Half an hour later, Damien"s eyes opened and it took him a second to adjust to the lights in his living room. He looked up and saw Katherine had also fallen asleep. He stared at her face which was looking sweet and peaceful until his gaze trailed down to her arm and found her hand resting on his chest.
A satisfied smile spread across his face before he carefully placed his hand over it. Bringing her hand to his lips, he pressed a feather-light kiss on it that lasted for three seconds before he got up from the sofa.
Damien quickly but gently laid her down on the sofa while placing a throw pillow under her head. Just as he straightened up, his phone vibrated in his pocket, indicating that he received a phone call.
"Yes?" He answered the call when he saw that it was from his a.s.sistant Markus and went to his office.
"Boss, I"ve already checked the other hospitals around the area but none of them have any records that we"re looking for."
Damien sat on his office chair and asked, "What about Dr. Cheng?" He heard Markus inhale deeply and answered, "Boss… Dr. Cheng is gone."
"What do you mean gone?"
"I am at Spring Grove Hospital right now and the staff told me that he turned his resignation letter last Friday."
Damien"s brows knitted and felt odd about the piece of information. "But we just saw him last Friday. How could he leave so suddenly? Have you found out why?"
"I didn"t see his letter but they said that it was a sudden family decision and that they will move overseas."
"Check whether he has already left the country. Find out where he is right now. It looks like he"s fleeing and we can"t let that happen." Damien said in a low voice.
"Yes, I"m already on it. But there"s one more thing, Boss." Damien heard shuffling of papers in the background before Markus continued, "I"m sending you the file right now."
While they were speaking, Damien received a few images containing Dr. Cheng"s bank statements and contracts. "There are some weird transactions on his account. His salary five years before is the one marked in blue. However, around the time that Ms. Katherine was transferred over to his care, he started receiving money from random off-sh.o.r.e accounts. But I"ve checked and he doesn"t have any relatives overseas."
"Even if he does… He"s a doctor, his salary is already high… I doubt family members would think that he is in need." Damien"s hand balled into a fist when he realized that this was too much of a coincidence. "I"m still waiting for Zero"s update. You can take care of the rest, right?"
"Don"t worry boss, I know someone from the airport who can check. I"ll get back to you real soon."
"Coordinate with Zero if you"re having troubles."
Their conversation ended and Damien contemplated for a while before he decided to call Jeffrey to tell him what he discovered so far.
Jeffrey responded, "Now that"s interesting. I don"t know much about Dr. Martin Cheng. He seems to be really low-profile so I have not heard if he had any remarkable achievements. But it is strange that he resigned the same day that you visited him and transferred Katherine to me. Have you found him yet?"
"No, Markus is still trying to follow his trail." Damien had a lot in his mind and he worried about Katherine"s safety more after finding out all of this.
"You can come by again tomorrow and we can start with the course," Jeffrey suggested.
It took a few seconds for Damien to think about it before he replied, "How safe is it?"
"Hypnosis is generally safe. There are adverse reactions to it but it"s rare."
"What reactions?" Damien worried.
"In rare cases, a patient may suffer dizziness, headache or feelings of anxiety. I have already talked to her about this the first time we met and she said she was willing to as long as you"re there."
Damien thought he heard it wrongly and had to ask. "What?"
"She wants you to be there with her during the process."
Damien"s distressed heart suddenly felt warm. He didn"t know that Katherine had so much trust in him that she even wanted him there. "Thank you, Jeff. We"ll see you tomorrow then."
After their conversation, Damien went back inside his place and found Katherine opening her eyes. She hurriedly got up from the sofa when she realized that she had fallen asleep and her boss was looking at her. "I"m sorry, I must have been tired."
"It"s okay." Damien looked at his watch and saw that it was already five in the afternoon. "Why don"t you stay here tonight? I can meet Mr. Davis alone for dinner."
"Are you sure? I don"t mind accompanying you to this dinner." Katherine felt weird for not going with him when the appointment was still related to business.
"It"s fine. Most of them are men anyway… they might ask for drinks afterwards so it"s better if you stay here instead."
"Oh… okay." She nodded and felt awkward for what she wanted to ask but her mouth opened before she could even stop herself. "What time are you coming home?"
Her question made Damien smile but he controlled the urge to tease her and directly answered, "I might come back late. So you don"t have to wait for me. There"s still some food in the fridge." He turned and headed to his bedroom upstairs.
It took him ten minutes before he came back down wearing a new dress s.h.i.+rt and a suit. Seeing him walk towards her, Katherine unconsciously stepped forward, held the knot of his tie and fixed it.
Damien stared at her acting like a little wife and he clenched his jaw when he felt the urge to kiss her right then and there. But he stopped himself and swallowed.
With a sweet smile on her face, Katherine lightly patted his tie. "There," she said as she glanced at him and saw him staring down at her. "What?"
"Nothing." Damien shook his head and patted her head gently. "I have to go," he said before he turned and left.
Katherine slumped onto the sofa as soon as she was alone and curled up into a ball. She instantly felt bored and did not know what to do. The house was large and s.p.a.cious but it was lonely without Damien.
She grabbed the remote control on the coffee table, turned on the TV and started scanning through the channels.
The night was quite uneventful for Katherine as she ate alone in front of the TV and decided to go to bed early. When she crawled on the bed, she sent a message to Emma and checked the entertainment website that she used to follow.
Scrolling through the page, she stumbled across an article about Lexi Jin"s return to Harbor City after years of being in Europe. She saw some of the model"s pictures on the runway and the awards that she received. After meeting her that day, Katherine thought that the model became uninteresting for her.
She placed her phone on the bedside table, dimmed the lights and went to sleep at eight in the evening.
That night, Katherine dreamt again. But this time, it was different. She was running away as though she was being chased. She was on a long dark road with trees on either side and she could feel the coldness of the ground as she was running barefoot.
She looked back but didn"t see anyone chasing her but she could feel that someone was watching her… so she ran until she was breathless. She tripped and fell to the ground, wincing in pain.
The next second, she felt someone hover over her. An unfamiliar man"s voice whispered to her ear, "Arrête, Katherine."
The voice made her wake up gasping for air. Katherine was drenched in cold sweat and she tried to remember the last part of her dream but as much as she tried, she didn"t recognize the man"s voice. Moreover, she didn"t understand what he said.
Her phone beeped, which made her turn to the side and grab her cell phone. There were messages from Emma:
[Emma: I"m glad you"re okay! Have lunch with me tomorrow? My treat!]
[Emma: Adam"s been busy lately too, but I told him I invited you tomorrow so he might come. You"re meeting us, okay? You"re not allowed to refuse :p]
[Emma: OMG! Your hot boss is trending! Check out this link!]
Confused, Katherine clicked on the link that her friend sent.
The page took a while to open but when it did, she saw an article that was just posted an hour ago from a paparazzi.
There were pictures of Damien and Lexi going in and out of a restaurant separately. The pictures that were taken were solos but the write-up said they were on a date.
Katherine"s eyes narrowed when she read the words in bold: Resort King Damien Park Rekindles His Love with His Ex-Girlfriend Supermodel Lexi Jin by taking her out on a date. Can Love Really Be Sweeter the Second Time Around?
Katherine almost barfed upon reading the highlight. She knew it was only publicity and did not believe any of it. However, she couldn"t help feeling bitter seeing the two in the article and being talked about on the internet.
She looked at the time and saw that it was past midnight. Wanting to see if Damien was there, she took a peek of the living room but saw that the sofa was empty.
Knowing that she was all alone at that hour and after having that nightmare, she went back to bed with a heavy heart but she couldn"t sleep no matter how much she tried.