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CHAPTER FOUR
JULIAN
I glanced at my watch for the seventeenth time when my phone vibrated against my thigh. I pulled it out and looked at the screen.
Marissa
Sighing deeply I swiped the screen to answer it then pressed it to my ear.
Her bubbly voice came through with vigor, “tell me what the fuck is going on Julian. I need to know why you fucking postponed. I was not going to believe Orson, but then you actually sent them an email without running it by me?”
There was no use arguing. It would be like fighting fire with fire.
“Something came up,” I responded.
“Something more important than the new investors? Julian, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Bryant is not going to like this.”
“He’s your father. You calm him down.”
“We wouldn’t be in this situation, if I had gotten a heads up. Jesus Julian, don’t you know how crucial this is? You just blew our only chance of getting support from the Japanese.”
She had every right to be upset. We had worked hard for that shot, but once I got the call that Gia had been found, nothing else in the world mattered. I just wanted to rush to her, hold her in my arms and tell her that it was going to be okay, but things took a wild turn.
At that moment Gia stepped out of the door into the sunlight. Her purple dress hugged her frame and bounced at her knees. Her golden-brown hair was pulled back into a haphazard bun, but it looked perfect just the way it used to. She was wearing her old sneakers, and on her wrist sat a bracelet she must have found somewhere in my house. There was a frown on her face which strangely but truly melted my heart and made me mutter nonsense on the phone.
“Hello, Julian, are you listening to me?”
“I’ll call you back Marissa.”
“Don’t you dare hang…” but I had already hung up.
She walked over to me with her hands in pockets on the front of her dress. Her eye arched and lips pulled tight suggesting she was not liking any of this one bit. Her entire demeanor struck me as funny, but I swallowed my smile because I knew it would make her mad. She was trying to walk the line of a trained assassin and being human. A struggle I knew all too well.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“The workshop,” I responded.
“Workshop…?”
I know I was not making any sense to her, but it would all make sense in due time. I led her to the car, opened the passenger door, then rounded the car and settled into the driver’s seat. As we drove away, Orson and my bodyguard, Drummer were right behind us in another car.
“Why do you need so much security? I counted six security cameras just at the main entrance.”
I forgot about her training. To me she was the same Gianna as before.
When I did not immediately reply, she turned her head from staring outside the window to looking at me.
“Are you scared of me?” I saw her lips tilt in mockery, but then quickly vanished.
Morla had warned me that a part of her might be missing. The Wonder Project might have tried to erase her completely, but a part of Gianna was still alive. My heart refused to believe any different.
Ignoring her current question, I returned back to her question from before breakfast.
“I am a billionaire,” I glanced over at her to see the smirk had reappeared. “I mean, I’m an influential person and responsible for lots of things and people. I have to make decisions that benefit the world even though some people don’t like it. I make some people angr- “
“What the hell are you babbling about? Are you really some bad guy who takes advantage of the weak? Is that why you need security in case one of them comes after you? Is that it, Julian?” She let out a laugh and I was not sure which Gia was asking, the one I knew or the one who had been trained to take in every detail and use it against you later.
“I am not a bad guy, and trust me, the security is not for me; it is for them.”
