The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 107

When Felix finally awoke, he did so slowly, his vision blurry and his head heavy. Even as he was still half unconscious, he realized that he recognized the environment that he was in. It was all strangely familiar but yet, unsettlingly transformed. He was in a room in the Callahan mansion and judging from the size and layout of the room, he was in his old bedroom. The decor of the room had changed drastically since the last time he had been in the room. All of the posters of superheroes and bands had been taken down and replaced with modern art pieces. The color of the walls had been changed from a baby blue color to a dark gray one. His bedside table which had been formerly crowded with action figures and school books now spotted manila folders, stationery and a small potted cacti.

The more Felix observed the room, the more it looked to him like someone had been staying there for a while. The hardwood floors had a few scuff marks on them at the points where the room’s furniture was. He could spot some framed pictures of himself – ranging from one taken during his graduation from university to a picture of the time he and Eliza had gone fishing – arranged on the nightstand. Instead of smelling of dust and mildew like the way every abandoned room smelt, his old room smelt of air freshener – suspiciously, the same kind that he used in his actual room.

He tried getting up but found that his hands were firmly bound to the headboard with thick ropes that dug into his flesh every time he struggled against them. Still, he continued to thrash around and fight against his restraints only pausing when the door opened. He wasn’t exactly sure who he had been expecting but still, the last person he ever expected to see was Hazel. Not one aspect of hers was out of place. She was dressed in her typical fashion of jeans and a simple top. Her blonde hair was piled up on top of her head in a neat bun.

“Hello, Felix. Did you miss me?” She asked.

Suddenly, Felix became unsettlingly still. He knew exactly what had happened. His memory was still a bit foggy, but the last thing he remembered was putting the twins to bed. He had probably fallen asleep over office work and was having a nightmare about Hazel. It wasn’t the first time that would happen. It had been ages since he had last had a nightmare featuring his dead fiancée. Back when he used to have those nightmares, she usually appeared to him bloodied, half-burnt or mangled; sometimes all three. Seeing her standing like that before him was a refreshing change. Perhaps he was having a nightmare about her and it was just a regular dream.

And so, unsure of what exactly was going on, Felix said nothing as she moved closer to the bed he was bound to.

“I asked you a question, Felix. Did you miss me?” Hazel repeated. Her soft smile morphed into a smirk. “Or did you miss Cassie more?”

Felix’s eyes grew wider. Cassie. She had been missing for about a week. How could he have forgotten that? It all came back to him - the phone call from Luther, tracking Cassie’s phone to his family’s mansion, dropping the twins with Rose and Amy so that he could drive to Buckhead, arriving in the house and getting shot in the back with something. That was it! Whatever had shot him probably had some sedative effect.

“This isn’t a dream.” He said as he sat up despite the ropes binding him and the pain in his back.

“Well, no shit Sherlock.” She scoffed.

“This is impossible. This can’t be happening. You’re dead.”

“Obviously, I’m still very much alive,” Hazel said as she spread her arms out and did a little spin so that Felix could see that she wasn’t an apparition. “Oh, dear. I can already see the cogs in your brain turning. This must be very confusing for you. To explain everything that happened, I’m going to take you back to when we met. It was and we were paired to distribute flyers for the Habitat for Humanity Club.”

“It was the Animal Welfare Club and we were asked to design the flyers.” Felix corrected.

She waved him off. “Whatever. It was painfully obvious that you had a crush on me. Of course, I was ecstatic. It’s not every day that a wealthy heir develops a crush on me. I could already see my life with you: first-class treatment, luxury vacations and expensive gifts.” She sighed wistfully. “The problem was, you were so fucking shy that I thought you were never going to act on it. I was very prepared to make the first move but then you finally grew some balls and invited me to watch a movie. I didn’t hesitate to agree. When you invited me on a second, third and subsequent date, I never turned you down. I was having the time of my life with you. The plan was to stay with you until I got bored or some other rich dude showed interest in me; whichever one came first. Everything got complicated when you decided to bring me home to visit your mother and stepfather.”

She pretended to carefully study one of the pictures on Felix’s desk. “It turned out that I wasn’t the fantastic actress I thought I was because your mother, being a gold digger herself, saw right through me. I was surprised when she called me out; first by the fact that people who were born rich could also be gold diggers and then by the offer she made. I was to continue to be your girlfriend for longer and present her requests as if they were mine. Obviously I had no problem with that until your corny ass decided to propose.” She turned to him with a disgusted expression. “Marriage was never in my plans! But that was all you could talk about, all you could think about. We knew we had to do something because I absolutely refused to be tied down in marriage to someone like you. No offense but you’re just not my type. That was when the idea of the car accident came from.”

For a long while, Felix said nothing. There was nothing quite as soul-crushing as finding out that the first woman he had ever loved had worked together with his mother to play him like a fucking fiddle. “Where are my children?”

It was Hazel’s turn to remain silent for a while. Then she burst into laughter. “I just basically told you that I never loved you. Did you really think that I was going to let myself get pregnant for you? All I had to do was show you a positive pregnancy test strip and print out an ultrasound of twins from the internet. It was all surprisingly easy.”

“Was everything a lie?”