THE CEO’S REDEMPTION

TIME STOPPED

“What?” My ears went numb immediately. Already shaking, the tears freed themselves as the doctor hurriedly reached out to me. He grabbed me by my elbow and held me still.

“Let me finish.” He said, with his firm grip on me. Shuddering and cold, I stared at him, unable to process anything. “Please sit down.”

“Sit down? You are asking me to sit down? Is my father dead?” My eyes traveled into his, desperately searching for a glimpse of hope.

“No.” He whispered. Sharply, I looked up at him, confused yet relieved.

“What do you mean?”

“Please sit down.”

“Stop telling me to sit down, doctor! Is my father okay?” I shouted, releasing myself from his embrace.

“I won’t tell you if you don’t sit down.” He chuckled, walking over to his seat. Is this a joke to him?

“Fine.” I sighed, sitting down. “Okay?” I stared at him, impatiently shaking my legs.

“Your father needs urgent surgery, ma’am. We did all we could to stop the internal bleeding, but he needs urgent surgery before the blood gets to his brain.”

“How urgent?” I heard myself ask. For sure, this is going to be the largest bill of the year for me. A surgery?

“He might lose his life in a matter of weeks if we don’t get this surgery done.”

“Weeks?” The words sank in, twisting and flaming up my insides.

“Correct.”

“How much is the bill?”

“For today or for the surgery?” He asked, carefully pulling out a file.

“Both.” I responded, trailing him with my eyes.

“For today, you will get the bill which a nurse directs, but for the surgery, I can give you a rough estimate of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars.”

“I understand.” I nodded, standing up immediately, not letting myself process anything. Where the hell am I to find that amount?

“Ma’am, are you okay?” The doctor’s voice trolled me as I got to the door.

“Will he be discharged today?” I turned to look at him, heavy-hearted and light-headed.

“After the bills are paid, ma’am.” He smiled. I gave him a thumbs up and walked out, hardly seeing anything.

“Lorey, what did he say?” I heard Asteria rushing towards me. She grabbed both my arms, gazing into my eyes, also searching for a glimpse of hope, but unfortunately, there’s none I can muster nor pretend to give anymore.

“He is okay,” I breathed, trying to move past her.

“Is that it? He is okay. That’s all?” She asked, following me to the door. “Are we going to leave him here?”

“We need… scratch that, I need to pay for his bill first before we can leave with him.”

“And how much is the bill? Why haven’t you paid?”

“Can you shut up? The bill is eight hundred dollars, and except you have that amount on you right now, please don’t bother me.” I shouted, crying and breathing heavily. Letting all my anger go on Asteria, I walked to my car and sat down. She followed me and sat in, too. If nothing in this world goes well, my father must be okay.

“What are we going to do?” Asteria asked, her tiny, hopeless voice slicing through the heavily sad silence. Darkness clouded my head as I drove to work. I have no idea what to do next.

“I don’t know.” I drawled, lost in my own thoughts.

“We can sell something, you know. We can do something. We have to do something, Lorey! You always come up with something! Think!”

“Shut the hell up, Asteria! You are nothing but a burden sometimes. Do I look like I’m not already thinking? Do I look like I have anything figured out? We need approximately a hundred and eighty thousand dollars, and you are here yelling like a little child! If you can’t think and be sensitive, then shut the hell up!” I spouted, increasing my speed. The last thing I want is for my boss to not pay me. Asteria went quiet the whole drive, giving me the peace my head needed.

“Should I wait for you?” Asteria aired, her eyes dug into the ground as I parked the car in the parking lot of my workplace. I need this paycheck.

“Do whatever you want.” I hissed, tossing her my car key. She’s nineteen; she’ll figure herself out.

Walking into the mall, I looked over at the counter, my former station, and locked eyes with my supposed replacement, Josh. He stared back, like we had beef with each other. I turned my focus to the door of my boss’s office, muttering prayers under my breath.

“It’s Lorelei; can I come in?” I gently knocked on the door, waiting for her response.

“Lorelei, come in.” Mrs. Calista replied from inside. My eyes caught Josh throwing ugly glances at me, but honestly, not only is he not the least of my problems, he is not on the list of my problems.

“Sit down.” Mrs. Calista said, pointing to the sofa adjacent to her table. We sat down in silence for a few seconds, with her gawping at me. “Are you waiting for me to ask you for an explanation?”

