Chapter 534 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“I’m just trying to be realistic…”

Benne sighed, “As the CEO I could suspend you indefinitely for a month if you commit the perfect offense, what do you think?” Benne asked, and Celsie giggled.

“I’ve worked too long and hard to get here, I won’t taint my reputation for a vacation. It might interest you to know that I have received offers from other rival fashion firms trying to poach me,” Celsie said, and Benne raised a brow.

“Are we bragging now?” He asked, and Celsie wiggled her brows at him making him chuckle.

He knew how much she loved her job and how much pride she had in her work, so there was little or nothing he could do right now. He had promised to support her in pursuing her career and he had to do his best.

“So do you plan to give up our personal vacation for the family vacation?” Benne asked, and Celsie shook her head.

“No. We are only postponing it. For this year we have to go on a vacation with the family as planned. If Paris or Maldives were places we could go on a weekend getaway we could have done that. So since we may not be able to travel that far out now, we can go for private weekend getaways to nearby locations when we can. And leave the other places for some other time,” Celsie suggested, and Benne gave her a nod.

“Okay, that works,” Benne said as he reached out to play with her hair.

“I wish today was Sunday,” Benne said, and Celsie raised a brow.

“Why Sunday and not Saturday?”

“Because you’d be busy on Saturday, but on Sunday you have nothing doing so we can just stay in bed all morning like…” The rest of his words trailed off when someone knocked on the door.

“Celsie?” Jamal called, making Benne groan.

“That goes our moment of sweetness,” Benne said, and Celsie giggled as she got out of bed to go see Jamal.

“Good morning, Jamy Jam,” Celsie greeted when she opened the door and saw the bright-eyed kid.

“Good morning, Celsie. Are you not going to the office today?” He asked when he noticed that she was not dressed for work yet.

“What do you want from my girlfriend?” Benne asked as he joined Celsie by the door.

“Good morning to you too,” Jamal greeted with a pleasant smile, and Benne narrowed his eyes at him wondering what he was up to.

“We are going to work soon. Are you okay? Did you sleep well?” Celsie asked, and Jamal gave her a nod.

“Can I come to work with you? Please?” Jamal asked, looking at them both with puppy eyes.

“Jam, the office is no place for a child, and…”

“I will be lonely. Samantha and the others are going grocery shopping today. I don’t want to go with them it’s boring,” Jamal explained, and unable to say no to him when he was looking at her that way, Celsie turned to Benne.

“There is no place for him to stay at the company,” Benne said when he noticed the way Celsie was blinking at him now with puppy eyes of her own.

“I heard Adolf saying you have a room in your office. I could stay in there quietly. Please. I want to see what your office looks like,” Jamal pleaded still looking at him with puppy eyes as he tugged on Benne’s pyjamas and Benne sighed.

“Yes, he does. You can take him in through the private elevator. No one is going to see him,” Celsie said, and Jamal bobbed his head.

“I promise not to cause any troubles. Cross my heart,” Jamal said as he placed both hands front of his chest.

How was he supposed to say no to them both when they were both staring at him that way? It wasn’t his fault that he was a sucker for the woman, and had a soft spot for the kid who was fast growing on him, Benne mused, “If you are not ready by the time we come downstairs, I won’t wait for you,” Benne said, and immediately Jamal embraced Celsie and ran off to fetch Samantha.

“I should go get his mom’s DNA sample now,” Celsie said when she remembered that she was yet to do that.

Benne gave her a nod, “I will give them a call to prepare them to receive it,” Benne said, and just as Celsie headed for Jamal’s room, she hesitated and looked back at Benne when she remembered something.

“Jade is working on something related to Sara. I don’t know what it is. Did you tell her anything? Or do you think Harry did?” Celsie asked, and Benne’s brows pulled together as he shook his head.

“I didn’t say anything to her, and I’m not sure Harry did. What did she say about Sara?” Benne asked curiously.

“I will find out the details from Sonia later. I need to hurry so we can get ready for work,” Celsie said before walking away, and Benne sighed as he returned inside.

They were back to reality where they had enemies to put down, and friends to raise.

He was glad that he had been able to spend those few minutes laughing and making future plans with Celsie. That precious moment was what he was going to hold on to, to see him through the craziness of the day ahead.

Harry lay on his bed staring at the ceiling, unsure whether or not he was in the mood to get out of bed. He sighed when his bedside alarm went off and it dawned on him that he had stayed awake all through the night.

All through the night he had tossed and turned restlessly as he tried to make sense of the situation, but no matter how hard he thought about it or how much time he spent thinking about it he couldn’t figure out what was going on.

What did it mean that Sara Walker looked exactly like his mother? Did it mean that his father had lied to him about the identity of his mother? Was Sara probably his mom’s twin sister and his father had lied to him that she was an orphan? What could have prompted him to want to keep him away from Sara? Why did her calls upset him so much? Why had Benne been equally upset and dragged him off that way? What were they all hiding?

During dinner, he had barely been able to concentrate on anything else, as the only thing on his head had been the name ‘Sara Walker’ and the question of how she was related to his late mother.

He had been very tempted to ask his father about it, but he had decided not to as he listened to his father singing praises of Celsie and talking about how Benne was lucky to have her in his life, and how he hoped Harry would find a woman like her too.

He was going to wait for the person he had assigned to dig into her life to call back with information on Sara. Even after knowing about it, he wasn’t going to say a word of it to his father or anyone else until they opened up to him first. He wanted to see just how long they planned to hide whatever they were hiding.

He reluctantly sat up as he rubbed his eyes which were feeling heavy. Never in his life had he felt so sleep-deprived. The day was yet to start but he was sure it was going to be anything but pleasant. He was already in a foul mood and he felt sorry for anyone that would dare to default at work today.

Once he got off his bed, he changed into his workout clothes before walking out of his bedroom to his exercise room. As he walked past his father’s bedroom, he hesitated at the door for only a moment before moving on.

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