Chapter 46: Chapter 46

Chapter Forty -  Six

Ava's POV

Yesterday was a bit too much for me to take in. I mean having someone to attack you and try to kidnap you with a knife on your side, was not a very common scenario. It took more than just a few hours of sleep and a warm bath to calm me down. When I got home, I just went straight to my bedroom for a bath and then I went to sleep. I ate and then went to sleep again. I did not see Jasper yesterday at dinner, and to be frank I did not care. My trauma from the attack was enough yesterday. I would not have been able to hold a conversation with him anyway.

Yeah, yesterday was hectic to say the least.

However, I was grateful for Jasper. Or to be specific, his presence at the right time at the right moment. Otherwise I was not sure if I would have ever seen the sunrise again. Just thinking about it sent a shiver down my spine. I knew it's going to take a while for me to get used to yesterday's trauma.

Nevertheless, I still got up to work today. I knew that I was pretty shaken up by the incident but if I stayed at home that was all I was going to think about. There was no point in staying here. If I will work then maybe I will get my mind off of it. It will provide me with a distraction.

Distractingly, I freshened up and changed my clothes. I dressed up and walked down the stairs. My mind was still replaying all the things that had happened and I was still wondering about all the what if's.

What if Jasper had not come at the right time? What if I had taken some time and told Charlotte about this beforehand? What if I had not gone down in the parking lot alone by myself? What if I had just made up an excuse and told Jasper that I was busy just like he was and could not do it? What if I had just asked any other person to deliver the file to the parking lot? What if on the first day, I had not asked Kevin's help? What if I had trusted my gut instinct and went with it instead of going against it?

What if ... What if ... What if ...

All these thoughts swirled around my head as I walked down the stairs ...

All of a sudden, I was on the last stair and I came face to face with Jasper. He was where I had met him yesterday. I was surprised to find him standing over there as I thought that I would not see him today for breakfast. I had thought, I don't know ... like he would spend his time with his girlfriend, making up for his rude behavior. Especially when he insulted her in front of me. An employee that worked under him. I certainly did not expect him to be in this house, particularly standing there.

However, this time it was different. He was not cuffing his shirt's button and did not have his coat draped over his arm like last time.

No.

This time he was standing there completely dressed up in his coat and pent, with his hands in his pockets and his head staring at the ground. He seemed to be waiting for someone.

Me?

Right as I took the final step and got on the ground level with him, his head turned in my direction. He gave me what could be perceived as a smile. I gave him a half smile as well. Honestly, I only did it because I did not no, what else I should do. I was surprised but did not want to give that away.

"Morning." Jasper greeted me as I made my way over to him.

It was a little weird. The greeting I mean. I didn't even remember how we greeted each other on a normal basis.

"Morning." I replied back. I rubbed my hands together, just so I had something to do.

"So ... how are you doing?" He asked me.

My forehead creased in confusion. I did not know what he was getting at with that. I knew he wanted to say something to me. A particular thing or ask a particular question, but he just did not know how to get to it. I realised that sooner or later he would ask what he wanted to ask. What I did not understand was what? What could he seemingly be getting at?

Jasper did a scan of my face and slightly nodded his head. His expression gave an impression of anxiousness and restlessness.

"Okay. So ... let's go and have some breakfast." He suggested.

I had nothing better to say or do, so I agreed with him.

"Yeah, sure. Let's go." I told him. We both began walking in the diner room.

Few days ago, he shouted at me for entering his office without knocking. Got angry because I found out about his affair with his secretary. He even threatened me in private, if I told anyone about his affair to anyone. He threatened me with what he would do, "More than just fire me from my job and throw me out of this house", and now he was pretending to be nice or decent. I did not know what his deal was.

At one time, he was nice and sweet and on the other time, he walked around threatening people. What should I perceive of him? Good or bad? A good person with bad tantrums or a bad person with a good persona?

He threatened me at one point and then beat the hell out of a man who tried to harm me?

I mean he had been nice to me since the moment we had met but I was not sure that was his real personality anymore. There was two reasonable thing that could define his attitude. One, anger was his way of defense. He gets defensive whenever he felt threatened. Or two, that he was a good person who snapped when I unintentionally pushed him beyond his limits. Every good people had secrets that they did not want them to be discovered, but when they did get discovered by someone, they did not know how to deal with them. And that was when they get aggressive.

