Strings Attached

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

As soon as we arrived home, I headed straight into my office, eager to check that e-mail from Jared I had failed to read on the plane. To my great frustration, my inbox was overflowing with new messages, but I scrolled down until I found Jared's name. Unfortunately, the content of his e-mail didn't make me any wiser. It just raised more fucking questions.

My friend, this is some messed up shit! Call me as soon as you return from Vegas and I mean ASAP.

Dumbfounded, I stared into those words as my hand flew to my phone almost of its own accord and I began dialing Jared's number.

He picked up already after a second ring like he was expecting to hear from me.

"Hey," he said in a much more serious tone than usual. "You're back."

"Yes, I'm back," I confirmed and there were a couple of moments of silence before I asked. "So, have you read it?"

Jared sighed into the phone. "I sure have...every single word of it."

"And?" I couldn't contain my curiosity.

"Like I've said," Jared muttered in a skeptical tone, "messed up shit."

I closed my eyes and let out a long breath as both disappointment and anger claimed my system. "So nothing can be done?"

Jared hesitated for a moment. "I didn't say that. I just said it was fucked up."

"So there's still hope?" I probed with caution.

"There is a way out," he offered a vague clarification. "But I don't think you'll like it."

"What is it?" I demanded with unapologetic impatience.

Once again, Jared sighed into the phone and I knew it wasn't good. "Sebastian, I think it's best if we discussed this in person. Why don't you come and see me in my office?"

The idea seemed impossible at the moment, given all of my obligations and the workload that just kept piling up like it would never come to a fucking end.

"I can't. I'm way behind with work and I have a bunch of things I have to take care of," I reasoned with both him and myself, but then suddenly realized that I wouldn't be able to focus on anything anyway so I gave it up and blurted out, "I'll be there in an hour."

Jared didn't make a sound, but I could just imagine he was laughing and shaking his head at my unpredictable behavior.

"Make it two," he said without even bothering to comment on how far gone I was when it came to Isabelle. "I have an important meeting that can't be postponed."

"Deal. See you then," I said, hanging up the phone.

I contemplated on calling Emily to discuss the pending agreement in Paris, but remembered there was something a lot more important that I had to take care of first and it required finding Anne. I tried calling her, but nobody picked up so I decided to venture out and look for her on my own.

As I walked down the hallway, I caught a glimpse of Isabelle who was holding some kind of a notebook and a pen in her hands. I wondered if it was her journal. She was heading towards that secluded place in the garden where she always went to hide away from me. Smitten with her radiant appearance, I found myself gazing outside that window and following her lead until she disappeared from my sight and I almost ended up bumping into Anne.

"Look out, Sebastian!" Her alarmed voice made me snap out of what resembled a trance and I met her confused gaze. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine," I mumbled and glanced outside again, wondering what had just happened.