A Call That Changed Her Entire Life

Chapter 96 The Pushpin

Hearing the noise, Jacob rushed inside only to be met with an image of a pained Emily sitting on the floor, aside a distracted, carefree Zola.

"What happened?" he exclaimed. Without waiting for an answer, he quickly stomped over to her, shoving Zola out of the way. The sight of Emily cradling her tiny, hurting foot stirred up a mix of anger and pain inside of him that his face could hardly hide.

"It's nothing; don't worry. I must have just stepped on something sharp." Trying not to call any more attention towards herself, she attempted to lift up on her elbows and palms but, just as quickly, Jacob placed his hands firmly on her shoulders, holding her down on the ground.

"No, don't move" he pleaded.

Concerned, he leaned over to examine Emily's foot. The wound looked much more serious than she had made it seem. It was swollen and heavily bleeding. It could easily get infected, and Emily's strong hold of her foot showed she must have been in a lot of pain. In spite of all that, Zola was seemingly daydreaming nearby, not even pretending to worry about her wellbeing. Jacob could not take it anymore. A rush of utter anger overtook him as he turned and shouted towards Zola,"What are you waiting for? Call the doctor!"

As if just awoken from a dream, Zola took a few seconds to come to her senses. Slightly frustrated by Jacob's concern, she simply complied and ran downstairs to call the doctor.

The doctor arrived shortly after and gently checked the wound. Emily had indeed stepped on a pushpin. He carefully removed the pin from the sole of her foot, and wiped the area clean with a few alcohol swabs to disinfect it and stop the bleeding. Even though in pain, Emily was not making a sound throughout the entire time. The pain started to subside soon after the doctor applied a generous amount of numbing antibiotic ointment to the wound. He then threw an oversized gauze pad over it and wrapped it up with some thick bandage.

"Miss Emily", he proceeded to explain,"luckily, the pushpin didn't reach too deep inside your foot. But you still have to watch out for an infection and I would recommend that you limit your walking to only what is strictly necessary." It wasn't what Emily wanted to hear but she agreed to listen to his advice. She had to, after all. Jacob would not let it be any other way. The doctor then instructed both of them on when and how to use the ointment, and left right after.

Still somewhat shaken by the whole situation, Jacob sat next to Emily at one end of her bed and asked,"Where was the pushpin?"

'Where was the pushpin?!' she thought. Emily hadn't thought about it until Jacob brought it up. After pondering for a while, Emily replied honestly,"I'm not sure. Maybe it was in the carpet and I just stepped on it. I couldn't tell there was anything on the carpet."

"Who cleaned this room?" he continued on an accusing tone. With his eyes narrowed into two angry slits, he piercingly stared over at Zola for a few seconds awaiting her reply.

Panicked, Zola replied,"Sir, this room was cleaned by Kate..." Then she briefly paused, perhaps feeling sorry for having thrown Kate under the bus. "It was all my fault," Zola continued. "I should have double checked the room more carefully..." Her moment of remorse quickly turned into a slight fear of possibly being found out.

The worried expression on Zola's face actually affected Emily. She always saw only the best in people.

"Jacob," Emily asserted calmly. "It wasn't anybody's fault. It was just an accident, and I'm okay now. I'll make sure from now on to watch what I'm stepping onto."

But Jacob wouldn't budge. With a raspy voice filled with resentment, he muttered,"Zola, make sure she leaves the house by tomorrow."

"Yes, sir," said the maid bowing her head. On one side she was relieved, but on another she knew Kate didn't deserve this.

From her bed, Emily had watched the entire conversation unfold, silent and confused. She hadn't realized until then that Zola was the head servant of the house, with the authority to hire or let people go. But now that she thought about it more, during her time spent at the Tyrone Mansion, Zola seemed to be in charge of most duties. All the other servants obeyed and respected her the most, and Emily couldn't think of any other supervisory figure; so it must have been Zola all along.

She had to confirm her deduction. "Jacob, when did Zola... start working here?"

"Zola?" He paused, not really thinking about her question. Now sitting even closer on the edge her bed, Jacob still couldn't shake off his worry and indignation at what had happened. The only thing that was making it all better was staring at Emily's tiny foot; so tiny that he could easily cup it in just one of his hands. She had such cute toes too, with her pink nail polish, clean-cut and shiny nails, as if the sea had lend her its prettiest shells to glue on her toes.

She was adorable, and her foot was the cutest thing he had ever seen.

Jacob was so mesmerized by it that he began answering Emily's question completely oblivious to her rationale. "Zola is my nanny's daughter. She proved to be smart and adaptable; so I hired her."

It wouldn't have mattered if Jacob to figured out her reasoning anyways, as he rarely stopped by the Tyrone Mansion and couldn't care less whether the one in charge was Zola, Lola or anyone else for that matter. It was only after Emily moved in that he started stopping by more often. It was also then when he realized that Zola, as a capable servant and a woman too, would be the most appropriate to be in charge and take care of Emily as well; and therefore he wouldn't have to hire anyone else.

