Chapter 64 I'm Clinging to You
Katniss was like, "I'm not clinging to the matter; I'm clinging to you."
Katniss clung to Sophia's arm, her voice steady but every word hitting Sophia right in the feels.
She leaned on Sophia's shoulder, feeling the slight tremble in Sophia's body.
After what felt like forever, Sophia let out a big sigh and said, "Alright, it's late. You got work tomorrow. Let's head back and crash."
"Okay." Katniss took off the blanket and tried to put it on Sophia, but Sophia stopped her and wrapped it around Katniss instead.
Sophia held her as they walked back to the hospital, their steps slow and steady.
The trip from the hospital to Synergy Global Corporation was a long one. Early the next morning, Katniss grabbed breakfast for Sophia and then took off.
Sophia saw her off at the door, watching her thin figure disappear down the hallway before heading back to the ward.
She ate the breakfast Katniss got her, tears streaming down her face. After finishing, she wiped her tears, pulled out her phone, and made a call.
Sophia said into the phone, "Hey, it's me. Just wanted to say the kids are getting along great. When do you think we should set up a meeting? Yeah, I'm anxious. You know my health's not great. I wanna get this marriage thing sorted while I can still move around. Even if we can't get them hitched right away, at least let's finalize the engagement. Who knows how much longer I got. Alright, let's grab a meal soon."
Katniss hopped on the bus and reached into her bag for her phone, only to find a warm, peeled egg.
She could almost smell the egg through the bag. She smiled, opened the bag, and ate the egg in small bites.
It tasted better than any fancy food she'd ever had.
After finishing the egg, she felt warmer. She opened her phone to check out the test papers Kieran had sent her last night.
Kieran had sent over the rest of the test papers for a bunch of subjects. Three subjects barely passed, and four were a total disaster.
On her way to the company, she quickly went over the issues with Kieran and then planned to send him course materials for several subjects each day to start from scratch.
She got even busier. Besides work during the day, she used her lunch break to organize stuff for Kieran. Any extra time was spent in a mix of indecision and hesitation.
She barely had any time alone with Tristan, only catching glimpses of him each day, mostly in work-related situations.
That evening, Tristan had no plans to leave work, and it was Bella who passed on the message.
Bella said, "Tristan's staying late to work overtime, so we should head home first."
Katniss's hand tightened around her pen, and she pressed her lips together.
Bella stood by her desk, not budging, and let out a little chuckle. "What? Thought you could keep that attitude up longer. Fallen out of favor already? Oh, and Michael wanted me to remind you, you've only got one day left."
Katniss kept her eyes down, face blank, showing zero emotion, and totally ignored Bella.
Seeing Katniss's silence, Bella got bored and turned to leave.
The sound of high heels faded away on the quiet floor. Katniss glanced at the screen on the opposite building.
Taking a deep breath, she packed up her stuff and left the office, knocking on Tristan's door.
"Come in," Tristan's deep, indifferent voice called out.
She pushed the door open and met Tristan's intense gaze, her hand gripping the bag strap tightly, veins popping, summoning all her courage to ask, "Mr. Forbes, got any more work? Are you pulling an all-nighter?"
Tristan stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, holding a cup of coffee, his eyes reflecting her nervousness.
After a moment, he smirked and said, "Yeah."
The suffocating silence filled the large office. Standing at the door, Katniss tried to steady her breathing.
Not ready to give up, she asked again, "Need me to stay and help?"
"Nope," His cold words crushed all her hopes.
Her ears turned red, and she turned to close the office door and left.
The figure by the window stayed still. It wasn't until Katniss had been gone for a while that Tristan adjusted his tie, furrowed his brow, and sat down.
Katniss took the bus back to Oakwood Hills, getting there around 6:30. Skipping dinner, she dove into working on Kieran's course materials.
There were seven subjects, each needing tutoring; time flew by to 11 PM.
She sent the materials for all seven subjects to Kieran, and within seconds, Kieran sent a voice message.
Kieran said, "Katniss, you finished all seven subjects so fast? You must not have rested."
Katniss rubbed her sore neck and smiled, "It's cool. I'm used to this grind."
"Hold up, my dad wants to talk to you." Kieran put the phone on speaker and handed it to Cedric.
"Katniss, you're busting your butt to help me and working so hard. I feel really bad. How about this: I'll pay you $10,000 per subject per day. Seven subjects, that's $70,000. I'll transfer it to you right now."
Cedric had been discussing Kieran's studies late into the night and was about to sleep when Katniss sent the materials.
Cedric knew Katniss was super busy, but still thinking about tutoring Kieran so late, so he immediately had Kieran call Katniss on a voice call.
