Chapter 4 - The After party

Archie POV

“Is there another woman in your house? Is that it?” Leticia asks, and I can’t even believe she is asking that.

“Of course not. Are you crazy? I just thought you would like to sleep in your own bed”, I reply

“Stay with me then”, Leticia says, and I can’t help but roll my eyes.

“Baby, please”, I say, now facing her.

“Archibald, you either stay with me, or I go with you”, Leticia says, and I can’t help but take a deep breath.

“I'll stay”, I let out as soon as the car comes to a stop, and I open the door sliding out.

“Good”, She says, sliding after me and taking my hand.

The doorman opens the building door, greeting us both with a smile and polite as ever. As soon as we reach the lift, Leticia pushes me against the wall and kisses me deeply. I pull her hair back, allowing me access to her neck while she moans and the Lift pings. We come to a stop, and she pulls me out by my collar. It's been a while since she’s treated me with such passion.

We spent an incredible night together, but once my eyes open, my phone starts to ring incessantly. It is fucking four in the morning. I grab my phone to find the number of one of my hotels. What the hell. They never call me directly.

“Archibald speaking”, I say, answering the phone.

“Mr Wright, I am sorry for bothering you, sir”, a female voice says

“Who’s this?”, I ask rubbing my eyes with my left hand

“I’m sorry, sir, it’s Ana from reception. I thought you should know that Mr Green was taken by an ambulance, Sir”, she says, and I stand up, making Leticia wake up and moan because of the sudden movement.

“What hospital? What happened?”, I ask looking around for my shirt

Ana explains she doesn’t know what hospital Josh was taken to, and she knows there was a phone call from the room, and once she walked in with the paramedics, there were signs of a fight. Josh was on the floor bleeding a lot.

“Was the police called?”, I ask putting on speaker phone while I get dressed.

“Yes, sir, they will be here soon”, Ana replies

“Good, I will be there soon”, I say, ending the call

“What the hell is going on, Archie?”, Leticia asks sitting on the bed, passing her hand through her long hair and pulling the sheet to cover her slim body.

“Josh, he is in hospital”, I let out

Leticia rolls her eyes and flops back down

“He probably had too much fun with the drugs”, she says

“Why do you have to be such a bitch?” I shout at her in anger while I put my shoes on and grab my phone walking out of the room.

“Archie, get back here”, Leticia shouts, and I can hear her walking behind me as I walk through the long corridor to the door.

“I have to go”, I say

“What about me?”, She asks

I turn around facing her, “What about you?, you’re here safe, my best friend, my brother, is in hospital and I don’t know in what hospital he’s in, I don’t know what condition he is in, can’t you see past your belly button?”, I ask her with a serious tone that makes her take one step back and shut the fuck up.

I grab my keys and walk out, closing the door loudly behind me. Good thing I have a driver always waiting for me. As I arrive out of the building, he is already waiting for me. I get in the back and instruct me where to take me.

During the ride to the hotel, I contact my lawyers, my father and Josh’s family. I know they have their publicist already on call as I have ours. I can’t have any of this coming out on the news until we actually find out what happened without our PR team sorting it out. Everything needs to be filtered. Nothing about both our families are published without our Publicists knowing and handling the damage that it can cause.

The car stops on the back of the hotel, as we can already see the press gathered in the front being stopped by the extra security that has been put in place. My security escorts open the door and guide me in without being photographed by any of the press outside. Fucking bloodsucking slugs.

“Talk to me”, I say as soon as I see June, my publicist.

June walks side by side with me, explaining what she’s put out to the press and how she is coordinating with the Green’s publicist, so we all give the same story. I nod my head while I scroll through my phone, receiving Josh’s medical records sent by the doctor in the private hospital Josh was taken to.

“Who did this?” I ask

‘We have the video surveillance that shows a man walking in with Mr Green, and the police want the footage, sir”, June says

“Give them everything. Just keep me posted on what they find and keep them quiet”, I let out as soon as we reach the bedroom.

I step inside while the police are doing their jobs taking fingerprints and blood samples. The room is trashed. I see a pool of blood on the carpet, and I freeze. What the hell.

“Mr Wright”, a Police officer says, offering me his card and shaking my hand.

‘I’m Hernandes, and I will be the one taking care of this case”, he says

“Pleasure, I hope discretion will be used”, I let out, and he smiles

“We already spoke to your lawyers and Mr Green’s family’s layers sir, we won’t release anything to the press that you or the victims family does not approve”, Hernandes says, and I nod my head.

“Do we know what happened?”, I ask crossing my arms in front of my chest

“We think it was a hate crime. We are looking into the surveillance footage and trying to find a match to the person that was seen walking in with Mr Green and left a couple of hours later by himself”, Hernandes says, and I nod my head

“I can get you the footage from the party to see if it is the same person that Josh left with?” I let out

“We will also need the guest list”, he says, and I type on my phone asking my assistant to give everything to the police.

We keep discussing the case, and I can’t help but feel an explosive headache threatening to happen. I pop in some paracetamol, and I sit in my office in the hotel with a glass of scotch.

I slouch back and take the glass to my lips. My phone has been blowing up with calls and texts from Leticia, but I can’t handle her right now. She can fuck off for all that I care.

“Mr Wright?” I hear my assistant say, opening the door

‘Yes?” I say

“The car is ready to take you to the hospital to see Mr Green, sir”, my assistant says, and I nod my head drinking the last of the drink on my glass.

I get up, grabbing my jacket, and walk out through the backdoor. And there’s a tent put up attached to the door, so the press has no access to people coming in and out. The car pulled up inside the tens, and I get in. I really like how my PR teamwork keeps my privacy.

The drive is quiet, and the sun is starting to appear. We pass the London Bridge, and I can’t help but admire it through the window. It is not every day that I actually look out of the window while I’m in the car. I'm usually too busy answering phonically or replying to emails.

I silenced my phone as I can’t be dealing with Leticia’s nonsense right now. June is sitting next to me, replying to emails and answering phone calls. This woman is fierce, and I wouldn’t like to be on the other side of the line.

“Mr Wright”, she says softly.

“Yeah?” I ask, still looking out of the window.

“Miss Soares is on the line”, she says, and I shake my head.

June dismisses Leticia, and she sighs. I bet she gave her shit, and she can’t put her in her place because she is my fiancé. “Thank you”, I say

“Just doing my job, sir”, June replies focusing on her phone and iPad again. The car stops in the hospital garage, and I get out. June walks next to me. Once I reach reception, I can see Mr and Mrs Green being escorted to a private waiting room. As soon as they see me, they hug me and thank me for being there. I can’t help but feel guilty about everything that is happening to Josh, and it was my party. I convinced him to come to the party. It is all my fault.