Chapter 10
Chapter 10 Niall’s Past
As Carlisle opened the car and sat inside, Helene couldn’t help but ask, “What did you talk to the officers about?”
“Oh, not much. I just got in touch with a friend and asked them about the situation.”
“Is that how you got the police to bring them here?” Helene pointed to the family of three who was escorted into the police station.
“Who?”
“That family over there. They were the ones at my apartment.”
“Oh, maybe they called the police about the whole situation too, so they were brought in to help clear things up.”
Feeling as though that made sense, Helene didn’t question it any further. Shortly after the two arrived home later that evening, Helene received a call from the police station. informing her that the family had agreed to vacate the house in three days.
She couldn’t believe the good news, not to mention how quickly it had come. When did the police get so efficient?
Helene happily told Carlisle the good news as he sat on the sofa scrolling through his phone. Without even looking up, he let out an uninterested “oh” and continued whatever it was that he was doing.
Now that the two finally had some downtime, Helene took
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advantage of the opportunity to ask Carlisle when he could give her the $70,000 that she asked for earlier.
This time, he put his phone down. “Your property is five years old and you haven’t paid much in taxes. After deducting from your loan and other expenses, you wouldn’t have enough to pay me back at all. How can you assure me that you’ll give me what I’m owed?”
He was right. After the various expenses associated with the property, she would only have about $55,000 left at most. Now, Helene was at a loss, and she struggled to form an answer for a while.
Finally, she said, “I’m currently planning to take an exam to become a CPA. If I get certified, I can change to a higher- paying job.”
Carlisle obviously didn’t believe it, instead thinking that Helene was stalling for time. But since he promised her the money, he’d keep his word.
“I’ll transfer you to Carey tomorrow morning.” Then, Carlisle paused and put forward a new condition. “But that marriage. agreement we signed… You have to swear to keep it a secret from my Grandpa.”
Helene naturally agreed more times than she could count.
When Carlisle arrived at the office the next morning, the first thing he did was find Mr. Duke, who was in charge of HR issues and personnel affairs. Carlisle asked him to send someone to notify Diego that the company would be open to promoting him to a position in the technical department.
Carlisle’s only requirement was that since Diego would now be
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working at one of the company’s core departments, a deposit of $1400 would be required in the interest of keeping confidentiality. When paid in full, he would be transferred.
Mr. Duke presented himself as a rather ordinary middle–aged man, but he was shrewd and capable. He was curious to see why President Bamford was giving so much “care” to this new employee, going so far as to make up various excuses to get in his way.
During the many years that Mr. Duke had worked at the company, he hadn’t once heard of this “confidentiality deposit” that Carlisle had mentioned. It was then that he learned a valuable lesson about President Bamford. To offend
him was to suffer a fate worse than death.
Diego was overjoyed with the rent money he had swindled out of that family in his hands. He had failed to buy Freya the diamond ring at the jeweler, and his heart raced thinking about how he could finally make things right.
He had also finally stolen the apartment from Helene. He ran the numbers and realized that he had paid much more than $8000 for rent, but regardless, it was cheap compared to what Helene made.
As he admired his updated account balance on his banking app, Diego called Freya to happily tell her that the company paid him a month’s salary in advance. With the extra money, he would be able to take her back to the mall to buy the ring she wanted after he got off of work that evening.
Freya was practically jumping with joy. Now, she would be able to flaunt in front of Helene again, though she couldn’t quite believe that she was given another opportunity to piss
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off Helene so soon. But she chalked it up to life being full of twists and turns, and she didn’t give it much thought.
As soon as Diego hung up, he received another notice from the Bamford Group’s HR department asking him to pay a deposit of $8000 to transfer him to another department. His first paycheck for the month would only be $700, but depending on his performance, he would be able to work for raises.
After receiving the notice, Diego became so angry that he audibly cursed. The money he had just gotten had barely reached his account before it was stolen away again. But he knew he couldn’t keep it. Giving up a rare opportunity to climb the corporate ladder would be naive.
With his skills, he figured it would be easy to start earning much more money. He could be earning a proper salary of 50 to 60 grand annually again.
