Not One, But Two!

Chapter 200

Chapter 200

Blunt as always, Abigail voiced out her thoughts and asked, "Have I offended you in some way?"

Troy was taken aback by her question at first, and his first instinct was to say 'Of course'. However, he held his tongue in the end because he was afraid of Greg, not her.

He had worked for Greg for years, and he knew what the man was like. If he accidentally informed Abigail about something that Greg wanted him to keep secret, he could very well end up losing this crappy job too.

At the thought of this, Troy forced out a tight smile and said, "That's not possible, Dr. Kain. As if a lowly person such as myself could ever try to pick a bone with you."

"In that case, what's with the snide tone?" Abigail demanded icily. She had only called him to ask about Greg, and she thought she was being courteous enough already. It was uncomfortable to be treated like she had done some horrible wrong, and she was never one to put herself in such a position.

Troy grew furious upon sensing her unhappiness, but he suppressed his anger and said in the most placid tone he could muster, "You've misunderstood me, Dr. Kain—I talk like this all the time. Anyway, you said you wanted to meet up with me, right? You can go ahead and set the time and place. As for Mr. Buckley..."

"He doesn't need to know about this," she replied curtly.

When Troy heard this, a smirk curled on his lips. Turns out I was right! "Very well, Dr. Kain. Where should I meet you?"

She paused in thought before answering, "The hospital downtown."

Anastasia's face flashed in her mind as she said this. In a few days' time, Anastasia would be discharged from the hospital, so Abigail figured she could drop by the hospital to visit her. Besides, there were plenty of people in the premises, and if Greg were to find out about her meeting with Troy, she could always say she ran into him.

On the other hand, Troy did not object to the meeting place. "Okay. What time shall we meet?"

"Give me a second." She glanced at the time and saw that it was already 2.00PM. "I'll see you there at 3.30PM at Room 305 on the second floor."

With that, she ended the call.

Anastasia had been transferred to Room 305 as of now, and she was recovering well from her injuries. Abigail considered this and thought about asking Greg to take Anastasia in as an intern at the Buckley Group.

Having done all this, Abigail left the study and made her way downstairs. Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

When she saw Benjamin sitting on the couch watching the financial news on television, she was slightly stunned. "The financial news? I didn't know you were interested in stuff like that!"

Benjamin quickly got to his feet and said, "Mr. Buckley said that I'd need to stay on top of news like these now that I'm his personal assistant. The Buckley Group is a legitimate business, after all."

"That's true." She nodded before saying, "I'm heading over to the hospital downtown to visit a friend, and you'll be driving me."

He was about to point out that she had sprained her ankle, but he soon remembered that Greg specifically asked him to keep her safe, never once mentioning that her freedom was restricted. With that in mind, Benjamin swallowed his protests and replied, "Okay."

At that moment, Abigail genuinely thought Benjamin was great at his job.

They went out of the house and got into the car. Benjamin drove slowly, keeping the speed at forty miles an hour as they cruised steadily down the road. Meanwhile, Abigail didn't rush him either.

It was 3.00PM when they finally pulled up outside the hospital, and it wouldn't be long before she'd be meeting Troy at the agreed time.

She allowed Benjamin to help her down from the car and up to Anastasia's ward.

"What happened to your foot, Dr. Kain?" Anastasia asked. She seemed to be in better spirits now that she was making good progress in her recovery, but she was shocked to see Abigail walking toward her while using Benjamin like a human crutch.

"I'm fine; I just sprained my ankle, that's all. I've come to see how you're holding up, and also to remind you that you'll be released in the next few days. Meanwhile, I'll make arrangements for your internship at Buckley Group after that. Are you ready for it?"

Anastasia had previously heard Abigail mention the internship before, but over time, she began to worry that the latter might have forgotten about this. She was touched that Abigail had dropped by to tell her about it even though the woman was injured.

"Yes, I'm ready for it. Don't worry, Dr. Kain—I promise I won't let you down."

"Just give it your best shot," Abigail said with a smile.

"I'll go and cut some fruits for you right away," Anastasia said, not wanting to appear rude.

"I don't feel like having fruits right now, but perhaps you could go downstairs to the main entrance and get me a coconut milkshake. I'm craving it."

Anastasia blinked at her. Then, she nodded and dashed out the door to get the milkshake.

"Could you go with her, Benjamin? She's still injured, and though she's recovering well enough, I don't want her to get into an accident or something."

Benjamin frowned at this. "If that's the case, why did you make her run down to get you a coconut milkshake?"

"Her legs need some exercise, and the physiotherapy here is limited to an hour or so. I want her to get better as quickly as she can. What, you're not actually worried that I'm in any danger here, are you? We're in a hospital."

She hadn't used the words 'run off', but 'danger' instead.

Benjamin was a little flustered by this. Indeed, Greg had told him to keep her safe, but he said nothing about watching her every move. If he insisted on staying here, she might only grow tired of him. Besides, he was only going to the main entrance that was an elevator ride away. Nothing's going to happen, he told himself.

Convinced, he said dutifully, "In that case, I'll go with her. Just stay here and get some rest, Ma'am. We'll be right back!"

