Two months later
Bishop stood at the corner of the Fifth Avenue, wearing a pair of jeans, a sweater, coat and cap. He watched as the SUV stopped alongside the curb. Connor got out of the car and opened the rear passenger door allowing Julia to step out on the sidewalk. She was wearing a red dress, black high heels and a long black woolen coat. Arthur watched her intensely as she walked towards the VanKirk Consolidated building doors, Connor by her side. Her face was closed, and lacking emotion and it pained him. It wasn't the way he knew Julia. At the doors, she was greeted by another security guy and disappeared inside the building. Connor returned towards the car and looked in Bishop's direction. The two men locked eyes. Bishop gave Connor a nod and Connor nodded back before getting back inside the SUV. By the time the SUV left the curb, Bishop had vanished into thin air.
Gideon walked into Julia's office early afternoon.
"Julia, I need you in Paris tomorrow".
Julia looked up from a file she was reading. "Paris"?
"Yes, I need you to finalize a negotiation regarding a merger with a French tech company. If everything goes well, you should be back in a couple of days".
"Of course," replied Julia.
"Connor will accompany you".
"Naturally".
"I'm counting on you Julia. Don't let me down".
"I'll get it done".
"Good. You should head home and pack, the plane leaves from Newark at 6PM. Make sure you're on time".
Julia nodded and leaned back in her chair as her father exited the room. She grabbed her cell phone and opened up Arthur's contact file. She pushed on the 'call' button and waited.
'We're sorry, the number you have dialed is no longer in service. We're sorry, the number you have…'
She hung up the phone and placed it on her desk. She stood and headed towards the full-length window that looked out of the 50th floor of the VanKirk building, unto the NY skyline.
That's what her life had been like these past two months and she felt as if she was slowly dying inside. She had been forced by her father to resume her position of COO at VanKirk Consolidated, attending meetings, conference calls, business breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Every day she tried calling Arthur in the hope that one day the number would no longer not be in service and he would pick up. She wondered where he was and what he was doing. Had he forgotten about her that easily? Had he moved on to another assignment? Another woman? Was she holding on to something that no longer existed?
She was brought out of her thoughts when her door opened again revealing Connor in the doorframe.
"Are you ready to go"? he asked.
Julia blinked herself back to reality and walked over to her desk. "Yeah, just give me a second to grab a few things and we can go".
He walked over to her desk and saw her phone and the name of the contact on the screen.
"Still no answer"? he asked her.
"No", she said as she put on her coat, grabbed her purse and handed Connor her laptop bag. She took the phone and locked it and placed it in her coat pocket.
"I'm sorry Julia", said Connor as he followed her out of her office.
"Yeah. Me too".
The ride from the mansion to the airport was quiet. Julia looked out the window lost in her thoughts as Connor watched feeling helpless at her distress. It was obvious that Julia loved Bishop and the life she was living now made her unhappy and she wanted no part in it. The happiness and the smile he had come across when he had seen her at the annual gala at Knox Consolidated had disappeared. It was as if someone had turned off the light inside of her.
The car stopped on the tarmac of the private part of Newark Airport, alongside the VanKirk private jet. Julia stepped out of the car as Connor held the door for her as the driver took her luggage to hand over to the flight attendant.
"Good Evening Miss VanKirk", said the flight attendant as she entered the plane.
She removed her leather jacket that she had traded earlier for her long coat.
"Good evening Marcus", she said as he took her jacket from her and placed it in the closet. She walked into the main cabin and sat down in the very comfortable leather armchair.
Connor removed his suit jacket and sat across from her.
"Can I get you anything to drink Miss VanKirk"? asked Marcus.
"No thank you Marcus, I'll wait until we've taken off".
Marcus nodded and looked at Connor.
"Sparkling water for me. Thanks".
Connor watched as Julia took a book out of her bag and started to read. He took the newspaper that was on the table and started to read it as the plane raced down the runway and took off.
Once they had reached their cruising altitude, Marcus returned and asked Julia what she wanted to drink. As he headed back towards the kitchen area, he exchanged glances with Connor.
He went and prepared Julia's orange juice. He took a capsule out of his pocket. He opened it and dropped its powdery contents into Julia's juice and stirred until it had dissolved.
Connor looked at Julia as she started to yawn a half an hour later.
"Tired"? he asked smiling kindly.
"I wasn't expecting on being so tired", said Julia. "It must be the altitude".
"You've been working hard this past month. Rest up, it'll do you some good".
Julia smiled. She had always liked Connor.
"Nah, I'm good thanks", said Julia as she returned to her book.
As the minutes passed by, he watched as Julia tried to fight off the fatigue, until it was no longer possible, and she dozed off with her book in hand.
Marcus came up to them and looked at Connor.
"Are you sure this is a good idea"?
Connor nodded as he stood and walked over to Julia's seat. He took her book from out of her hands, closed it placed it on the table. He then lifted Julia into his arms and headed to the back of the plane where there was a bedroom. Marcus followed him and watched as Connor delicately placed Julia on the bed and covered her with the comforter.
"How long do you think she'll be out"? asked Marcus as he leaned against the doorframe.
"I hope she'll be out for most of the flight over".
"It's a long flight Connor".
"In general, we have 8 hours of sleep a night. With what she took I hope she'll be out for double that time".
"Remind me why we had to give her a sleeping pill"?
"Because there are still a few things I need to finalize before we get there".
"I really hope you know what you're doing", said Marcus as he followed Connor back into the main cabin.