Chapter 548 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

“You can tell me,” Jade said when she felt Benne’s hesitation.

“Sara sold her daughter. She sold her off and lied to Aaron that she was dead,” Benne said, and Jade who had been standing in front of her dressing table felt her head spin, and she lowered herself to the padded stool and sat down.

“She did what?” Jade asked, her heart shattering into a million pieces as she tried to comprehend what Benne had just said. The thought of it made her stomach churn.

“You heard me, Jade. We suspect that she is trying to come back into their lives because she is ill and needs an organ transplant. Under no circumstance must you let her know about Candace until Candace meets with Aaron and Harry,” Benne ordered, and before Jade could say a word, Candace knocked on her door.

“Jade? Are you sleeping?” She called in a somewhat excited voice.

“Let’s talk later, Benne. Candace is here,” Jade said and hung up the call immediately.

“You can come in,” she called out to Candace and then cleared her throat when her voice came out sounding cracked.

She stood up from the stool and looked at her reflection in the mirror as she tried to force a smile, but then her lashes were wet, and her lips were wobbling.

She wasn’t sure she wanted to see Candace right now. She was still reeling from the shock of all her discoveries, and hearing that Sara had not only abandoned Harry but had actually sold off Candace had been the final blow. She felt sick. She felt pained.

“Are you okay?” Candace asked from the doorway when she noticed the way Jade was staring at herself in the mirror.

“Yeah,” Jade said, trying to force a smile once again, but looking at Candace and remembering all she had been through despite having a loving father like Aaron and a caring brother like Harry, who had abandoned all he had been doing just to come to the aid of his best friend’s sister, made her sad, and before she could stop herself she broke into a sob and covered her face with her hands as she sat on the stool and started crying.

She cried for Harry who she couldn’t imagine what he would be going through at the moment, and for Candace who she couldn’t even imagine how she would feel when she eventually finds out the truth about how she ended up the way she did.

“What is wrong? Did something happen?” Candace asked in confusion as she dropped the envelope on Jade’s bed and walked over to the dressing table as she looked at her with a concerned expression, before embracing her.

Jade hugged her back as she cried while Candace patted her back, “Whatever the problem is, everything will be alright eventually. Stop crying,” Candace said as she handed her the roll of tissue paper on the dressing table.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Jade cried and she blew into a roll of tissue.

“There is nothing to be sorry for. You can cry as much as you want, I’m not complaining,” Candace assured her as she continued to pat her back, thinking that the documents she had come to show her could wait.

“But you should also know that I came to show you the content of Jero’s package. So you can either stop crying and take a look at it, or cry to your heart’s content and when you’re done I will leave with the envelope,” Candace said, knowing that would catch Jade’s attention, and immediately her head snapped up.

“What? You’ve opened it? What is inside?” Jade asked with a sniffle as her curiosity took over once again, and Candace smiled.

“I’ve never seen a more curious person than you or someone more predictable. That’s it on your bed. Why don’t you take a look,” Candace suggested, and immediately Jade stood up and walked over to her bed and upturned the content of the envelope.

Candace folded her arms across her chest as she remained standing by the dressing table while she watched Jade pore over the documents and pictures on the bed.

She smiled when she noticed how Jade stopped when she picked up one of the pictures, and thinking it was the picture of Rachel and Lucas, she raised a brow as she waited for Jade to speak.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Jade said as she looked up from the picture into Candace’s face.

“What doesn’t make sense?” Candace asked as she went to sit on the bed, and she frowned when she noticed that it was a different picture.

It was a picture of the late CEO of their law firm, and her boss, and on the back, Jero had written their names alongside a simple description, [Mr. Gregory’s attorneys].

Jade had a frown on her face as she tried to connect everything she knew together. If what Benne had said was true and the documents on the bed were correct, then it meant that Sara had sold Candace off to Gregory Peterson, and her boss had been a part of that transaction.

That explained why he was helping Sara find her missing daughter, and why they wanted to keep the case as hush as possible.

Did that mean her boss had assigned her to the case because he knew Sara’s husband and son, and by extension, knew of her brother’s relationship with Harry? Was that why he had wanted her to sign a confidentiality agreement? So she wouldn’t be able to tell her family about it? That had to be it.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Jade hissed under her breath. How come nothing made sense, yet everything made sense at the same time?

“Do you know them?” Candace asked curiously, and Jade looked at her.

“This my boss, and this is the late CEO of the law firm where I work,” Jade said, and Candace’s brows pulled together.

“Celsie’s twin brother is also there,” Candace said, and Jade looked at her in confusion.

“Lucas?” She asked, wondering what Lucas would be doing there. Although she had never seen him, she had heard a lot about him, and she also knew about his breakup with Rachel.

Candace rummaged through the photos and picked it out, “I don’t know his name,” she said as she handed the picture to Jade.

Despite her sadness and anger, Jade’s lips twitched in an amused smile when she saw the write-up behind the photo, “I think Celsie is going to like this.”

Jade couldn’t believe how everything was coming into light. Knowing Benne, and knowing Harry as she had come to know him, she knew that even if they had no direct business with Rachel, they were not going to allow this slide. Rachel had hurt both Celsie and Lucas, and Rachel’s father had stolen from Candace. It did not matter whether or not his brother had been wrong to buy someone’s child.

Inside Harry’s office, Celsie looked from Aaron to Harry and then back again, not knowing where to start.

Aaron gave her an encouraging nod, “Go on,” Aaron said and Celsie sighed as she took out her phone from her handbag.

“I recorded the conversation. So I think it’s best you listen to it. I will answer whatever questions you have afterward,” Celsie said, and they both gave her a nod.

Just as she wanted to tap the play icon on the recording she hesitated, “Before we go ahead, I would like you to know that until yesterday I knew nothing about any of this,” Celsie said, making both Aaron and Harry frown in confusion as they wondered what she was talking about and why she was saying that when it was a known fact that Aaron had told her everything just the previous day.

“We know. Let’s hear it,” Harry said, and this time Celsie gave him a nod before tapping on the play icon and setting the phone on the table.

She folded both hands together on her thighs, and her heart was beating fast as she listened to the recording along with them. She silently prayed that Benne would join them before it was time for her to explain the part of the recording that involved Aaron’s missing daughter.

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