"I see..." Emily interrupted his thoughts. But her thoughts too were interrupted once she realized the intimate manner in which Jacob was attending to her. Her wounded foot was in his hands, while the

other was casually resting on his knee. "Jacob, please let go of my foot" Emily revolted.

However for Jacob the stern request didn't even register. He simply responded by asking "Does it hurt?"

He then lifted her foot blowing gently over the wound, like a parent caring for his child.

A batch of shivers pierced every part of her body at the feel of his warm breath, followed by a numbing sensation in the affected foot. Jolted by the shivers, her other foot sprung up from Jacob's knee, kicking him strongly in his shoulder.

Jacob immediately landed backwards on the floor without getting the chance to even make a sound

"Sir!" Zola yelled as she entered the room, after having watched the whole incident happen. 'How dare she do that to him!' Zola thought to herself.

Once the shock from the fall passed, Jacob's discombobulation turned into irritation. Zola hurried by his side, attempting to help him up. However, the last thing Jacob would want to do is accept any help from a servant. He arrogantly slapped her hand to the side, stood up by himself and harshly blurred out a cold "Get out" towards Zola.

By that point, Emily was feeling quite terrible about the situation she had caused. Seeing Jacob's red face, she felt the need to say something. 'I'm sorry for embarrassing you. It wasn't my intention.' Emily intended to apologize, but she nervously swallowed all those words when she saw Jacob's sullen face.

Zola was still in disbelief that Jacob would ask her to leave. With a pleading voice she attempted to address him,"Sir..." But nothing else would come out. The unfairness with which he was treating her was all that she could think of. Zola's emotions were caging all her words in her throat. Perhaps it was better because she couldn't think of any right words to say. All she wanted to say was 'She hit you! She was the one who embarrassed you. Why are you taking it out on me?'

Jacob completely ignored Zola and turned his face towards Emily. The guilty look on her face were enough for him to forgive her. With a calm demeanor, he adjusted his clothes, his sight lingering on her for a few extremely long seconds. Then, realizing Zola still hadn't left, he turned towards her and condescendingly asked: "What are you still doing here?"

The chilling, insensitive attitude he was addressing Zola with, made her forget why she had come inside the room in the first place. But after a few silent moments, she finally snapped out of her bafflement and mumbled on a hushed tone,"Sir, the car is ready for you and you should leave now if you want to catch..."

His blood started boiling inside of him. Perplexed by what she was about to say, Jacob cut her off. "Do you really believe I could go to the party now, while she is here hurting?"

"No..."

"Go tell Sam I'm not coming to the dinner party."

Zola couldn't believe her ears. Her mind was buzzing. 'I may not be the most educated or experienced person, but even I can see how crucial this banquet is; and he is willing to give it all up just to take care of this woman?!'

Her silence and stillness annoyed Jacob even more. "What are you still doing here?" he said impatiently,"Get out!"

"S.." Zola was about to argue, but just as quickly changed her mind, and settled for an "Okay." Reluctant to actually obey him, Zola slowly dragged her heels towards the door hoping he would change his mind. However, Jacob was set on his decision, so she conformed and went downstairs to inform Sam.

Even though confused by Jacob's sudden instruction, Sam didn't try to argue with Jacob about it. After all, he knew how important Emily was to him. So his decision did not surprise him in the least.

After informing Sam, Zola came back inside the mansion when she noticed a maid suspiciously pacing around in the garden. Uncertain who that was, Zola approached the scene and noticed Kate, her scapegoat, distressed, crying and talking to herself.

She quickly walked towards Kate, clutched her arms and asked her in a low voice,"What are you still doing here, Kate? Why haven't you left yet? Didn't I tell you to leave right away? Mr. Jacob would be furious if he saw you're still here."

Kate's eyes were bloodshot from all the crying. With a shaky voice, she proceeded to speak,"Zola, I really cleaned that room well, and checked it thoroughly. There couldn't have been a pushpin on that carpet. Could you please allow me to explain myself to Mr. Jacob?"

Being a servant for the Gu's came with quite high salaries and benefits; so Kate didn't want to lose this job. She couldn't understand what had happened that day. Where did that pushpin come from? She knew it was not her fault and couldn't simply accept the blame for it.

Even more afraid of being found out, Zola continued to keep herself calm while addressing Kate sternly,"I'm sorry Kate. I can't help you. It was you who cleaned that room, and it was in that room where Miss Emily got hurt by the pushpin. She's very angry about it, and so is Mr. Jacob. If you stay here, your situation will only get worse."

"Zola, but I..."

"I've given you three months worth of salary than you have not yet earned. You should know what's good for yourself. If you keep staying here, you will only make Mr. Jacob angrier and you might even lose all that money too! You must leave now before he sees you." Zola briefly paused and then

continued on an even more frustrated tone,"Go! What are you waiting for? If anything happens to Miss Emily again, Mr. Jacob won't show any mercy to you!"Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.