Chapter 288: Still Care
When Derek had rushed out of the restaurant, there had been a thrum of excitement in his veins. I am going to see Emily again, he’d thought, and that had given his steps an extra boost. As luck would have it, he had made it to Haven Group headquarters just as Emily had been about to leave.
But much to Derek’s great disappointment, the person whom he had seen at Haven Group had not been Emily Molson...his Emily. They’d had the same face, same eyes, same hair, same build, same everything.
But when Derek had looked into those eyes.
All that he had seen was a stranger. None of the warmth that he associated with Emily had been there. The woman’s smile had been cold and harsh, lacking the softness that was always there at the corner of Emily’s lips whenever she smiled. Even her walk had been wrong. It had still held a hint of Emily’s confident steps. But there had been a predatory quality to it, like a snake about to strike.
She’d worn heels for crying out loud. Heels! Emily’s least favorite type of shoe. Derek had wanted to stop her right then and there.
To question her about the sudden change in not only her fashion sense but also in her demeanor as well. What had happened? Why was she suddenly behaving so different? Why did her eyes look as though she wanted to laser him in half? If anyone should have been upset, it should have been him. He’d had many more questions that he had wanted to ask her. But Emily had not given him the time of day. Instead, she had addressed him as though the two of them had only just met, in those brief few seconds and would never see each other again.
He had never seen her look so dismissive before. And that had been enough to stun Derek into freezing instead of talking to her. Only coming back to himself once it was too late to go after her. "Shall we head upstairs, Mr Haven?" Madeline’s soft voice had come from his right.
Rather than going out into the street, and looking around like a madman. Derek had instead walked to the elevator and gotten in, Madeline by his side.
Now Derek was sitting in his office staring at the wall, not really seeing it. When Emily had left him without a word, Derek had held on to a bit of hope. A belief that if he could just see her one more time. If the two of them could meet in person.