Chapter 304 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“Yes, please,” she called back.

Once he returned, he set the cup of coffee next to her, and she looked into it surprised, “You added…”

“A teaspoonful of sugar, and cream the way you take it,” he said, surprising Jade who hadn’t expected him to have taken note of something like that.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Harry asked when he noticed the surprise on her face, and Jade shook her head.

“Nothing. Thanks,” she murmured as she took a sip from it.

“So? What do you think?” Harry asked as he shut his eyes and rubbed his eyes with his fingers.

“You made my job easier, thanks,” she said with gratitude, “How much does Benne pay you?” Jade asked curiously.

“Why do you want to know that?” Harry asked, equally curious, and she flashed him a smile.

“I want to know if I can afford you. I think you’ll make a good assistant,” she said, and Harry shook his head.

“No, thanks. Even if you could afford me, which I highly doubt, I’m not interested in working for you,” Harry said, stifling a yawn as he picked up his cup of coffee and took a sip.

“Do you think I made the right call by letting him go with Andy?” Jade asked without taking her eyes from the laptop’s screen.

“Do you think there is something else you could have done? Besides, I think he would have done what he did with or without your consent. I tried to find some information on him,” Harry said as he turned the laptop and clicked on a document he had saved to show her.

“He only came back to the country and joined the cartel three months after his pregnant fiancee was murdered, and exactly a week after the death of his father. What does that tell you?” Harry asked, and Jade narrowed her eyes thoughtfully.

“He joined with an agenda?” Jade asked uncertainly.

“He was living quietly and was doing quite well for himself. He had his own tech company,” Harry said as he clicked on a folder and opened some pictures.

“Wow! He is just as good looking as his voice sounds,” Jade murmured, and Harry silently agreed, since he had thought so too the moment he saw the man’s picture. No homo.

“He was most likely forced into abandoning his dreams and taking up his father’s dreams. So he likely came to destroy his father’s life’s work as his had been destroyed. He was going to bring down the cartel with or without you,” Harry said, and Jade sighed.

“That makes sense. But what about Andy?”

“I think she will be okay. There is no use telling you that I will try to find them since it is obvious that my men won’t be able to find him. We will just have to trust him,” Harry said with a yawn, unable to stifle it this time.

“I guess you are right. You are exhausted. Did you even sleep?” She asked, clearly concerned.

“I didn’t. But I will after I drop you off at Benne’s house,” Harry assured her.

“You haven’t told him that we are coming over, have you?” She asked as she sipped from her cup of coffee.

“No. Do you want to? I thought we would surprise them with your presence,” Harry said, and Jade raised her cup in a toast to him before setting it down.

“Good thinking. When are we leaving?” Jade asked as she looked away from him to look around the dining room and the living room.

“As soon as you’re ready,” Harry said, watching her from the rim of his cup as he sipped from his coffee.

“Your apartment is really lovely,” Jade said with admiration.

“More than I can say for yours,” Harry said dryly, and she giggled. If she wasn’t used to his bluntness by now, she would have felt offended.

“Lucky you, you don’t have to go back there,” she said instead as she stood up, “I will go get ready then. Hopefully, there will be something to eat over there since I doubt that you have any food in your really lovely apartment,” Jade said as she gulped down the remaining coffee in her cup.

“By the way, have you given a thought to my offer?” Harry asked as he watched her drop the cup on the table and use the back of her hand to wipe her lips.

Jade narrowed her eyes as she tried to remember the offer, and then she grinned when she recalled their unfinished conversation, “Apart from being an intelligent lawyer, is there any other reason why you want me to work with you there?” She asked, smiling at him as she batted her lashes.

Harry shook his head as he saved the document and removed the flash drive from his laptop before shutting it down, “Let me know when you make up your mind,” he said as he handed her the flash drive and once she took it from him, he picked up both cups and headed for the kitchen.

Jade rolled her eyes, “Gosh! You are so boring,” she called out to him as she headed for the bedroom, while Harry snorted.

“I don’t live for your entertainment,” he muttered under his breath.

