267 Off limits
“I assumed you wouldn’t want this kind of deal to slide out of your grasp.” He peeked down at her meaningfully.
She glanced up at him. He was right. There was no way anyone would want to let go of this kind of deal, but, “You know what they say about deals that are too good.”
“Interpret it however you want to.” He stood to leave, letting her take time to read the contract. “You can send over the contract when you are ready. If you would like to spend the night here, this cottage is at your disposal.”
“Thanks for the offer but I will go home.” Her smile stopped her from calling out his crap. If she were to spend the night here on her own, she would definitely have “company”.
He didn’t press the matter and let her go.
___
“There is no way he is willing to let me do this.” She explained the situation to Desmond when she gave him a video call later, reporting everything. “He knows I’m trying to acquire those shares for Preston and Fort Group. He knows that if I were to meet the requirements, he would be letting not just one but two people into his family business.”
“Getting that profit is probably much easier said than done.” He speculated. “Do you need my help?”
“I would ask for it but there are too many confidentiality clauses that I might breach by seeking you for anything.” She rolled onto her stomach with her legs in the air. “Looks like I’m on my own now.”
.....
“You have never been on your own. You have me.” He coaxed.
“I’m glad that I do. I’m not sure I would have pulled this off on my own.” He may not even be aware that he had that kind of effect on her but he was part of the reason why everything felt so easy. Or rather, she was too determined for anything to be impossible. She looked up to him in more ways than she could count.
“You don’t have to push yourself hard. You must remember this. If nothing goes as planned, you still have me.” He reassured her, touching her face on the screen. “Are you sure I shouldn’t drop by for a minute? I hate that the only way for me to touch you is like this.”
“It’s late.” She reprimanded him before he could act on the idea. “You need to get to bed early, you have a flight to catch early in the morning.”
“Yeah, right.” He groaned. “I’m going to miss you.”
“It’s just two weeks.” She tapped his forehead on the screen. He was going on a business trip that he couldn’t postpone.
Since they worked in the same building, they usually saw each other every day even if it was only for a minute or two sometimes. It had been long since they had been away from each other for longer than a few days, and she knew she would miss him too. Alas, she couldn’t accompany him. Lucy would be busier with him being away and by extension, so would she.
“I almost forgot an important matter.” He sucked in a breath.
With that expression, she knew he wanted to ask her something he thought she would right away say no to. As if there was any request of his that she could reject.
“What is it?”
“Rosaly doesn’t want to stay with grandma for two weeks.” He ran a hand down his hair. “She says it’s too long to be away from her Zaria and although she relented when I promised to ask you to give her video calls every night, she was sad about it.”
“The little girl is too young to start bottling up her feelings.” Her heart broke. It was probably because Angela would often yell at her for causing trouble if she expressed her feelings.
“I don’t think dad will mind having her around. If she likes the idea, that is.”
“You would have her over?” He was pleasantly surprised. He had wanted to ask her to drop by Isabella’s whenever she was free. Her suggestion was unexpected.
“Yeah. I mean, why not?” She scratched her chin. “Have you spoken to Isabella about it yet?”
“No. But I don’t think she will have anything against Rosaly staying over at your place.” He explained.
She grabbed a notepad. “Tell me what she likes eating, what she doesn’t like, her allergies if she has any...”
He looked at her and burst into laughter. She glanced at the screen for long enough to know that he would not explain what was so funny so she dropped it.
“Thank you.” He finally smiled.
“Hey, don’t thank me. She is my friend.”
....
As expected, Rosaly was excited to stay over at Zaria’s. She jumped right into Zaria’s arms when the latter picked her up from school. The teachers had already been notified of the arrangement so they had no questions about it.
“Laia, Zaria’s here to pick me up!” She excitedly squealed for her friend.
“Are you really staying with Zaria?” The little girl came over, looking like she wished she could tag along.
“Yes. We can have sleepovers every day!” Rosaly wrapped her arms around Zaria’s neck possessively when the other kids expressed their desire to join the sleepover. It was as though she was declaring her off limits.
When the two of them finally left Annoix Academy, Rosaly was beside herself with joy. She could barely sit still in the car and kept peeking out at anything she found exciting. It was a good thing that the safety belt was too hard for her to unfasten or she would stand on the seat to have a better view.
When they arrived, Theodore was waiting on the living room couch with Des in his arms. When she told him that Desmond’s daughter would be staying over, he had tried to hide his excitement but it was clear that he had a soft spot for kids.
“Rosaly, this is my dad. His name is Theodore.” She introduced, and was yet to get Rosaly’s reaction when he held his arms out to her.
“You can call me grandpa.”
Her jaw dropped. Was that really appropriate?
Before Rosaly could get to Theodore, she was attacked by Des, who toppled her over to lick and paw her face.
“It’s okay, don’t be scared. He is trying to...” Zaria didn’t need to explain anymore as Rosaly grabbed the puppy and kissed his face to return the affection.
Theodore and Zaria laughed. Those two would get along like best friends in just a few days.
...
It was a good thing that Rosaly got along with Des. The two played endlessly on one side of the living room while she got her work done on her laptop.
There was a lot more going on in The West than Evan had let on. After running several checks, she finally found the root of the problem.
Gabriel West, Evan’s grandfather, was determined to keep the resort within the family and it turned out that Evan was an illegitimate child. While he was still a West by blood, Gabriel was convinced that he might destroy the resort out of spite for the family.
She shook her head with a frown. The joke was on him, because the legitimate daughter was the one running the resort to the ground so desperately.
She looked her up. Veronica West, a smart businesswoman according to all the reports of her on the Internet. It was surprising, because Zaria had expected to get reports of a snobbish woman with princess syndrome and probably one who thought she was worth the universe. Her brother’s opinion of her was clearly the lowest one could have of their sibling.
She read the articles that claimed her to be a hero on various occasions, coming up with ideas that caused significant change in the family business and created tremendous profit. The internet had to be bugged or rigged, because there was no way a smart businesswoman would be unaware of how much loss her rookie boyfriend was causing for the resort. Love might be blind but it was not stupid.
One of the two things was a lie. Veronica either had the internet results lie about her, or Evan was lying.
But there was no reason for Evan to lie to her regarding something she would find out soon. Her brows furrowed.
Unless... Veronica was deliberately trying to run The West to the ground.
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