Page 108 of Surprise! I'm Engaged To My Boss
CAMILA
It took two company security guards to invade the women's bathroom to get me away from that viper sent from hell.
We were taken to the security room and placed in chairs far apart from each other. I was given an ice pack to put on my face, which I was told was purple (although my blood was so warm I couldn't feel a thing).
Michael came into the room looking like he was going to save someone's life, he looked so distressed and scared. He came straight to my chair, crouching down in front of me and placing one of his hands on my face, looking worried. I felt terribly embarrassed for the situation I had made.
“How are you? Do you think you need to go to a hospital? The blow must have been strong.”
I had to laugh, shaking my head in denial. Hospital? He was probably saying that to me because he must not have noticed the other woman's face.
In fact, at that moment one of the security guards said exactly that, that he was going to take her to the emergency room, since I had apparently broken her nose (and I didn't regret it one bit). Michael agreed and everyone left the room, leaving my fiancé and I alone.
When I found myself alone with Michael, faced with the worried look he was giving me, I finally felt the weight of what I had done. My eyes quickly began to overflow, which brought even more concern to Michael.
“Are you in pain?” He ran his fingers over my face, wiping away my tears. “Are you sure it’s not better to go see a doctor?”
He treated me as if I had merely been assaulted, and not gotten into a fight and been the main aggressor. This made my feelings of guilt increase, and I blurted out, “I can be a bit foul-mouthed when I'm nervous and all, but... I've never fought in my life, not even when I was a kid. I know it's ridiculous to be twenty-five and fighting with a coworker like we're in the fifth grade, but... I couldn't help it. She said the most horrible things!”
“More nasty insinuations about us two?”
“Worse. If that were the case, I would’ve been able to control myself, but she involved Alice in her comments. And I can't allow that.”
He didn't say anything, but I could tell from the look in his eyes that a million things seemed to be going through his mind. He took my hand and, after a pause, said, “Caleb Harris came to the company to talk to me.”
“What did that man want?”
“He came to propose a deal to me. Weekly supervised visits and a certain number of weekends for Alice to spend with me, always with the presence of a nanny and one of their security guards. He will make this proposal at the hearing.”
“What an idiot! What made he think you would accept something like that?”
“I will.”
I could hardly believe I was actually hearing that.
“What's up? Are you crazy, Michael?”
“If I don't accept the agreement, it will be up to the judge to decide, and the chances of me completely losing even the possibility of these visits are huge.”
“It’s not! Of course it’s not. You took over as CEO of the firm, you stopped being in gossip magazines, partying, getting drunk, causing trouble, and dating abunch of different women… You’ve gotten yourself in shape, you’re engaged, and you’re getting married in a few months.”
“And I only had two days with my daughter to prove that I could take good care of her, and in that time she was kidnapped and then left alone on the floor of a gas station. The Harrises will claim to the judge that it was some enemy of mine and that by staying with me, Alice will be subject to things like this more often.”
“They have no way of proving it.”
“There's more, Camila. They have more compromising videos of me to attach to the lawsuit.”
I didn't need to think much to guess what they would be. After all, we already predicted that this could happen.
“Someone filmed you beating up the guy who drugged me at the bar, didn't they? And let me guess: they also filmed me trying to leave with him, right? So the new information about you would be that you're about to marry an adulteress and that you have aggressive behavior driven by jealousy.”
He nodded in confirmation, and I felt like punching someone again. This time, the Harrises' faces. However, I soon added something that would dismantle all those arguments, “But the man you hit was arrested and confessed to everything he did. You hit him to protect me.”
“My fiancée was drugged by a man who tried to take her with him. No one knows what motivated him to do it, the only thing he said to the police was that he did it because he doesn't like me. Few days later, in another state, another man kidnaps my one-year-old daughter. Apparently, for some personal reason against me too. I can say that it wasn't something personal towards Alice, but... also towards you? Two people close to me, in a space of days, there's no way it could be a coincidence.”
“It's not a coincidence. You've been set up. Twice. We'll find a way to prove it. You can't give up, Michael.”
“I can, Camila. I can and I will, especially since I've come to realize that this is all a mistake.”
