Don't you dare faint on me again." Vanda growled in a low voice that held threat.
Okay. His voice alone is a dash of cold water.
"Where am I?" I asked, looking around the luxurious place.
"In my house." He stated briskly.
The Crown's mansion!?
"Oh my God!" I gasped, throwing aside the covers to get up. "How long have I been sleeping?"
"You mean how long you were out like a light after you heard of your uncle's treachery?" He fixed me with cold eyes, "Four hours."
My eyes widened.
"You didn't think I'll sit around and wait for you to wake up, did you? I told you, Miss Adams. Time is quite precious to me."
He said it like time isn't precious to me too.
"My sister, Venice! She'll be looking for me." I cried.
"I had Desmond stay back. He's one of my men and he'll see to it that your sister doesn't scare about your safety."
"Thanks... I guess." I wiped my suddenly sweaty hands on my clothes. "But I've got to start going back."
He dropped the files on the desk and got up. "No you don't. Let's shed more light on our conversation before you passed out cold, Miss Adams. Where did your uncle keep my money?"
"I don't know! I don't really know!" I exclaimed truthfully, "I didn't even know my uncle embezzled such amount of money!"
"Not that lie again." He said through gritted teeth. "Your uncle made it clear to me that you two were pretty close. Trust me, Miss Adams, you don't want to keep lying to me."
"I don't really know! If I'm in possession of such money, my sister and I won't be living the way we are living! Didn't you see our house!?" I pleaded, trying to make him understand.
"It's all part of the disguise." He stated. "I know that no criminal will want to surrender that kind of money, but you will give it back to me."
"I don't have it!" I cried out, willing for him to understand.
"Then, you will pay for it." He said curtly.
I felt like bursting out in tears and laughing at the same time. "Even if I work seven jobs till I'm hundred, I won't be able to repay that money. Even if I whore myself for the rest of my life, I won't make that kind of money!"
He put a hand in his pocket and cocked his head to the side in thought. "Whore yourself..." He trailed off in thought.
I felt the blood drain from my face. "No! I'm not doing it. You'll have to kill me first!" Just the thought of a man touching me that way is enough to make me gag.
"You overestimate yourself, Miss Adams. I won't be caught dead a few feet away from your body, talk more of when I'm alive and can't help it."
This word brought relief even as it hurt me. I felt drained physically and emotionally. "Please, just let me go. I really don't have the money."
There was no sympathy in his eyes. No remorse.
"Your uncle killed my brother to have that money, do you know that?" He groaned suddenly.
Oh my God.... My eyes flew to my mouth.
Pain flashed in his eyes just for a millisecond. Then it cleared to remain hard and cold. "That's one of the reasons why I won't let this go just because the main culprit is dead. That you refused to give me back the money makes you an apprentice."
He walked close to me. I barely resisted the urge to step back. "You owe me, Miss Adams. And you will pay. One way or another." He stated low on his throat.
A shiver of dread went down my arms on that statement. I was about to ask what he meant by that when the door opened.
"The doctor just called, sir. The Madame is awake and she's asking of you." The butler said.