Billionaire's Only Cure Read online

  Then why did she walk away again?

  His chest constricted with remembered pain.

  No, it wasn't the same. He wouldn't let it happen again.

  After the heated discussion with Max, he’d decided to come clean with Alice. And for the first time since seeing her again, his heart felt at ease. Hatred had burned his heart for a long; it was time to put it to rest. It was time to apologize and start anew.

  That’s what he’d intended to do when he confessed his revenge plot to her.

  It had failed like an unstable chemical reaction. She’d stormed out like she would never come back.

  Now what? What if she wouldn't come back?

  No, that wouldn't happen.

  Would it?

  Tension tightened his shoulders, and something heavy settled on his heart, pushing it down.

  No, no. He quickened his pace, continuously tapping on his watch’s glass face.

  Damn, why did he have to go and tell her everything? He could have slowly made peace with her, but then his heart would've suffered a lot.

  Revenge.

  The thought itself was wrong.

  "Damn you, Jade, why the heck did you do that?" His fingers pushed through his short hair, stopping at the back of his neck.

  Would he regret it for the rest of his life?

  But what choice did he have after she left him all those years ago with one nasty sentence: I hate you. She’d rejected his love like it meant nothing. Was it so shallow? Didn't he love her with his whole heart? Yes, he had shortcomings. Lots of them. And if he were in Alice's shoes, he would have rejected himself hundred times. Who would love a mysophobic maniac going crazy over every little thing?

  But she did, didn't she? She’d loved him like he was her whole world.

  Then she left him with nothing but “I hate you.”

  It broke him, filling his heart with soul-sucking hatred.

  Jade dropped to his knees.

  Yes, he’d hated her until he couldn't anymore. He’d hated her with the first ray of sunlight each day. He’d hated her with the last ray of moonlight each night.

  Then he saw her picture in the newspaper. It agitated him to his core, so he made a plan to take revenge. But damn, he didn't expect her to bulldoze his resolve to stay away from her at any cost.

  She smashed it in one go.

  She was like an oasis in the desert.

  He looked up at the white ceiling. "Alice, why are you doing this to me?" he shouted until his lungs emptied of oxygen, and then he shouted more.

  He was at a loss. He shouldn't have thought about taking revenge. He shouldn't have hurt her.

  Guilt rushed through his body. Seeing her once again, his heart made it clear that he couldn’t hate her, no matter how much he wanted to.

  But why? Why couldn’t he hate her?

  The money she took from his mother, wasn't that enough?

  Leaving him without any explanation, wasn't that enough?

  Breaking his heart and then crushing it under her heel, wasn't that enough?

  Slamming his fists on the ground, he shouted until his throat went dry. It didn't help. Even after an hour of trying everything he could think of to ignite the lost anger in his heart, he only thought about her. Alice Myer occupied the deepest corner of his mind.

  There was no way he could get rid of her. He had to go to her and apologize until she agreed to make amends with him.

  Losing her again wasn't an option.

  He was about to get up and go looking for her when his office door opened.

  A ray of light slipped into his dark room, along with a silhouette of a woman.

  “Alice?”

  His heart quickened until the woman came into view. It was his mother, Helen, in an expensive business suit, followed by her gray-suited assistant.

  She thrust a piece of paper in front of him. "What's the meaning of this?"

  Without looking at it, Jade got to his feet. He knew what it was.

  "Mother, we've talked about this. I told you I'd pay you with interest when I took the loan from you." He turned away from her. Not that she would come close to him, but he didn't want to look at her right then. Alice occupied his whole mind, and there was no space for his overreacting mother.

  Coming around the desk, she tore the check in two.

  "Mother. You know me well enough. If you don't take the check, then I'll wire the money into your account." Jade said calmly. His baffled self was gone, replaced by the steel-nerved businessman.

  She stepped forward, stopping a mere foot away from him. "I told you, that was a gift from mother to son."

