day he tells me that he loves me.
He’d been told to take it easy for a few weeks, and when he came out of the hospital having stayed there almost a week, I took him home to his apartment in The Water Tower Building.
And that’s when I discovered that he had someone to take care of his laundry, chores, cleaning and his cooking.
Of course he does.
Because this is not Brad.
This is Brandon.
He begged me to stay with him, but there was nothing for me to do when he already had someone to take care of his housekeeping. He had a cook, too. But I stayed with him because I had made up my mind to give him a second chance. Someone who puts their life above others, someone selfless like that, deserves it.
For the first few weeks after the fire, we shut ourselves off in his apartment. I left Fredrich and Simona in charge of Redhill, while I stayed by Brandon's side trying to be here for him as he healed from his burn injuries.
It’s only now, weeks later, that we are slowly getting back to some sort of normality. Brandon focusses on Hawks Enterprises, and I do my best to take care of Redhill.
Despite all of this, we managed to keep the food nights going without missing a single one. News of the fire spread, and we were quickly inundated with food supplies which was just as well because we had no store room. Local businesses banded together and helped. I knew they would, because people come together and help others in their time of need.
Fredrich suffered from severe smoke inhalation and Brandon had a burning shelf fall against his side. It will likely scar his arm forever, but they saved those children, and that was the most important thing.
While the damage to the factory has been bad, it could have been worse. I try to remember this knowing that our production has taken a big hit. The food storeroom and a couple of rooms on either side have been badly damaged by the fire and will need to be rebuilt again. Fire and safety experts have cordoned off that part of the building, and we are able to get limited production going, but I am worried about how this will impact us going forward.
Brandon has mentioned a warehouse that is slightly further out of the city. He says it has only recently become empty and there is land around it and no other buildings. He's looking into it while I focus on getting Redhill back to full capacity as best as I can.
I had a lucky break happen yesterday when Brandon told me that Emma, his personal assistant, wants to come and work for me. I hired her five minutes into our telephone interview last night. At least that’s something positive to have come out of this.
I’ve stayed with him here the entire time. I was supposed to go back to my place but I don’t want to, and he doesn’t want me to, either. My sister, Penny came back as soon as she heard about the fire. It’s been wonderful to have her back, even though I don’t see her as much as if I were living at my place. It’s been strange for her to see me with a man like Brandon, but she doesn’t know of the complexities which surround him.
It’s something I am slowly getting used to, like his name, and his background, and his life—his real life—not the fabricated one he chose to show me.
Being with him is like going on one of those loop de loop rollercoaster rides. One moment I’m on a high with my breath catching in my throat, the next, my heart jumps out as I find myself plummeting down at breakneck speed. It’s new and exciting and different for me, learning to love and trust again, but what I’m feeling is nothing compared to the demons that Brandon has to confront.
I want to believe that this man has changed, because when he told me who he really was and why he had come to Redhill, he destroyed all the trust I had in him.
I've been hurt before. A heart that's broken badly once doesn't heal without any lasting scars. And Brandon doing what he did— tricking me, lying and pretending to be someone else, purely for financial gain—cratered another line in my heart.
But then he walked into the fire, put his life at risk, and saved Stefan and