Chapter 34: Thirty four

The heart monitor beeped in the silence of the VIP room Lexus was unconscious in. He had received his treatment in a hospital nearby and then was transferred to the room. His breathing was steady but he wasn't waking up.

I sat on the chair beside his bed and even though the doctors said he'd be fine, there was something inside my chest that kept pricking me.

Even though I should be relieved that he is fine, why does my heart ache so much?

The more I look at Lexus, the more I feel hurt.

Am I feeling guilty?

It was my selfish wish to start work.

Somehow, it feels like that isn't the case.

The door opened and a woman entered the room. She had a dignified aura around her, looked in her late thirties, maybe younger? but she had such a strong demeanor that as soon as her gaze landed on me I stood up from the chair and wanted to leave.

"I'll take my leave."

"Stay." She said and gestured me to sit down again as she took a seat on the other side of the bed on the little couch. "Do you know who I am?"

I shook my head and she smiled, "I'm his mother. Veronica."

Oh? Come to think of it, they have the same eyes, and when I say this, I mean not just the color but feeling too.

"I'm sorry." I apologized to her, I thought maybe it would make me feel better. But, well, it didn't.

"You know." She started, paying no heed to my apology as she continued, "Lexus had become a very conserved person, for years the only thing he did was push everyone away. He got a bit better when he turned 25. He stopped smoking suddenly." Wait! He smoked? I never knew. Come to think of it, I barely know him at all, Even though we live together. I felt so stupid for some reason.

"But I observed a real change in him in the past few months." She continued, a gentle yet short lived smile formed on her lips, "He became less rigid, less cold, less tired. And I don't know how, for the past few days I noticed that he was smiling quite often."

She looked at her son with so much love mixed with a greater amount of sorrow. "I wonder what made his iron wall come down?"

She asked to no one in particular. "And then he helped save an employee?" She looked at me, "What are the odds?"

My eyes removed their focus from her and I looked at the floor, "It surprised me too." I gulped, "The CEO handed up taking a blow for a nobody like me."

Veronica exhaled deeply as she kept her eyes on me, "Yes. Surprising indeed."

***

I sat in the hospital courtyard when Alios came to pick me up.

"Hey." He greeted and took his place in front of me, on the chair right across mine with a circular table in between.

"Hey... How come Lexus was there?"

"Ah. It must be because when you pressed the emergency button, not only the security gets the alert, there is a connection to Lexus's office too so that he knows if anything goes wrong at the spot."

"How come you know that?"

He averted his gaze for a moment then looked back, "I know a lot of things, you don't."

"Excuse me?"

"I have a very good memory unlike you."

I raised my brows at him, "What-?"

He cut my words, "But hey-" He showed me his phone, "His popularity increased after the incident." I looked at the article he was showing me, "People are giving him such a positive review saying how chivalrous of him to save an employee and help arrest a kidnapper and sex offender."

"Sex offender?"

"Yeah. That creepy man had a record. It's a good thing nothing happened and he got caught." A chill ran down my spine, then I remembered.

"Alios."

"Hmm?" He was looking at his phone, going through the comments.

"I remember where I saw him."

"You saw him before?"

I nodded, "Once when Lexus was taking back his niece, Summer, to school. He was standing there, right out the hotel staring at Summer the whole time."

"Ah geez. That's messed up."

"I think he saw me but I ignored him. I was walking behind Lexus."

Alios slumped back on the seat, "Maybe he thought he could change his target from Summer to you. After all, unlike Summer, You have no security."

"Yea... And he got the wrong idea, I don't mean anything to them, to Summer or... Lexus." My own words hit me like a knife. I didn't like what I was saying.

"Hmm?" Alios wondered something in his mind while my mind was consumed with only one person.

It hurts me to think that I didn't really mean anything important to Lexus, especially because he was treating me so nicely. Why would he do all that for me? Did he have a soft spot for me? He got especially soft after reading my past history. It was a pitiable one I guess.

I touched my neck, now free of the collar that bind me to him. The feeling was nice but-

I felt a tightening in my chest. I was facing a feeling I couldn't even decipher.

But most of all, it hurts me so much to see him get hurt like that. It scared the hell out of me when he lost consciousness right in front of my eyes. It was like- I can't even describe.

"Excuse me?" I turned my head around upon hearing the voice of a female. It was a nurse. One of the two nurses assigned to Lexus's room. "I just wanted to tell you that Mr. Xander has woken up."

A warm feeling bubbled up in my chest, subduing all the negative emotions I was feeling before. I felt relieved. So relieved. So happy, that he was okay. I was glad, and it felt like I couldn't have received a better news. It felt like my entire body relaxed.

Ah...

My heart dropped as I realized something. Then it sped up.

My questions were answered.

I pursed my lips in panic and realization

I had fallen in love with him.