CHAPTER 47: SOMETHING NEW

Francis’ face was red with embarrassment, but he knew Eliza wasn’t bluffing, so he stood from her seat. She gestured to Michaela to wipe the seat off first, and then she sat.

"Now, we can start the meeting." She said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

"Everyone here must have seen the news, including you Eliza, so let’s just cut to the chase. You must announce that you’re stepping down as CEO of the company as soon as this meeting is over in order to preserve the company’s image."

"And why would I do that?"

"This scandal you have caused will..."

"Correction. I never caused anything. If you need anyone to blame, my grandfather, father, and brothers are all seated here. Direct your fingers to them. It’s my mother and one of my brothers’ wives on air right now spewing nonsense after all. Why should I consider ’the company image’ in your words, when they have no regard for it?" She asked, and there was silence for several seconds.

None of them had expected her to oppose the decision to step down. So now they were all scrambling for the best approach to the situation.

"How can you still be so cheeky after killing my baby?" Marco slammed his hands on the table.

"I refuse to entertain your ridiculous accusations for another second. I don’t know how much you all told the board, and frankly. I don’t care. But everyone with the Pratt surname seated here knows I am innocent, so ask yourselves how far you’re willing to take this. Because even at this moment, my husband is handling this smear campaign you started."

"Is that supposed to scare us? The news is already spreading like wildfire. Do you think the public won’t rise up against his and his company? Of course he’ll try to cover up your crimes, but justice will..."

Eliza’s laughter cut off her father’s tirade.

"Justice will prevail? You’re all either sharing the same delusion, or I must have been transported to an alternate universe. I just keep wondering, and I still haven’t been able to comprehend how anyone could think of something so despicable as to accuse me of killing an unborn baby."

She shook her head. "You all say I pushed her down the stairs and caused a miscarriage? Jealous because I’m barren? Who came up with these lies? I’m as fertile as the next woman. I’m just not ready for children now because I’ve had a lot on my plate. This meeting is over. I will return to my office, and continue working on my projects. Let’s see whose evidence holds up in court."

She stood, and walked out of the board room with Michaela behind her. She went back to her office alone, and Alrik was seated in front of her desk making a call. She closed the door, and leaned against it with her eyes closed.

"How did the meeting..."

His words were caught off and her eyes snapped open when he appeared in front of her in the blink of an eye, with his palms pressed to the door behind her.

"What just happened? My eyes were closed but I felt..."

"I don’t know. One second I was over there, and next thing I know it’s like I floated over here." Alrik responded with a pale expression.

"Huh?"

He turned to walk back to the desk, and the same thing happened. He moved too fast for her eyes to follow and he was across the room before she could even blink.

"Whoa. My eyes. Everything is... Fuck."

"Alrik, what’s happening? How do you feel? Are you getting hot again?" She asked as she tried to move closer to him.

"No. It’s like everything is moving in slow motion. I..." He took a step, and slammed into the wall beside the door.

"I t..think you need to take a seat." She said to him, and walked over to her desk to push the chair close to him.

She was at the centre of the office when he moved, and nearly sent her tumbling with the chair when he moved past her in a blur.

"Don’t try to move, for heaven’s sake. Just stay still. I’ll bring the chair to you."

He held his breath, and stood as still as possible by the floor to ceiling windows, where he was now. He tried to sit and knocked the chair over because he was moving too fast, and he wasn’t used to it. It took three tries before he could take a seat.

"I need to lock the doors so no one can come in. You can’t be seen like this." She said and moved to the door.

She had already made sure the CCTV in her office was disabled for the day after the heat flare episode at home, and she was glad she had the foresight to do so. Imagine if a video of something so strange got released, especially during this time that they were already under public scrutiny. At best, they would go viral and fade away when new scandals popped up. Worse case scenario is Alrik ending up in a military lab to be dissected, and tortured.

"Do I call the others?" She asked as she returned to his side.

"No. If you call, they’ll all come rushing here and that will raise suspicions." He replied.

"But we can use this murder scandal to our advantage. We can just make it seem like I asked for your help and you called your executives here."

"Still, it will make the case escalate. Let’s not give your family the opportunity to use anything against us." He said and she sighed.

"Fine. But what do we do? I need to work, and I can’t do that if we have to stay locked in here. We also can’t risk letting people in, and having witnesses to this bizarre change."

"Then leave me locked in here, and work from outside. You have a lot of meetings to attend, and you can use the secretarial post outside your office. We’ve both done it here before, so it won’t look weird to the secretaries, and they’re the only ones who are close enough for their opinions to matter.

"That could work. But will you be okay? What if you hurt yourself, because you’re not used to this speed?" She asked with worry in her eyes.

"I will handle it, and I’ll be fine." He said with a smile, and she left after a bit of hesitation.

Only when he heard the door lock behind her did he relax. He held up the hand he had been hiding behind his back when she was with him. His right hand was vibrating faster than normal eyes could follow, and he grabbed his wrist with his left hand.

What on earth was happening to him? And why was he suddenly developing strange abilities?