Chapter 3

Present Day

“Hello, miss. I’m here to see a patient, Mr Arnault,” Jessica said to the nurse at the reception desk.

“Are you a relative?”

“No. I’m a friend. Sorry, an acquaintance,” Jessica replied.

“Alright. Please wait in the lounge. I’ll have to let him know first.”

She walked off while Jessica went to sit at the waiting area. She was at the private, executive suite of the hospital. She wasn’t surprised though. Mr. Arnault was a billionaire, afterall.

“Please come with me, miss,” the nurse said when she returned after some time.

She followed her into a room. Two cops stood at the entrance.

“Hello Jessica, nice of you to come visit,” Arnault said when she entered.

“I hope you’re doing ok, sir.”

“I’m feeling much better now. I lost a lot of blood and an emergency operation had to be done when I was rushed in. But, the doctors say I’ll be discharged in a few days. I was lucky to have survived all thanks to your heroic acts.”

“Oh, I’m sure anyone else would have done the same thing,” Jessica said blushing.

“The police didn’t give you a hard time, I hope. It can be tough if there is no one to corroborate your story. I’m yet to write my statement because I just came out of anesthesia and my globetrotter lawyer is yet to fly into the country,” Arnault said.

“Fortunately, they didn’t. I was able to take some pictures of your assailants, but I don’t know if it will do much good since it was dark and they were both in masks.”

Don’t worry about that, you did the best you could for me. I’m grateful once again.”

The door opened and two men walked in. Jessica recognised them from the night of the incident. There were the police detectives.

“It’s good to see you awake, Mr. Arnault. Trust you are doing well.”

“I am. Who are you?”

“My name is Detective Spencer and my partner here is Detective Mike. We are the detectives who have been assigned your case.”

“Okay, I see.”

“We’ll like to ask you a few questions if that is okay with you.”

“Ordinarily, I would have wished for my lawyer to be present but that is fine. You may go ahead with your questions,” Arnault replied.

“We’d like to know what the armed men were demanding from you?”

“They were talking about a drive that contained a recording that was captured in secret. I really have no idea what they were talking about.”

“Did they mention their names or the organization they work for?”

“No, but they did say that they were an international crime syndicate.”

“Do you have any idea why you were targeted in particular?” the detectives queried further.

Just as Arnault was about to answer, a doctor walked in.

“Excuse me, gentlemen. I’m sorry, but my patient is not in the right condition yet to have a formal visit. He really needs to rest and hasten his recovery. You will have to leave and come back another time,” the doctor told the detectives.

“That is no problem at all, doctor. We’re sorry about that. We’ll be taking our leave soon.”

“Excuse us, Mr. Arnault. We’ll be back another time for more information from you,” Detective Spencer said.

As they left, the doctor turned to look at Jessica and was about to ask her to leave when Arnault interfered:

“Don’t worry, doctor. She’s not with them. She’s a friend of mine.”

“A friend?” Jessica thought.

“So tell me about yourself. What do you do?” Arnault asked when it was just the two of them in the room once more.

“I’m an artist.”

“What are the odds of that? An artist being my savior when I have an affiliation with the arts as well. It seems fate brought us together.”

“Yes, I overheard the men talking about who you are. Is it true that you are affiliated to Arnault and Kohn Art Galleries. What am I saying? Of course, you are. Even your surname suggests who you are,” Jessica said.

“It’s true that I am connected to that family, but it’s only by name. The arts don’t interest me much even though I’m an avid collector of priceless antiques. I made my billions in an entirely different field.

“What field is that, if I may ask?”

“Let’s talk about that another day,” Arnault replied.

“Come to think of it. Why was a beautiful lady like you walking all alone at the time of the night on that day? Especially on a Halloween night.”

“I was coming home from work, my art studio to be precise. I’m currently working on an art project for a client. The deadline is close, and so I’ve had to work extra hours, causing me to close late at night.”

“I see. You must be very dedicated to your work then. Maybe when I’m better and discharged, I’ll come pay you a visit.”

“You are welcome to take a tour any day you are free to pass by. Perhaps, some of my paintings could interest you enough to buy,” Jessica said in a salesy tone.

“I can see you are already marketing and pitching your products to me. But to change the topic, tell me about yourself. I’d like to know a little about my brave and beautiful savior.”

His use of the word beautiful did not go unnoticed by Jessica. She had already noticed him ogling her since she entered. She was dressed in a seamless, body-hugging blue dress that showed off her slim figure.

“Erhm, where do I start? I live with my parents, sister and 3-year-old daughter here in Las Vegas. As I said already, I’m an artist and I work in a small studio downtown. I use a beat down car which has a mind of its own and usually decides to start only when it is in the mood. I don’t have many friends, and I hardly go out.”

Arnault was laughing when she concluded.

“Sorry for laughing. What you said about your car was funny.”

“Well, it’s the truth.”

“You mentioned that you had a daughter. Are you, perchance, married?”

Jessica cringed at the word marriage. She didn’t have good memories about it.

“I’m not,” she said in a low voice.

Arnault noticed it and decided not to press on the matter.

A nurse walked in with a tray of drugs.

“I’m sorry, you’d have to excuse us outside. It’s time for Mr. Arnault to take his medications,” she said to Jessica.

“Alright, I’ll like to take my leave then, Mr. Arnault. Nice to see that you are getting better.”

“Thanks again for coming to visit, Jessica. Perhaps, when I’m better you and I could go on a date and talk more.”

Jessica scrunched her face at the mention of a date.

“Erhm,maybe. I’d have to think about it. I’ve been really busy at work lately.”

That wasn’t the actual reason why she was running away from his request. She was still nursing her wounds from her previous broken down marriage. She didn’t want to commit to any relationship just yet. She was totally dedicated to her daughter and work.

She had flashbacks of the beginnings of her falling out with Liam in their marriage as she walked out the hospital. She remembered one particular heated night and how it played out.