She was discharged two weeks later and she saw him everyday. He came back. Every single morning before work to check up on her and every evening after work.
He brought her food. Mostly porridge that he made and my God he was good at it. Sometimes she spoke and he listened. Other times, they spent it in silence.
And most times they spent their company in fully fledged awkward prolonged tension. The sort that could be cut through with a knife.
And he never ceased to stare. Her wounds were healing. Almost healed and getting better. Sullivan had gotten the best doctors for her including plastic surgeons and with the way some of her wounds healed, she was sure she might not be able to make out a scar there anymore.
It was fascinating really. The speed of technology. Her cast had been removed on the first day of the week and she was in physiotherapy every noon. Learning to walk and move around without being stiff about it.
On the day she was to be discharged, Sullivan had caught her sitting by the window pane staring at the setting sun and basking in it. He cleared his throat and she turned around to him. Half a smile on her face and the doctor behind him.
"Congratulations Miss Harbinger, your discharge papers have been signed. You are more than free to leave. But you have to stop by twice a week for your check up."
She smiled at the doctor and shook his hands. Then it dawned on her. She had no place to go. Not after the fight with her husband and the fact on ground—which was that she was now divorced—and Gigi controlled the company meaning she has nothing to fall back on.
The doctor left and the disappointment settled on her face as fast as the smile did. Surely she couldn't bother him any longer. It's good that he had been kind enough to pay her hospital bills and wouldn't sue her for crashing into his company, she couldn't ask him for any more help.
"You can change into these. I had Brook get them." He placed a department bag on the bed and gestured for her to take it.
Stiffly, she walked closer and took the bag, going into the bathroom to change her outfit. Surprisingly, the outfit was not bad. The blouse was a loose cardigan and the jeans were baggy, so it didn't restrain her leg in any way.
When she stepped back out, she found him sitting on the bed and staring at it as if he would miss it.
"Do you want to take the hospital bed with you or something?" Anna joked.
He looked at her now. Taking in her dressing and a slight sense of appraisal bloomed in his eyes. He liked what he saw. Even if she was entirely covered from head to toe.
"The bed still smells like you." The comment was off topic and it wasn't exactly what she expected him to say.
She didn't know how to respond and she was soon plagued by the hurtful thought of not having a place to live.
"Are you done?" He asked and she gave a single nod. He stood from the bed and grabbed the bag from her. "Let's leave."
He walked to the door and pulled it, waiting for her to step out but her steps were slow and she didn't know how to tell him.
But surely she had to now. "Actually, Vice Chairman Sullivan…" he arched a brow, a faint frown settling on his face. "...I… I don't…"
"What is it?"
"I don't have…"
"I know you are divorced Annabelle." He spoke gently before rubbing the crease in his brows. "How silly are you to have given all your inheritance to a man?"
The question wasn't meant to insult her, or make her feel small and she knew it but hearing him say it, it brought tears to her eyes. Tears she blinked back as she stepped closer.
"Very silly."
He smiled. A faint smile. A very small smile that she wouldn't have seen if she hadn't been looking at him. "Good that you know. Come here. You are staying with me."
His words blanched her heart just as it settled right on the tiny frame of it. She is staying with him?
At Michael Sullivan's house? In the same house with Michael Sullivan? THE MICHAEL SULLIVAN?
Would it not change his reputation? Well…not the one everyone knew him for—his reputation was horrible—people termed him the killer Vice Chairman mostly because of an incident that happened some years back, one he didn't bother clearing off.
But his reputation to be clear of women. She couldn't taint that. And being in the same house with him. Oh God, how was she to act around him? Not to add that they weren't even that close.
"You don't want to?" She shook her head and he closed the door, dropping a sigh as he did. It came to her that he must be exhausted. From caring for her and taking care of his business as well. The past three months must have been horrendously stressful for him. "It occurred to me that I could buy you an apartment but you refuse to tell me who hacked your car and put the bomb there. You won't say a thing about who assaulted you like that…" she watched his jaw tick and the glint returned. That murderous glint he had when he first asked her who did that to her. God he had made her squirmy at that time and it shouldn't even be possible given the horrifying situation she was in then. "But I can't leave you lax Annabelle. I need to keep an eye on you. I cannot afford to have you in danger again."
"We are not even that close." She blurted before she could think.
He didn't look offended. Or Sound offended when he spoke next. "Exactly. We are not, yet you crashed into my company and here we are Annabelle, brought together by a force we cannot see." He opened the door again. "I am not a very patient man Annabelle. If you do not want to live with me, I can always hold you against your will. As long as it will keep you safe, I wouldn't care."
Of course. This is the type of man that he is. This was what worried her about him at first. He hadn't even said things like this at that time when she felt that he was a dangerous man. It was in his eyes. In the way he walked and talked. The manner to which he spoke to people and the regard he held them in.
Micheal Sullivan is an arrogant man and he has accomplished and done enough to be arrogant. Like the internet would say, the man radiated a big D energy or what the new generation called big cock energy.
He was allowed to be cocky.
She blushed at the train of her thought and it made Sullivan tilt his head, his brain raking around to think of whatever it was in her head that brought about that blush. He would really pay just to know.
Anna's heart was beating too fast and he could hear the way her pulse moved back and forth, the machines of her body betraying her now straight face.
She shrugged her shoulders at last. "Thank you." Was all she said as they walked to his car.
Minutes later he was driving on the road, when she turned her body to him and meekly asked. "Now that I have been discharged and I am free to eat, can we get something else that isn't porridge?"
Sullivan felt his finger shake slightly against the wheel. The effect of her words striking the surface chords of his heart. If he could find one. He felt as if she had just asked if he would marry her. His dreams were too far and wide for that. Annabelle isn't good for him. He is the worst for her.
Surely he could put her on a high pedestal but what about the long run?
Or when she finds out about him? About his preferences and the secrets that embodied his being?
"Nothing spicy." He answered.
She did a fist bump and looked out the windows. "And you are buying, since I have no money."
She was getting comfortable and it brought a huge smile to his face. One she noticed.
"I thought you had a condition that wouldn't let you smile." Anna had said and he turned to glance at her. "The smile suits you very much, Vice Chairman Sullivan."
He didn't know what to say to that. Couldn't say what came to his mind lest she starts to grow suspicious of him. "What do you want to buy?"
"Junk food." She could see that he was already shaking his head so she quickly explained. "Nothing too greasy. Just some chips and popcorn. The past three months were horrible. I deserve that much."
They got to a red light and he finally looked at her, drinking in her eyes and the soft glow beneath it. He couldn't put that out now, could he? No way he was about to say no to her.
"Okay." He concurred.
If this lady ever finds out he isn't able to refuse her anything, something told him, he would be more than fucked.