A Lovely Obsession ( Billionaire Romance Novel )

Chapter 12

Nora's POV:-

When I come to my senses I am lying in a hospital bed.

" Nora, thank God!" I hear my grandmother's voice and turn to see her sitting beside me in a chair. The next thing I know I am enveloped in a tight hug as both my sisters launch themselves at me.

" Girls you are suffocating her." I hear Grandma chide them.

My normally calm and composed Grandma has tears in her eyes as she leans down to kiss my forehead.

" We were so worried about you child. You were unconscious for hours. We were so scared." She half whispers and half sobs.

On hearing her words I suddenly remember what had happened. It's hazy but I can remember going to see Derek and how painful that meeting was. I was supposed to take a taxi home but then I got hit by a car.

" The drunk son of a bitch whose car hit you is behind bars. He was about to flee, leaving you there on the road but Osborne's guys held him and didn't let him get away. I think they beat him up too because he was covered in bruises when we saw him at the police station." Nadine says with relish.

" I wonder if he is as bruised as me," I say trying to sit up and feeling my body ache all over.

I don't want to focus on the fact that I owe Derek in any way. I try to tell myself that I am only indebted to his security guards who were decent enough not to let the guy who had hit me with his car get away. But then another hazy memory surfaces.

"Hold that man and make sure he doesn't get away."

Don't you dare die on me, Nora. I won't let you. If you leave it will be on my terms."

I could hear his voice in my head. Derek was there. The fact that I owed him was something I didn't want to think about. He was either a psychopath or a sociopath and I doubt he would do any favors for me out of the goodness of his heart.

" Grandma, what about the hospital bills?" I ask her feeling anxious at the thought of the expense we will have to bear when we needed to save up the most.

" Don't worry about that my child. Let the doctor see you first and think only about your recovery. Nothing else matters." Grandma says gently.

Luckily the doctor only says they will need to keep me overnight for observation and then I will able to go home. I spend most of the time resting and trying not to think about the challenges that will await me once I go home.

The next morning as we are preparing to leave the hospital Jonathan arrives.Though he's polite and showing concern toward me I feel discomforted by his presence. He cheated on his wife and then left his love child to be raised by his friend. After our parents died and we were hit with financial issues he should have stepped up and done more to help us.

Yes, it was true that he offered multiple times to aid us and we refused but it was because he was an outsider we didn't want to be indebted to. If he would have told us Nadine was his daughter and he wanted to take responsibility for her then we would have let him. But he seemed more concerned with keeping his relationship with Nadine hidden than anything else.

I don't know what I would have done had I been in his place but all I know is that I would have done better by Nadine than him.

Then there's also the question of whether I should tell Nadine the truth. It would break her heart but she was likely to find out the truth someday. Our parents should have been the ones to tell her all this. Were they waiting till she got older or had they planned to hide the truth forever? 

A more disturbing thought occurs to me when I look at Nadine and find myself reminded of Mom's eyes. She may have a different hair color from me and Nigella and some vague resemblance to Jonathan but she had our mother's eyes.

The thought that she might be my half-sister had occurred to me before but Grandma had vehemently denied that was the case. Even I couldn't bring myself to truly believe that my mother would do something like that to my dad. Besides, why would my dad agree to raise Nadine if she was the product of a love affair between his wife and another man?

" Jonathan while I appreciate your help you didn't need to pay the hospital bills. We will pay you back what we owe you." I hear Grandma say as she returns from talking to the people at the reception.

"I don't understand. You must be mistaken. I didn't pay the hospital bills. I knew that you would refuse." Jonathan says sounding utterly baffled.

"But the woman at the reception said that all our bills were paid." Grandma frowns.

No, it can't be, I think. But there's no explanation. I don't have any friends besides the ones I occasionally chat with on social media. None of our relatives gives a damn about us. I doubt they even know about what happened to me.

There was however one person who did know about my incident. The man who was there and whose voice was the last thing I heard when I lost consciousness.

"Grandma you have gotten awfully forgetful. You already paid the bills remember?" I say with a fake chuckle.

Grandma looks at me confused but then she seems to understand and nods playing along.

" God, what has gotten into me? My memory's gotten weaker but that's only expected at my age." She says with a shaky smile.

Jonathan is looking at both of us strangely like he thinks we have lost our marbles.

"Surprisingly the man who hit you is still in jail. I thought he would be bailed out by now." Nigella tells me.

The police had asked me a couple of questions at the hospital but I was shocked by how cooperative they were. I thought it would be difficult to prove that the driver was at fault but the police almost seemed in a hurry to prove him to be the culprit. It was obvious that someone influential was behind all of this. Too bad he deserved to be behind bars himself.

It almost made me want to drop charges.

I was told to rest for the next few days but I needed to find employment. So only a day after getting discharged from the hospital I get back on my job hunt, dropping copies of my resume at different places. I also find myself looking here and there for signs of Derek. Though it's foolish. That guy would never take time out of his busy schedule to stalk me.

But I still find it strange that he never called or messaged me even though I am secretly relieved. Maybe he really is done with me. But then why help me like the way he did? What does he get out of it? Is it another one of his mind games?

After all every day I am living in fear that this is the calm before the storm. Every day I anticipate with dread the day he would waltz back into my life.

I also keep checking the news for anything on him. After all, it's good to keep an eye on what your enemy is up to. After his short fling with Clara, he was spotted on a private beach with a Hollywood actress. As if his handsome face wasn't enough the creep also had a perfect body. Unlike most men who had well-built upper bodies and skinny legs, Derek was muscular and toned everywhere.

The guy only had a very light smattering of hair on his chest and he probably waxed himself. On any other man, it would have been effeminate but he managed to pull it off. His girlfriend, fuckbuddy, or whatever she was kept trying to touch him and snuggle with him.

Derek seemed to pull away from her at first but the moment his eyes found the paparazzi recording him he pulled the woman against his chest and gave her a kiss so obscene it made me want to vomit. I kept replaying the moment in my head wondering why I felt so disgusted.

I should be happy that he hasn't tried to contact me. In fact I should be praying that the girls he was sleeping with would manage to entertain him so well that he wouldn't need to bully me for fun.

The next couple of days passed in a blur and after some time it felt like I only imagined meeting him and everything that had happened between us.

Until one day...