Chapter 293 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

Lucas considered it only for a moment before gesturing to Benne to lead the way.

“How close are you to Celsie?” Benne asked as a conversation starter once he and Lucas were seated in his bar room.

“How close?” Lucas asked in confusion.

“Yeah. Although you both are not identical twins, I’ve been curious about the kind of connection that exists between you both since the moment she mentioned to me that she had a twin brother,” Benne said as he took a sip from his glass, and Lucas smiled sadly thinking that he was no longer as connected with his sister as they had once been.

“Hmm… I really do not know how to answer that question,” Lucas said with a sigh.

“Funny, because Celsie said almost the same thing the first time I asked her that,” Benne said with a smile as he remembered the first time he had visited Celsie’s apartment under the guise of being her neighbor.

“What did she say?” Lucas asked curiously, wanting to know what Celsie genuinely thought about their siblingship.

“I asked her if she felt specially connected to you as her twin brother, but she said she wouldn’t know because you are her only sibling. I guess you feel the same way about her,” Benne said as he studied Lucas.

“What way?” Lucas asked again, giving Benne the impression that what Celsie thought about their relationship was important to him.

“You both love each other, but you both don’t think that the bond you share is just because you are twins. It’s nice. I hope Celsie and I have twins of our own. A boy and a girl, or two girls,” Benne said with a dreamy smile, and Lucas raised a brow.

“You’re already thinking of knocking her up?”

“I’m already thinking of her in my future,” Benne countered with a grin, and Lucas found himself smiling at him.

“You don’t want twin boys?”

“Nah. I want a little girl that looks and acts just like Celsie. Not as introverted as she is though,” Benne added with a grin.

Seeing how he was smiling, Lucas could tell that Benne was completely smitten, “You must really love her,” Lucas said with a sigh.

“Of course, I love her. Who wouldn’t love her?” Benne asked making Lucas chuckle as he resisted the urge to say Rachel.

“You do know that you owe me big time, right? I put in a lot of good words for you when she asked for my opinion,” Lucas confided, and Benne leaned forward in his seat.

“Really? You both talked about me? When was that? And what did you say?” Benne asked curiously and listened with a grin as Lucas related all that Celsie had said when pretending that her colleague’s friend was having issues with a one-night stand who coincidentally turned out to be her neighbor and driver.

Both Benne and Lucas were laughing by the time Lucas finished telling him about his advice to Celsie, “I can’t imagine giving my kid sister such a piece of advice though. You must have badly wanted her to get involved with someone to have given her such advice,” Benne said thoughtfully, and Lucas nodded.

“Yes. I was planning to get married to Rachel who doesn’t get along with Celsie, and then Sonia was engaged to your brother. I thought she would be too lonely since she really isn’t the type to socialize. So I wanted her to meet someone. I decided that someone had to be you the moment she said that you didn’t take advantage of her the first night you spent together because she was drunk,” Lucas confessed.

“Was? You’re no longer planning to get married?” Benne asked, acting like he hadn’t heard from Celsie about Lucas’ breakup.

Lucas sighed, “Don’t pretend like you don’t know that I called off the engagement. I’m sure that is the only reason you picked that part out of everything I just said. That’s a cheap trick,” Lucas said with a shake of his head before sipping from his wine.

Benne gave him an apologetic smile, “Fine. Celsie mentioned the break-up to me. Are you alright?” Benne asked, his concern evident in his hazel eyes.

“I’m not. But let’s not talk about that right now. Tell me why you decided to stalk Celsie,” Lucas said wanting to talk about anything else that didn’t involve Rachel.

Benne went on to explain how he had been unlucky with ladies, and how he had wanted to get to know Celsie without her knowing his true identity. By the time he was done, Lucas sighed.

“That was a big risk you took though.”

“Yeah. I’m not sure I realized just how bad it was until she told me about Jamie. That was when I realized that I had screwed up.”

“Thankfully it is because of you that she has finally been able to face all that happened to her. I guess it all worked out well,” Lucas said with a small smile.

Benne looked at Lucas for a moment, and then cleared his throat, “I have a vacancy position for a doctor in the company if you’re interested…”

“Did the position suddenly become vacant just because you heard that I’m quitting my job?” Lucas asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

“Not at all. I was going to fire the doctor on Monday,” Benne assured him.

“Why? Did he do something wrong?”

