Her Suspected Billionaire

Chapter 16

​She kept running till she reached a house that stood at the top of the hill. The house looked old, like nobody had lived in it for years now. Scared as she was, the sound of the voices and the footsteps behind her propelled her to open the squeaky door and hide inside. Thinking she was finally safe,she turned around to explore this house she had entered. And that’s when she saw it - a woman hanging from the chandelier in the hallway, blood dripping down her neck from an open wound in her skull.

​Alice jerked awake in a daze, sweating profusely. Shaking, she reached for her bedside lamp and turned it on flooding the room with light. Once she was convinced she was in the safety of her own room in her apartment, she let out a breath of relief. She leaned back on the headboard of her bed and took out her phone from under her pillow to check the time. It was some minutes past 4a.m. She had fallen asleep by 1a.m and now a nightmare had woken her up earlier than she normally did. She put her hands in her hair willing the pounding in her head to stop. Not successful with that, she got up from bed and headed to the kitchen to make herself a cup of ginger tea.

​It was a weekend and she didn’t have to go to work today, but right now, she wished she did. Anything to get her out of this house today. Sheila was away with her parents at Denver because her mother was ill, and being alone at home was not helping Alice’s anxiety. Sheila had not wanted to go. She’d told Alice that she could get on a zoom call with her family, but Alice knew her roommate was big on family, and even though she was trying to be sweet and be with her, if anything happened to her mum, Sheila would beat herself up about it for a long time. She’d been gone for four days now and every night since she’d left, Alice had had nightmares. Steven had even come to see her a day after Sheila had left. They’d gone to First Bite together to have dinner and he’d dropped her at home afterwards and stayed with her till she’d told him she didn’t need babysitting. He’d called the day after that to ask if she would like him to come over and she’d told him not to that she’d rather be left alone to think.

​The alarm on Alice’s phone that lay on the kitchen counter rang out loud, startling her. She shook so badly that she dropped the mug in her hands. It fell to the floor with a loud thud and cracked into pieces, spilling its content all over the wooden floor. Alice swore under her breath and grabbed the rag that lay underneath the dishwasher. She would have to wash it later. She was in no mood to pick up the broken pieces of the mug. Carefully, she took out some wrapping paper from one of the kitchen drawers and lay it over the area where the mug had broken. That way, she wouldn’t step on it accidentally and injure herself. She hated she was so jumpy this morning and so, she decided to go for a run.

​After dressing up in a pair of joggers and a big green hoodie that she’d had since college, she put on a pair of Sheila’s trainers and headed out. She didn’t have any sport shoes herself because she wasn’t a sporty person. The things fear make you do.

​The wind outside was chilly and Alice was glad she’d worn a hoodie. She began jogging lightly from her block on Mayfair without looking around her, just ahead. When she finally ran out of breath and fell on the grass under her, she realized she was in Winterhill. Still panting, she congratulated herself in her mind. This was her first run in a while and she’d covered almost two kilometres. She wished she’d worn her smartwatch, so she’d know the exact distance she had covered and the time she’d spent doing so.

​Dusting bits of grass and dirt off her thighs, she pulled herself to her feet. She needed to start heading home because she was walking back this time. While still stretching her now tired body, she heard a familiar low and smooth voice call her name. Reflexively she turned and her eyes widened as she took in who she was seeing.

Standing a few feet from where she stood was a shirtless Evan. His t-shirt was slung over his left shoulder and he was sweating on his chest. His hair was tousled and the shorts he wore had splashes of dirt on it. He had abs that looked artificial but given how he was right now, Alice was sure they weren’t and that he’d worked for them.

“I knew it was you I saw,” Evan said, planting his hands on his hips.

“Good morning, Mr. Sterling,” Alice greeted.

“Please. We’re outside office premises. It’s Evan.” Alice raised her eyebrows. She realised that truly, this was her very first time of seeing Evan outside of work. And he was working out, participating in an activity that didn’t need folders and cups of coffees. She felt like taking a picture of him and framing it to hang in the lobby of Sterling Industries, so everyone could see that Evan wasn’t a robot.

“Evan,” she called, rolling the name in her mouth. It sounded alien to her. She’d never called him anything but Mr. Sterling.

“You run?” Evan asked, breaking the awkward silence between them.

“This is my first time in a long time,” Alice replied him. She didn’t know why she was telling him the truth. She could just say yes, and tell she needed to go home now so she could walk her dog as well and walk away, and he’d be none the wiser.

“What about you, Mr. Ster…Evan? This a daily occurrence for you?” she asked, drawing the conversation back to him before her big mouth would blurt out why she was running. He’d take the bait. Men loved to talk about themselves and the fact that he was standing in front of her now with his shirt off seemed to prove her theory that he was here to talk about how he’d started his fitness journey and gotten up to this point. Bunch of bloody showoffs.

“Depends. I try to do it everyday. But it’s not an obligation. If I can’t come outside, I’ll run at home. I have a treadmill in my basement,” Evan replied her. Alice was quiet when he was done talking, like she was waiting for him to continue talking.

Evan c****d his head to his right looking at her. She wasn’t even looking at him. Her gaze was distant. He turned back to see if there was anything in particular behind him that was catching her attention. Nothing fascinating, except a man picking apples from a tree, was there. When he turned back to look at her, she had her eyes on him again.

“Well, Evan…it was nice seeing you here today. Like this,” Alice began, sliding her eyes away from him again. “It’s not everyday I get to see my boss all ripped up and shirtless. God, you’re really…ripped.” Okay, Alice. Shut up and walk away. You’re rambling now, he’s gonna freak out, she thought to herself. When she looked up, Evan was smiling down at her. She hadn’t realized he was this tall. Or maybe because she wasn’t wearing heels she appeared shorter. He looked like he was enjoying this.

“Is everything okay, Alice?” he asked calmly. He could tell for sure that this wasn’t the same lady who had scolded him in his office some days back when he’d tried to take out his anger on him. Alice looked away again. It felt good to hear someone other than Sheila and Steven ask her that. She just never expected that it would be Evan Sterling asking her.