His Lovely Ward

Chapter 7

A maze would be the perfect thing to compare to the route they took to reach Henry's place. Angelica was too tired to bother memorizing the streets and buildings. Okay, honestly, she dozed off.

The sun was coming up and to think about what would have to happen in the next few hours, she already felt stressed out.

“I don’t know this place actually exists within the city,” she commented as they climbed out of the car and walked towards the old building.

“It’s because people like you don’t bother to look,” Henry said dryly, playing with his keys.

He led her into the building. Like outside, the inside was old--antiquated. It was not dirty, thank God for that. But there was no elevator and she had to follow him up to the fifth floor where a long carpeted corridor greeted them. There were about five or more doors along the right side of the stairs, but Henry turned left and walked past three doors until he stopped at one and worked with the keys.

There were no more rooms across the hall, but windows lined the length, giving natural light from the disappearing moon and the appearing sun.

Angelica didn’t notice when the door opened, lost for a moment in the peaceful scene outside the window.

“Are you coming in or what?” Henry’s voice said behind her.

“Yeah,” she cleared her throat and walked into the dark room. “You live alone?”

“Yes, but not here,” he answered while locking the door. For a moment, they were both in total darkness until he flicked on the lights.

“What do you mean?” Angelica asked, looking around her.

“I don’t live here.”

“Then whose place is this?” she asked, looking for any clue of anyone who might own the apartment. There was none. Actually, there was nothing except a couch, a table, two or three chairs, a refrigerator, and a small television set.

“Mine,” he answered, walking across the room towards a small hallway. “I use this only for instances like this,” he added then stopped when he noticed that she was following him. He turned around and raised an eyebrow at her. “Do you want to see me naked?”

Angelica was dumbfounded. “What?”

“I’m going to change. You want to see me doing that?”

“Why didn’t you say so?” she snapped and whirled around to return to the living room. “And I would be glad to see you naked, but with the circumstances, I think I should pass,” she couldn’t help but add.

“Call Hartman. The phone’s by the fridge. The line is secure so don’t worry.”

She didn’t know what he meant by the line is secure, but she nodded and walked to the phone anyway. She dialed her father’s attorney’s number and waited as the line started ringing.

“Hartman speaking,” the man answered.

“It’s me, Angelica, can I talk to you?”

“Ms. Dalton, sure, what about? Is something wrong?” He probably thought so because of the time of the call. Well, there was actually something wrong, but she didn’t dare say that out loud.

“I changed my mind about the cremation thing for today. I want you to invite…” her voice trailed off as she saw Henry walk out from the hallway carrying a white shirt, his upper torso bared and oh so naked. He noticed her gaze and raised his brows in question, innocent of her womanly thoughts. She averted her eyes, shook her head fast and cleared her throat. “So I was saying that I want you to invite every partner and associates of my father’s. But I don’t want this one to appear in any papers, understand? Just his partners and some important associates. No others.”