"Ma'am, I had an emergency to attend to. It wasn’t inten…”

“It wasn’t intentional, right? An emergency? Let me guess, your dad is dying again, right?” She chortled, reaching into her drawer. “Here you go.”

I stretched my hands and received a puffy envelope. Oh, thank goodness!

“Thank you.” I bowed, longingly admiring the envelope.

“I did you the favor of cashing the check, so you have a thousand dollars for the past fifteen days you’ve worked without pay right there in your hand. Are we good?” She smiled, clasping her palms together.

“Yes ma’am.” I nodded with high spirits.

“You may leave now.”

I sprang up immediately after carefully tucking the envelope into my pocket. I walked out of the building into an empty parking lot.

Asteria really left with my car.

Oh, speak of the devil; here she is, calling me.

"Asteria, what do you want? And where’s my car?” I shouted before she even said anything.

“Shut up!” A familiar voice screeched into the phone. I jerked back, scared and jumpy. My pulse began to race once again. “This isn’t Asteria.”

“Who are you?” I whimpered, on the verge of tears.

“This is Peter.”

“Where is Asteria?”

Seconds of silence passed before I heard Asteria’s dejected yowl.

“Where is my sister?” I queried, struggling to sound unfazed.

“Shut up! I have your sister and your car, and I am not letting either go until I get my money, Lorelei Williams.” He hung up.

Until he gets his money? Where am I supposed to get two thousand dollars from? Now both my father and my sister are stuck in a place only money can take them out of, and even worse, I don’t have a car.

I walked to the end of the street and got a cab to take me home. I’ll definitely come up when I get home; I need to rest.

“10 dollars, right?” I asked, getting out of the cab. The cab guy nodded, and I handed him the money before turning around and approaching my house.

“Lorelei!!” A cold, hoarse voice shouted in my direction the second I placed my hand on the door knob. I turned around in a flash and locked eyes with a bulky, husky-looking loan shark moving viciously towards me.

Without a second thought, I took off, running at top speed with a bat in my hand in case he tried to outsmart me. Not looking back, not slowing down, I ran till my vision blurred out, and my breathing began to fluctuate. With my thoughts scattered all over the place, I diverted abruptly into a corner and kept running till I could no longer hear him howl my name behind me.

Tired and unable to run any faster, my knees became wobbly, and my legs began to give out. Slowing down, I continued running till I crashed into a very tall, muscular man. I flinched immediately and looked up to see if he was the one I was running away from. The bat flew from my hand and shattered a glass. I jumped up immediately, scared to my bones.

“f**k!!” A loud cracked voice shouted. Already shaking, my eyes darted everywhere trying to find my bat and, even worse, trying to find what my bat broke. “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m Lorelei,” I stuttered, looking up at the angry voice trolling me. The words died in my throat the second I locked eyes with this mean-looking red-eyed man.

“What’s going on?” I heard a soft, fruity yet deep and controlling voice approaching us.

“She just crashed the car, Mr Adam.” The mean-looking man responded in sheer panic, reaching over to the car.

“My bat.” I called, running towards it. The broken glass tore through my skin as I bent to pick my bat up- damn, the windscreen really broke.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Adam shouted, walking towards me. I stood there, dumbfounded. “Who the f**k are you? Where are you coming from? Didn’t you see my car?”

“I’m really sorry, it was an accident.” I pleaded, shaking and sweating. His name sounds familiar… I think he is the Winston everyone talks about.

“You are sorry? I have a meeting to attend right now, how the hell am I supposed to get there?” He continued shouting, turning here and there in frustration.

“I was trying to escape from-“

“From whom?” He barked, interrupting me. I tried to gather my voice, but his phone interrupted me again. “Speak.” He started as his eyebrows slowly creased tightly against each other. He looked horridly at me before suddenly running off with his men till they booked a cab at a distance.

Breathing heavily, trying to recover, I turned around to walk away, but three men intercepted me.

“Are you Miss Lorelei Williams?” The police man asked, digging his gaze into my soul.

I nodded slowly, very confused.

“You are under arrest.” He continued, bringing out handcuffs.

“What? Why?” I queried, stepping back.

“For the alleged killing of Miss Asteria Williams.”