Xavier
It's been a couple of hours since her surgery. I'm told it's the next morning. Just when will she wake up?
"Son, you need to get some rest. You've been here all night." Aunt Jasmine tries again.
"I'm fine. I don't mind waiting for her to wake up."
"Xavier."
"Please, aunt?"
Aunt Jasmine gives in and goes to sit on the couch with Uncle Vincent.
How could I have missed the signs? Riley was right under my nose these couple of days, but I didn't even notice that she's sick?!
Something isn't right, we talked this morning before her shoot and she seemed fine or was she pretending to be okay?
I caress her palm to show her that I'm here for her.
"Hey guys." Sean announced his presence.
After greeting mine and Riley's parents, Sean pulled me to the side.
"What?"
"I know now's not a good time, but you really need to see this." Sean pulls out his phone to show me the video he's talking about.
It's a cctv footage. The video starts playing when Aunt Jasmine exclaims.
"Riley!" Her parents and mine surround Rileys bed. "Baby, you're awake."
I quickly push through to see for myself.
"Riley."
I can't believe it, she's really wide awake now. The doctor, with a couple of nurses, quickly ran some tests on her.
"She's going to be fine. Just needs a lot of rest. As you know, she can't be stressed out with everything thats going on."
We all nod in agreement, glad to finally see that Riley's okay. The doctor takes his leave.
"You okay?" I ask. Riley blinks her eyes in agreement.
"Now that Riley's awake, you have to go home, take a shower, and get some rest."
"but I said I'm fine, Mom."
"You'll do as I say, or don't you want to come back to see Riley?"
"Of course, I do."
"Then, you'll listen to your mother." She pushes me out of Riley's VIP room, but not before I mouth to Riley that I'll be back soon.
I made it to my penthouse when I realised that a certain someone is still following me.
"Are you gonna follow me to the bathroom too?"
"Of course, not." Sean replies, chuckling.
"Oh, yeah. The video, what's it about anyway?"
"Let me just show you."
Sean plays the video once more.
×××
I was speeding somewhere when I received a call from Riley.
"Hello?" I quickly answered.
Riley's ragged breathing could be heard from the other side. "Riley, is something wrong?"
I quickly turned my car around, heading to the hospital. There were shuffling sounds heard from Riley's end. "Hey boss. It's me, Kate."
"Kate? What are you doing with Riley's phone?"
"Oh, no reason. I'm just helping Riley out. She says she misses you, so you should hurry back here."
I hung up and sped back to the hospital, quickly getting to Riley's VIP ward. Kate was sitting by Riley's bed, trimming her fingernails with a nail cutter. The sight made me really uncomfortable that a shiver went down my spine.
"Xavier, you're finally here!" Kate chirped. "What do you think of her nails? They look neat now, don't they?"
Kate was acting really weird. "If I mistakenly trimmed too close to her flesh, then she'd bleed."
I pushed Kate from the chair, making her drop the nail cutter.
"You need to leave."
"Okay, okay. There's no need to get mad, I was just joking. I would never hurt Riley."