Loose Ends

CHAPTER FOUR- FLIGHT

SOFIA'S POV

“Excuse me!” I ran out of the restaurant as fast as I could.

I knew leaving my home was a terrible idea and going to a business meeting was even worse, but what I could not wrap my head around was a complete stranger flirting with me.

Logan Ryan’s advances brought back a lot of memories. Specifically, how I met Mason.

“I’m sorry ma’am, but you can’t go in,” I was perplexed by the words and actions of the guard at the gate.

“Excuse me? I live here.” I said to him. I seemed to be needing a lot of excuses today.

“Mr. Owen specifically asked that you not be let in,” the guard said.

I chuckled, not very sure how I should react. We never had a security guard, I turn my back for one minute and I return to a heavily guarded house.

“He asked to give you this,” the man handed me a brown envelope.

‘He meant it,’ I thought. Until that very moment, I wanted to believe this was some elaborate prank, but I was staring at my divorce papers.

I looked around and found my luggage just at the side of the gate. I was too carried away at first to notice.

“Listen, I…” my sentence was cut short by an extremely loud and extremely long car horn.

When I turned around, I found Claire with a large amount of luggage in the car trunk.

“How much further would you need to be humiliated before you leave?” she popped her head out of her car and yelled in my face.

I had so much to say to her and at the same time I had no words. I slowly turned around, but she got down from her car and rushed to me.

“Give me that,” she grabbed my car keys.

“Mason gifted this to you,” she said, “luckily, he bought it in his name.”

I was stunned, but then if there was anything her statement made me realize, it was that this had been a long time coming. It wasn’t sudden at all, I was just too blind to see it.

Mason had always mentioned how the company in my father’s name did not speak very well.

“Your father is gone and you built the company to whatever it is now. You are an Owen now,” he would always say. I should have known that he needed the company to be in his name when he finally snatched it.

I stared at my luggage and turned around with nothing in my hands but the envelope.

Claire looked accomplished. It was obvious she could not have been happier.

“Sofia!” she called. I paused, but did not turn around. “I’m giving Mason what you couldn’t.” she said, “He’s going to be a father,”

“I guess it all worked out,” I responded weakly, and then walked away.

I could not fight tears from streaming down my cheeks. My vision was blur from red and swollen eyes and my feet were sore, but it was nothing compared to the piercing pain I was feeling in my chest.

“Ma’am!” I heard a voice scream and suddenly, there was a loud crash! Everything happened very quickly.

**

“Where am I?” I kept blinking my eyes and could not recognize the ceiling above me. I had a great fear for unknown places, so I tried to get out as quickly as possible, which was instinctive.

“Arghh!” I groaned in pain, pulled back in bed by a very terrible headache.

I laid still, looked around and realized I was in a hotel room.

“Help! Somebody! Get me out of here!” I yelled at the top of my voice. It didn’t take long before the door swiftly opened and a man ran towards me.

“You’re awake! How do you feel?” he rushed to my bedside.

The face of the man looked very familiar, but for the first few minutes, I couldn’t place it.

“Get me out of here!” I demanded.

“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.” he replied, “and you couldn’t leave even if you tried,”

“Am I being held hostage here?”

“No, you were in an accident and you broke your legs,” the man replied, “My boss insists you stay with us and I take responsibility, even though you clearly ran into us.” The man seemed extremely pissed, “but feel free to up and leave,” he said and then walked out.

Up until the point he mentioned it, I didn’t realize my leg was in a cast. I thought back to the last event, but all I could remember was very bright light in my face all of a sudden and someone yelling at the top of their voice.

I didn’t get the chance to ask the man any more questions, because he walked out and slammed the door in my face.

‘Rude!’ I scoffed and rolled my eyes. I was the one with a broken limb, I couldn’t place my hand on what his fuss was about.

I was still trying to take it all in when a soft knock came on the door. “Room service,”

“Come in!” I responded.

The door slowly opened and two members of staff walked in with quite a luxurious food tray.

“Do let us know if you’ll be needing anything else ma’am,” one of them said. I couldn’t imagine needing anything else, not with everything that had been set before me.

I sat up right, adjusted my posture and got to eating. I felt extremely tired. Even with a broken leg, I could still feel the sore feet from walking all those distance.

I was half way through my meal when the door slowly opened. I took a deep breath, thinking ‘I cannot catch a break here’.

“Will you…” I had to stop right there as he walked in, staring intently at me.

“I guess we have to talk now, don’t we?” he probed. My heart dropped to my stomach, or at least I felt it do that.