"Come on, who the hell wants to wake up this devil now? Don’t you guys know that I am in a healing phase and need as much sleep as I can?" Elara groaned, not even willing to pull her face out from under the covers.
Antonio, who watched the girl acting so childishly, smiled.
"So you are telling me you won’t even pick up your calls anymore?" Antonio asked.
"No. I won’t. You are my bodyguard and assistant. Who are you here for? Pick up the call and tell whoever it is that I am sleeping," Elara groaned, cuddling the blanket in her hands.
Antonio chuckled before shaking his head and bringing her ringing phone inside the room.
"Okay then. I’ll let Miss Stewart know that you don’t want to talk to her and want to sleep," Antonio said.
Elara, who was kicking her feet in annoyance, paused and quickly sat up.
"Is that Candice? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?" Elara nearly snatched the phone from his hand before picking up.
"Hey, sweetheart. No. No. I wasn’t busy. I was just taking a bath and couldn’t pick it up on time. Please forgive me. You know I would never deliberately ignore you," Elara said while smiling sheepishly at Antonio, who just rolled his eyes.
This girl was definitely biased towards girls. And then she dares to say she treats everyone the same.
He shook his head and left the room to let her talk freely, then returned to the documents Xylon had sent him.
Inside the room, Elara checked the time, then licked her bottom lip.
"You mean now?" She asked.
Candice, on the other hand, let out a nervous laugh.
"Well, you know how things are. My dad doesn’t have much confidence in my project. He was quite impressed by you last time. I think your presence will make quite a difference," Candice said.
Elara hummed, thinking about everything.
Daniel and George had indeed asked her to stay inside the house for the time being and focus on getting better until it was of the utmost importance, like going to the registrar to finalize the divorce and then going on set.
Then again, Candice was going to meet her brother only.
But it was still better to ask him, right?
"Give me two minutes," Elara said before ending the call.
She quickly called George to ensure he wouldn’t get angry when he saw her there.
Though George wasn’t pleased, since he wanted her to rest at home, he was happy she at least bothered to ask for permission this time and understood they were doing this for her benefit only.
Elara quickly messaged Candice that she would be there and meet her at the restaurant directly.
She quickly got ready in decent clothes and checked her appearance in the mirror. Though she didn’t fancy heavy makeup, she needed to apply heavy concealer to at least hide the wound marks on her face so she wouldn’t end up worrying her best friend.
Once she was ready, she walked out of the room and noticed Antonio drowning in stacks of papers, making her raise her brows.
"I didn’t know my apartment had turned into a mini office," she mused, and the guy laughed awkwardly before asking where they were leaving for.
Elara grabbed a few cookies from the dining table, munching on them as they reached the car.
"Here, keep it." Antonio extended his hand towards her before they could sit inside, and Elara raised her brows when she saw a gun in his hand.
"I know that you know how to operate one. Please keep this for your safety from now on. I will always stick by your side, but if there are more people, I don’t want you to feel helpless. So just pull this gun and shoot whoever it is from now on," Antonio said.
Elara took the gun from his hand, and her lips lifted slightly.
"And who would deal with the consequences?" She asked casually.
"Your lover, of course. It was his idea after all," Antonio said without shame or hesitation, and it made Elara chuckle before she sat inside the car.
Thinking about him, she licked her bottom lip and wondered if she should call him. But he must be busy. After all, he postponed so many vital meetings for her...
She opened the messaging app and contemplated what to write.
When she couldn’t think of anything, she formulated the best message she could.
"Have you eaten?" She sent it.
At the same time, Daniel, who was going through the presentation while listening to the departmental manager’s reports, casually grabbed his phone, the hard look in his eyes softening as he read the message.
He didn’t reply instantly. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and kept staring at it as if it were some kind of hidden secret code.
She misses me. He smiled to himself.
Alen, who looked up from the papers when the manager stopped speaking, looked up to see what the problem was with furrowed brows.
He followed the manager’s gaze and looked at his boss, who was smiling at his phone, and his lips twitched before he hit the back of his pen on the table to get the manager’s attention.
"Do you want to die?" Alen mouthed to the manager, who snapped out of his shock and continued the report.
After a long, drawn-out observation, Daniel finally replied.
"Mmm. Wbu, my love?" He asked.
Elara, sitting inside the car, smiled at the message and was about to reply to keep the conversation going for some time when Antonio suddenly screeched the car to the side, almost throwing her body to the side.
"What the—?" Elara gritted out in pain, stopping when she saw a car deliberately blocking their path.
Antonio looked at the car, waiting for the other person to come out.
"Stay alert, Miss Elara. Let me see who it is and what they want." Antonio stepped out of the car and was about to leave when he heard the door open from behind him.
"Miss Elara," Antonio was about to ask what she was doing when he saw the door from the other car open too, and a man stepping out.
Since he had been studying Sean’s case from morning to stay up-to-date on every family member, he immediately knew who this man was and stood protectively before Elara.
"Can I have your five minutes, Miss Elara? That’s all I am asking. You don’t need to be scared of me. I don’t mean any harm. I promise. Just five minutes," the man said.
Elara looked at Sean’s father, then took a deep breath and hummed.
"Okay," she said.