42

"Where is she?" Nathan stormed into his grandfather's office, leaving him somewhat perplexed.

It looked like he hadn't slept in days; his hair was disheveled and his beard unshaven. He looked truly deplorable.

"Where is who?" Jarek asked naturally.

Nathan clenched his fists, trying to control himself.

"Don't play dumb, you know very well who I'm talking about!"

"Calm down, boy," the old man looked at him seriously. "I don't know what or who you're talking about."

"Suzanne!" Nathan shouted desperately, pulling at his hair. "I swear, if you don't give her back to me…!"

"Shut up, Nathan!" his grandfather snapped, irritated. "Are you daring to threaten me?"

"That's right!" Nathan shouted furiously, taking a couple of steps forward. "Tell me where my wife is. You have no damn right to take her!"

At that moment, the old magnate's guards entered, hearing the shouting and commotion. The man raised a hand and didn't flinch when his grandson grabbed him by the jacket of his suit.

"You really are a piece of shit," he spat with disdain, freeing himself from Nathan's grip. "Who knows what you did to her this time to make her leave you like that."

"I swear, old man, I don't have the patience…"

"Suzanne is not with me, Nathan," his grandfather cut him off coldly, looking at him with disdain. "But believe me, she will be, and I won't care about your spoiled tantrums when you've lost a toy."

"She is not my toy!" Nathan dared to retort.

"Oh, really?" the old man approached him, getting very close. "What about that agreement to be her sex slave? I know everything, Nathan, and I'm certain that the best thing is for Suzanne to be far away from you; you don't deserve her."

"And you do?" Nathan spat back mockingly.

"Don't talk nonsense," the old man raised a hand, delivering a resounding slap. "The only thing I want for Suzanne is for her to be happy, to be calm and at peace… something you've already shown you can't give her.”

"I won't let you..." Nathan hissed, glaring at him with hatred. "You can't keep her away from me forever. I'll find a way..."

"I already told you she's not with me, you idiot," the old man retorted, fed up with his attitude. "But believe me, I'll find her and put so much distance between you two that you won't be able to find her in ten years. Take him away!"

The burly men dragged him out while Nathan hurled curses and vows against the old man, who watched the scene thoughtfully.

Nathan didn't believe for a second that his grandfather didn't have Suzanne. It was obvious he wouldn't admit it, just to torment him and make him suffer.

"Damn it, I need to know where she is and take her away from that old man before he takes her from me," he ran his hands over his face, desperate. "I have to find her, I have to..."

A fleeting thought crossed his mind. He imagined Suzanne at that moment in the arms of another man, and it enraged him. He didn't want to share her, didn't even want to think that she would leave him.

But why wouldn't she? He had given her carte blanche; he had been the one to break the rule. Why wouldn't she do the same, even out of revenge?

"No, she's not like that," he thought with a lump in his throat.

With those thoughts tormenting his mind, he called his driver to give him Suzanne's address.

When he arrived, he frowned upon seeing where she was living. It was a boarding house, not an apartment as he had thought.

What was she doing living there? With the money he had given her, she could have bought a house.

That confused him, but he focused on his main interest. He would investigate that further later.

The people in the boarding house looked at him curiously. He only had to say two words and in record time, he got the information he wanted.

He took the wooden stairs two at a time and stopped in front of an old, worn-out door. He knocked furiously but got no response. He had to restrain himself from kicking it down.

He called for the boarding house manager, and she gave him a spare key. He inserted the key into the lock, and it gave way. The door creaked as he opened it.

He looked around with disdain. Despite everything being well-organized, it seemed like a rat hole because of how small it was, and for a moment, he felt claustrophobic.

The speech he had prepared vanished from his mind when he saw her there, wrapped in several blankets and curled up.

He approached her and, upon touching her forehead, realized she was burning with fever. He felt guilty, as he had once again been wrong about her.

"Suzanne, darling," he insisted, but she didn't wake up.

Without thinking twice, Nathan picked her up in his arms and placed her in his car, calling his friend Jules Harper, an excellent doctor, to have everything ready for when he arrived at the clinic.

She didn't wake up during the entire trip, and when they arrived, she was admitted as an emergency. All kinds of tests were done before medicating her to determine the cause of the high fever.

Minutes later, she was medicated to reduce the fever, while Nathan filled out the required documents.

The doctor entered the room, and by then, she was already awake. She looked around a bit disoriented, not knowing how she had gotten there.

"I'm Dr. Harper. How are you feeling?" he asked while taking her blood pressure and checking the thermometer to see how much the fever had gone down.

"Much better, although very exhausted."

"That's normal in your condition."

Suzanne didn't need to ask; she already knew what he meant. She had taken a home test, and it had come out positive.