Chapter IV

Get a job, huh?

Ariana smiled as she watched her father leave the sun room. She didn't need to find one, she had one already. It occurred to her that her secret was still safe and she breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly a familiar song started playing. Ariana reached into her purse to pull out her cell phone. A small rush of panic flowed through her when she saw the caller ID. The last time she saw the caller ID, it was bad news. She crossed her fingers with the hope of it being some form of good news this time.

"Hello?" She answered hesitantly.

"Why do you always pick up on the fourth ring? Why not the first or second? I know the little hermit doesn't have a life." Quinn's teasing voice came through the phone.

Hearing the laughter and excitement in her friend's voice, Ariana relaxed and chuckled lightly. Her friendship with Quinn was not only built on years of trust and making it through the rough and toughs, but it was also built on constantly teasing and joking with each other. Not all friendships were comprised of endless compliments and flattery.

"I thought you knew four was my lucky number," Ariana joked.

"And one is mine. Hence you should answer on the first ring," Quinn pouted, huffing out a breath which caused Ariana to giggle.

"I suppose take it you want company to lunch?" Ariana mused.

"Surprisingly, this glutton doesn't want to eat right now. In fact, she wants to see you at St. Royal's Hospital, stat!"

"Did something happen again?" Ariana felt her anxiety spike at Quinn's words.

"Yes!"

"What!"

"I mean no....I mean yes...I mean...Eli woke up last night!" Quinn rushed out as she sensed her best friend's panic. "The doctors said 2-3 days but my brother is a superhuman. I was going to visit him and I want to know if you'll come along,"

"Why do I have to tag along?"Ariana relaxed at the information but she couldn't help but feel slightly suspicious of Quinn's words.

As far as she knew, Quinn's brother wasn't the type to entertain company when he was at his lowest. Even if he was on his death bed and his ancestors crawled out of their graves to beg him, he wouldn't let anyone near him, much less, humor the idea of an outsider. Ariana may be Quinn's best friend but she didn't have any close relation with the eldest Navarro. He might be connected to IV drips and barely conscious, but if he was angered or irritated at the sight of her, all he had to do was lift a finger and Ariana would be thrown out and banned from the city's best hospital.

"You have to tag along because you saved his life by donating blood. You're like his life saver gummy!" Quinn smirked smugly.

"Oh please," Ariana rolled her eyes. "All I did was donate something easily renewable in my body. The doctor who performed surgery on him did all of the important work."

Quinn faked a heavy sigh of disappointment, clicking her tongue like a disapproving parent. "Ria, after all these years and a high IQ in the business world, your EQ is really lacking—"

"—Says the one stupid enough to abandoned her impeccable skills in art." Ariana snorted. "Is the pot calling kettle black?"

Before Quinn become a world renowned supermodel, she used to be an incredible artist. She won a number of art prizes with her work, but much like Ariana's Quinn's mother wanted her to follow a specific path. Angelica Navarro, Quinn's mother, was an infamous actress and she wanted her daughter to follow in her footsteps. Quinn had to pack up her paints and brushes and pick up theater arts and various drama groups, not like it really bothered her. For as long as Ariana could remember, Quinn had always been dramatic in nature, so maybe acting was really her call.

"Touché Ri, touché." Quinn laughed. If it was anyone else saying such words to her, she would've flipped and insulted them mercilessly, unleashing the knife-sharp tongue the Navarros possessed. But it was her best friend, her other half, and Quinn knew better than to take anything to heart. "Going back to what I was saying before I was rudely interrupted...without your blood, the doctors would not have anything to work with and would be able to complete the surgery resulting in saving Eli's life. Therefore, you're his life saver, like the gummies."

Ariana raised an amused brow at Quinn's reasoning. How she managed to tie candy in with the topic, Ariana couldn't understand. In all her years at Quinn's side, the glutton always managed to bring food into the conversation. Ariana was too lazy to argue with Quinn's logic, so she simply went along with it.

"Alright, I suppose you're right." Ariana nodded her head in agreement.

"I'm always right!" Quinn snorted sarcastically. "When have I ever been wrong?"

