Chapter 531 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“You had better believe it. She is capable of saying worse things than that. I can never get used to it,” Celsie said with a shake of her head.

“What did I say that is so surprising?” Sonia asked, amused by both their reactions.

“So? Who is going to tell me about this request that was turned down?” Sonia asked impatiently as she picked up her journal and pen, ready to jot down all the interesting details.

“The floor is open to you, Jade. You can tell her about it,” Celsie said making Sonia’s gaze shift to Jade.

“What are you doing with the pen and journal?” Jade asked curiously.

“How do you think I get ideas for my story? Or why do you think I agreed to stay up this late for this conversation? I need something to write about,” Sonia said with a wink.

“You should be careful about the things you include in your story,” Celsie advised, making a mental note not to slip and say anything about Harry and Aaron’s situation. The last thing she wanted was for Sonia to write about such a sensitive subject.

“Yes, ma’am. Now if you don’t mind can you tell me about it already?” Sonia asked, urging Jade.

“Well, it was some sort of mix-up. Nothing that involved Harry’s undies, I assure you,” Jade said as she went on to explain her request to Celsie and what had promoted it. She also told her about Candace’s orphanage story.

“I see. But I’m curious about something. Celsie, did you also think that Candace looked like Harry’s mom when you saw the photo?” Sonia asked, and Celsie shrugged.

“I don’t know. I think there might be a bit of a resemblance there. Although I’ve never seen Candace with such hairstyle so I can’t be as sure as Jade is,” Celsie said without directly meeting Sonia’s eyes.

“Since you have the photo on your phone why don’t you show it to Jamal? Perhaps he might think it’s his mom if the resemblance is as striking as Jade thinks?” Sonia suggested.

“That is right. Why didn’t I do that?” Celsie asked rhetorically, thinking that she was going to do that the next day.

“Even if Jamal thinks so, it doesn’t make any difference. It might just be a case of doppelganger or something. Harry’s mom is an orphan and she is late so there is no way they can be related,” Jade said, and Sonia shrugged, but Celsie said nothing.

“Well, you never can tell. You know what they say? Never say never. By the way, why do you think the orphanage home story is fishy?” Sonia asked curiously.

“According to what Candace said she was told by the sisters, they were paid a lot of money to take care of her. That means he is either very wealthy or her adoptive parents were wealthy. Think about it. If they were wealthy why didn’t he get a nurse to take care of her? It is one thing to say you can’t take care of your brother’s adopted child if you’re broke, but not when you’re wealthy,” Jade said matter-of-factly.

“Personally I think it is pretty normal that her adopted parents’ family wouldn’t want to keep her since she isn’t exactly a blood relative,” Sonia pointed out, as she looked from Jade to Celsie.

“Would either of you raise your brother’s adopted child as your own if something happened to him?”

“Family is everything to us, Delgados. As long as the child belongs to my brother, whether by adoption or birth, that child is my family,” Jade said, and Celsie nodded in agreement.

“I don’t think I would give away a child that Lucas called his own whether or not the child was adopted by him,” Celsie said thoughtfully, while Sonia pursed her lips in disagreement.

“We can’t judge based on your relationship with your family alone. Maybe he wasn’t very close to his brother. Maybe he did not just want her. Maybe he doesn’t like kids. Not everyone can make such a sacrifice. Adopting your brother’s adopted kid requires a lot. Especially if the child is sickly as you already stated. I’m not trying to say your hunch is irrelevant, I’m just trying to say it could be that there is nothing more to the story than she was told,” Sonia said with a shrug.

“I will tell you what I think. I think he gave the sisters so much money to assuage his guilt over what he was doing. He didn’t abandon her only because she was sickly and he didn’t want to raise his brother’s adopted kid. My hunch tells me that he did so probably because he didn’t want her to benefit from whatever her adopted parents might have left her…”

“Such as a trust fund?” Sonia interjected with a thoughtful look on her face as she paused from her jotting.

“Exactly! I’m a lawyer and I’ve seen things like this happen before. What if she was listed in their Will before their demise and she was supposed to inherit whatever they had? The money he gave the sisters could be a little stipend compared to what she is truly worth,” Jade said, and Sonia nodded slowly.

“I think there is sense in this,” Sonia said, while Celsie thought about it.

If Candace was truly Sara’s daughter, then from what Sara had said, the people who had adopted her daughter were very wealthy. And if they had adopted her as a newborn, there was no way they wouldn’t have made financial plans and arrangements for her.

“It actually makes a lot of sense,” Celsie murmured after some time.

“It would be great if we can look into this and find answers for her. Who knows? She might have a lot of money waiting for her somewhere. I’d love to see her happy. Matt cares for her deeply,” Sonia said, making Jade remember that Matt had visited.

“Did Matt tell you guys he was coming over? He was here earlier to meet with her. I just realized I forgot to call to find out how she is doing and how her meeting with Matt went,” Jade said with a sigh.

She had too many things on her mind and she was barely giving enough attention to any of them. One minute she was worrying about how to handle the cartel’s case in court, the next second she was thinking about Candace and her adoption issue, next she was trying to figure out what package Jero had left for Candace, she was also thinking about the love triangle between Aurora, Harry, and her. And now she had to include Amos’ new assignment in it. Talk about overworking one’s brain.

“Matt traveled down there? Wow! I hope they are able to work things out. It seems like all the fun things are happening over there while I’m down here struggling with boredom and writer’s block,” Sonia complained, making Celsie remember that Aaron had said the same thing.

“You have no idea how lucky you are to not have too many things to worry about. I can’t even go to bed now even if I tried. My brain keeps coming up with stuff to think about,” Jade complained, while Celsie looked at them, wondering what they would think about her own situation if she told them the sort of reality drama she was featured in at the moment.

“Do you need help? You can let me know if you need me to help in any way. I have a lot of spare time right now,” Sonia offered.

“I wish it was something you could do. Unfortunately, they all require my direct help… Or maybe there is something you could help me do. How good are your investigative skills? There’s someone I’d like you to help me gather information on,” Jade said thoughtfully.

“If the person is a public figure, I could check for every single article on them on the internet, but if not, you’d have to give me another assignment,” Sonia said with a grin.

“She used to be a model so I’m sure you would find her information on the internet. I will text you her name after the phone call,” Jade said, and Sonia gave her a nod.

“By the way, how are things going with Harry? Any progress yet?” Sonia remembered to ask, and Jade groaned.

“That guy is really frustrating me right now,” Jade confessed, as she told them all that was going on between her, Aurora, and Harry, and her last phone conversation with Harry.

“He did that?” Sonia asked in surprise, wondering why Harry would hang up at such a crucial moment and not take Jade’s call or call back.

“Honestly, I’m getting fed up right now. I think I might just give up and…”

“You shouldn’t,” Celsie quickly cut in before Jade could finish, and both Jade and Sonia looked at her with interest since she had been silent for some time.

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