Chapter 855 – His Second Chance Love: The Freezing Silence

Chapter 855 – His Second Chance Love: The Freezing Silence

I knew how powerless a patient was against their illness since I had experience with it. The pain was more than enough to strip anyone of the fa?ade they were wearing, revealing their true self.

Well, that was the worst-case scenario. Maybe Anthony was just handling a tough issue. For our sake, I hope it was the latter since his life was more important than any estate after all.

Even though I gave him twenty minutes, Joseph only came after nearly half an hour. “I’m sorry for being late, Mrs. Featherstone. I had some matters to settle.” He bowed.

Instead of greeting him back, I stared at him coolly. A long while later, I said, “You were with Anthony.”

“No.” Joseph didn’t meet my eyes. “You’re reading too much into it, Mrs. Featherstone. I was held up by work.”

I pursed my lips and held my silence. Anthony had told him many times that Joseph should drop everything if he or I needed him. Joseph had never gone against that command, so I thought he might not be lying. However, that was also proof that the matter he had to settle must be huge, or he wouldn’t have let me wait.

The tension in the air rose for a long while, then I broke the silence. “Fine. Tell me what you were doing then. You have no reason to hide that from me, do you, Mr. Campbell?”

“Of course.” Joseph was surprisingly cooperative and looked up at me, his gaze calm. “Mr. Featherstone said he’d be a guarantor during the interview so Thora can take over the Pitcoin business. Securities and Exchange Commission officers are supervising the company right now, and they’ll be auditing us tomorrow. I have to get everything ready by tonight.”

Well, that sounded reasonable. Since Joseph answered that calmly, I thought I might have been a bit too paranoid. I decided to come to the company on a whim, so it was unlikely that Joseph could come up with a lie when he was already so busy. Besides, getting audited by the SEC was a big issue. The media would set its eyes on the matter, so his lie would be exposed easily.

Silence descended on the office, and the air turned awkward. I thought something was off, but I couldn’t put a finger on it. Then someone opened the door, and in came Anthony.

He was standing at the doorstep, looking inscrutable and handsome as usual. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was in his twenties.

I was more excited than anyone to see him showing up safe and sound. I quickly went to hug him, and his warmth was proof that I wasn’t hallucinating. “You’re okay.” I was relieved.

“What brings you here anyway?” Anthony patted my head to calm me down. “Leave us, Joseph,” he said coolly.

Joseph left the room and closed the door on the way out. I let Anthony go and frowned at him. “Where were you? Why didn’t you take my call?”

Anthony asked me to sit down first and handed me a glass of water. “Here, calm your nerves.”

Obviously, I couldn’t. I put the glass of water aside and went back to my questions. “You’re hiding something, aren’t you? What didn’t you tell me?”

Anthony stared down in silence. His eyes seemed to darken a lot, keeping his secrets in the depths of his heart. I knew it. I knew I was right. Anthony was in big trouble.

I held his hand. “We’re a couple.” In sickness and in health, till death do us part. That was the vow we took, and I intended to see it through.

He held my hand by reflex. “Herman wanted me to sign the papers along with Thora,” he said solemnly.

I knew what that meant since I had been handling the firm for quite a while. If Anthony were to sign it, he and the company would have to face the consequences if Pitcoin were to run into any trouble, including any kind of criminal case.

I thought our fake feud could lower Herman’s guard, but he was a sly old fox after all. He would trust nothing but a contract, since that was the most effective way to guarantee their profits.

“And you’re going with it?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No. You’re still sick. I can’t make any missteps, so I won’t sign it.”

“That’s a relief.” I would object to it if he had gone with it. “You should stop if it’s too risky. Ezra wouldn’t do anything either, since he’d prefer to maintain the status quo. Don’t push yourself.”

“I can’t. Not when I finally managed to get rid of Armond. The fewer the competition, the better my chances, so I have to pick up the pace.” Anthony was considering his options carefully.

I knew I couldn’t change his mind once he was set on it, so I merely sighed. All I could do then was face the crisis with him. A moment ago I felt safe with him around. However, for some reason, he felt like an illusion, as if he’d slip away if I took my eyes off him for a second, and my heart sank.

