“You don’t sound ill. Were you pretending to be ill?” She asked, and Aaron chuckled.
“Oh, you are so brilliant! You caught me in the act!” Aaron said in a mock weak voice, and this time Jade giggled, while Celsie smiled as she excused him to go finish up in the kitchen where she was storing the leftovers
“How else would Benne have let his damsel out of his sight long enough to fuss over me this way?” Aaron asked, and Jade smiled.
“I’m glad you sound better. We were all worried about you yesterday,” Jade said, and Aaron smiled, grateful that Harry had a lot of people in his life who cared about him.
“It’s good to know that you were worried about me,” Aaron said, just as Celsie returned to the table to join him.
Jade cleared her throat, “Apart from calling to know how you’re doing, I wanted to ask you a couple of questions if you don’t mind,” Jade said, and Aaron winked at Celsie, making a her smile.
“About Harry I suppose?” Aaron asked jokingly.
“Sort of. I hope you don’t mind me asking, but do you know of any living relatives of your late wife? I mean Harry’s mom?” Jade asked, and almost immediately Aaron froze, and his face went pale, making Celsie who was watching him to sit up.
“Aaron?” Jade called, wondering why he had suddenly become quiet.
“Why are you asking?” Aaron asked as he tried to speak evenly despite his racing heart, but his voice came out tight with all trace of playfulness out of it.
Jade’s brows pulled together as she began to wonder why Aaron was suddenly sounding that way. Deciding to be honest with him, she cleared her throat, “I know a young lady who looks almost exactly like the lady in the photo frame beside Harry’s bed. I was just wondering if perhaps she is a distant relative or maybe they’re just look alikes,” Jade said and Aaron relaxed a bit.
For a moment there he had thought that Jade ran into Sara or something. What was the likelihood of such a meeting taking place? Besides, over the years Sara had gone under the knife a couple of times to work on her face so she didn’t exactly look the same.
Although she had looked perfect to him in the past, she had worked on almost every single facial feature, and the only thing that she had left the same was her hair and her eye color. It had seemed like she was running away from who she was and doing her best to change everything about herself.
He had encountered news and photos of her over the last couple of years, and he had been somewhat glad for the changes she had made as that had made it easy for Harry not to recognize her. And even if Harry had spotted the resemblance he would most likely have lied to him that she was a mere look alike and not his late mother.
“Aaron?” Jade called again to regain his attention.
“His mother was an orphan. Her parents and only sister died in a car crash. The person you saw is most likely a look alike, and not in any way related to her,” Aaron said, but watching him and seeing how lost he had appeared a moment ago, Celsie could tell that there was more to what he had just said.
She couldn’t help wondering what Jade was asking him and why. She tried to piece together Jade’s request to her, and Aaron’s side of the conversation.
Was it possible that Jade saw someone who looked like Aaron’s late wife? Why was she interested enough to want to see a picture? Was it perhaps someone close to her?
Her brows pulled together when she recalled what Benne had said about Jade wanting to dig into Candace’s past.
No. It didn’t make sense. It couldn’t be Candace. Judging by what little she knew about Jade’s and Candace’s release, she knew that Jade had known Candace for about two years. She would have made such a connection a long time ago if it was Candace. It was probably someone else.
“Wow. The resemblance is so uncanny. She has similar curly gold hair and facial features,” Jade murmured more to herself than to Aaron.
Curly gold hair? Was it possible that this person was related to Sara? He wouldn’t put it past her to have lied about losing her family. But even if that was the case and this person Jade had seen was related to Sara in any way, he didn’t want them in Harry’s life. At least not until he had been able to tell Harry the truth.
“Alright then. I wanted to confirm she isn’t a relative. I’m sorry for being a bother,” she said apologetically.
“It’s alright. I suddenly feel exhausted. I need to rest now. Let’s talk some other time,” Aaron said before returning the phone to Celsie.
Celsie dropped the phone on the table when she noticed that Jade had hung up already, and she looked at Aaron with interest.
“I’ve noticed the way you’ve been staring at me all morning. Is there something you want to talk to me about?” Aaron asked when he stood to leave the dining and noticed the way Celsie was observing him.
“Yes,” Celsie said with a nod,
He returned to his seat, “Go on, then.”
“Who is Sara to you? You kept mentioning her name in your sleep.”
Even though Aaron’s heart was beating really fast and a million thoughts were running through his mind at that moment, he remained silent for some time after he heard the statement that followed Celsie’s question.
That was the last thing he had been expecting her to say or ask him, and even now he was trying to figure out what he could have possibly said in his sleep about Sara to make Celsie curious enough to ask him such a question.
What exactly did she hear him say? Did she tell Harry about what she heard? He wasn’t sure about that since he knew that if she had told Harry then he would probably have questioned him more about it, especially after the way he had reacted the day before when Harry received his call from someone called Sara.
If she didn’t tell Harry about it, then that left even more question in his mind. He raised his head and met Celsie’s curious gaze. From the way she was staring at him, he could tell that she was giving him all the time he wanted to speak.
“Can you tell me what I said?” Aaron asked curiously.
“You talked about your daughter amongst other things,” Celsie said, and watched as his eyes widened in alarm.
“I did?” He asked, and Celsie gave him a nod, not wanting to say more than that.
She wanted to tell him enough to prove that he had said something important, but not give him too much information so that she could get the rest from him.
“What else did I say?” He asked, hoping that she would tell him everything so he would know how best to answer her question.
“You don’t expect me to tell you that, do you?” She asked with a slightly raised brow.
Aaron looked at her for a moment and sighed, “Did you tell Harry about it?”
She shook her head, “Not yet. My telling him depends on what you tell me, and how much you tell me,” Celsie said, and Aaron looked at her wearily.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.