Stay Home Today
Jason ended the call and turned to look at Julia, who had finally managed to fall asleep. He sat on the sofa watching her.
Back in Mr Dickson's apartment, he was returning to the living room after getting himself a glass of wine when his phone rang. He quickly answered the call.
"Yes," he said.
"Sir, I couldn't get to Ms Harrison, but she is safe now," reported the man.
"Who saved her?" Mr Dickson asked.
"She lives with some two gentlemen, they came to her rescue," the man reported.
"Okay, go back to our initial plan," Mr Dickson said and ended the call, assuming the rescuers included her husband and probably her husband's relative.
He sat down on the sofa and continued to watch his favourite game on TV knowing Julia was safe now.
Back in Jason's apartment, Jason draw the curtains as it was already late. They had only returned home with her a few minutes ago after rescuing her from James. If not for the tracking device Jason had put on her diamond earring, they wouldn't have found her that easily.
"James is a womanizer but he does have his class of women and Julia doesn't come close at all. His attack on Julia when they were all living in one apartment in Florida, could be considered as his normal behaviour but travelling across the continent to find Julia just to sleep with her doesn't sound like James. He would not even go that extra mile for women he will usually go for," Jason thought with his gaze fixated on Julia.
"What does James want from Julia?" Jason thought with a frown. "James will do anything for their mother. Could it be Mrs Haward is the one after Julia? If she is, it could only mean one thing, she also knows," he thought and his frown deepened.
Jason got up from the sofa, charged into something comfortable after a shower and climbed into bed next to Julia. He didn't pull her into his arms this time but he kissed her forehead, turned off the night lamp and lay on the bed looking up at the ceiling with his head resting on his crossed hand behind his head as he lay on the pillow.
Julia moved in her sleep. Feeling Jason's presence on the bed, naturally, she placed her head on his shoulder in a comfortable position. Jason laid down quietly in the same position not reacting to Julia's movement.
In the morning Julia was up, as usual, to get breakfast ready but she was experiencing some headaches. An effect of the medication used to drug her. Jason watched her movement and could tell she was not okay. He quickly got to her before she could exit the room and brought her back to the bed.
"I have to get breakfast ready," Julia said when he made her climb back into bed.
"Peter had already taken care of that. Get some rest. You don't look good," Jason said making Julia lie back on the bed. "Get some rest, you will be fine after," he said and continued fixing his tie.
Jason grabbed his coat and left the room after kissing Julia's forehead. As soon as he exited, Julia got out of bed and rushed to the bathroom. She was feeling sick to her stomach but she felt better after throwing up. She returned to the bedroom and climbed into bed after cleaning her mouth.
In the dining area, Peter had finished setting up the breakfast table equally dressed for work.
"Peter, I need you to do me a favour," Jason began and Peter raised his head to look at him listening attentively. "Judging by what happened yesterday, it would not be a good idea to leave Julia all alone in the house. Please stay home today and look after her," he requested.
"Okay," Peter replied without any hesitation.
"Thank you," Jason said and Peter handed the car keys to him.
Jason left after breakfast for work and Peter cleared the table and took Julia's food to her in the room, setting it up on the table. She was sleeping when he entered the bedroom. He exited quietly ensuring he didn't disturb her sleep.
Peter returned to the living room and after watching TV for a while, he checked the menu Julia had planned for the week to see what was for Lunch. He smiled seeing it was just noodles. She was going to be alone so she put noodles on the menu for herself. He opened the cabinet and realized they were out of noodles. He stood there for a while thinking whether he should prepare something else or quickly get some noodles from the grocery shop down the street.
"It is not that far. I won't be long," he said looking in the direction of Julia's room.
Peter stepped out of the house and hurried down the street to the grocery store to get the noodles. At the payout side, he stayed in a queue for a while before it was his turn to pay for the noodles. He hurried back to the house feeling a bit uncomfortable leaving the apartment without saying anything to Julia. He opened the door and felt something was wrong. Something didn't feel right. He placed the noodles on the kitchen counter and quickly went towards Jason and Julia's room. The door was open. His heart started racing as he slowly entered calling out to Julia.
"Hello, Mrs Haward are you there?" Peter said, slowly pushing the door further open."Mrs Haw...." He didn't complete calling her name when his gaze fell upon the broken tea cup on the floor.
He quickly entered the room and realized Julia was not there. He knocked on the bathroom door and entered, closing his eyes, but it was empty.
"Shit! Mr Haward won't be happy about this," Peter said under his breath and quickly exited the room pulling his phone out of his pocket.
"Mr Haward, Julia is gone," Peter said as soon as the call connected.
"What do you mean gone?" Jason questioned getting up from behind his desk.
Just then Mr Dickson entered his office but before he could say anything his phone rang so he signalled Jason he would be back and exited his office.
"I am coming over," Jason said and ended the call and quickly stepped out of his office and was about to knock and enter Mr Dickson's when he heard him also mention Julia's name.
Jason held his hand in mid-air and stood behind the partially closed door.
"What do you mean someone took Julia again," Mr Dickson questioned sounding angry. "Idiot, what am I paying you for, if you just stood there and watched someone take her away without doing anything?" he asked sounding angry.
"Even if I asked you to just watch her and report back to me, does your stupid brain not know what to do in a kidnapping situation?" Mr Dickson asked angrily. "You better find who took her and bring her back else I will send you to hell," he said and Jason entered the office making Mr Dickson turn to find out who had entered his office without knocking.
"You were watching my house, my wife?" Jason questioned, his eyes blazing with anger.
"Your wife?" Mr Dickson repeated confused and looking at Jason, wondering what he was angry about.
In his mind, he thought Peter was Julia's husband. Does it mean Julia is the accomplice the news spoke of? That was the question on Mr Dickson's mind as they spoke.
"Julia Harrison is your wife?" Mr Dickson asked to confirm.
"I think I made that clear. Why were you watching her and who took her and to where?" Jason questioned advancing towards Mr Dickson.
"Jason, step back, I am still your boss," said Mr Dickson seeing the dangerous look in Jason's eyes as the temperature around seems to have dropped significantly.
"My boss, who decided to invade my privacy. Is this in my contract, that you can do that?" Jason questioned as he took steady steps towards Mr Dickosn fuming with anger.
"This is an abuse of my rights. Where does it say in my contract you have the right to spy on my wife?" Jason questioned rolling up his sleeves and walking toward Mr Dickson who was moving backwards away from Jason.
"Jason?" Mr Dickson said but Jason grabbed him by his shirt and pinned him against the wall
"If you don't want to lose the whole front row of your teeth, tell me who took my wife now," Jason said, his eyes red with anger.
Mr Dickson was very terrified seeing the anger in Jason's eyes and the fact that his feet were not touching the ground made him even more terrified. He could not free himself from Jason's grip no matter how hard he tried. He wanted to call security but remembered he needed to get to the phone for that and it was on his desk behind Jason.
"I...I... will call me......my guy," Mr Dickson managed to say.
Jason put Mr Dickson down and straightened his suit for him. Jason's eyes were red with anger.
"Do it now," Jason commanded and Mr Dickson grabbed his phone and dialled the number of the guy he asked to spy on Julia.