Chapter 280: Deceiving Daisy
Las Vegas, US.
Inside the VIP suite of a hotel, Benjamin knocked on the door.
"Come in,’’ Ryle’s voice sounded faint because of the distance.
Benjamin waited for a moment before pushed open the door and stepped inside.
Ryle sat on the bed, drying his hair with a towel while his gaze remained fixed on an email on his laptop.
Benjamin opened his mouth to push his agenda but then he closed it, not knowing how to do it.
’’What is it?" Ryle asked without looking in his direction.
"Boss, I... I can’t..." Benjamin was almost in tears as he pointed to the phone in his hand. "Miss Chen is very perceptive. She almost caught on to the fact that I was lying. I cannot do this anymore."
Ryle averted his gaze when he heard Daisy’s name. "Did she call?" His lips faintly curved up, the dark circles under his eyes seemed to fade a bit as his dull eyes brightened the moment Benjamin nodded.
As he looked at the man, Benjamin could not help but think. People in love were really hard to predict. The last time he had sported such a relaxed expression on his face was just after they had arrived here and he talked to Daisy.
But some time after that, Ryle gave his phone to Benjamin, instructing him to answer Daisy’s calls. While Ryle did not say why he was doing that, Benjamin understood clearly. The man did not want to deceive his girlfriend more than he already had. Daisy thought Ryle had gone back to LA, here he was, sitting in a hotel in Las Vegas.
Benjamin had accepted the task without hesitation at that time. How difficult could it be to deceive someone? But in his impulse, he had forgotten that the person on the other side was the same sharp-minded right-hand man to his boss, Dexter. As if Dexter was not formidable enough, now as a woman and a girlfriend, Daisy Chen was blessed with another power: Spidey senses, the one that every woman seemed to possess.
"Boss, I’m afraid I might accidentally reveal something. I really think only you can handle this. Miss Chen is very smart..."
"She is my girlfriend," Ryle said, seemingly proud and cocky.
"Eh... Isn’t that why I’m saying..."
"No," Ryle refused coldly. "I won’t lie to her."
Benjamin wanted to cry and tell the man to open his eyes and realize that this was still the same as lying to her. However, he knew that his boss was undoubtedly aware of it too. He was simply deluding himself.
"Boss, we can’t hide this from Miss Chen much longer. She was ready to fly all the way here, thinking you were in trouble."
Ryle’s face softened for a moment. "It’s alright. We’ll be done here soon," he whispered, but when he looked up from his laptop, the fleeting softness disappeared from his face as if it had never been there. "Did you look into it?"
"Mr. Kingsley was not lying to you. Your grandfather is indeed hospitalized. His condition has not been well for a long time."
"Oh," Ryle said, his voice indifferent as he continued drying his hair.
Benjamin remained quiet, even as he was taken aback by the man’s aloofness towards his family.
Ryle had barely any interaction with his family, and everyone who worked for him knew it was a taboo subject. Even Benjamin had not been too deeply involved in these matters before. Only people like Locke, who had worked for Ryle before he founded this business, knew more about him than the rest of them.
Although Benjamin was curious, he did not let it show on his face, knowing his boundaries.
"Boss, what are your orders from here?"
Ryle shifted his gaze to the email on his laptop, the one he had been looking at for quite some time until it felt like it wasn’t just the email, but the person who wrote it was saying those words directly to him:
’Don’t forget you still carry my last name. You are a Kingsley. Your grandfather’s condition is not good, and he wants to see you. I haven’t been able to reach you, but know this: I’m keeping tabs on everything you’re doing out there, from the work you do to the company you keep. Don’t force my hand, son—you won’t like it when I take action. Come back and don’t bring a single one of your dogs with you.’
Ryle closed the laptop, blocking the view of those threats that seemed to linger in the air.
He leaned back against the headboard. It should be around 7 in the evening back in Beijing and Daisy should have returned from work—if she was diligently following her promise not to overwork herself.
How he missed Daisy and Angel!
Ryle couldn’t help but daydream about how she would usually come home, kiss Angel on the forehead while he held the little girl, then look at him, religiously pause for two seconds before giving him a kiss on his cheek and then one on his lips.
Then she would pause again, look at his forehead, and back away at the realization that she was too short to reach it without the support of his shoulders or neck as with him holding Angel, she couldn’t get to it.
Ryle’s heart flipped, the longing in his heart intensifying. How such mundane days of doing nothing but staring at each other across a table had started feeling like heaven since the moment he landed here, he could not understand.
The shrill ringing of a phone interrupted the silence in the room.
Both Ryle and Benjamin turned to look at the phone in Benjamin’s hand. It was Ryle’s.
Ryle’s eyes brightened briefly before they dimmed again.
"Boss, it is not from Miss Chen... It’s from Ivy."
Ryle’s brows furrowed. "Ivy?" A million thoughts flickered through his mind as he strode toward Benjamin and took the phone from his hand. Ivy wouldn’t call him unless something had happened to...
"Hello..." he cut his thoughts short and answered the call abruptly.
"Er... Am I disturbing you?" the girl’s hesitant and apologetic voice came from the other side.
"Are Angel and Daisy...?"
"Yes, yes, they’re both fine," Ivy quickly replied, seemingly not wanting him to misunderstand, "But Angel..."
"What happened to Angel?" Ryle, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, felt himself tense up again.
