Anita stood in the middle of her bedroom looking down at her luggage which she had packed, ready to travel.
Although she didn't have all her plans figured out yet, she was ready to leave and put a distance between her and her family.
Lisa had sent her a text to let her know Bernice was conscious and recovering well. That was good enough for her. All she wanted was to be out of the house before Bernice moved in.
As much as she understood Bernice's situation, she couldn't stop herself from being angry and disappointed in Bernice. She had held Bernice in such high esteem and had looked up to her in a way.
She sighed when her gaze fell on Snow, her dog teddy bear, which she was yet to pack. After the death of her dog, she had made a teddy bear replica of him.
Looking at Snow, she remembered Tom. She remembered how surprised and pleased she had been when he showed up on their first date with a couple of dog treats.
Even though Tom had never seen the Poddle, he had bought her a couple of snacks for the dog, saying he wanted to bribe his way into the poddle's heart.
She had been surprised and pleased that he remembered such detail and had cared enough to come bearing gifts for snow. Her joy had been like that of a single mother, glad to see her new partner make efforts to get along with her kid.
All that had been before he lied to her about his identity. She had really liked him and was on the verge of falling in love with him. As a matter of fact, she had planned to invite him into her house after the date that night until he told her he was a nobody.
Hearing that had made goosebumps rise all over her body. She could picture the disdain on her mother's face had she dared to introduce a nobody to the family as her boyfriend.
Even Lisa, who was known as the family rebel, had not brought a nobody home, so why should she?
Because she liked Tom, she had been unable to end things with him directly and had decided to ghost him instead.
She remembered all the times she stood him up and all the times he kept calling to find out if she was fine and what was wrong.
She remembered the day Snow died and how broken she had been. Tom had been the first person she told about it, and he had offered to come over to be with her, but she had turned down his offer.
Tom may have lied to her about his identity, but he had done his best to make their relationship work. Tom was a good guy, and he deserved to be with a woman that loved him and made him happy.
She doubted she would have fallen for him as Lucy had done had he been her driver. She would never have looked his way because she wasn't raised to look in such a direction. She was raised to be shallow-minded, just like her mother. She was raised to judge people by how much money they had.
Lisa was right. Tom and Lucy deserved better. She had been foolishly feeling entitled and wronged when she was the one who had wronged them. She was going to do better, Anita decided as she picked up her phone. She would start by apologizing to them properly.
Away from there, Harry walked into Tom's office after his meeting.
"So? How did it go? Have you been able to resolve things with Lucy?" Harry asked as he took the seat opposite Tom.
"Pretty much. She is moving back to her apartment while I am away...."
"Is that a good idea?" Harry asked, and Tom raised a brow.
"I thought you do not support cohabitation? Did getting involved with Jade make you change your mind on that already?" Tom asked as he shut down his laptop, and Harry rolled his eyes.
"This has nothing to do with Jade. Every human relationship is different. Your relationship with Lucy started differently, and her moving out of your house seems like you both are stepping away from each other instead of stepping towards each other. I thought you said you were going to come up with a plan to make her your wife. Is this the plan?" Harry asked incredulously.
"It is part of the plan. And no, we are not stepping away from each other...."
"That might be what you think. Are you sure Lucy thinks the same? I'm not trying to encourage cohabiting here, but I think one reason Lucy has been able to improve so much is that you both have been living together. Do you think things would have gotten to this point between you both had you been living separately?" Harry asked, and Tom sighed.
"It's not like I don't get what you're saying, Harry. I do. But this is a risk I'm willing to take. I want her to understand that marriage might not be as bad as she actually thinks it is. It's all about getting a certificate to live with one person for the rest of your life unless you decide you've had enough and want to move on. I think living together as we have been doing is pretty much what married people do. If she doesn't want to get married, she shouldn't be living with me," Tom said, and Harry shook his head.
"For everyone's sake, I sincerely hope you know what you're doing, and you both are not making a mistake. I hope your plan works out," Harry said, and Tom nodded.