  Jade chuckled. "Mother, do you think I don't know what's going on in your mind? I've told you a hundred times that I won't merge with Mr. Parker’s company. For God's sake let me keep my own baby separate." This was the last thing he wanted to discuss now. Why did she have to be like this? Overprotective and overbearing. If he merged with Parker Group, she would take control and make his company into a money machine. She did the same with everything she had, while he loved making something that mattered, something that wasn’t shady.

  Last year, he had introduced a new product in the market, an herbal cream that helped people with freckles. She opposed it, saying he priced it too low. Granted, that soap wasn't going to make a huge profit, but he wanted to sell it in low-income countries where people couldn't afford expensive creams. She always put profit first, and he looked for satisfaction plus profit. If he was a fool, his company couldn't have reached the one billion capital mark in just three years.

  "It's different this time,” she said. “I want you to step up and join Parker Group as Executive Vice President. I don't want your tiny company anymore."

  Jade glanced at his watch. Where would Alice be by now?

  "Son, I'm fifty, and I want to retire. Alan is already in a wheelchair, and he can't look after the business anymore. Who, other than you, is best suited for the business? You've already proved yourself with your little pet project."

  There she went again, treating his company like a small fish in a big pond. Granted, compared to her and Alan's company, his was tiny in terms of business and capital. But it was his baby. Helen and Alan, his step father since age ten, had started Parker Group seventeen years ago and worked their way into the top two hundred international companies. Good for them.

  But Jade knew too much about his mother's business practices to want to be involved in her company. Helen used every tactic she could to keep her company flourishing, and many of those tactics were illegal. Jade hated that, and he hated their money too. That's why he started his own company and was happy with it. Here, he could dedicate himself to research and business. In her company, it would be all business, and shady business at that.

  "Mother, I don't have any interest in Parker Group. Once the money is deposited, I'll be changing my company’s name. It'll be known as Hyde Chemicals going forward."

  She froze.

  He hated hurting her, but he hated the Parker in his company’s name more. If he hadn't borrowed money from her, he would have named it Hyde Chemicals from the start. It wasn’t that he hated his stepdad, but he preferred keeping Hyde as his surname because it made him feel closer to his deceased father. Unfortunately, Helen hated that name.

  "Son, think this through. What's so precious about this one point five-billion-dollar company? Even my subsidiaries have a bigger annual budget than your market value." Pride and greed leaked through her honeyed voice.

  His phone beeped, and he glanced at it in irritation, but the name on the screen brightened his mood. He held up a hand to his mother and answered it.

  "Hey, I’m glad you—"

  "Jade!" she sobbed.

  His heart clenched at the distress in her tone. And why was she crying? "Alice, are you all right?" his words skidded together. "Where are you?"

  "Medusa, my roommate, I think she tried to commit suicide."

  Relief spread through him, easing his tensed shoulders
. Alice wasn't in danger. That was good.

  But she was crying. Not good.

  "Can you call security and get your friend to the rooftop? I'll send a hospital chopper there, right away.”

  Another cry slipped from Alice's mouth.

  "Alice, get it together. The chopper is the fastest way to save your friend. Do you understand? Can you call security for me?"

  A tearful yes came out, and then he cut the call. He dialed Max.

  "Max, get the medical chopper ready. I’m heading to the roof in thirty seconds.” He pulled open the lowest drawer of his huge desk. It contained his emergency gear: a suit, gloves, mask, and all the things he needed when he had to go out in the open.

  "What's happening? Who's sick?" Helen asked.

  "Mother, let's talk tomorrow. My friend is in trouble."

  Helen's face darkened. "A friend? Since when do you have a friend?"

  Chapter 26

  The air blew like a thunderstorm when Jade’s chopper landed on top of Alice’s building. Chuf-chuf, the chopper blades continued whirling fast, sending jets of air toward the people waiting on the rooftop. Landing on the tiny rooftop looked impossible, but that’s why he had hired a former Air Force pilot. The pilot proved his worth by landing effortlessly on the small rooftop.

  A black figure ran forward when Jade stepped out of the chopper.

  With wet eyes, smudged eyeliner, and disheveled hair, Alice looked like she’d walked out of a disaster.

