Billionaires At War

CHAPTER LIX

Sneakers ate up the hospital floors as Cassandra moved out of the elevator and ran towards Harrison's room. She was late by forty minutes, complications with her car and heavy traffic on the roads. It didn't sit right with her that he would be alone for long with Josephine on the loose. Somehow she got everywhere she wanted without people seeing a thing. Mark, Harrison's closet friend, suggested that Josephine had connections in places no one knew about. Cassandra was starting to believe it.

When she closed the door behind her, she was greeted by the soft breathing from the bedside. She tiptoed over to Harrison's bed and slipped to his side. Leaning forward and kissing his face, she pushed herself up on her elbows then moved in to kiss him softly on the lips. Her finger's outlined his cheeks, the still coldness of his skin made her frown, but she kissed him again.

She laid beside him, patiently waiting for the nurse to get in so she could visit Harrison's doctor. In her mind, she had already listed many different ways Josephine could sneak into the room. She wanted someone to be here with Harrison before she left his side.

Except for his steady breathing, there was nothing to show that he was getting better at all. His body didn't respond to much, not their words or kisses. He just laid still on the bed, his chest rising and falling as he was fed from a bag connected to his arm.

Cassandra missed having him around, awake and lively. Placing her chin on his chest, she picked at his hair. "I have never told you the story, have I? About what happened on the day of my wedding. You know, when Harrison dipped and left me at the altar. I remember it very clearly because of the rain."

She turned her eyes to the storm raging outside for a second, then turned back to him. Harrison Clark, a man with the same name as the bastard that had ruined her heart and her life. There was only one difference between the two; even if it wasn't for years, she felt so loved in the months they had been together.

"This story is a long one, so prepare your morphine filled body to listen to some really annoying tales. Let's go back to when I first met the devil in jeans and a red sweatshirt under the rainy sky. I was on my knees feeling more than embarrassed at tripping over my own feet when suddenly, I couldn't feel the rain anymore. I looked up, and like a telenovela, or a really cheesy romance novel, he squatted beside me with a beautiful smile. I just wanted to melt into a poodle and flood away with the running water.

"To be fair, he was really nice then, and his face was what I lived for. That means that yes, you wouldn't believe it, but I was very clingy back then. And maybe a little bit now. Anyway, we dated for a long time, so I believed we were more than ready to go exclusive, but I never pushed it. I wanted him to pop the question without any pressure in him, kind of stupid when I think about it. I took my time, showering myself with love. I was on cloud eleven. I built fantasies in my head and lived in them constantly."

She sighed, throwing her arms around his side, resting her head against his chest. It was annoying to recall her own stupidity, but it had stopped hurting a long time ago. She let her imagination run wild, so she closed her eyes as she spoke, allowed herself to imagine she was not in a hospital but on the beach. Harrison smiled at her with his hand in hers while her legs rested on his thigh. It was her imagination, but she wanted, needed it to be real.

With a quick blink, she opened her eyes and stepped into reality. The beeping of the monitor moving through her mind. "He asked me to marry him a year later. That's three years of dating before he was ready, and I was happy. It was cheesy, absolutely ridiculous. When I told my mother, she cried. Oh, she wanted to marry me off more quickly than I realised. I got the dress finally..."

The boom of the thunder made her turn to the window, just to make sure it was closed, then she dropped her head back to his chest. "The date was set for three weeks after he purposed because, why wait? I already waited three years for this. He was excited, I was excited, everyone was running high on emotions. That day it rained; I needed the biggest umbrella in the world to get into the church without getting wet. Back then, I still loved everything about the rain, so I thought that I was being blessed on my wedding day. Uncle Ruben was the man I chose to marry us, he was thrilled to do it, but after an hour, the groom was missing.