"It will. You will see. How was the meeting?" Tom asked and listened as Harry filled him in on the details of the meeting.
"That's good," Tom said as he glanced at his wristwatch.
"We should leave now," Tom said as he picked up his phone and rose from his seat.
"Before you leave, I have a question for you," Harry said, and Tom raised a brow.
"What?"
"Are you sure you're okay with me going out with Jade? This is your last chance to object," Harry said, and Tom grinned.
"What if I object?"
"Then I will also object to your relationship with my cousin," Harry said, and Tom chuckled.
"That doesn't make any sense...."
"Why don't you go ahead and object? Then we will find out if it makes sense or not?" Harry asked sweetly.
"And for your information, I'm going on a dinner date with Jade tomorrow. I'm going to be asking her to be my girlfriend officially. I was only being polite by seeking your permission," Harry said, and Tom grinned.
"Look how much you have grown in such a short time. I feel like a proud father," Tom said as he slapped Harry's back playfully.
"Fuck off. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can leave now," Harry said as he picked up Tom's laptop while Tom picked up his suitcase.
"By the way, are you sure you don't want your assistant to go with you?" Harry asked, and Tom shook his head.
"I'm sure. He is new. I don't think he should be traveling with me on his second day on the job. Besides, I'm not comfortable with the idea of traveling with someone I don't know so well yet. He should stay back and get the hang of things. You can observe him some more," Tom said as they headed for the elevator.
"Is Lucy not coming with us?" Harry asked curiously when they stepped into the elevator.
"She is. I'm calling her already," Tom said as he raised the phone to his ear.
Immediately after the call connected, Tom informed Lucy that they were on their way to the parking lot and they would pick her up in front of the building.
"You haven't told me how your meeting with Sara went," Tom reminded Harry.
Harry chuckled, "It was fun. She was quite entertaining. I think I got my acting skills from her," Harry said in amusement, and Tom scoffed.
"You don't have any acting skills," Tom said as they stepped out of the elevator and approached his car.
"Too bad we didn't bet on it earlier. You would have lost your money had you seen how I clung to her. I shed a couple of tears too," Harry said with a grin, and Tom eyed him in disbelief.
"No, you didn't," Tom said with a grin, and Harry chuckled.
"I did. The cameras caught it from a nice angle too," Harry said as he took out his phone from his pocket to show Tom the pictures.
Once they got into the car with Harry behind the wheel, he handed his phone to Tom to see the pictures while he started the car and drove off.
"I can't believe you did this," Tom said with a chuckle as he went through the pictures.
"I can't believe I pulled it off either. She was so uncomfortable I felt like bawling just to embarrass her further," Harry said, and Tom laughed heartily.
"What did she say?" Tom asked, and Harry smiled as he pulled the car to a stop in front of the building for Lucy to get inside the car.
"Hey, Lulu! How was work today?" Harry asked in a friendly tone.
"It was okay. You've met with Sara and Aurora, right? How did both meetings go?" Lucy asked with interest.
"It was interesting. I was stalling until you joined us. Didn't want to entertain Tom alone," Harry said as he took his phone from Tom, connected it to the car's Bluetooth, and played his conversation with Sara before driving off.
"You recorded the conversation?" Lucy asked with a delighted smile.
"Of course. I love to keep receipts," Harry said with a wink, and Lucy giggled as she paid attention to the conversation.
Tom chuckled, rolled his eyes, and cringed at different points as he listened to the conversation, while Lucy's eyes seemed to grow wider the more she listened to Sara.
"Wow! I can't believe her," Lucy murmured, and Harry grinned.
"You should try to find the humor in it, LuLu. By tomorrow she will be on the top of most searched people on the internet. I would love to see how she explains having a son when she has claimed to be childless this whole time," Harry said, and Lucy shook her head.
"Are you fine? If I feel this awful about this, I can only imagine how you feel," Lucy said, and Harry waved it off.
