Romeo and Juliet

Trepidation ran through me or maybe that was just the feeling of the wind passing over the hair standing up on my skin. Whatever it was, it flooded through me, taking ahold of me and giving me no sign or relief.

I would have taken being locked in the act with Douglas in awkward silence over this any day. Heck, I would've taken being thrown into a pit filled with lethal snakes over this any day.

Douglas?

The fear in me increased even more at the thought that Douglas was not here right now and I was, in its essence not following him like I was supposed to. Again, my mind drifted to the power the man behind me wielded and what he could do to me using that power, just for getting on his nerves.

"Georgia, darling." I heard Sebastian Burns, the one thing I feared right now more than anything else, say before footsteps followed and I saw him walk up to Georgia who had gotten up and pull her into a tight hug. "I had no idea you would be here."

My eyes now honed in on the little spec of cotton stuck on the rug, I could only hear Georgia respond with a melodious giggle before she said, "Douglas contacted me earlier this week."

"One thing he did right, I tell you," Sebastian Burns replied before he released a guffaw of laughter. "It's good that you both put aside whatever nonsense of a fight you both had going on."

Fight? I scoffed before I could think twice of it.

Unfortunately that was the wrong thing to do, because that seemed to draw Mr Burns attention to me. Even without looking up, I knew he was. Now staring down at me.

"Krystal, darling," he began as he moved towards me. "How's things been so far?"

I stiffened in my seat once I noticed he'd taken the chair across from me. "Okay." The words came out in a whisper but thankfully he didn't ask me to repeat myself or I would just have fainted from fear.

"Douglas not being too tough on you?" What surprised me even more than him asking me that question was that he sounded genuinely curious of the answer.

"Uh...no, sir." I finally looked up and met his blue eyes.

He waved me off with a smile. "No sir, business. Either you call me, Sebastian, Uncle Seb, like Georgia or just Mr Sebastian."

I inwardly cringed at the thought of calling one of Forbes top businessmen 'Uncle Seb' or by his first name. Especially given the fact that he had been my father's employer and I hadn't even met him once when my father worked for him and now I myself was working for him. I liked to keep things professional and keep it that way. "Mr Sebastian, then."

"Good," his eyes then wander the empty room. "Now where's Douglas and Will? I'm sure that I told them I'll be here early to discuss something."

I must've resembled a goose about to be cooked at his words because Mr Burns laughed at me.

"They went out to..." I felt my fingers shake slightly. "...walk Prince."

"Walk Prince?" I couldn't read his expression, gone was the smiling Mr Burns, in his place was an expressionless tycoon.

I nodded. "Yes," I squeaked out, knowing what would follow soon after. His face would darken, his eyes narrowing into a glare before he pulled out a phone and used his connections everywhere around the world to erase me from existence. I know it seemed a little bit farfetched, but this was and is the Sebastian Burns, the one man notorious for firing people just because they said they had a bad day at work.

As if to make matters worse, Georgia's phone rang just then and she left the room to answer it, leaving me alone with him.

Just when I was resigned to my fate of working as a bagger at the nearby 7/11, the impossible happened.

He smiled. Not a glare was directed at me, but an honest to god smile gleamed back at me. He actually smiled.

"Okay then." He loosened his tie and leaned back against the sofa before he let out a chuckle. "Then why did you look like you just broke my priceless Lapita collection?"

I was still trying to get over the fact that I was not getting fired or facing social status suicide.

"Krystal..."

"Oh, uhmm..." I tried to get my train of thought back. "You're not going to fire me?"

He looked surprised at the question. "Why would I?"

"Because I'm not following Douglas right now."

He burst out laughing. After what felt like a torturous hour, he stopped. "Darling, I meant for you to keep tabs on him, not follow him every single second of the day. That's just crossing a line. Humans need some personal time to themselves or they'll go crazy."

"But you said..." I was very confused.

"To follow him around yes, but realistically who can follow a person around everywhere."

"But, but..."

He smiled. "You're just like him."

Him? Who was 'him'? "Who?" I asked, my brows furrowed together in joint confusion.

"Trevor," he replied as a tone of wistful sadness escaped into his voice. "Your father."

"You guys were...close?"

He nodded as he buried his face in his hands. "We were college roommates."

Now that was a surprise. I had never heard dad talk about them being college roommates. Hell, I'd only seen him on billboards but never once in person, at least until that night at the restaurant.

I must've looked like I didn't believe him because he scoffed with amusement. "I'm serious. We were roommates from sophomore year to our last year because I was stuck with some pompous ass for the first year."

I smiled, holding my hands up in mock surrender. "Okay, okay. I believe you."

"Good, because that father of yours was one of my closest friend ever."

Then everything seemed to fit together. The monthly checks that came nonstop even after I returned them each time. The sudden offer for a job. His too nice personality towards me.

"Is that why you did everything you did? The checks, the summer job, and the countless other things you did even with me not knowing."

He wore a grim expression as his eyes bore into me. "A little."

"A little? Then why?"

He didn't say a word for ages. I was surprised that I had made one of the world's top businessmen speechless.

In his eyes I saw an internal conflict, he was fighting with himself, wondering, pondering whether he should tell me or not.

"Your parents accident three years ago..." He began before his eyes darted to the carpet and stayed there.

"What about it?" I asked him. "Their plane crashed on the way to the Carribeans."

"They shouldn't have been on that plane," he said in an almost heartbroken voice.

"It was their anniversary trip. Why wouldn't they?" I remembered how originally they had planned to spend it with me, here in California or go visit the Grand Canyon but that they'd opted to go to the Carribeans a week before they did. If only they had stayed.

"They didn't plan to go there," Mr Burns continued, lost in his thoughts as he continued to wear his mask of sadness. "But they ended up going there because..." His voice broke.

"It's not your fault," I reassured him feeling pity for the once intimidating figure. "They went there themselves."

"But it is!" He exclaimed in agony. "It is my fault. I gave your dad an all expense paid trip to the Carribeans so they could celebrate their anniversary there together. I did it because I couldn't even be there on their wedding day. I couldn't be there as my best friends best man because I was stuck in Europe! So I did the best next thing and decided to give them an all expense paid trip to their death!" This time I could see the formation of tears in his eyes before a stray one fell.

My heart tore at his guilt but at the same time I couldn't shake off the thought that if he hadn't paid for their trip to the Carribeans, they would still be here. I couldn't shake the thought that if my parents had just stayed with me for their anniversary and we had gone on our trip to the Grand Canyon, everything wouldn't have turned out like this.

"Mr B-"

"Uncle Seb."

Caught surprised, I turned my head and spotted Will standing by the doorway, Prince still on a leash next to him.

"Krys," he called out as he started moving towards me, worry etched into his handsome features. "Is everything alright?" His eyes darted to Mr Burns, who was now trying to gather his composure.

I didn't know what to say. I, myself didn't know if everything was alright. I just had a bombshell dropped on me. And even with the conclusion that Mr Burns wasn't truly at fault for my parents accident, I still couldn't shake the belief that it was. If it wasn't for him, mom and dad would still be here.

"Excuse me," I muttered as I pushed past Will and ran out of the living room as fast as I could, tears started falling as my heart broke. The walls that I'd built up that prevented me from thinking the what ifs of my parents situation broke down and the built up questions flooded in.

What if... What if...

What if my parents had stayed home with me? What if my dad had gotten a different roommate, someone other than Mr Burns?

My thoughts drift away when I felt someone's fingers wrap around my wrist and tug me back.

"What's wrong, Krystal?"

This time I'm too far gone to be surprised to see Douglas staring down at me, his brows furrowed together as he stared at me with worry.