Chapter 45: Chapter 45

Chapter 47: Look where your legs are?

"President Hargreaves, dinner is ready. Please join everyone."

Alex looked up when he heard a strange but gentle voice, he slightly frowned when he saw his subordinate wearing a skirt while camping, weird.

"Where is Elly?"

Adela tried to make an impression with Alex "I don't know, sir. Perhaps she's having dinner with everybody."

Alex got angry to find out that his secretary didn't wait for him. He slammed the table and left Adela disappointed behind him.

They all cheered when they saw Alex, but Elly was the only one who mattered that moment.

"Where is Elly? Why isn't she here?"

They only noticed that Elly wasn't there after Alex asked them, but no one seemed to know her whereabouts.

Alex got frustrated by their apathy. "All you can do is eat. While one member of the company has gone missing, and no one cares. All of you are so insensitive. Get up and go look for her. Now!"

A great deal of discontent was in the air as they have nothing to do with this but no one dared to say anything. A camping trip soon turned into a man-hunt.

Meanwhile, Elly was sitting under a tree in the forest, looked at the torn parts on her pants.

"I'm such an idiot. How could I fall like that? Now I'm lost with my legs injured, such a bad luck."

She looked up at the sky through the branches and supposed everyone must be eating right now. She wondered if anyone noticed her disappearance. But at the end of the day, she doesn't have a lot of friends in the company.

As she drowned herself in negative thoughts, she heard someone shouting her name for afar.

"Here! I'm here!" She shouted back as loud as possible.

She stood up and ran towards that direction but she tripped over the root of a big tree.

She closed her eyes as if she accepted her fate already when suddenly an arm caught her, her face hit something that smelled like lavish perfume.

They both fell and she lay on top of her savior.

"Idiot!" He gnashed and blamed her.

Elly opened her eyes as she heard a familiar voice, she was relieved but cautiously looked at Alex's face, it's full of grimace.

"Director Hargreaves? What's wrong?

"Look where your legs are?

Elly leaned her arms against Alex's muscular chest to get herself up just and realized that her thigh is on top of a man's most intimate part. She jumped back immediately but ended up falling again.

"Such an idiot!" Alex stood up and looked at her clumsiness with a smile on his face. He wouldn't tell her how much it hurt down there though.

Elly was so embarrassed but Alex didn't even gave her a chance to say anything "How old are you? Where were you? Why didn't you tell anyone you were going to the forest? Everyone's looking for you!"

Elly knew she caused a lot of trouble. All she can do was to apologize.

Alex was still mad at her, she worried him to death. He was afraid that Elly might have had an accident and he couldn't find her in time.

Sorry doesn't even cut it. How many apologies could make up for that if something happened to her? He kept yelling "Why didn't you use your phone when you got lost?"

"There was no signal..."

She explained. Had there been any signal, she would have called someone, why would she want to cluelessly wander around anyway?

Alex began to pity her instead when he saw how scared she was. He rushed "Hurry, everyone's waiting for you! Follow me closely, don't get lost!"

Elly tried to catch up with him even though her ankle hurt really bad.

Alex noticed something wrong about Elly, he asked.

"Is your ankle dislocated?"

Elly nodded her head "I'm not sure. It started to swell after the third time I fell, it hurts when I walk."

Alex checked up on her ankle "Put your hands on my shoulder and stand still."

Elly did what he said because she can barely stand now "Director Hargreaves, it's okay, you're embarrassing me."

"Shut it!" Once again Alex just wanted to glue her lips.

"Ouch, it hurts. Do you know what you're doing? It hurts a lot." Elly screamed at him as she was about to cry.

Alex looked up at her face when their faces were just a few inches apart. Elly's face turned red and her heart was jumping all over the place.

Both of them just stared at each other without saying a word, a wind blew Elly's hair up over Alex's face. She awkwardly suggested.

"Director Hargreaves, we need to go. They're waiting for us."

Alex didn't say anything and put her shoes on her feet then turned his back. "Get up!"

Elly hysterically refused. "Director Hargreaves, when will the rumors about us go away if you carry me like that?"

"You care about what people think?"

Elly didn't realize that Alex was getting more patient with her, she nodded her head. "Of course, I don't want people gossiping about me. I don't want John to know about these rumors."

Alex was jealous of Elly's faithfulness for John. His face turned black all of the sudden. He turned around and grabbed her arms, then put them on his shoulder. Just like that, he carried her on his back.

Elly wasn't prepared for that her heart wanted to jump out of her chest.

Alex was quiet all the way back to their camp. She felt his gloom and doom in the atmosphere but she doesn't get why the boss of a huge corporation like him has to do this. Nevertheless, she was happy when she saw how much Alex cared about her, even though he's still very grumpy.

Being cared so much by Alex in the middle of nowhere truly touched her heart.

Everyone came back to the camp as they couldn't find Elly. They were all starving and exhausted. In the stuffy atmosphere, someone spoke up out of her frustration.

"Elly has caused a lot of troubles for us. Our department was reproved because she was late for work."

"Yeah, she's an adult, she should know what to do if she's lost in a forest."

"Maybe she set this up to mess with us?"

"Maybe she wants Director Hargreaves' attention, rumors have it that she's his mistress..."

Then they started to gossip about Elly, hunger does have some effects on them. Adela was the one who started it but she's trying to cover her face as well as her sinister eyes.

In the middle of the argument, someone shouted "They're here! They're back!"

They saw Alex carrying Elly on his back towards them.

Elly got even more embarrassed when everyone was staring at her.

Adela found it so outrageous when Director Hargreaves did this for a secretary. She wanted to teach Elly a lesson but ended up pushing them closer.

Alex gently put her downs and mockingly looked at her. Elly read the situation and humbly thanked him.

"Elly, we're glad you're back. We looked for you everywhere!" Adela came towards her, pretended to be happy and all. She then turned to Alex and complimented him. "You're brilliant, Director Hargreaves, how did you found her?"

Alex didn't react to that cliché but turned to the camp manager.

"The trip ends here. Pack your things up and go back to the company."

Everyone begged Alex not to end the trip but instead he complained "A colleague of yours disappeared for hours and no one knew about that, it shows disunity. What if the person who went missing was one of you, what would you think when no one remembered you?"

They're silent immediately. Elly saw Adela slightly trembled next to her, she thought Adela was just worried about her so she comforted "Don't worry, I'm fine."

Alex didn't like that scene one bit; he grunted at them.

"What happened today isn't just an accident. I will conduct an investigation and dispose of whoever did this."

Elly, along with everybody else were quite surprised by Alex's decision.

"Elly!" Alex shouted out her name with a smirk on his face when he saw her startled "Get in my car."

Her colleagues went through all kinds of emotions when they saw that, doubt, jealousy or even despising. Everyone was frustrated and blamed Elly on the trip being cancelled. No one can ignore what was going on between Alex and Elly after what happened today.