I follow the secretary back, behind her desk and down the hall a short way. "His office is right here," she tells me, motioning to the door next to us. "you just go ahead in when you're ready. He should be free." She starts to walk away, her skirt swishing and heel tapping at the floor. I reach out a hand to stop her. It grazes her sleeve and she turns back to look at me expectantly. "Yes? Is there anything else?"
I pause to consider things. How exactly should I word this? "I just wondered if you told him who was here to see him is all." I smile nervously. "Does he know it's me?"
The secretary gives me a blank look, one that implies I'm being an idiot about something. "I don't know who you are, how could I tell him?" she says this a little snappily. "I only told him someone was here to see him and they had an appointment but it was left blank. That's all he knows." She tosses a tendril of hair off of her shoulder. "If that's all, I'll leave you to your meeting." And with that she quickly walks back to her desk.
Good, I think to myself. He doesn't know it's me so I will have an element of surprise on my side. That at least, is something. I straighten the front of my shirt and smooth my hair. I take a deep breath and picture the Liam from before. So very kind and sweet, he was literally the dream guy. That's what I'm doing this for, I remind myself. It's not really for me, it's for Liam. He'd hate to see himself this way. I'm doing it so he can be back to normal and move on from everything disheartening and awful that's happened. So he and Tessie can be a family again. I'm doing it for them and that makes it all the more worth doing.
I inhale deeply, again, and brace myself. No matter what he throws at me I need to push through this. He has to be made to see that he needs help and healing. I place my hand on the door handle and turn it slowly, the metal cool to the touch. I step into his office, it's a big room and on the side of the building. Half of the room or so is made up of nearly floor to ceiling windows instead of a wall. Liam's chair is turned away from me, looking out one of them. The whole setting of his office is professional, but in a slight disarray at the moment. There are two coffee cups on the desk next to him, along with several stacks of papers strewn here and there in messy piles. There's a chair in front of the desk and what looks like a scarf thrown over the top of the desktop computer on his desk. As for the rest of the room, there isn't much of it. There's a couch on one side, pushed next to the window. Beside it there is a small coffee table with a few magazine on it. There's a potted plant in the corner but otherwise the office is quite bare.
I walk forward and take a seat in the chair across the desk from him. I don't want to give away myself by talking too soon, I'm still hoping that I can surprise him enough to get a few sentences in without being interrupted. But as it turns out, I'm not the one to be surprised. "What do you want Mrs. Sandoval?" Liam's tired voice breaks the silence in the room, startling me a little. "I would appreciate it if you didn't waste both of our time with pointless discussions."
"Wha- how did you know it was me?" I gasp out in surprise. I thought the secretary hadn't told him. Of course she had gotten a little irked when I asked her about it, maybe she went back to her desk and told him that a girl was here and gave him my description?
"I saw you come in from the cameras I've had installed all around the office and Meredith's desk. I know everyone who enters and leaves this area of the building." he turns his chair around to face me. He doesn't look angry, which is good, but he doesn't look happy to see me. That much I knew would be true. "So tell me Mrs. Sandoval, why are you here? Trying to get me to see reason like the rest of them? I assumed you would turn up sooner or later."
"You have cameras all around your office?" I'm still stuck on this fact, eyes wide and my hands grasping the arms of the chair. "Are you really that paranoid?"
"I'm even more paranoid. Do you know how heartbreaking it can be to constantly fear betrayal after being so cruelly treated by you and Paddy?"
"You make it sound like we plotted to assassinate you..." I mumble, still audible for him to hear me though. I don't meet his gaze. We both know the real reason he hates and distrusts me. In fact I'm surprised he hasn't brought it up yet. "I swear we were only trying to do what was right for you. You didn't seem to be in your right mind."
"Oh, but I am. You would try to change me back to that simpering idiot, he was alright I suppose. He's nothing when compared to me, however. So in a way, you were trying to assassinate me." he frowns down at me.
"I didn't know you felt that way." This situation could be worse than I thought. Could this other personality be growing stronger and more dominant the longer he stays in control?
He sighs and waves his hand. "I do feel that way. But again, you're wasting time here. So I'll repeat my question, why are you here Isabella?"
IDK where I'm going with this story. I mean I know, but it's kinda growing on its own as I write it haha.