Chapter 26

After placing the bag down, Julie soiled her tulle and said, “I’ll head out. Don’t forget to finish your lunch and not let it go to waste.”

Julie shook her head. “No, you stay here. It’s your first day at work, so make sure to do well.”

With that, she waved goodbye and walked out of Lan’s office.

As soon as Julie left, Lucian quickly dialed Maine’s number. The call connected, and Lucian said gently, “Come to the company now.”

There was a hesitant pause on the other end. “Luce, what’s going on? You don’t sound like yourself.”

“Just get here and take me to the hospital.”

Joe took the elevator down to the East-flow lobby. The receptionist greeted her politely. “Ms. Somers, are you heading out?”

Julie smiled and nodded.

As she stepped out of the building, she noticed it had started to snow lightly. She realized there had been quite a few snowfalls this winter. Walking toward the subway entrance, she was about to swipe her ticket when her phone rang. Julie pulled out her phone and checked. It was a call from Amaya.

Julie answered the phone. “Hey, Maya.”

Amaya sounded hurried, and it took Julie a moment to piece everything together.

It turned out that Christian had driven her after they parted ways earlier. Everything had been fine on the way, but Amaya complained about him choosing a toll road instead of a highway due to the rush hour traffic. Christian didn’t say much but kept grumbling throughout the ride, experiencing what was commonly called road rage.

Amaya got a little scared and asked him to pull over, but Christian didn’t stop. Instead, he kept overtaking cars the whole way. Eventually, they collided with a luxury car that had come around the corner. Now, both of them were in the hospital.

When Julie arrived at the hospital ward, Amaya was lying on the bed with a cast on her leg.

“Maya, are you okay?” Julie hurried over to her.

Amaya hugged her, crying. “Julie, you have no idea how dangerous it was. It was scary!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. You’re fine now,” Julie comforted her.

Amaya continued crying uncontrollably.

Julie understood that Amaya was a pampered young lady who had never experienced anything like this before. “I’m okay, Maya. Stop crying now.” Amaya sniffled. “My leg hurt so much; I thought I was going to end up disabled.”

“Don’t say that. By the way, where’s your boyfriend?”

The mention of Christian made Amaya angry.

“He’s too much. When the accident happened, he just ran off. I want to break up with him.”

“Why did he run?”

Amaya sniffled. “What else? He’s probably worried about having to pay. The car we hit was a luxury car worth over ten million dollars.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the door to the hospital ward opened, and officers walked in, asking Amaya about her condition. Since Amaya was at fault for violating traffic laws, she was fully responsible for the accident. How much she would have to compensate the car owner would depend on the repair costs.

Julie hadn’t expected things to be so serious.

“Maya, have you talked to the car owner?”

Amaya shook her head. “Not yet. When I woke up, I was already brought to the hospital.”

“Then how do you know your boyfriend ran off?”

“I can’t get through to his phone. If he didn’t run, what else could it be? I should’ve known better.”

Julie was a little confused. Even if he were to take full responsibility and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for someone like Amaya, who came from money, it wouldn’t be a big deal. It was probably just the cost of a designer bag. Why would Christian run away?

Looking at Amaya, whose eyes were red and puffy from crying, Julie realized it was because she still couldn’t let go of Christian.

She tentatively asked, “Maya, could it be a misunderstanding?”

Amaya scowled. “A misunderstanding? You don’t believe me? I’ll call him now.” With that, she grabbed her phone and dialed Christian’s number.