Forty-five minutes later, Jade stepped out of her bedroom carrying her small duffel bag in one hand and her handbag in the other hand. She was dressed in a short buttondown denim dungaree skirt and a plain white long-sleeved top.

“I’m ready,” she said as she joined Harry in the living room.

“Since we are stating the obvious, I have eyes,” Harry said dryly as he pointed to his eyes, and Jade giggled.

“That was a good joke.”

“I guess boring people can tell good jokes then?” He asked with a scoff as he picked up his car key and walked over to where she was to take the duffel bag from her.

“Boring people can crack funny jokes sometimes. It doesn’t make them less boring,” Jade said with a grin as she looked him over. Surprisingly he was dressed in a denim short and white shirt with matching sneakers.

“Hmm. You look cool,” she observed with admiration since she was used to seeing him wear mostly corporate clothes apart from his usual pyjamas, and the only time she had seen him wear something casual was the turtle neck.

“Why? Boring people can’t look cool?” He asked as he led the way out of the house and she laughed as she followed him.

“Seeing as you keep bringing it up, you must be pained that I called you boring,” Jade said in amusement as they both walked into the elevator.

“I can’t wait to drop you off, and be free from your smart mouth,” Harry muttered under his breath, but loud enough for her to hear him.

“You’re going to miss me when I’m gone,” she promised him.

Anita stood before her family with her head bowed shamefully as her mother hurled demeaning words at her.

“You had just one assignment! One little assignment! But what did you do? You ruined it! I can’t believe you gave them a platform to announce their relationship to the world! Did you see the comments? You gave them fans and supporters! You are just as incompetent as your useless father!” Mrs. Miller yelled at her.

“To think that you received help from us all. Your uncle helped you to keep your job at the airline just so that you could get close to the man. Your sister gave you useful information about his relationship. And I even paid a private investigator to look into him. And what did you do? You made a mess of all our efforts. Your level of idiocy sickens me!”

“Mother…”

“Don’t! No one should try to side with her on this! Did you all watch the show? Have you even seen the photos and clips from the dinner?” She asked as she walked over to pick up her phone from the couch and flashed the screen at her other three daughters, while Anita remained where she stood.

“Our family should have been the one there, not that girl’s family!”

“Mom, I’m not trying to take her side. I’m just saying yelling won’t do any good right now. Instead, we should think of another way forward,” Anita’s eldest sister, the one who had given them the information from the beauty salon suggested.

“I agree with Bernice that yelling won’t do any good. And by the way, Anita, I know that you were desperate, but how could you do something like that to a fellow woman? You went too far by exposing such a painful experience,” her immediate elder sister who was pregnant chided as she patted her protruding abdomen.

“Too far? I don’t think she did. Not all of us had it easy like you having someone wealthy fall in love with us at first sight. Some of us had to work for it. Besides, that is not the point right now, is it?” The second oldest countered.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I failed you all,” Anita said apologetically, not knowing how to react to all their disappointments. She was even more disappointed in herself, and she was feeling very so sorry for herself that her eyes stung with tears. She had cried all night as she followed the dinner posts on Alicia’s page, and when she couldn’t take it anymore she had smashed her phone against the wall.

The pregnant sister sighed as she stood up and went to embrace Anita, “Don’t beat yourself too much over this. And if you ask me, I think you should forget him. Now that he has announced his relationship…”

“Forget him? How can you say that? He only just announced his relationship, not marriage. And even if he was married, she can still get him if she sets her mind to it. Besides, are you forgetting that the man you got married to was engaged to someone else when you met him?” their oldest sister said.

The pregnant one took in a deep breath, “Yeah, I know my husband was engaged, but that was arranged by his parents not because he was in love with her. That Celsie girl deserves to be happy after all she has passed…”

“Lisa, if you won’t say something reasonable, you can either keep your mouth shut or you get out of this house this minute!” Their mother snapped, turning to glare at her pregnant daughter who quickly pressed her lips together and raised her hands in surrender.

“Fine. I’ll keep my lips sealed,” she said as she returned to her seat.

“So tell us, what do you think went wrong with your plans?” The second oldest asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think he will want to have anything to do with me,” Anita finally confessed.

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