One of the President's bodyguards swiftly took the wrapped box from me as Mr. Jackson moved aside, glaring at me with pure rage as I stood there, still not understanding what was happening.
"I brought a gift, a peace offering for my precious nephew", said President Jackson, as he took the seat where his nephew was sitting before. Mr. Jackson had his jaw clenched, his fist in balls, almost shaking.
The other investors seemed to be ashamed, they didn't even dare to look at my boss in the eye. But from what I was sensing, the chairman had a greater plan.
"When Ms. Ronan told me about your heart disease, I knew that I had to offer you some kind of apology for the attitude I use towards you...", the President said and I went pale as one of the bodyguards unwrapped the box and showed us what seemed to be herbal medicine. I could only recognize Gingko, Hawthorne berries and Ginger.
I was frozen in my spot.
The President was smiling as the investors were mumbling between them. This was almost a definite checkmate against Mr. Jackson. Now that his disease was revealed, the investors would no longer push him to the top.
What made me nauseous was that my boss invented that I told him about his disease, which was a big fat lie. If Mr. Jackson though badly of me before, I can only imagine how he felt right now.
I didn't even realize that it was only the two of us in the room, everyone left us alone. The President had punished me thoroughly now and he had left me here to face my own fate – the fate he had invented for me.
"Mr. Jackson, I—", I stuttered, trying to get closer to him, but in a pure act of rage; he started throwing everything that was on his reach. He even threw a cup in my direction, failing to get me, only shattering on the wall behind me. It made me almost jump out of my own skin.
"You foolish woman! I've been working my ass off for this, for years!", he said, now throwing a vase of flowers to the floor. His long hair almost hiding all his face, that was red in anger.
"Hear me out...", I pleaded, but it was in vain as he then looked at me.
I could only see pure hatred there.
"GET OUT! GET OUT!", he screamed at me and as I didn't want to make anything worse, I started walking towards the exit.
I only stopped walking when I heard something heavy falling and the sound of glass shattering. I turned around to find Mr. Jackson in the floor with a bloody forehead. He had fainted.
I threw my bag and rushed to walk to him, he was unresponsive.
I dialed 911 and called out for help, only managing to get help after a few minutes when some bodyguards took him down to the lobby, where he would be taken in an ambulance.
My body started to shake as I sniffed, holding my tears. I was so scared; all of this had been so stressful and scary. With shaky hands, I quickly dialed the number I knew by heart. Georgie's.
But he wasn't answering, and I didn't know what to do.
I wanted to hide somewhere and just cry for hours. But I knew I had to be braver, be tougher and to explain myself about what had happened. Mr. Jackson might hate my guts, but I wasn't keen on giving him another reason for doing so. After all, he didn't know the true story, yet.
I took a cab to the hospital where I knew he was going to be taken and found his P.A waiting in the emergency room. Fortunately, he didn't saw me, so I sat quite away from him – waiting for answers.
I was thinking hard and heavy about how the President managed to get that information. I didn't say anything as I tried to separate my personal life and my work as parallel lines. I was starting to bite my nails, nervous.
As I was sitting in the emergency waiting room, I didn't know that Georgie had found out where Mr. Washington was hiding. And I also didn't know that he had found out who was behind the toxic chemical disposal in the factory. But he was doing it all for my sake, he was trying to find a way to protect me from Michael Jackson... but he then found out he had to protect me from someone else.
But when he tried to alert me, it was way too late.
When I received that ill-fated phone call, I remember that I fell on my knees. I tried to look at the sky for some kind of answer, but I knew I didn't have any more time to waste as I rushed to the Intensive Care Unit.
There, my fiancée was lying on a bed. He was heavily injured. He had an oxygen mask and some things that let me know that his pulse was weak.
"Ms. Ronan, they found him lying on the street... it seems that it was a case of Hit and Run", the doctor explained to me. But I was just standing there, my eyes were lifeless... because someone had taken my life away from me.
I wondered if this was my real punishment.
I happened to be wearing the small butterfly hair pin he gave to me in my birthday, since today we had a date. We were going to organize our wedding details, the date, the colors, everything.
But as I took small and safe steps towards him, I knew that it wasn't going to happen.
I took his hand and laid my head over his stomach, crying my heart out.
"Georgie, please don't leave me... fight, I know you can do it... it's me, your girl...", I whispered as I cried, not wanting to see his bruised face. I cried so hard that I felt something inside me was about to shut down.