Still, threatening one to solve your problem was not forgivable.

No matter what.

At last, we walked over, reached the dining room and entered it. All the while walking to this place, none of us spoke. Both of us were, lost in our thoughts.

Anyhow, when we walked over the table, Jasper pulled a chair out for me to sit. The action caused some major deja vu for me. It had not been a long time when Jasper had pulled a chair out for me to sit during breakfast but it seemed like eternity had come and gone by the moment. When did things change so drastically?

Giving a small smile as a thanks, I sat down on the chair.

Flipping the plate and putting the napkin on my lap, I straightened.

"Maria?" Jasper called out for Maria.

"Here." Maria replied as she entered the dining room with our breakfast.

She smoothly but quickly served us our breakfast before leaving us on our own. Not wasting any time, I started to eat. Breakfast was important if I needed the energy to work for the whole day. And especially now, I needed as much energy as I could muster. Therefore, I immersed myself in eating.

In the middle of the breakfast, Jasper spoke.

"So, about what happened yesterday ..." Jasper said softly, still looking at his plate. I raised my head to look at him.

"What about it?" I asked in a dismissing tone. Even though it came out way serious then I intended it to be. I tore my eyes from his face and took a bite from the food. I felt Jasper raising his head to look at me.

"Do you ... want to talk about it?" He questioned. I halted my moments and hesitantly, raised my head to face him.

"Talk about what?" I asked him nonchalantly, trying to avoid the topic.

I had so much in my heart that I just wanted to pour out. I was vulnerable when it came to that incident. To be very honest, I was still shocked and had not quite been able to process what had happened. Things had happened so fast that I just lost track of everything that I went through. My emotions conflicted to. I did not know what I should feel and how I should feel.

I knew that I had been through a similar incident before with that intruder but this was different. Not only was I threatened by a knife this time but also I was betrayed at the same time. From someone, I had known. This was different because somehow I knew that I could have stopped it if I had listened to my gut feeling. Somehow, I found myself guilty of the things that had happened to me.

I had almost given up any hope of surviving when I had felt that knife to my side. But when I did manage to get out of it, I was shocked. Shocked and relieved.

At the moment, I was pretty shaken up and still was not ready to talk about it. It only brought all the bad memories back.

I drank my tea and avoided looking Jasper in his eyes. Jasper gave me a look like he understood that I was trying to avoid this topic but he pressed on.

"You know, about yesterday. Kevin holding you on the edge of the knife and almost kidnapping you." He explained.

He knew I was trying to avoid this topic and yet he was pressing on and on. I needed to say something and nip in the bud. I was aware if I tried to say something that made it appear to be avoiding this topic, then he would press on. Therefore, I had to say something that would shut him for good. For now.

"Before yesterday, you were not talking to me. And the last time you did talk to me, you basically threatened me. Remember? It had not been that long. So, excuse me if I don't want to share my feelings with someone who threatened me." I snapped.

Standing up, I pushed the chair back. I had only eaten half of the breakfast but that was enough for the day. I began to move when Jasper's hard voice boomed again.

"The person who threatened you, had provided you with a job, let you live in his house and let you eat his food for free." Jasper barked back.

Now, my anger spiked up. I could not believe that he had gone back to those moments just to one up me.

"Yes, your majesty, so that one day you could use it as leverage to hold it over my head. Only so that you could show me my place and manipulate me." I retorted back, almost yelled back.

Straightening to my length, I clenched my teeth.

"However, now that you mentioned what you think of me. Then I guess it is better to say that there is no point in working here. Expect to receive my resignation letter at the end of the day." I told him.

"And thank you for all the charity work you did for me." I told him and walked over to the exit. Jasper did not respond back, just glared at me with angry eyes. His eyes moved as I moved. I was almost at the door when I heard Jasper speak.

"And where are you gonna go after leaving this house? You do not have a job. You don't have money nor do you have your parents' house where you might settle down." He questioned his voice cold as his words pierced me like a knife.

How could he? Throwing back the most vulnerable things that I had told him.

My eyes teared up but I held the tears in. He did not need to know that he had gotten under my skin.

I looked at him over my shoulder.

"Even if I had to be homeless or live on the streets, I would leave this house. That is none of your business." I fired back at him and left the room before he could reply back or I ended up doing something that I would regret later.

And I was going to take a cab today.