The only problem was that he promised Freya that ring, and upon realizing that he was backed into a corner, he cursed under his breath again. Diego was so frustrated that he was nearly about to pull out his hair. But finally, he decided to pay the deposit so he could start his new position.
The ring could be left for later. Freya would understand once he explained what was going on.
Back at the hospital, Helene received Carlisle’s money and hurried to the hospital’s billing office to pay. To her surprise, however, the staff there told her that the remaining balance for her grandmother’s operation had already been paid for in full.
She quickly checked the signature on the transaction shown
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to her to find that it was Niall’s. He had paid $70,000, which was far from a small sum. Why would he do such a thing?
He didn’t even bother to tell her about it. Though doctors studied their whole lives to care for others, they weren’t typically this charitable.
When Helene rushed to her grandmother’s ward, she happened to run into Niall walking out of the door.
“Ah, Ms. Lopez. Great timing. Your grandma’s surgery has been scheduled for next Wednesday as originally planned,” Niall informed her.
“Dr. Anderson, I can’t thank you enough for covering the cost of the procedure. But you didn’t have to do that! I’ve already gathered the rest of the money, so I’ll give it to you instead.”
Niall’s expression froze for a moment as he listened to Helene, and he smiled awkwardly. “Don’t be like that. We can figure all of this out later, okay? What’s most important is your grandmother’s surgery.”
But still, Helene insisted on giving him the money, only stopping as Niall picked up a call. The voice on the other end was so loud that she could almost recognize it. Helene was reminded of Delilah from the other day as Niall was angrily asked if he had paid for one of his patients‘ operations.
Niall covered one hand over his phone in an attempt to stay discreet and walked quickly into his office. Helene knew better than to simply follow him in, so she resolved to meet him later. For the time being, she would check in on her grandmother.
As Niall entered his office and took a seat, Delilah wouldn’t
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stop talking. He removed his phone from his ear and placed it screen–down on the table in annoyance. He didn’t want to say
another word to the woman.
After some time, the phone finally went quiet, giving Niall a much–needed breather. He pulled open one of his drawers and took out an exquisite framed picture of him and a girl when he was younger.
The girl was pure and sweet both in appearance and demeanor, and she resembled Helene in more ways than one. Her name was Ainsley, and she was Niall’s first love.
Unfortunately, it was never meant to be as she died of cancer at the young age of twenty. Ever since that happened, Niall vowed to become a doctor and save as many people from the terrible illness. He wanted to prevent their loved ones from suffering as he did.
It was now noon, and Helene finally found Niall. She finally convinced him to take her money and began making arrangements with her family and company to accompany her grandmother. Preparation for this operation would take two days, and someone had to be by her side at all times.
Later in the afternoon, she then returned to the office. Freyal wasn’t there at the time, and she overheard from a few colleagues that Freya’s boyfriend had taken her to buy a large diamond ring.
The day passed quickly, and before Helene realized it, her working day had come to a close. She had already asked for leave over the upcoming days and finished delegating whatever urgent matters she wouldn’t be able to handle as a result of her time off. Just as she was about to leave the office
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and make her way to the elevator, she bumped into Freya walking in. The woman had a mask on, and the corners of her eyes appeared a bit swollen. It was like she had just come from a bad fight.
While Freya walked into the office with her medical insurance card in her hand, she noticed Helene standing at the door.
She turned her head and hissed, “What are you looking at?” She couldn’t contain the anger in her voice.
“I have something to ask you,” Helen asked.
“I’m busy, so I don’t have time to listen to your bullshit.“‘
“It’ll be quick. Do you know that Diego scammed people into paying rent for my apartment?”
Freya froze for a moment before saying, “What did you just say? Diego was renting out your place? When?”
“Over the last few days.”
“And how much did he charge?” Freya asked in disbelief, gritting her teeth angrily.
“About $8,000.”
“I fucking swear to god. I was wondering why he suddenly wanted to buy me a ring! He lied to me saying that his
company gave him an advance on his salary or a bonus or whatever! And then he turned around and said that he had to lend the money to a friend. The damn liar!” Freya shrieked.
She stormed back out of the office, stomping with each step.
Chapter 11 A Meeting at the Station
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