A week had passed since I’d taken Natasha to meet Astrid. Since then, I still hadn’t seen her in person. I only saw Natasha who talked incessantly about how wonderful she found Astrid. I, of course was very much in agreement, but I’d rather see her than talk about her with Natasha. 

She also rambled on about how she was annoyed at the fact that Leo had gone away somewhere. That was partially my fault after I had sent him to investigate more on paintings J had sold to a specific buyer. 

I had gotten lucky, today Natasha left my side, stating she had urgent business to attend to. Despite the time I’d spent with her, it wasn’t enough to take my mind off of the nightmare that plagues me every night. I find myself only getting a few hours of sleep. I spent most of my time out of office to attend to the matter with Leo, citing I had investment meetings. No one knew the wiser and all seemed to be going well. I was doing a great job at hiding my condition from everyone. 

Though it was proving hard as I was getting frequent nose bleeds. I barely managed to hide it from my talkative guest who would show up unannounced. Before he left, Leo had been quite angry with me for not trying to get to the root of my sleeping problem. 

There are more urgent problems at hand in my opinion. There are many things that were still unknown. When I’d received the list of artists from Natasha, there was no mention of J. She was completely unaware of him. 

It left me scouring every written document Leo had from when he first started working with him. He had mentioned that there was a particular buyer he had been close with, but he couldn’t remember who it was. So, when I finally found paperwork that listed a buyer, I sent him on his merry way.

The only details that were new and completely unrelated to our problem was the young businessman from abroad that she wished to take down. He was doing everything in his power to try and win Natasha over. When she refused he had attacked her in more ways than one. It seemed he wanted more then a business partnership, though she didn’t want to elaborate further on the matter. She also didn’t dare tell me his name, stating that the time to reveal that would soon come. 

The most pivotal information she gave me was that he had planned to open a theater for performances and auctions, somethings her own family had planned to do themselves. Despite it being a grand venture, there hadn’t been any news shared publicly about its soon to be existence. She regarded it as being the man’s signature technique when it came to business as he was quite confident in his endeavors. He only makes announcements two weeks before opening.

That was end of my knowledge on the things that were happening in my life. I also had a splitting headache for the past week from the stress of multitasking. I figured it would subside with medication, but not even that could help me. 

Luckily, Leo had announced that he would be coming back in about an hour with some rather good news. It seemed we finally found some answers.

I groggily took calls for the next hour, however I wasn’t even the slightest bit sure on how I was functioning or even efficiently doing my job. The biggest fires seemed to be out, but I felt my health had finally taken a drastic turn as I couldn’t even steady myself when trying to walk back to his office. 

This wasn’t a good sign as I was the only one here. He had recently set up shop in a brand new building and still hadn’t hired any employees. It had become a sort of second job to help him sort through his files. I took a seat at a nearby bench and tried to calm down the anxiety that was running rampant inside me. 

I looked at the time to realize it was well past the time that he was supposed to be back. Without a single idea of what to do, I waited patiently with my head in my hands. After what felt like an eternity, the elevator dinged and heard the rolling of a suitcase that bumped right into my knee.

“I didn’t think I’d have someone waiting for me at the door. Though, I do wish it had been a woman, but the welcome is nice nonetheless.” 

He laughed loudly and cheerfully which made my head pound all the more intensely. 

“What is the good news? I waited long enough.”

“Straight to the point, I guess. I couldn’t find any useful information on my client’s whereabouts, but I do know that the buyer, V from the latest painting sought out the person I went to see. They bought the painting from them for a high price.”

“And?”

“And I did a little digging to find out it is going up for auction again in precisely two weeks. Though, the downside is we’ll have to pay a pretty penny to get it in our hands.”

He rambled on and on about the auction, but everything around me was getting more and more faint. I could only vaguely see his back turned away and his voice becoming more muffled as he walked towards his office. 

Blood dripped slowly onto my hands as I felt gravity pull me slowly to the ground. I could somewhat make out the next words that came out of his mouth as he seemed move towards me.

“Alistar…what … he-”

Thud.