Chapter 160 - No One To Trust
"Dad's accident was not an accident?" She mumbled in disbelief. She had not thought about it before but based on the timing, it did seem suspicious. But if it was a premeditated accident, who could have caused it?
Jaime Fort? That was the only person she could think of that hated her father so much. She and Theodore had many enemies but at the moment, Jaime was the one who had been seeking their lives most actively at the moment.
She ran a hand through her hair in distress and turned on her computer to check what Jaime had been up to lately. He was in jail for a while before he was bailed out, right?
However, she was flabbergasted when she realized that her father had an accident on the same day that Jaime was bailed out of jail. Her heart skipped a beat until she found out that on the same day, there was a record of him in hospital, where he had been taken to ICU after an accident.
Jaime and Theodore had an accident on the same day… how odd.
It had just gotten more confusing but one thing was for sure. If the accident was orchestrated by someone, that person wasn't likely to be Jaime.
"But it's also possible for him to be caught in the mess that he created. Some twist of fate?" She mumbled a possibility and rubbed her temples. She had to find out exactly how the accident happened, but she had no access to the traffic surveillance. Did she have to seek Zeus' help?
She rubbed her nose bridge. That idiot had been ignoring her and it was no guarantee that he would help her out. Still, she decided to try. She logged on to Creszone on a new window and found him online, which made her almost give in to her urge to type a myriad of insults.
[Are you coming to work or not?]
[Forget it. You are fired.]
As expected, he answered her with a laugh. [Fired? I haven't even started working yet.] He went ahead to give a ton of excuses about why he couldn't make it to work and being uncertain whether or not he wanted to work at Preston And Fort Group. He was making no sense, which made her frown. What had gotten into him? He must have a split personality, she shrugged.
[We can forget about your absence if you help me do something.] She grabbed the chance to blackmail him.
[What do you need?] He asked.
[Help me access the traffic surveillance.] She responded.
[What road, date and time?] Came his question, making her sigh in relief and send the date over. She wasn't certain of the time so she hoped for him to check about half an hour before she received the call from the hospital. She waited for a response which didn't arrive even after ten minutes even though he was online. He could have hacked into the surveillance system so she didn't probe even though he didn't usually take that long. She had breakfast as she waited and when she returned, there was a response—one she would never have expected.
[What do you take me for, Zaria? Someone you can use whenever you want?]
She stared at her phone in disbelief. She didn't expect such an outrage from him. If he didn't want to help her, he could have said it politely. However, he was not wrong. He had helped her so many times already. Although she rarely asked him for help, he was under no obligation to do anything she asked.
She was uncertain what to tell him. Before she could make up her mind, Lucy arrived.
"You are here. Did you wait for too long?" She asked with a smile.
"No. I just arrived." Zaria stood to hug her briefly.
"What is wrong?" Lucy observed that Zaria looked hurt.
"It's nothing." She didn't want to talk about Zeus' tantrum, especially when she was not sure that Lucy was ready to talk about Zeus.
"What's that?" Lucy asked about the note on Zaria's desk, whose content was in large font.
"Someone sent me this." Zaria sighed. She had reached a stalemate. "I think it is related to my dad's accident."
Lucy picked the note up and scrutinized it. So this was why Zaria was suddenly interested in the city's traffic surveillance. She had hoped that it was something to do with Jaime and dreaded that she would find out that Theodore was involved in the same accident. The truth was even more terrifying. She was in fact looking for the cause of Theodore's accident.
If she found out what really happened…
She closed her eyes in denial. "Zaria, I have something to tell you."
"What is it?" She asked curiously, and Lucy looked away. What if Zaria hated her?
"Mom?" Zaria probed when the latter remained silent for too long.
Hearing what Zaria called her, she was even more reluctant to tell her the truth. She would never hear that word from Zaria if the latter took it the wrong way. She took a deep breath and pulled her daughter into a hug helplessly. "I have a son, your half brother." She dropped a fact that she was certain Zaria already knew.
Zaria looked up in shock. "Zeus isn't dad's son? But his age…"
Lucy slapped her forehead. "You siblings will send me to an early grave. Is there anything the two of you don't know?"
"But you hid him away and didn't want anyone to know about his existence." Zaria probed.
"Well, that…" Lucy was unable to explain so she shook her head. "Let's not talk about it." She picked up the note that she had dropped a moment ago. "This sounds like a crappy warning meant to make you lose sleep over nothing. Perhaps it's an idle person."
"I thought so before but suddenly…" Zaria paused when she thought about everything that happened before and after the accident. She pulled away from Lucy skeptically.
"Mother?"
"We need to get to work, Zaria. We have a lot of work to do today and we will not be done if we don't start soon." She found a way to distract Zaria. She would secretly delete everything later. If Zaria had to find out the truth, it had to be from her.
"It's just a question." Zaria insisted.
"Zaria, it's time for work. Let's discuss other matters later" She reminded her seriously, not letting her continue to think about that night.
Unknowingly, her reaction only made Zaria suspicious even though Lucy didn't reveal anything in her expression. She crossed her arms with a frown. "How did you know that dad had an accident, mother?"
Lucy was shocked, but she remained calm on the surface, not letting her daughter's sudden suspicious tone faze her. "I was looking out for you then I found out that you were in hospital. You don't know how worried I was." She wrapped her arms around Zaria. She knew that it would be more suspicious if she kept evading the topic. "Can we go now?"
"Actually, I have another question." Zaria pulled away and looked at her seriously. "You said that I shouldn't trust anyone. Does that include you?"
"What are you saying?" Lucy had a bad feeling about this.
"I will not ask you to trust me but believe me, Zaria. I would never want to hurt you. I know how much the accident hurt your feelings. I understand that he means the world to you." She said in reassurance. She was telling the truth. The hit was meant for Jaime and Theodore was accidentally caught in the mix. Although she hated him, she would never hurt him because Zaria would be the one who would get hurt. But how was she supposed to explain this without seeming guilty?
As expected, Zaria didn't seem to completely believe her. "Okay. I will join you in ten minutes. I have to make sure Desmond doesn't have to see Jessica's face today."
Lucy nodded and left her office.
Zaria slumped into her chair as she glanced at the door. Lucy's words rang in her mind yet again. "You are your own friend. No one else is worthy of your trust—not even your parents."
"How ironic that your words made me wary of you." She mumbled dejectedly. Why did it sound as though Lucy was trying to warn her against herself?
Indeed, she must have been crazy. How could she trust the woman who left her two decades ago no matter how sadly she cried? She had tons of secrets too, none of which anyone could uncover. Not to mention, she tried to sow discord between her and Theodore at the banquet too. She shouldn't have started looking into this. Her head felt like it was on the verge of exploding. She arranged for a temporary assistant for Desmond before leaving the office.
Lucy was not in her office so she guessed that she was waiting in her car.
"Miss Willaims, Ms. Roatta will be back soon. She asked for you to wait in the car." The chauffeur reported when Zaria arrived at the parking lot.
She silently entered the car and settled in the backseat. Lucy's handbag was on the other seat with her phone beside it. Zaria immediately scolded herself for the thought that crossed her mind for a second. It was wrong to invade people's privacy no matter how curious she was.
Just as she tore her gaze away, the phone screen lit up with a text message.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