"I'm alright. As far as my dad and Candace are okay, I'm alright. All I want is to make her lose everything. I want her to lose everything she sold Candace to achieve. I want her to pay, Lucy. That's what is driving me," Harry assured her.
"You've changed," Tom observed.
"If you found out someone like that was your mom, you would change too," Harry said, and Tom sighed.
"Yeah. You're right. I would probably go crazy!" Tom agreed.
"Now, enough about me! Why are you both not talking to each other? You're going to be away from each other for some time. You should focus on each other. Don't mind me. Just pretend I'm not in the car and say whatever mushy stuff you want to say," Harry suggested, making both Tom and Lucy laugh.
"You can't argue that he is related to Jamal," Lucy said to Tom when he turned to look at her.
"I was going to say that. I'm going to miss Jamal when they leave," Tom said with a sigh.
"Yeah, me too."
"I promised to get them a car. If they're ready to leave before I come back, give Jamal any car of his choice when he makes up his mind," Tom told Harry.
"Any?" Harry asked with a mischievous smile.
"You had better not influence his choice. I can't afford your taste," Tom warned, making both Harry and Lucy laugh.
"What about your meeting with Aurora?" Lucy asked, and Harry filled them in on the details.
"Aww! That's lovely. I hope something sweet and genuine develops between them," Lucy said with a hopeful smile.
"Now that I think about it, I think Philip and the lady have similar personalities," Tom said, and Harry nodded in agreement.
"Yeah. I realized how great a matchmaker I was when they started chatting nonstop," Harry said, and Tom snorted.
"Yeah. Right," Tom said dryly.
"Watch it, Tom. If you're not careful, I might just decide to hook LuLu up with someone else before you get back just to show you how good my matchmaking skills are," Harry threatened.
"You wouldn't dare!" Tom retorted.
"What do you say, LuLu? I could get you a partner for the anniversary dinner if Tom isn't back by then," Harry suggested.
"That would be great," Lucy said with a grin, and Tom turned to look at her.
"Really? That would be great?" Tom asked, but Lucy merely shrugged.
"If you so much as bring any guy an inch close to her, I'm going to kill him, and you will be held responsible for...."
"Lucy, are you okay?" Harry asked in concern cutting off the rest of Tom's words as he pulled over by the roadside while Tom turned to look at Lucy, who had suddenly turned white as a sheet and was gasping for air.
"What is wrong?" Tom asked, but Lucy merely shook her head as she tried to regulate her breathing.
Once Harry parked the car, Tom got out of the front seat and opened the backdoor to join Lucy, "What is wrong, Jewel?" Tom asked as he took Lucy's hand while Harry stepped out of the car and put some distance between him and the car to give them space to talk.
"I'm okay," Lucy managed, but the haunted look in her eyes, her quivering lips, and her trembling hands told Tom otherwise.
"You don't look or sound fine," Tom said as he embraced her and patted her back to calm her.
When he felt she was calm enough, he pulled back to look into her face, "What is wrong? Did I do or say something...." Tom paused as his brows pulled together.
"Was it what I said about killing anyone that comes an inch close to you? I didn't mean that," he asked when he recalled what he had been saying before her reaction.
"I know you didn't mean that," Lucy cried.
"I don't know what happened. One moment I was smiling, and the next moment, it was like I was flung back into the past. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Lucy cried, and Tom sighed as he embraced her.
"You don't have to apologize. I'm the one who is sorry," Tom murmured as he kissed the top of her head.
"I should have been more careful with my choice of words," Tom said as he pulled away once again and looked into her face.
"I'm nothing like him, Lucy...."
"I know," Lucy cried, "I thought I was over it after that interview. I even let you cuff my hands, remember? I don't know where that came from," Lucy said with tears in her eyes.
"Don't worry. It's alright. You will be fine," Tom assured her as he kissed her temple.
They both looked up when Harry walked towards them in hurried steps, "Is she settled now?" Harry asked Tom, and when he nodded, Harry handed Tom his phone.
"You need to see this. It's all over the internet. Anita released a video of herself confessing to what she did and apologizing to you and Lucy."
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