He tactfully transferred the money to Kieran's phone first, and then to Katniss.
During this time, Katniss stayed quiet.
She initially thought she was just helping Cedric out, but now it seemed the workload was too much, and she did indeed need the money. Two hundred grand a month was no joke.
Katniss said, "Thanks; I'm really grateful for that. On weekends, as long as I have time, I'll meet for tutoring."
Since she had already received her salary, she had to put in the effort accordingly.
After a few words reminding Kieran to rest early, Katniss hung up the phone and went straight to bed.
But she kept worrying about the medical expenses. Even though her body was exhausted, her mind was racing.
She could only force herself to close her eyes.
At D.V Club, Tristan sank into the sofa, his long legs crossed, his shirt untucked from his pants, no jacket in sight.
Next to him, Nicholas's eyes were half-closed, having been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night. He was actually awake.
But after sitting for an hour with Tristan not saying a word, he was getting sleepy again.
His eyes moved, seeing Tristan's dim gaze fixed somewhere unknown, still not intending to speak. Nicholas finally couldn't hold back.
He said, "Did you call me here in the middle of the night just to watch you drink? If you have something to say, just say it!"
If Tristan were just in a bad mood, he would definitely have dragged Nicholas out for a drink.
But since he didn't say a word and didn't ask Nicholas to join him for a drink, there must have been something weighing on his mind that he couldn't bring himself to say.
Watching him drink like this, Nicholas figured he wouldn't get any sleep tonight. Thinking this, Nicholas quietly sent Katniss a location, asking her to come and take Tristan away, to rescue him.
Tristan tilted his head back and downed his drink in one gulp, slamming the glass on the table, a drop of the reddish-brown liquid spilling from the corner of his mouth.
He looked over and asked, "How do I compare to George?"
"Cut the crap," he added, scattering Nicholas's confusion.
Nicholas scrutinized him for a while before saying, "You're older than him, have a worse temper, and in terms of looks, according to women's standards, you two aren't the same type, so it's hard to say who's better looking. It seems like your only advantage over him is that you're richer."
Money? His relationship with Katniss was a pure transaction. Could it be that Katniss was only interested in his money?
"Then how do I compare to Cedric, the CEO of Apex Holdings Group?" he asked again.
Nicholas's mouth twitched, and without thinking, he said, "Cedric's a legend. Tons of people wanted to marry him! When my mom argued with my dad, she'd bring up Cedric, saying if she were born ten years later, only Cedric would be worthy of her. He's got money, power, looks, and he's considerate. The public loves him. Look, he hasn't remarried since his wife passed away, still deeply in love!"
After speaking, he suddenly felt a chill down his neck, shrinking back and looking sheepishly at Tristan's ambiguous gaze.
Nicholas was implying he couldn't compare to Cedric.
"You're definitely better than Cedric now. After all, he's an older man who's been married. You're still young. No, wait, you've also been married... Oh!" Nicholas rolled on the sofa, dodging the pillow Tristan threw at him. "Don't rush. Compared to him, you have one advantage: he has a kid, and you don't. That's a win!"
Tristan thought he must be crazy to ask Nicholas these questions.
He turned, grabbed his jacket from the back of the sofa, and started to leave, his custom suit jacket casually draped over his shoulder.
"Tristan, are these questions related to Katniss? It's one thing to ask about George, but why Cedric? What could he have to do with Katniss? And if you want to know these things, why not ask her directly? Why come to me? What? Afraid to ask her? Are you falling for her?"
Nicholas followed him, chattering non-stop, pressing the elevator button to prevent him from leaving. Tristan, having had enough, grabbed Nicholas's arm and shoved him into the elevator.
Nicholas hit the elevator wall, his whole body aching as if it were falling apart.
"Say that again?" Tristan, holding his jacket with one hand, turned to look at Nicholas in the corner.
His tone was threatening, but Nicholas, undeterred, repeated the last sentence, "You are falling for her."
Tristan went quiet all of a sudden. Apart from the faint sound of the elevator descending slowly, the elevator was so quiet that you could hear even the sound of breathing.
Seeing Tristan's silence, Nicholas was stunned and said, "Did I guess right? You really like her?"
Tristan leaned against the elevator wall, a hint of irritation crossing his brow. He glanced at the cigarette in Nicholas's shirt pocket and said, "Give me a cigarette."
"Sure thing!" Nicholas handed him a cigarette and even lit it for him.
Finally, he grinned and asked, "How does it feel to like someone?"
Tristan let out a soft chuckle and said, "There's no way I could ever like Katniss."
The elevator doors opened, and outside stood Katniss, her body stiff.
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