The Secret Obsession of the CEO
Chapter 68: In Trouble

Chapter 68: In Trouble

Rory waited in the attic till the sunset. She didn’t see Liam returning. She couldn’t shake off the bad feeling in her heart.

She dialed his number and she didn’t recognize the voice of the person answering at the other end.

"Miss Roberts. I am Liam’s assistant." The person at the other end was polite.

"Oh, just Jake?" Rory’s voice went high-pitched out of excitement.

"Hmm...it’s Jake Gyllenhaal, actually, Ms. Roberts," Jake answered.

Jake Gyllenhaal?

Rory’s mind went to cowboy hats and beautiful sceneries. That movie surely did a number on her.

Ehem! Beautiful sceneries like rolling hills, a flowing river... Horses...and a lot and a lot of... Sheep...

Yep! That’s all she remembered from that movie. Definitely not two handsome dudes...

"You’re Swedish?" She asked with a chuckle. She didn’t believe that it was Jake’s real name. She thought he was pulling her finger for some reason.

"My dad is!" Jake said seriously.

Rory let out a deep breath. "Where is he?" She asked. She wondered where he might be to forward the call to his assistant.

"I’m...not sure, Ms. Roberts."

"It’s Mrs. Roberts, actually, Mr. Gyllenhaal. We are still not divorced." Rory spoke in an authoritative tone.

She wanted to know the progress of their divorce. She didn’t know a better way than to ask his assistant. In a way, she was ashamed to do this. She should be knowing these details.

But what else can she do when she married an idiot?

"I’m sorry. I’ll address you as Mrs. Roberts from now on, Mrs. Roberts." Jake’s tone held a smidgen of mockery along with his professional politeness.

Damn! That guy figured it out, didn’t he?

Rory was embarrassed. But she was not going to back off.

"Is he a good boss, Mr. Gyllenhaal?" She asked.

Jake was silent. He didn’t want to be conversing with Rory at the moment. He knew his eccentric boss won’t like it if he talked to her for a long stretch of time. At the same time, he knew he has to be nice to this woman if he wants to keep his job.

"Nice? I don’t come to work each day expecting my boss to be nice to me, Mrs. Roberts. "I like this job."

"The pay must be great, huh?" Rory said.

Jake did not say a word. Rory need not be told that he is not interested in talking to her.

"How is he doing, Mr. Gyllenhaal? Healthwise..." She asked.

She had an odd feeling brewing in her heart ever since he fainted. She wanted to know if his recent odd behavior has something to do with his health.

"His health? Do you mean, like passing out for a period and forgetting it ever happened? That sort of thing?" Jake asked. Suddenly he found the conversation was not boring.

"Tell me more about it," Rory’s voice turned deep. She knew Jake will know if Liam is sick.

*Cling*

Rory heard some metal falling on the floor, followed by a ruffle, on the other end of the call.

"Liam broke his SAK and asked me to fix it. So... I’ll catch you later, Mrs. Roberts."

"Okay, bye, Mr. Gyllenhaal..." Rory ended the call.

Broken SAK...

Rory didn’t find that a good sign. He carried a knife all the time as long as she knew him. It was distinct and was close to his heart as it was his grandfather’s gift.

He had it with him all the time until last year. But this time, she noticed that he was carrying a different knife.

And now he broke that one? How?

As she was wondering, she received a text. It was a phone number from an unknown person and as she was wondering that text was followed by another text.

[Sorry, Mrs. Roberts. It’s Jake Gyllenhaal. Please do not store the phone number I accidentally sent to you. Please forget that this ever happened. I’ll delete it immediately.]

Rory with a smile copied the number and stored it in her phone as Mr. X. She didn’t know whose phone number that was but she thought Jake sent her that number for a reason.

[That’s fine, Mr. Gyllenhaal. Have a nice day.]

Rory saw the messages disappearing and shrugged. She checked Ellie and she was still sleeping. She got her curiosity get over her.

She dialed that number. When the dial tone was heard, she almost backed off. She won’t know how she didn’t research who that number belonged to before calling that person.

"Ms. Roberts, how may I help you?"