Ariana opened her mouth to bring up the day when Quinn broke a guy's nose in high school with her math text book because she thought he called her a piglet since her hair was in two that day, but Ariana thought better of it. Bringing that up would be like arguing with a brick wall.

"I'll see you later." Ariana bid a quick good bye before hanging up the phone.

Gathering her stuff, Ariana headed to the front door.

"Leaving already?" Mr. Wilson questioned as noticed her collecting her jacket from the hallway closet as he walked into the house with a few grocery bags. "Not staying for lunch?"

"Not today," Ariana shook her head. "I'm going to meet Quinn. Her brother's at the hospital and he just woke up,"

"Ah! Do send my greetings to Miss Navarro. I haven't seen her in a while. And on your way, be careful,"

"Will do."

Landon had instructed the chauffeur to wait on Ariana and take her home when she was leaving. Her father was forever complaining about her safety using public transportation but his daughter was just as hard headed as he was and she insisted on getting from one place to another either by her own means.

Getting into the car, Ariana told the chauffeur to drop her at the hospital. He looked at her with a worried expression. Ariana chuckled before assuring him that she was simply going to visit someone with a friend. The ride was going to take a while so Ariana took out her Airpods and stuck them into her ear, scrolling through her iTunes for something to listen to. She settled on Everything Black by Unlike Pluto, softly humming the words of the song as she looked out of the window.

"Miss Ariana, we've arrived at your destination." The chauffeur announced. "Where should I wait for you Miss?"

"It's alright, you can go home. I'm not sure how long I will be," The chauffeur looked a little hesitant at Ariana. Her father had given him specific instructions, to provide her with a ride for the entire day. Ariana noticed his hesitancy. "Don't worry about it. I'll inform my father that you dropped me at the hospital and I'll be getting a ride home with Quinn,"

The man nodded his head. Ariana stepped out of the car and closed the door before walking into the hospital, toward the receptionist desk.

"Hi, excuse me, which VVIP room is Navarro located in?" She asked one of the nurses, who exchanged a skeptical glance with her coworker. The VVIP was off limits to the public and information concerning the patients occupying the floor was confidential. Noticing their skeptical looks, Ariana realized her mistake. "Oh, don't worry. I'm a friend of the patient's sister,"

The nurse eyed Ariana from head to toe. The dress she wore was a product of a top fashion brand and she had paired it with designer heels on her feet, an Olivia Burton watch on her hand and a designer purse hanging from the crook of her arm. The patients on the VVIP room were people of wealthy backgrounds, and the woman before her seemed to stem from the same circle. The nurse knew that the VVIP rooms were heavily guarded. If Ariana was a fake, there was no way she would enter.

The nurse concluded that there was no harm in answering her question. "I can't disclose the exact room number without proper identification, but the Navarros have a room on the twelfth floor."

"Okay, thank you."

It wasn't much to work with an in a hospital the size of a palace, but it was better than nothing. Ariana walked towards the elevators, entering and pressing for the twelfth floor. When it reached the twelfth floor, she sent Quinn a text while walking out of the lift. A few seconds later Quinn sent her a text saying she was on her way. A second later, the grey eyed actress appeared at the end of the hallway.

"You're here," Quinn quickly hugged her best friend. "Come on, Eli's room is this way,"

Ariana followed Quinn down the halls and down a different hallway to a different section. Along the way, Ariana noticed that bodyguards stood at every door. They stood like soldiers with their head raised, arms behind their backs and their eyes alert to everything and everyone who walked down the hallway. Ariana could feel their stares burning into her back as she accompanied Quinn.

'Geez, these bodyguard organizations must be rolling in money at the number of people who are hiring them,' Ariana thought.

Quinn pulled her down another corridor and up a short flight of stairs before coming to a hallway with bodyguards lining either side of the corridor leading to a single door, guns holstered to their waists and a blank but cold expression on their face. These men were trained professionals, men who bordered on the line of professional bodyguard and assassin, men who would kill without question.

Quinn walked up to the door and opened it. The minute the door opened, Ariana felt like she was hit with a breeze from the middle of Antarctica. She entered the room and instantly turned her attention to the air condition. Noticing it was on 17, Ariana opened her mouth to ask Quinn to turn it down when her gaze landed upon an incredibly handsome but daunting man.