  “Jade,” she choked, pointing at her friend slumped into a wheelchair.

  Jade’s pilot and a nurse rushed forward to move Alice’s friend to a stretcher before he could utter the order. Jade wrapped his arm around Alice’s shaking shoulders, “Calm down. Let’s go. We’ll get her the best treatment.” A surge of protectiveness overwhelmed him; he didn’t like seeing her cry.

  He placed his hand on the small of her back and nudged her toward the chopper. The nurse settled Alice’s friend in the back and took her seat.

  At a glance, Alice’s friend looked pale and weak. Foam oozed out of the right corner of her mouth. What had she done? Was it poisoning? Had someone poisoned her?

  Damn.

  “Alice,” he said.

  Alice kept staring at her own hands with watery eyes, as if she hadn’t heard him.

  Seeing her like that was painful and disturbing. He wanted nothing more than to ease her pain by any means.

  “Alice.” He took her hands in his “Don’t worry, we’re getting her to the best hospital. She’ll be okay.” He shouted as the chopper blades spun back up again. The next moment they were in the air, heading toward the nearest hospital.

  “Mr. Parker, the patient’s pulse is erratic,” the nurse said as she performed her checkups.

  Alice’s hand trembled in Jade’s; he tightened his grip, not letting her go.

  “Alice, look at me.” Jade shook her hand, grabbing her attention. “She’ll be all right.” Damn, why couldn’t he pull her in his arms and let her cry? Sitting on the edge and watching her cry like this was heartbreaking.

  Her eyes lifted to his. “Promise?” The pain in her hazel eyes pierced his heart. “She’s my soul sister. I can’t lose her.” She pulled her hands away from his and cradled her head with them.

  Grabbing her hands back, he looked in her eyes. “I promise that I’ll do my best to help her.”

  “I can’t lose her.”

  Soul sisters. Jade glanced at the woman on the stretcher. She wore a blue tank top and ripped white jeans. She had short blond hair. So, she was one of Alice’s soul sisters. He had heard a lot about them from Alice. Well, half of the time she had only talked about her soul sisters. So, who was this woman? If he remembered correctly, Pam, Sam, and Medusa were their names. Was she Pam?

  His chain of thought broke when the chopper landed on City Central Hospital’s rooftop. Thank God they had a helipad.

  It took them fifteen minutes to reach the hospital from his office, but that gave the doctors plenty of time to prepare everything; they were waiting on the rooftop already.

  Fifteen minutes later, Jade and Alice sat inside a VIP room adjacent to the ICU where Medusa was being treated.

  Alice sat on the empty patient’s bed, tapping her feet on the tiled floor every passing moment.

  Jade sat next to her, watching her. Why couldn’t he ease her pain? Why was he so powerless when it came to helping her? Three years ago, she went through a disaster, a life-changing event, but he wasn’t there to help her. When he read about it last month, his heart shattered into pieces when he thought about the horror she had to face back then. He hadn’t been there, then. He was here now. But he was just as helpless.

  Alice turned to face him. “Are you all right being out here?”

  A weak smile played on his lips. This girl, she thought about his condition even in her darkest hour. Why had he ever let her go?

  He patted the back of her hand. Just for a moment, she relaxed when he touched her. He could feel it clearly, but then her body quivered, and a sob slipped out of her mouth.

  He was about to pull her into his embrace when someone walked into the room.

  “Are you Mr. Parker?” A doctor with angry green eyes and a heavy beard walked in.

  “Yes, I am.” He stood, glancing at the nameplate hanging on doctor’s white gown. “Dr. Smith. How’s the patient?”

  Alice stood and moved forward, closer to the doctor. Jade remained a few feet away, though he wore his no-touch armor, the black leathery looking one, that covered him from neck to toe, he didn’t like to take chances with strangers.

  “Are you the one who brought her here?” The doctor asked, his voice clearly exuding rage.

  Jade shook his head and motioned at Alice.

  The doctor moved at lightning speed and stepped in front of Alice. “Why did you do it?”

