chapter 5

Sophia’s POV

By the time I left the office, the evening sky had turned a deep shade of grey. Traffic crawled through the streets.

People hurried along the pavements, eager to get home before the rain started.

Normally, I would have paid attention to the city around me. But today, my mind was elsewhere.

Damien’s warning lingered at the back of my thoughts. ‘Be careful who you trust.’

The words were cryptically annoying, and yet I couldn't completely get them off my mind.

Something about the way he'd said them felt deliberate, as though he knew something I didn't.

Unfortunately, I had bigger problems to worry about.

My father was still in a hospital bed, and Bennett Accounting was hanging by a thread.

By the time I arrived at the hospital, the familiar smell of antiseptic greeted me the moment I stepped out of the lift.

I made my way down the corridor and pushed open the door to Dad's room.

Immediately i saw him, relief washed through me. He looked much better. The colour had returned to his face. The dark shadows beneath his eyes had faded.

Even the stubborn spark I recognised so well had returned. Unfortunately, that spark usually meant trouble.

"Dad."

He looked up from the newspaper in his hands, aguilty expression flashed across his face.

My eyes narrowed. "What are you doing?"

"Reading."

"I can see that."

His newspaper disappeared beneath the blanket. A movement so childish that I almost laughed.

“What are you trying to do?”

Dad paused and cleared his throat

I walked across the room and confiscated the newspaper.

His expression darkened instantly.

"Sophia."

"No."

"Give it back to me"

"No."

"I was in the middle of an article."

"It can wait."

"It can't."

The answer came too quickly, the room went quiet. A strange feeling settled inside me. Because suddenly this wasn't about a newspaper anymore.

Dad looked away, which only deepened my suspicion.

"What article?"

"Nothing important."

"Dad."

"It's nothing."

I exchanged a look with Ethan. He sensed it too that something wasn't right.

Before either of us could push further, a knock sounded at the door.

A doctor entered and examined my father. After the brief examination, he smiled. "Your recovery is progressing well."

I felt relieved after I heard the doctor's words. ‘Finally some good news’ I said to myself.

"But..."

The word almost ruined everything immediately.

"You need at least another forty-eight hours of observation."

Dad sat upright. "No."

The doctor blinked. "No?"

"I have a company to run."

"You also have a heart."

Both Ethan and I laughed, even the doctor looked amused.

Dad however, remained stubborn. The battle lasted for sometime before the doctor left.

The moment the doctor left, Dad looked ready to file an official complaint against the entire medical profession.

For the first time in days, the room felt lighter and completely normal.

Then Dad's phone rang. The atmosphere changed instantly. Dad stared at the screen tightening his jaw.

The colour seemed to drain slightly from his face. Something was very wrong.

“Who's calling” I asked.

He didn't answer, instead he rejected the call.

The phone rang again and again for four times, the same number showed on the screen repeatedly. But dad refused to answer. Instead he switched his phone off completely.

For a brief second, I saw the kind of fear I haven't seen before on his face. But it vanished so quickly.

A nurse interrupted when she arrived with a medication. The conversation ended, but the feeling remained.

There's something my father wasn't telling us.

……..

Ethan left to get coffee while dad was asleep.

I stepped into the corridor to take a call from Claire.

“Sophia, we have a problem” her voice sounding very worried.

A chill ran down my spine.”what happened?”

“It's Walker investments”

Walker investment was one of our biggest client.

“What about them?”

“They've terminated their contract”

For a second, I couldn't breathe.

The corridor suddenly felt colder than before. Walker investments has been with Bennett accounting for nearly eight years. Loosing them was one of the worst things that would happen to us.

I tightened my hand around the phone.

“Why did they terminate the contract”

“They said, they no longer have confidence in the company, and they can't work with incompetent people.”

The words hit harder than I expected.

‘Confidence?’ Such a simple word.

Yet it was the foundation of everything.

And ours was crumbling.

I slowly sat on a chair outside the room. For the first time since this nightmare began, panic threatened to overwhelm me.

How many more clients would leave?

How long would Bennett Accounting survive this?

I sat there in silence. Trying to think. Trying to breathe. Trying not to fall apart.

Then another email notification from Hart global holdings appeared on my phone.

I slowly opened it. The message was short and direct

Yet by the time I finished reading, every trace of exhaustion disappeared.

Because the email contained a request.

And at the bottom of the message was a single line.

‘Mr. Damien specifically requested your attendance.’

I stared at the screen as my heart began to pound. Because suddenly I had a feeling this wasn't about business anymore. Cos why didn't he request dad's presence, why my own.

And for reasons I couldn't explain...That frightened me far more than the company's financial crisis.

‘Who knows how the outcome of this meeting would be’