Ariana didn't felt her breath hitch like something from a cliché romance novel, but she did feel the pause in her timeline when she noticed him. He was standing near the window in a  dark blue turtle neck and black skinny jeans with tan ankle boots. A Bluetooth device was connected to his ear and he was speaking to someone in rapid Italian while his fingers moved swiftly over the complicated wooden puzzle box he was holding.

"Non mi importa se era l'autista o il passante, voglio sapere quello che sa. (I don't care if he was the driver or the bystander, I want to know what he knows.)" He spoke to whoever was on the other line.

Ariana was a little taken aback by the sound of his voice. She couldn't see his face clearly from his side profile but she could hear the power and authority in his voice. Quinn had told her that her brother was a dangerous man and she expected him to sound rough or ferocious. Instead, his voice was deep, calm and smooth, like the finest milk chocolate. His words were not rushed and he spoke clearly and confidently.

Sensing another presence in the room, the man shifted his head to look over his shoulder before letting out a sigh and ordering the person on the line to give him a response within an hour.

"Why aren't you resting?" Quinn walked further into the room and settled on the edge of the bed as her brother tapped the Bluetooth in his ear to disconnect the call.

Halting the movements of his fingers, he turned around to look at his youngest sibling. This resulted in his features being displayed clearly for Ariana to see, and what she saw left her momentarily absentminded.

Tall. Dark. And impeccably handsome.

Quinn's brother was somewhere between a prestigious Greek god and a devilish immortal from the deepest part of hell. He looked like an even balance of light and darkness. He had the signature look of the Navarros; tanned skin, thick raven black hair and grey eyes.

The aura around him was mysterious yet authoritative. It made it hard for a person to read him and hence it made him seem very intimidating. His posture was calm and relaxed, yet confident and firm. He also gave off a reserved and suave look as he was a man of few words. But, while he had the appearance of a stunning immortal, his eyes were the shadows which made people cower in fear with a single look.

Unlike Quinn whose eyes displayed her emotions, her brother's were an entirely different story. They were cold, impassive and calculating but hidden in the depths of them was a dark, ruthless and devilish glint which struck fear into anyone who stared into them. It was the type of darkness which could paralyze someone and cause them to cower in such an overbearing presence. The bloodthirst in them seemed restrained but it was visible enough to make someone think twice before crossing such a man, for the look in his eyes revealed that he had killed people before and he had lost count a long time ago.

But despite his devilish eyes, he was breathtakingly handsome—drop. dead. gorgeous! With his rugged good looks, Ariana could scarcely imagine a woman not throwing herself at the feet of this man.

"Why are you here?" He didn't bother greeting his sibling properly.

"I came to see you." Quinn answered and set her bag down on the small table. "How do you feel?"

"Fine. You can leave now."

Quinn narrowed her eyes at him with a displeased frown. His accident had scared her. She thought she was going to lose him and even though the surgery was successful she couldn't shake of the anxious feeling. She knew her brother wasn't one to admit when something was wrong with him. He was a man of few words and unless he had something to say, he wouldn't speak.

"But Eli—" Quinn tried again to get him to talk.

"I wasn't asking," He glared at her.

His eyes were dark yet calm, the type of calm before a storm; silent but deadly. He simply glanced at his sister and from where she was standing, Ariana could see the warning in them and feel the cold in his gaze. Seeing Quinn visible tremble at her brother's chilling gaze, being the protective best friend she was, Ariana came to Quinn's rescue yet again.

"Hey, don't be so rude, she's only looking out for you. You got into an accident and it scared her." Ariana defended Quinn. "She's your sister and she was worried about you. She's just asking if you're feeling better."

A pair of intense grey eyes shifted towards the woman standing near the door. He knew that two people gad entered the room but he had disregarded her presence. Now that she had spoken up, he acknowledged her, not at all surprised to see her. In fact, he was actually expecting her.

Ariana Montmorency: the ex-fiancee of Stephan Harper and the best friend of his pampered and spoil little sister.

Elliot knew quite a bit about her from the usual background check he ran on the friends and associates of his two younger siblings. Quinn and Ariana were the best of friends; where there was one, there was the other. Like most people, he had some form of expectation about the British heiress prior to actually meeting her but his expectations proved to be well off when he came face to face with a fiery young woman who was full of energy.