  What was going on? Did he know Alice? But given her confused expression Jade dismissed that possibility.

  “Doctor, what’s going on? Is she going to be okay?”

  Dr. Smith poked Alice’s collarbone with a finger. “I won’t let it go. Just wait until the cops arrive.”

  Something was wrong. Either Jade was dreaming, or the doctor was crazy.

  Stepping forward, Jade pulled Alice away from the doctor and stepped in between them. “Doctor, I asked how’s the patient?” His heart raced faster and faster. He was too close to the doctor, well beyond his comfort level. Any other time, he wouldn’t have inserted himself in such a position, but right now, Alice’s worry overwhelmed his desire to remain at a distance from the stranger.

  The doctor glared at him. “She’s in a coma, and you stay out of this.”

  Alice’s eyes widened, and her fingers clasped Jade’s arm. “Coma? What do you mean?”

  The doctor stepped forward, coming inches away from them. Jade’s heartbeat kicked up another notch. Any further, and the doctor would be practically kissing him, a kiss of death, and right now he wasn’t wearing his mask.

  Control yourself, Jade. He had to control himself and not walk away from Alice.

  Somehow, he muscled down his desire to step away from the doctor.

  The doctor grabbed Alice arm and pulled her closer. “Are you disappointed that she didn’t die? You injected morphine into her, and now you’re asking me why she didn’t die?” His fingers flexed, his grip on her arm tightening. “Tell me!” he shouted. “Why did you try to kill her?”

  Alice tried to yank her arm out of the doctor’s grip.

  Lunging, Jade struck the doctor’s chest with a gloved palm, sending the doctor stumbling backward. Enough of this nonsense. How dare he touch her?

  Jade shoved Alice behind him, away from the crazy doctor.

  “Dr. Smith, you’re over the line. What nonsense are you sputtering?”

  Smith’s fierce gaze jumped to Jade. “Are you dumb or acting naïve? She overdosed on Morphine. This is an attempted murder.” He pointed his finger at Alice. “And I’m sure she did it.”<
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  Alice clenched her hands around Jade’s arm and pushed her face on his back, quivering.

  “Are you crazy? If it wasn’t for her, the girl would be lying dead in her apartment.”

  Doctor stepped forward, once again coming inches away from Jade. Jade didn’t budge. He wasn’t going to let the bastard touch his Alice. Never again.

  “I’ve notified the cops, and you can’t leave this room until they arrive.”

  Hot tears passed through his thick jacket and reached his back. Damn, Alice was crying again.

  “Doctor, I think we’re finished here. Thanks for your help, but I’ll take care of things from here.” Jade pulled his cellphone out; it was time to call the hospital director and get this crazy doctor fired. The way he’d touched Alice? If he could have, he would have punched this bastard himself.

  Dr. Smith glared at him like he was some kind of criminal. “I won’t let this slip. I’ll make sure she’s put behind bars for attempted murder.”

  “Doctor, get out or I’ll call security. Don’t go near the patient or Alice. I’ll sue you if you dare to touch either of these two girls.” Jade bit his tongue, wishing he could just punch and pounce on this jerk and teach him a lesson?

  As soon as the doctor left the room, Jade dialed the hospital director. But before his call could connect, two cops walked in.

  Chapter 27

  Two men in black police uniforms walked into the room, one slender and one heavyset.

  Alice’s insides churned. The cops were already there. Was she going to jail? As if she hadn’t been shamed enough in that incident three years back.

  What should she do?

  The slender cop patted his holster.

  Was he going to draw his weapon and arrest her?

  Panic and fear seized her. If she had eaten anything, she would have thrown up. She hated cops. No, she was scared of them, and they were here to take her away again.

  The fat cop eyed her weirdly. What was he planning? Whatever it was, it wouldn’t be good.

  What should she do? Run? No, that wouldn’t work. She would get into more trouble if she tried that. How did she get into this mess? First, Medusa lay in a coma in the ICU, and now the cops were here to take her away. When would her bad luck end? Maybe never.