EARLIER THAT EVENING
Cade got home after a long day; he had gotten a call from the DNA clinic, and they were telling him to come in for the result. He wanted to call up Ophelia and tell her about it but decided to wait until he saw he that evening; he was also itching to know how her first day at work went. He wondered if her father was stuck on the words she had let out that day.
“Welcome Mr Vale” one of the staff members greeted at the door as though she were waiting for him. The staff were not as much as the one he had at his family house but he still could not keep up with their faces even after they had introduced themselves.
“Thank you,” he said, waiting for her to clear out the door path so he could go through. One side of the door had been closed shut and she stood at the other side as if she were trying to prevent him from going in.
“You have a visitor.”
“A visitor for me?” he asked because it felt weird that someone would come here; he did not have friends to bring here and the only people who knew of this place were his family and there was no way his family would come here to see him.
“Yes, she is currently waiting in the living room,” the girl said, and Cade nodded.
“She?” he added with his head bobbing up and down. “What of Ophelia? Is she with the guest in the living room?” he asked because he had to know.
“No, sir, I believe Mrs Vale left the house a few hours ago.”
“She left the house?” Cade murmured to himself.
“I believe that is right,” the girl said before leaving the doorway and walking away till he could not see her small body again.
Cade walked to the living room, and even though as he entered all he could see was the back of her head, he knew in an instant that it was Harper; he knew her so very well that it was impossible for him to miss her even in a crowd. She was sipping from a glass of wine in her hand.
“Harper?” he said, walking to her. She stood and staggered to her feet; she was already drunk? Cade could not believe it; he wondered how long she had been here and that she was already drunk.
“Cade boo,” she slurred as he stopped in front of her. She stretched her hand to him and blew raspberries with her lower lips. “What took you so long, I have been waiting for a long time.”
“When did you get here?” Cade said, taking her hand to make sure that she did not fall with the way she was swaying from side to side.
“One, two, two hours ago?” she said in a questioning tone. “I don’t know, but I’m here,” she said happily with her mouth in a pout.
“What are you doing here? How did you get here?” he asked.
“I got here in a car, and I came to see you. Green told me he was hanging out with Opelai, and he told me to come hang out with you, and I was bored from waiting for you, so I drank a little.” She giggled and swayed again.
“But how did you know this place?”
“Green told me,” she whispered and then burst into a fits of giggle.
“He did?” Cade could not understand why Green would send his ex here if it did not mean trouble. Cade could smell from a mile away that Green had a lot of affection for Ophelia, and unfortunately, only Ophelia could tell. Why would Ophelai even go to see him? He wondered if she was still angry from what had happened this morning.
“Yes, he did. Let’s stop talking about Green and talk about us,” she slurred, trying to get each word out of her mouth but doing it with so much difficulty.
“Talk about us? What is there to talk about us?” Cade asked. She was in his past, and he had left that chapter in his past, and he was not going to go back to that at all.
“About our relationship, we need to talk about that. I know that.” She trailed off and then began to hiccup multiple times as if someone had thrown her into a spool of curses.
Cade felt uneasy about the fact that Ophelia was somewhere out with Green; he did not know what the capabilities of that man were, but it rubbed him in the wrong way. “Harper?” Cade said, snapping his fingers in her face, and she struggled to keep her eyes open. “Are you with me?” he asked, and she nodded.
“Yes,” she slurred.
“Do you know where Ophelia and Green went?” he asked, and she shook her head.
“If I tell you, would you run to her and leave me here?” she asked with a hiccup. She opened one eye with her other eye still shut as she was struggling to keep them open at the same time. “That look on your face tells me that you are planning to go and leave me all by myself here,” she added.
“I just have to know that she is safe.”
“Of course, she is with her best friend; she has to be safe. It is not like he is going to spike her drink and force himself on her.” She said and then closed her mouth as if she had made a mistake to say what she was not supposed to say. The way she said it made him believe that there must have been a discussion to make her say something like that. He wondered how Green and Harper met, but that was the littlest of his worries right now.
“Harper? What was that?” Cade’s eyes were wide, and shock was written all over his face.
“I don’t know,” she dropped to the couch, and Cade ran out of the house without thinking of looking back. He asked the security when Ophelia had left, and if she left with a driver, the security gave him the number of the driver. Cade drove to the bar as fast as he could. He got into the bar and rushed to the table, where he saw Green and Ophelia sitting. He held Green by his collar.
“What do you think you are doing?”