Most of Quinn's friends would be intimidated after a minute or two in his presence, yet, Ariana stared back at him without any traces of fear despite the powerful and dangerous aura around him. He took a closer look at her features. She was taller than most girls her age with chocolate brown curls and emerald green eyes. She was naturally slender with lightly tanned skin. She stood elegantly, like a noble, and when she spoke her voice was confident with a smooth, thick British accent.

"You were not invited into this conversation. Last I checked, this was a conversation between family not outsiders. Get out!" His voice held and edge, meant to cut everything it came in contact with.

In a world where backstabbing was just as common as diamond earrings and red bottom heels worth a couple thousand grand, Ariana had grown hardened to the viciousness of socialites and their unmerciful tongues. His cold tone and the dark look in his eyes didn't scare her the slightest.

"I didn't know I needed your permission to defend my friend." She sneered the last part at him.

Her response caught Elliot off guard. There were rumors about the British heiress being a bad tempered and vicious young woman who would lash out mercilessly at anyone who offended her. But one look at her was enough to convince Elliot that while she did have a temper, she was quite smart with her words and she didn't lash out without reason. Her temper amused him for some unknown reason and she reminded him of a kitten flashing her claws at a grown tiger.

"What gives you the qualifications to enter this conversation?" Elliot put down the puzzle box and looked at her coldly.

Ariana felt her lips pull into an unpleasant scowl, the haughty attitude she once had a year ago starting to surface. "I donated a lot of blood just to save your life. I think that's enough qualification to enter the conversation. In fact, I think I'm over-qualified,"

Elliot raised a thick eyebrow at the new information. "You're the blood donor?"

"Yeah I am, why else would I be here for? You're not that important to me," Ariana crossed her arms and coldly glared at him. "I nearly fainted from the excessive lost of blood just to save your life and you decide to repay me by wasting my effort, giving your sister a hard time and refusing to rest."

At the mention of the word 'repay', Elliot's eyes darkened dangerously. He misunderstood her words and instantly thought that she wanted something in exchange for saving his life. A humorless chuckle left him. He should have known better. Women in his world always demanded payment for something. He had given her the benefit of the doubt by assuming she was  different from the women who hung around Quinn to get closer to him, it seemed like he was wrong. She was just as bad as they were.

"Fine, you want repayment?" A wave of frost tainted Elliot's voice as he turned to Quinn. "Pass me my checkbook,"

Ariana and Quinn both blinked in surprise wondering what good his checkbook going to do in such a situation. Both girls looked at him in disbelief, but for two entirely different reasons. Ariana knew exactly what Elliot was hinting at. Quinn on the other hand didn't expect her brother to always carry a checkbook around. Curious to see if he was telling the truth, she walked over to the bag Elliot's secretary had brought over, reaching inside and fishing around for a moment before pulling out a cheque book.

What on earth?

"Eli, you actually bring this around!"

Quinn couldn't believe it. Her jaw dropped at the sight of the small black leather book with 'E. Navarro' engraved into the leather. She didn't think he would actually have this!

Ariana watched as Elliot held out his hand to receive the book from Quinn. He flipped it open, randomly pulling out a pen from his jeans pocket before signing his name on the line at the bottom of a page. Then, he ripped the slip and held it out in Ariana's direction.

"Since you want 'repayment' so badly, write as many zeros as you'd like." His voice held a tint of disgust under the impassiveness. "The money will be tranferred to your account the minute you cash the cheque."

Ariana saw red and her temper flared up at the backhanded insult. It was a generous offer wrapped in a barbed wire of savagery and underhand insults. Through this actions, he was indirectly insinuating that she was some sort of prostitute or a gold-digging woman with no morals. While she fumed, Elliot made a mental note to have his secretary do a deeper background check on Ariana. If this was the type of person Quinn kept company with, he needed to find a way to remove her from the equation.

A fire of rage burned through Ariana's veins and she stomped over in Elliot's direction before roughly snatching the small paper and pen from his hand. For some unexplained reason, her actions angered Elliot further. He felt his expectations sink into a bottomless pit and he wasn't sure why. Maybe he was expecting her to reject his offer, but she didn't. Elliot watched as she wrote something on the cheque.