Anthony was starting to get uncomfortable getting stared at, so he looked up and met my gaze. They said eyes were the windows to the soul, and that split second was enough for me to ascertain that he was hiding something else from me—something he didn’t want me to know.

I was surprised, but I knew I couldn’t press him for answers anyway. Dwelling on something like that was pointless, so I had to go with the flow.

In the end, I decided to leave him alone. “Don’t push yourself too much. Take it slow. I have to go now, or Ezra’s and Thora’s men are going to find out that I’m gone.”

I went outside, and he sent me off. “I’ll get Joseph to take you back.”

“It’s fine. Millie’s with me. She can take me back.” I refused his offer and stood on tiptoe to peck his lips, then I left the office.

The last thing I saw before going into the elevator was Anthony’s sendoff, though he looked worried. “Drive around the area,” I told Millie after getting into the car.

Millie threw me a look of surprise, but when she noticed that I wasn’t kidding, she revved the engine up.

…

We came back to Featherstone Corporation five minutes later, but Millie parked the car where nobody could see us. The headlamps and taillights were turned off to keep anyone from noticing us. We could see everyone who came in and out of the company, but none of them could see us.

Once Millie stopped the car, I rolled the window down and stared at the revolving door.

Millie was getting bored from my antics, so she lit up a particularly slender cigarette, hung her arm over the window, and puffed. She had always been a wild one, that Millie.

But I knew she was carrying a great sadness with her. Most women who smoked did. I looked at her, then I got choked by the smoke, so I covered my nose.

Millie puffed one last time before tossing the half-finished cigarette away, then she rolled the window up.

“It’s fine, really.” I didn’t want her to feel restrained because of me. She might be my employee, but we were equals, so she didn’t have to pay too much attention to me if she wanted to do something.

Millie looked at me. Her eyes were darker than black, but they were also gleaming with danger and curiosity. “Most women I’ve met only care about themselves. Well, at least those who are experienced, anyway. You’re an exception.”

I detected sarcasm in that comment. Obviously, she was scoffing at what I was doing. Well, I was checking up on my husband at his company in the dead of the night. Anyone would think Anthony might be cheating on me to warrant that behavior.

Mercenaries had long abandoned love, especially elites like Millie. She didn’t care about the little things in love or the big things for that matter.

I was a successful woman after opening my own law firm and having two powerful families backing me up. Millie thought I should live my life to the fullest, but there I was, snooping around to see if my husband was cheating. At least that was how it seemed to her. Of course, she’d think I was wasting my time.

I was about to retort, but then I noticed Anthony and Joseph coming out of the company—Anthony was hunched. They hurried to the car and drove away.

“Follow them,” I quickly told her, but Millie had done that before I could finish my sentence. She was a great driver, and the city was brightly lit, so she managed to tail Anthony’s car with the headlamps off.

A short while later, Anthony’s car went into a familiar hospital. It was the one on trending that night—the hospital Thora was in.

“Are we going in?” Millie asked.

“No.” I went out with nothing but my handbag. “Stay here.”

The hospital was eerily quiet that night. There wasn’t even anyone in sight. I was starting to trot in case I lost them, but fortunately, Anthony and Joseph weren’t going too fast. They had just gone into the elevator when I caught up with them.

I waited for the door to close before going over to see which floor they were on. The wards were on the third floor, so they should go up if they were there for visitations. However, the elevator went down to the basement. It was the hospital’s medicine storeroom, but not everyone could get in there.

That was certainly suspicious. Eventually, the elevator stopped at basement level three, so that was where I’d be going, but I used the other elevator in case I bumped into Anthony.

The elevator’s door slid back, revealing a long corridor that was lit by nothing but white fluorescent lamps. The air was filled with the scent of antiseptics too.

I went down the corridor and made two turns before coming across Joseph. He was looking coldly at a room, but he didn’t notice me, since I was walking quietly. I hid behind the wall once I saw him.

I calmed myself down. Something’s up. Only Anthony could get Joseph to escort him. Anthony told me the research for the antidote was done in the very hospital I was in. He looked troubled earlier, and I couldn’t contact him for more than half an hour, so something must have happened here.

“It’s done. All that’s left is the clinical trial, then we can administer it to you.”

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