"Okay," Abigail replied with a slight nod.

Benjamin had only just left the room when Troy came in.

He eyed Benjamin's retreating figure with a menacing gleam in his eyes while thinking to himself, I can't believe a punk like him has taken my place! Damn it!

However, the murderous look on his face was quickly replaced by an indifferent one as soon as he closed the door behind him. He glanced at Abigail. As the woman sat next to the bed, he suppressed

his hatred for her and asked, "What do you want to talk to me about, Dr. Kain?"

Abigail was an observationist, and she had sensed Troy's hatred for her the moment he stepped into the room. It had only been for a brief second, but she felt it nonetheless. He must really hate my guts, she thought grimly. However, she was still clueless as to what she had done to offend him, unless it was the fact that Greg's punishment of him had something to do with her.

She thought about how Troy had been transferred out to a different territory and asked mildly, "Why did Greg send you away?"

Troy froze when he heard this. He looked angry for a moment, but he hid it just as quickly as he replied, "I made some mistakes at work and Mr. Buckley sent me away to cool off."

"What mistakes did you make?"

He was growing irritated with the way she pressed him for information. "Dr. Kain, don't you think you're crossing the line here? I know you're Mr. Buckley's girlfriend now, but you're not officially Mrs. Buckley yet. As such, you have no right looking into the company's internal affairs. Alternatively, you can always go and ask Mr. Buckley if you wish to know about anything, and if he won't tell you, then I won't either."

He had said this so acerbically that it was hard for Abigail to ignore his hostility.

She suddenly sputtered and snapped, "Between you and me, who do you think Greg will listen to more, Troy?"

"What do you mean?"

He was confused, but before he could say anything more, she smirked and elaborated, "If I were to tell Greg that you've been here talking down to me like this, do you think he'd believe your explanation or mine?"

Some of his hostility and rage began to show as he stared at her angrily and barked, "Are you threatening me right now?"

She snorted. "Yes, I'm threatening you. What are you going to do about it?"

"You shameless woman! The likes of you will never be good enough for Mr. Buckley!"

Troy couldn't care less about whether she would bring this incident up to Greg. She was still a woman at the end of the day, and if it came down to it, he had plenty of ways to silence her.

Presently, his rage and disgust for her were on full display, but this only fueled Abigail's curiosity even more. "It's none of your business whether I'm good enough for him or not. You don't actually think he'd listen to you now, do you? If he actually cared about what you think, you probably wouldn't have been demoted in the first place."

This pushed Troy over the edge.

In a fit of anger, he attacked Abigail. He knew that she was trained and very well-versed in combat, but that didn't matter. He had looked into her before coming over and found out that she sprained her ankle earlier this morning. She wouldn't be able to move as swiftly as she usually did, and he was sure that he could bring her down.

Within seconds, he lunged toward her and made to strike. However, several thin needles seemed to materialize from her hands, and she easily stabbed them through his various meridian points.

At once, he felt his legs go limp. Troy fell to the ground, hitting his knees hard against the floor. "Abigail, you—"

"I can't believe you of all people would dare to attack me," Abigail drawled as she grabbed him under the jaw and held him in place. There was no mistaking her intent to kill. "I'm never one to be merciful,

and I won't pick on anyone as long as they leave me alone. Yet, you actually tried to kill me just now.'

She picked out the thin blade that Troy had been holding in between his fingers.

The blade was small, but it was very sharp. He had aimed it at her neck earlier, which could only mean that he was trying to silence her by cutting her vocal cords.

She wondered what could have happened that made him hate her so.

Upon seeing that his plans had been foiled, Troy snapped viciously, "You're nothing but bad news! You're just an object that has been reused and recycled among countless men. Of course you're not merciful by nature; why would you be when you are a woman who has trained on Hitman Island? You're probably trying to get close to Mr. Buckley so that you can end him, and you might even turn out to be a mercenary hired by one of his enemies. He knows he shouldn't trust a woman from Hitman Island, but he's so bewitched by you that he punished me and gave me hell just to protect you and keep you by his side! Don't for one second think that you can act like you own the world just because Mr. Buckley likes you, Abigail. I'm warning you—I would risk death if it means I get to keep Mr. Buckley from harm. One day, I'll reveal your true colors to him!"

When Troy mentioned Hitman Island, the term stabbed through Abigail like an icy dagger. It was at that moment that she finally made sense of things.

That was what happened!

She had heard from Hugh about the twisted final test that female mercenaries on Hitman Island had to go through before they officially graduated from training, and she was both fortunate and relieved that she had been saved by him before such a fate befell her. Otherwise, she didn't think she would be able to live with herself.

Does it mean that Greg ran a background check on me and found out about Hitman Island? Did he go drinking with Cody that time because he discovered I was a mercenary?

All of a sudden, rage coursed through her. She could commiserate with Greg for looking into her since it was rare to see a doctor who was so skilled in combat, but the information that he had uncovered was not necessarily accurate. He could have come to her with that information and asked to verify it, but he chose to view her as a mercenary with a questionable past on Hitman Island instead.

Does that mean he sees me as an object reused by countless men too?