Rory was stunned by the polite voice from the other end.

What should I do?

She panicked for a couple of seconds but she gathered her courage. "Yes, I hear that you are handling my husband’s..." She purposefully paused. She hoped the other person would finish her sentence.

"Yes, ma’am. Our firm is handling Mr. Liam Roberts’ divorce," the polite voice said.

Rory’s heart skipped a beat. So that was Liam’s divorce lawyer. She wondered if Liam is meeting him right now and that’s why Jake gave her his number.

"I would suggest you contact us through your lawyer and we can negotiate the terms if the-

" What if I regret signing the papers?" Rory asked only for him to have a pin drop silence at the other end for a moment.

"Well... If you’ve changed your mind, then we can~"

"Cherry!" Liam’s panicked scream hurt her ears. Rory kept the phone away from her ear.

Liam continued to shout. "....What are you saying? We are getting divorced! It’s decided and-"

Rory ended the call with a smile. She could sense that Liam is very anxious right now. But he sounded well. She was relieved that he is not sick. At least plainly.

She felt a little bad for making him anxious. But then she consoled herself.

He deserves it for making me worry! I won’t care for him anymore!

She remembered the hurtful words he spoke and her face darkened. She didn’t want to care for him.

After a while, she got a message from him.

[Running late. Will be back by morning.]

Rory could see the whole message on the notification and so she left his message unread. She didn’t want him to think that she is caring for him.

She had a pleasant sleep that night. At least for half the night. She woke up in the middle of the night as she had the creepy feeling that someone is watching her.

Clutching the sheets she looked around for anything. But she couldn’t see anything. After a while, she fell asleep hugging Ellie to her chest.

In the morning, she had her breakfast with her grandmother and Mrs. Delport. As she was halfway through breakfast, she got a call from Liam’s grandmother.

"Rory... Come here... I don’t know what is happening... Frank and Liam... They had a big fight and... "

"Grandma, take a deep breath!" Rory stood up and walked to the living room. Her eyes ended up at Liam’s house in the distance as if she could somehow see what was going on here. "Is he back? When did he come back?" She asked.

Her heart started to pound and she scurried around to find her shoes.

She talked about them getting divorced just yesterday and she wondered if Frank confronted him about it.

Or worse... Did he find out about Claire’s pregnancy?

"Rory, I am scared," Dorothy sniffed. "I don’t know what happened. Liam was home taking a cab. Frank was in the driveway and... There were loud shouts and a scuffle. Before we could do anything... It was terrifying, Rory. Both of them looked like they’d kill each other. Liam took out his knife and...Frank overpowered Liam and locked him in his study... Rory...there is no sound, Rory..." Daisy’s voice went low and she cried. "I’m so scared..."

"Where is he? Where is Frank?" Rory asked, stepping out of the house. She feared that Liam would get hurt. She thought about nothing else.

She couldn’t find her sneakers but she didn’t care and ran out towards the fence.

"How long are they in there?" She asked.

"More than twenty minutes," Dorothy replied and Rory’s heart skipped a beat.

That’s a long time!

Mrs. Delport looked at the baby sleeping in the carrycot and sighed. Agnes Roberts pushed away her plate.

"When it comes to him, she doesn’t even think. She even left her baby," she sighed.

"She knows we will take good care of her baby, ma’am," Mrs. Delport said with a smile.

Agnes smiled wryly.

Not minding the prodding sticks and the poison ivies around, Rory ran to Liam’s house. She didn’t stop even to gather her breath and ran with all her might holding the phone to her ear.

"I’ll be there in a minute, grandma," Rory said holding her pants. She was a couple of hundred meters away from his home.

She saw Claire trying to get to Frank through the window, but the windows were locked and the curtains were pulled down. No one knew what was going on in there.

"The door’s opening..." Dorothy said and what Rory heard next was her scream. The call ended next.

"Grandma?" Rory shouted and ran faster.

When she reached the front porch, she saw Liam walking out with a large gait.

Looking at his face, she knew... He is very troubled.

"Liam," she tried to hold him but he pushed her away.

"Stay away..." He pointed the knife at her.