SHIMMER'S POV
Talking to Raelynn felt like a massive time waste. The girl could hardly focus, all she did was cry about her called off wedding. I felt since we were together in our case, we needed to work together to clean the mess, but once I voiced that to her, she cried even more, stating that she had no care about going to prison. The fact that Pete had called off the wedding was enough prison for her, so she said.
Holding a pen in my hand, I swirled it several times, my mind failing to settle on anything. What had I gotten myself into? Oh no, I stood up and sighed. Each time I thought of calling Dylan, I lacked the strength.
A knock on my door startled me so much that I almost lost my footing. Recollecting myself, I faced the door to see my PA peeping in, "I'm sorry doctor de Milo; I didn't mean to scare…"
"What do you need?" I asked impatiently.
Nervously, she cleared her throat and said, "there are representatives from the Rockridge law firm….."
Rockridge Law firm? Oh no!! Why were they at the hospital? Had they come for me? Who had told them? Or had Logan finally spilled the beans? Sweat balls formed on my forehead and I felt my knees giving in. All the nightmares that I had been having came flooding into my memory. The inmate uniforms. The cells. Cellmates bullying me. My family…..was my family ever going to forgive me?
I violently shook my head and said out aloud, "no! no! no!"
"It's ok doctor de Milo. I will pass on the message to the head of Legal" my PA said as she turned to leave.
Head of legal? What on earth was she talking about?
"Wait!" I called out. Just then, I realised that while I was drowning in my sorrowful thoughts, the girl had been talking to me. And when I shouted out "no" she has thought that I was responding to whatever question she had asked me.
"What did you say?" I asked her.
Looking even more nervous, the poor girl started to talk, "we have some representatives from the Rockridge Law Firm. Our head of legal is the one who had called. She said there is a briefing on the case of Israel Bassard. It will be in less than ten minutes in the seventeenth floor board room. They wanted to know if you would be interested in just sitting in."
"Me?", I asked, a bit confused.
"Yes you, doctor de Milo. You're not going there as the CFO of the de Milo Group, but rather as mother to doctor Dylan. The head of legal said since it involves the kidnapping of your son, you might be interested in sitting in and hearing firsthand what the lawyers are saying."
"Is Roderick sitting in as well?" I inquired.
"As CEO of the group and also father of the victim, I think he will be in," the girl said.
I thought about it for a while, then after I had made up my mind not to attend, I told my PA and instantly dismissed her.
Left alone in my office, all I could do was fidget in my chair. Since the dinner, I had hardly been productive at work; for the only thing that remained on my mind was the image of me being imprisoned. Once Logan mentioned my name and produced enough evidence to nail me; there was no escape.
Suddenly an idea came to my mind. Quickly I stood up, processed the idea in my mind, and left my office in a hurry. In less than a minute I was storming into the board room.
"Oh, there you are, Shimmer! We're already done here!", Hayden Rockridge, the founder and CEO of Rockridge Law Firm, and also the father to Pete, stood up to greet me.
"Hello Hayden. I'm so sorry I delayed. I had an online meeting." I hugged him.
"Of course, of course! It can't be easy running the finances of such a huge group!" He laughed quietly.
After hugging Roderick too, the three of us remained in the board room while the others left. Hayden called out to one of his teammates, a middle aged man who he told me was the lawyer dealing with the kidnapping case. The lawyer briefed me on the issue of Israel Bassard. Since I had my own personal questions, I decided to just force them in.
"Did he do anything more than what you just said? Rape, maybe? Or attempted rape?"
"No. None of the victims reported any of those", the lawyer responded.
"How about drugging? Could he have drugged them at any point?" as I spoke, I felt my lips quivering in fright, and my knees almost let me down.
"The use of gas to try and kill his victims …that's what we have. There are quite a number of charges against him."
"Oh ok. I was just wondering, if he had attempted to rape or if he drugged them, how would his sentence be?"
Hayden looked at me and said, "those are serious crimes! Obviously he would be locked in for some good years. But since we're talking Bassard; we might even be talking of life imprisonment. He has done it all. Besides the kidnapping, he has previous cases. He murdered, dealt with drugs, illegal possession of firearm…his list is endless."
I just nodded. Once Roderick and I saw Hayden out, Roderick asked me if I was free to have lunch with him, but since I had an issue to solve, I told him I could not, stating work as my excuse. He looked a bit sad, but he understood me.
Hastily I went to the VIP ward in which Bassard was. Three armed guards stood there. They gave slight bows as I approached them.
"Madam de Milo", they all greeted respectfully. I simply nodded and proceeded to enter into Brassard's ward.
When I entered, I swiftly closed the door behind me, and the clicking sound that it made caused Israel to turn around. He was lying in his bed, and he gave me a cold, deathly stare. His face, although handsome, was the face of a ruthless man. There was something about him that made him seriously scary. The aura suddenly became tensed up, and I understood that indeed, the man before me was a real thug. A serial killer, maybe? Who knows?
It seemed like he never blinked, because it appeared to me like his gaze was frozen on me. The corners of his lips twitched in mockery. From the way he stared, it was clear that he knew how scared of him I was. Standing very close to the door, I stared back at him. It was not the time to show my fear of him. I needed to act brave.
"If it isn't the mighty Shimmer de Milo! The wife of the well known Roderick de Milo! The country's wealthiest couple! Billionaires, or is it multi-billionaires? Her royal highness, what on earth do you want here?", he said in an emotionless tone, with a low hoarse voice.
"Israel Bassard", I took two steps forward, and his stare remained fixed on me. I tried my best to make my tone match his.
"I'm already going to jail! So you don't have to rub it in my face! Your doctors have confirmed that I will be discharged in two days. And of course the prison truck will be awaiting me. Happy?" he gave a mocking smile.
Since I remained silent, he went on to say, "I said are you happy now, Shimmer de Milo! Now little sonny is back home safely! You can leave me in peace now, I have nothing to say to you!"
With that he turned to face the ward bathroom door. I walked closer to him, until I stood next to his bed. Feeling my presence, Israel sat up in his bed, before slowly climbing off the bed and without sparing me a glance, he strode towards a sink which was in the room. He opened it and washed one of his hands, cupped the same hand and started to drink the water.
"You should be grateful that I didn't kill that spoiled brat of yours! I regret not killing that thing!" he said angrily while he continued to use his hand to drink more water. I chose to ignore his comment.
"There are cups over there," I pointed.
"Oh yes I know! I just don't want to use one," he said without turning to face me. Filling his cupped hand with more water, Israel splashed it on his face and sighed.
"Please excuse me, madam de Milo. I need to rest in this beautiful VIP ward of yours; before the cells take me in!" he laughed in a sarcastic way.
"Not so fast!", I responded in a shaky voice.
"What did you say, your royal highness?" he still did not turn to face me.
"Listen carefully Israel Bassard. I have a proposal for you!" my shaky voice spoke out.
He remained rooted to his spot, and I went on to say, "I…I have a proposal. A good one."
Fear made me stammer.
Finally, Israel turned to face me.