Hired for the Billionaire [✔️]

Chapter Twenty-Eight (Pt. 1)

~Five Days Later~

Claire stepped out of the Dark Room, the light from the hallway burning her eyes. A shudder went through her back as she felt the cold from the room sweep across her. She grabbed onto the rail next to her and took a step forward, putting more pressure on her left foot than her right.

Claire hissed as pain racked her body, shaking, attempting not to fall down.

She felt someone's eyes burning into her skull. She knew it was her father. He was watching her to see if she was "determined" enough to make it back to her room without any help and without falling down. The rail was only there to hold her through her first steps, but then she would have to let go to prove her strength. It was almost like a Rite of Passage back into the world.

Claire's ankle, cheek, and the rest of her body throbbed with pain as it continued attempting to make it back to her room.

A cough came from behind her and Claire knew it was time to let go. She took in a deep breath before slowly letting go of the rail, putting even more pressure on her good ankle.

A low whimper escaped her before she forced herself to keep quiet. These next few moments were important because Senator de Monte was the one who had to decide if she was well enough to be put back into society.

Claire stared ahead at the long hallway before her, despair in her heart. She knew it would hurt, but she had suffered more when she had to walk with fractured bone in her leg.

She could make it. She was strong.

A de Monte did not cry out, whimper, moan, groan, or cry in pain in the presence of anyone else. Any act of it was despicable and any person who did it was cast out of the family....It didn't matter if the person who saw you was your father.

Claire learned of this when she was five-years-old. Since then, she's never cried unless she was alone, and even then it was still rare.

Her father had embedded these lectures into her brain since she was young, so much that even she thought herself despicable when she cried or did something wrong.

This...this was the de Monte way, and if you couldn't deal with it, then you had to leave. Most did and were never heard from again.

Jonny left, and he was barely fifteen years old. Senator de Monte had told the police that he was kidnapped, not wanting to let anyone know that he had ran away...

...Sometimes...Claire missed her younger brother...

~~~•••••~••○~~••••○••~••○••••○○●○•••

It was the day I never thought would come. The day I hoped would never come...the day I saw Josey again.

I was at the farmer's market, getting some groceries for the dinner I was making for William later on today. I was picking tomatoes for the salsa when I bumped into someone.

The person's basket flew to the floor, fruits and vegetables rolling out.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" I bent down to pick up some of the fruits I could salvage, thinking of the five second rule. I looked up at the person and froze, recognition fluttering across our faces.

"Josey."

"Anna..."

Josey Rochester used to be my best friend. We had been together since elementary school all the way to senior year when she...when she didn't agree with a decision of mine...

We separated ways in the last few months of my senior year, I transfered schools, and we never saw each other again...until now...

"Um, hi, Josey..." I clutched my bag tightly, nervous fluttering in my stomach. The urge to turn and walk away came very suddenly, but I resisted. "How are you?"