“He doesn’t know how to keep sensitive information to himself, and I can’t have such a person working with me,” Benne said without telling Lucas what the doctor had done wrong.

He had tried his best to figure out where the leak had come from concerning him pretending to be Celsie’s driver, and then he remembered that the only person apart from Harry and his siblings who knew about it for a fact was the doctor. He was glad now that he hadn’t given the doctor the details of Celsie’s psychological trauma, else he would have also thought that was where the leak came from, and he wouldn’t have forgiven himself.

“You do realize that people are going to assume that you fired him just so that you could employ your girlfriend’s twin brother,” Lucas pointed out with a shake of his head.

“I get your point. For your sake, I’m going to give him six months’ notice and ask him to quit by himself. You can take the time to clear your head before resuming. How about that?” Benne suggested, and Lucas looked at him for a moment without saying a word.

“Did you discuss this with Celsie?”

“Not yet. I wanted to talk to you first,” Benne explained.

“It should remain between us for the time being. I don’t have to give you an answer yet, right?” Lucas asked, and Benne nodded.

“I will think about it and get back to you on it when I’m thinking straight,” Lucas promised.

“That’s fine. So can you tell me about Celsie’s childhood,” Benne said eagerly, making Lucas raise a brow.

“I thought you wanted us to share a nightcap to know more about me?”

“Celsie’s childhood is the same as yours. You can talk about yourself too while telling me about her. I want to hear everything about Celsie. What was she like before prom night?” Benne asked, and Lucas shook his head. He didn’t know whether to feel bad for his heartbroken self or be happy about the way Benne was making his love for Celsie so obvious.

Inside the house, Bryan was glaring at his mother as she returned to join them at the table with a photo album, “Mom, no one asked to see!” He said with a scowl as she opened the album.

“I want to see,” Sonia said excitedly as she left her seat and went to sit on the chair beside Benne’s mother which Lucas had vacated a while ago.

“Awww,” Sonia gushed when she saw three separate pictures of three cute babies.

“This is Benne, Bryan, and Jade,” Evelyn pointed to each baby, and Celsie stood up to join them so that she could see the picture of Benne.

Benne’s father stood up when Celsie stood behind his wife and Sonia, “Want to play games before calling it a night?” He asked Celsie’s father who gave him a thumbs-up as he stood up.

“Let’s give the ladies room to do ladies’ stuff,” Celsie’s father said as he turned to his wife, “Come get me when you’re ready to go to bed,” he said as he kissed his wife’s forehead before leaving with Bryan’s father.

Once the men left, Celsie sat down on the seat which Benne’s father had just vacated, and Celsie’s mom and Jasmine moved closer to the group to see the pictures, while Alicia continued to take photos.

Seeing how the ladies were laughing together and awwing as they watched the photos, while both his mother and Celsie’s mother exchanged stories of their kids’ childhood, Bryan stood up and walked away without saying a word to Sonia since she seemed engrossed with the photos and stories of both women.

“We shouldn’t let him take her with him! He violated her!” Matt said as he turned on the car’s ignition and reversed in the direction of the port.

“Did you listen to anything he said?” Harry who was still lying there with his eyes closed, asked Matt.

“I thought you were having your beauty sleep?” Jade asked, turning to look at him.

“It’s difficult to do that in a car.”

“Can you both have this conversation some other time? I promised Candace that Andy will be safe. I can’t…”

Jade quickly cut in, “Andy won’t be hurt.”

“How can you be so sure? How can a person like you believe the words of a criminal? Someone who murdered someone else in cold blood?” Matt asked incredulously as he stepped on the gas pedal, wanting to get to the port before the yacht blows up.

“If he wanted to hurt her, he wouldn’t have bothered talking to us about his plans. Besides, did you hear her protest?” Jade asked, and Matt frowned.

“She doesn’t need to protest for us to rescue her. Are we supposed to not do anything and just let him do as he pleases? Are you doing this because he has promised to give you everything you need to close the case?” Matt asked indignantly.

“Why don’t you give Candace a call? And you both can do whatever she says,” Harry suggested with a yawn and Jade picked up her phone and dialed Candace’s line.

Candace who had just succeeded in putting Jamal to sleep was startled by her sudden ringtone, and she quickly reached for her phone and received the call before moving away from the bedroom, “Sup? It’s almost midnight,” she pointed out.

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