ONE MONTH LATER.
"Did he refuse to talk to me again?" Avery questioned, combing her fingers through her hair in frustration as she leaned back into the plush leather seat. Here she was, almost going insane from anxiousness and having no idea what was going on in the country she just came back to, while a certain man sat back in the shadows refusing to speak to her!
She spent the first two weeks after leaving the country, unconscious in an hospital where Archie's medical team attended to her day and night. The next one week was exhausted with her barely conscious of what was going on in her surroundings, and having reoccurring nightmares that terrified her so much that she was anything but normal in the daytime. With her condition in those three weeks, she could perfectly understand why he did not speak to her for that period of time. After all, no one would want to have a one-sided conversation with an almost crazy woman.
But then, she had recovered completely in the previous week and had been requesting to speak to him everytime he called, yet the god-damned man kept refusing all the time.
Lifting her gaze to glare into the rear view mirror where the driver's eyes met hers, she asked, "What was his excuse this time?"
"Uhm…Miss Ava, the boss said to be patient since you will be arriving home in a few minutes. He said he prefers to speak to you physically," the man replied in a calm, unwavering voice. Having assisted the crazy Arch Donovan for more than a decade, Secretary Neil was basically immune to any other person's anger.
Avery scoffed, "If he enjoys face to face conversation so much, then why didn't he wait till you arrived before speaking to you? Why am I the only one he's avoiding?"
"That's because—We are here, Miss," Neil announced.
Pressing her lips together, Avery turned to look out the window as the car drove into the garage. Catching sight of the spot where she had knelt before Archie a month ago, her heart jerked as she could still feel her agony radiating from the area. The only difference now was she was successfully able to channel her heartache into anger directed at a particular set of people.
"Miss Ava?"
She snapped out of her thoughts, looking up to see that Neil had alighted from the car and was now holding the door open for her.
"Thanks," she muttered, stepping out of the car before asking, "Do I still need to use the cap and mask?"
When they alighted from the private jet earlier, Neil had instructed her to use a baseball cap and nose mask to conceal her face until they got to the car where he permitted her to take them off. His words had been, "Boss ordered to avoid reporters getting your face on the camera but at the same time, he wants them to have record of a strange woman's arrival back in the country."
She had obeyed without questions then but still needed to know if she would have to hide her face in a luxurious private building such as this.
"Only until we get to the private elevator, Miss," Neil replied.
Avery nodded and fastened the nose mask across her face, trailing after Neil as he left the way to an elevator at one end of the garage.
"This elevator leads straight to the penthouse so it is only available to Mr Donovan and any other person he gives access to."
Humming in response, Avery tried to calm herself down as the lift went higher. Even though she had known where Archie was living for years now, her first time coming close to the place was a month ago. But now that she was here in the building and might also end up staying here with him, she didn't know what to feel.
"Neil, does he live with anyone else? Maybe his sister or any other members of his family," she asked, breaking the silence in the quiet elevator.
Neil seemed surprised at the question, as if the answer was supposed to be basic knowledge that everyone was supposed to know.
"Well," he replied. "Though I'm not sure you are referring to them, Mr Donovan does have two brothers that live him."
"Two brothers?!" Avery echoed, her jaws slacking in surprise. "How did I not know…?" she trailed off as the doors opened with a ding to reveal two large mastiffs standing right outside the lift, their jaws slacked as they stared up at her.
Her breath caught in her throat and she took a step back, her movements unnoticed by Neil who had stepped out onto the foyer, believing that she was right behind him. While he walked further away from her, she was too scared to raise her voice and call him back with the dogs gazes still fixed on her.
"Why are you two glaring at me like that?" she stuttered in a low voice, her back pressed against the elevator's wall. "Please go—"
"What are you doing, Ava?"
Avery's chest exploded with relief, hearing that deep voice she used to resent. No, that deep voice she still resented. She was only putting her feelings aside temporarily to thank him for helping her escape, only until they negotiated how she would pay him back.
"Boys, back off! Ava, the doors are closing soon," his voice came again.
She stared on, her legs refusing to move from the one spot they were on, the same way the dogs refused to heed to Archie's command.
"Make them leav—" Before she could ask him to make them leave, Avery felt her vision blur as a large figure suddenly jumped into the elevator, descending on her.