Emilia regained consciousness finding herself in a very familiar room. She was alive.
She wasn't certain if what has happened has actually happened. It was all a daze.
But her trying to move was a quick reminder that what she went through was true and not a wicked nightmare. Her wrists were bandaged in many layers of gauze, she had IV with fluids and painkillers, and she was very bruised up and sore. She hissed when she tried to move her head and the stabbing pain shut through it.
She was back in the manor which was equally unexpected. She was back in her room.
Someone saved her. Someone cared enough to find her, whether it was luck or intend, she wasn't sure.
And then the memories flooded her mind. The memories of her contract and supposed marriage.
She sat up instantly. She ignored how unwell she was, and worked against every grain of her body to move. She needed to see Patrick, now.
Emilia pulled out the needles, knowing how to do it with least amount of damage since she learnt to do so with her own mum.
She stood up with a wobble and supported herself on the furniture, she searched the room but there were no electronics there.
She dressed herself in the first pair of trousers and top she managed to lay her hands on and whilst taking deep breaths with every movement she walked out of the room, unaware that Christopher was at home because he didn't dare to move too far away from her.
She needed to know. She needed to know if Patrick conspired with Mr Hayden or if he lied to her on his own accord. She needed to know.
She needed to know why Christopher lied to her. She literally just turned him down a few days earlier because she thought that he was married to someone else. But now, he might have been married to her.
In some wicked sense, it was a dream come true. She daydreamed about him like a teenager having a crush over the past few weeks. But… she married against her will.
Emilia felt so dizzy that she knew that it was a matter of time until she fainted.
Regardless of the cues her body gave, she persevered as she walked downstairs.
She spotted Bernadette dusting the sideboard as she came to the ground floor.
"Bernie, please call me a taxi. Now." Emilia said startling Bernadette who looked at her with her eyes wide open and concern.
"Emilia, you shouldn't…"
"Now!" Emilia had no patience.
"There's a chauffeur available if you need to go somewhere…"
"That's good. Where?"
"I can let him know you want to go somewhere and he will be in the front courtyard within a minute."
"Do it."
"Emilia, Mr Hayden…"
"I don't care, I need to go!" Emilia limped through the hallway and to the door. The car was at the bottom of the stairs by the time she got there.
"Crimson Tech office." She said as she sat behind the driver. She huffed as she tried to put a seatbelt on. The man listened and then kept looking back at her reflection in the mirror worriedly. Her state was certainly far from great as she hunched in half to bear the pain.
For Emilia the next twenty or so minutes felt like eternity.
Once they arrived in a busy city square, the driver held the door open for her.
Emilia gritted her teeth as she walked out of the car and straightened out.
The driver hesitated and then walked behind her into the building. The security tried to approach her but they stopped when they saw the driver's uniform.
"I'm here for Cosby." Emilia said to the security and the receptionist as she continued limping. "He is expecting me." She lied.
The driver waved at the security and they took the step back.
Then the driver signalled one of the men to follow her before he left to call Mr Hayden.
One of the men from security walked into the elevator with Emilia, accompanying her up to the highest floor where Emilia was once before to sign her doomed contract.
"Are you alright, madam?"
Emilia looked at him, wondering if he was blind or stupid.
"I'm great." She replied sarcastically before wincing again.
She walked out onto the floor spotting Patrick at the far end. He was speaking to someone by his desk which was directly before the entrance to Mr Hayden's office.
Many people started to stare in her direction but she didn't care. She might have been wearing jeans and a vest, and several of bandages, but she could still strangle Patrick if her suspicions were true. Sweat pearls started to fall down the side of her face. She was in no shape or form to be there.