I had enough, between the company's affairs and Mr. Jackson's temper... this was just where I felt I was truly going to collapse.
I wasn't ready to say goodbye to him yet. We were supposed to get married, buy a house, raise our kids and grow old. He has always been there, how am I supposed to be without him? I wasn't going to make it without him.
My heart ached so much, but the doctor had told me already that he was going to leave tonight. And that there wasn't much to be done. Georgie's life has been taken. Taken away from me.
Georgie didn't even wake up to say goodbye. I was hoping he would, but it would be asking too much. If he did wake up, then he was going to be in pain. But now he is drifting away in a dreamless sleep, drifting away from this world.
Until he finally left.
According to myself, the things that happened the next month were a blur. It was as if I had been set in autopilot. I wasn't granted a bereavement leave. The President kept pushing my buttons, he intended to make me see that he could make my life hell if he wanted to.
Rumors started spreading around the company as I kept on working and smiling as if nothing had happened. People mistook me for a heartless woman. But I don't owe explanations to anyone. Taking care of my grief on my own was already too much. I didn't care about anything else.
Reina and Lenore were always around me, trying to make me spill my negative feelings out. But somehow, I felt them as if they were hooked in my chest. I couldn't let them go, yet.
Jane had been an incredible support for me, besides from Tyler. She's been trying to find the culprit of Georgie's death and she's been taking me on her apartment, since she didn't want me to go on my own to my former home. It was a dangerous neighborhood, after all.
"Why don't you just move in with me?", Jane asked me one evening after I came to her place after work.
We have been friends ever since middle school, just as I had been with Georgie and Tyler. But we kind of fell apart after she started her busy life as a detective alongside Georgie, she had her own things to do and so did I. But after Georgie's death, she's been shielding me.
"This is just temporary", I told her with a small smile. "I'm just getting adjusted to a life without him... but eventually, it'll get better", I lied.
I knew that things wouldn't get any better anytime soon.
The morning I went to the hospital to run a few blood tests because of my indigestion getting worse, I found myself bumping to someone familiar.
Mr. Jackson had a lollipop on his mouth, in an oddly fashion that reminded me of Georgie. I knew I was only seeing Georgie's mannerisms everywhere because I missed him, but there was something that made me look at Mr. Jackson, twice.
His messy long black hair was slicked back, letting me see his forehead. He looked at me and he furrowed his brows. "Just the person I wanted to see!", he said as I tried to walk away from him.
"Go away", I simply mumbled, not in the mood to deal with him.
"Hey! You should try to be little bit nicer to me, you know? I haven't settled anything with your little boyfriend yet, I might sue his ass—", Mr. Jackson was saying as I glared at him and my stare might've been intense since he stopped talking and pointing at me with his lollipop. He looked better than a month ago.
"Do whatever you please...", I said with gritted teeth and then noticed something familiar was sticking out of his chest pocket. He looked at my eyes going to his chest and then took out what seemed to be my butterfly hair pin. I snatched it out of his hand. "Where did you...?", I trailed off, looking at his face.
"Is that yours?!", he asked, truly shocked.
"Y-yes...", I mumbled, not understanding why he had it with him.
"Were you the one crying in my chest...?", he mumbled, dumbfounded as I blinked twice. "Wait a damn minute, you were in my room when...?"
"The last time I've ever seen you, Mr. Jackson, was when you fainted at the meeting room", I clarified, my eyes burning because of the tears that were threatening to go out. My held my butterfly pin to my heart.
There was utter confusion in his face as I sighed and decided to walk away from him, feeling fed up with everything, as I have been these last few months.
I've forgotten about his existence until now.
But why does my heart feel heavy whenever I see him?
Even if he's so mean and awful to me, I was hoping he'd recover. I wouldn't wish anyone to be sick and prostrated on a hospital bed, watching life go away. I dried my tears, remembering Georgie once again and I sighed. I put the butterfly pin on my hair, smiling through the newly tears that came out of my eyes.
"I'm sorry I almost lost it, G...", I mumbled to myself as I sat on the bus station, waiting for something, anything to happen in my life.
Because I wasn't sure what to do anymore. My life was as tangled just as my father's life had been before. I am compromised because of a secret I have to keep, otherwise, I'd be joining Georgie real soon.