Billionaire's Second Chance At Love

Chapter Sixty Seven

Carmen stared at the deflated front wheel of the car and sighed heavily.

"How long is it going to take?" she asked Joy, the driver, glancing around them and trying not to grow restless.

This was her first time facing a predicament like this one. She had never been stuck in the middle of nowhere before. She was supposed to be at her apartment by now, with Grandpa and Molly waiting for her. They needed to discuss what had happened, and Grandpa deserved more than just an explanation over the phone about why she had a sinking feeling that Eric had something to do with everything going awry in the company.

She didn't have much proof for now, true. The auditing team hadn't shown any signs of anything unusual going on, but she knew there were hundreds of ways the evidence could have been wiped out.

Joy stood up after checking the problem, scratching his head. "Not more than fifteen minutes. I'll change the tire right away." Then, he looked around and frowned, noticing that the neighborhood where their car had broken down wasn't the safest one. He turned back to Carmen. "But I can get you a cab if you want. Mr. Logan wouldn't appreciate it if you were to stay here in the middle of nowhere. You should get home right away."

"No, that's fine," Carmen sighed. "You do what you need to do. I'll just call Grandpa to let him know about the problem."

Joy nodded and got to work without another word. After assuring the old man that she would be home soon enough and he need not worry, Carmen went back to grab a bottle of water. It was late in the evening, and besides being thirsty, she was hungry as well. She regretted skipping lunch when she had the chance. But with the auditing team coming in and out of her office, she barely had much time to spare.

Sighing, she opened the back door of the car, only to realize she had run out of water. "Great," she said, shaking her head and sweeping a casual glance around.

The sun had already dipped behind the city skyline, and darkness had begun to spread with a slow crawl. The stars that still managed to twinkle through the thick haze of pollution shone, while the traffic on the road remained irregular, with only a few cars passing by once in a while.

That's when a strange thought came to her mind. She turned to face Joy, who now sat on the side of the road and tried to pry out the deflated tire with the help of the toolbox next to his right leg.

"What is this place, Joy? I don't remember you driving us from here before."

Joy hummed, wiping his hands on a rag. "The road ahead of the highway was blocked for some reason. I tried to ask but could only gather that there was an accident. That's why the traffic was redirected to the available routes. I haven't driven through this neighborhood in a very long time myself, but the GPS seemed confident and showed only a few minutes of delay from our usual arrival time." He looked up from his task at his hand. "Is there something that seems to be the problem, miss?"

Carmen shook her head almost instantly, not wanting to worry the man. "No, everything is okay. I was just... curious."

Although she couldn't suppress the feeling of how strange all of this was.

But maybe she was overthinking this. And truth be told, who could blame her? The circumstances they had all been dealing with these days didn't make one feel the safest all the time. Carmen wasn't a fool to think she couldn't become a target overnight, especially after the way Eric had behaved that day. She knew something was surely off with him. And now that she thought more about it, maybe... maybe she should try to pry more out of him.

But how?

If she continued to argue with him or offended him more than she already had, he would never open up. Hell, he would never even trust her. There had to be another way for her to approach him, gain his trust, and somehow make him spill the secrets he might be carrying within himself.