"Alright, you got what you wanted, now get out—"

His words were cut off when Ariana folded the check and harshly flung it at him, tossing the pen at his head and missing him by a few millimeters. Elliot glared at her, his eyes slowly darkening and the temperature around him suddenly dropping, making it seem colder than the room already was with the air-con on.

Ariana folded her arms and glared at him. She had heard stories of the ruthless unholy acts Elliot Navarro had committed and any logical person would think twice before angering the man who could make even the shadows run in fear. But at the moment she really didn't seem to care. He had back handedly insulted her, and if there was one thing she knew, she knew she wasn't a gold digger.

The media had bashed her and called her many things after her fall from grace but she ignored it. She knew herself better than an outsider could. Even though she was the heiress of the Montmorency empire, most of the money she now had in her bank account came from her long and tiring days slaving away behind Stephan's desk. She worked hard for what she had and she wasn't going to let anyone insult her, whether directly or indirectly.

Quinn looked between her best friend and her brother, both heated in their own way. The air around her brother was so cold she was surprised the walls didn't develop icicles and the glass windows didn't freeze over! The air around Ariana, on the other hand, was heated and charged like a volcano on the verge of erupting. Quinn really couldn't tell who was going to pounce first.

"You really don't know who you're dealing with since you have a lot of courage to do that." His voice was thick with restrained anger.

Ariana was no stranger to the type of men who thought their daunting stares and heavy threats could make a woman run for their life. Her mother had thought her how to deal with men of that type — since Stephan was one of them — and she knew that in the moment it would be best to apologize and keep her head low, play the role of a meek woman.

Sure, Elliot's temper was worst than Stephan's by far, but she wasn't going to let him walk over her. Ariana blatantly ignored the warning bells and the obvious red flags that hovered around the powerful Navarro. He was not a man to trifle with. Surely they were consequences for getting on the bad side and crossing such a dangerous man but she could really care less at the moment.

"Pick up the cheque," Ariana ordered him.

Elliot clenched his jaw, not liking her tone and the fact that she gave him an order. If there was one thing he hated, it was being ordered around. His parents had learned that the hard way when he was younger and the majority of people who had done so in his life had been met with the consequences of their action. Quinn was scared that he would lash out and hurt Ariana for her mistake and she stood up from her seat with the intention of standing in front of her best friend to protect her.

However, she was surprised when she noticed that her brother didn't make a move to strangle Ariana neither did he reach for the gun he had expertly hidden behind his back. Instead, he stared at the feisty British women for a moment longer before he picked up the folded check and held it out to her without looking at it.

"Look, you've got what you wanted—" Again, his words were cut off by Ariana's unexpected actions.

Never in this lifetime — or the next —would he be prepared for what happened next.

Clearly fed up of him and having her patience run thin by the infuriating Navarro, Ariana grabbed the check and unfolded it, tossing it back into his face. Before Elliot could react to her actions, Ariana reached into her handbag and pulled out her purse, yanking out a stack of hundred dollar bills before tossing it at him like a wealthy man would toss money at a stripper. Elliot was stunned as the green paper rained down like confetti, scattering all over the floor and the bed.

"Oh, how the roles have reversed..." Quinn put her hand up to her mouth to stop her giggles.

Her brother's stunned expression was absolutely comical in the moment. Not much fazed him, so seeing his shell shocked expression, Quinn painfully resisted the urge to take out her phone and snap a quick picture.

"For your information, I'm not a gold digger. I don't need your money, you stupid, senseless, foolish bastard!" Ariana snarled. "Not everyone is after your money stronzo!"

And with that, she turned around and stormed out of the room, leaving the Navarro siblings to look at her in surprise. Elliot blinked and turned his head in his sibling's direction to ask her something when something black caught his attention. Looking down, he noticed the the folded check half hidden beneath a stack of green bills near his feet. Curious to know what she had written on it before, he brushed aside the bills and picked it up, unfolding it.

Written in neat calligraphy were three words which instantly sparked the Italian Don's interest in the fallen British heiress.

'FUCK OFF ASSHOLE!'