Stepping in New York - II

The jet soon landed on the land of New York which welcomed Regan with a blow of piercing wind. However, the wind was less piercing than the pain he felt at that time by just thinking about the fact that a certain someone was unwell and he felt his hands tied up as he was unable to anything. He didn't know why he left all his work pending and rushed there just to have a glance at her being well with his own eyes. He knew it was again something against his usual self but instead of struggling to find out the reasons behind it, he decided to just follow his heart this time as it was the only thing which he wanted to follow right now without thinking about the consequences.

He took out his cell phone and directly called Richard to inform him about his arrival and also arranged an early meeting with him. Instead of going to his new penthouse to freshen up, heheaded towards Watson Corporation. His only concern at that time was to know about Anna with a hope to get a chance to see her.

Soon the car arrived at the destination. Without waiting for Nolan, he himself opened his car door and entered the building. During all this, Nolan was astounded on Regan's bizarre behaviour about everything involving Anna. He could clearly see his changed disposition and protective attitude towards her. However, he was too dubious to accept it as he had never seen this side of Regan in his five years of working experience with him. Nonetheless, he was happy thinking that atleast there was one single person in this world who was able to control his demons up-to certain extent as no one better than him knew about the Satan in him when it came to his business.

Leaving his thoughts behind, he quickly rushed inside and informed the receptionist about their meeting with Richard. As she was already informed about their arrival, she gracefully escorted them to the top floor leading to Richard's office.

Richard met him with a firm handshake and gently welcomed him.

"Mr. Watson"

"Mr. Knight... It's a pleasure meeting you again. Please have a seat."

"Honestly, I was not expecting you here so early. However, Anna would certainly be ecstatic on your arrival as you might have noticed her enthusiasm for this project."

"Of course I did." Regan replied with a small smile that surfaced on hearing her name. Particularly, he remembered his reason for his abrupt arrival in New York and frowned. He wanted to know more about Anna so he asked discretely, "Actually I came to know about her being unwell from Nolan. How is she now? I hope she is okay?"

Richard smiled on hearing him and said, "She is better... but not okay."

His palms became sweaty on Richard's reply. "What do you mean? When I called you earlier, you said that you wanted to talk about something. Was it about her?"

Earlier, when he boarded the jet, Regan called Richard to inform him about his stay in New York to carry out the project. However, he didn't want to sound daunting so he clarified that his visit was priorly planned and in the absence of Anna, he would like to talk to him. But to his surprise, Richard admitted that he too wanted to discuss certain things with him which piqued his interest about the matter. However, he didn't expect it to be related with Anna.

Richard sighed and spoke, "Yes, it's about her. I will not beat around the bush Mr. Knight. I know your methods in business. I know that you are quite adamant and particular regarding things when it comes to your business. And believe me I totally understand your ways."

"I am sure we are not here to discuss my business skills and methods Mr. Watson." Regan said in his usual cold tone as he could not understand the reason behind all of it.

"Yes... it's not about you... it's about Anna. Mr. Knight....."

"Regan"

"Okay...Regan, as I was saying it's about Anna. Her life has never been easy and still she is going through a tough phase. As you may know, she is not my real daughter. Her parents died in a car accident many years back. She is struggling since then. She was a vivacious girl once but after my son's....." His throat choked with emotions but he still managed to continue, "after my son's death, she shouldered the responsibility of this company. It has been three years and since then she is strenuously working behind it. And I think this has affected her somewhere. Right now, she has been prescribed to rest and I won't think that she would be able to continue like this in her present state."

"What do you mean to say? I am not getting your point."

"My point is Regan... I want you to go easy on her for sometime."

Regan frowned on hearing him and said furiously, "Do you think that I am a heartless man Mr. Watson who is cruel enough to neglect someone's health?"

"I know you are not. But Anna won't understand. This project is her passion. I am sure..... even if you won't insist, she would go to any extent to finish it at the earliest which I worry that would further deteriorate her health."

"So? What do you expect from me?"

"I don't expect Regan... I just wanna request you to... to provide your supportive hand to her whenever she needs. There is already a lot on her plate. I know you might be thinking what kind of a person am I to ask for your help like this. But believe me... I know my daughter too well. I know she would never lay back on this. That's why I was expecting from you to slow down..... atleast till she recovers completely."

Regan was quite tensed during the whole conversation but after hearing Richard, he understood his point and replied, "Well I guess I know that she can be stubborn at times but you don't need to worry Mr. Watson... She's my responsibility now. I mean I would never let my business partner to end up getting in bed due to health issues. I can understand that it's a father's concern towards his daughter. And talking about the project, I don't think her health would be an issue to pull it off as we have already pre-planned everything. And you can trust me on that..... Well I have never been easy where my business is concerned but I assure you that my work would not affect her well-being."

"Thank you so much Mr. Knight. Ummm..... I also wanted to ask if you can shift your office here... as know you will be working with us anyways and that way it would be easy for us to handle the things more convinently."

After hearing Richard, Regan pondered over his suggestion and finally agreed, "I think that would be great." He just wanted to make sure that during the whole period of working, Anna would not suffer from unnecessary stress. Also this way, he could be at ease to see that she would be alright. He didn't want to face the same anxiety again which he felt some time before after learning about her health.

Nevertheless, he realized that once again, the walls that he tried to build around him to guard his heart were pulled down, yet he decided to take this chance so as to feel easy by just knowing that atleast she would be doing well around him and he would be there for her to assure it.