“Dad seemed so happy,” Ophelia said as she drew away from having lunch with her dad. Carter had tried to remain as calm as possible, but it seemed a bit hard for him considering the fact that he had been expecting the news. He happily declared to Ophelia that she could leave the entertainment house and resume as vice chairman immediately. She told him that she wanted to finish the work she started and would only resume as the chief chairman as soon as she was done with the agenda she set out to do at the firm.
“Why did you turn down his offer then?” Cade asked a bit worried that she was staying at her current position so he did not feel bad about himself. His family was at war, and hers was basically a breeze in the park. She had no siblings to rival against each other.
“Turn it down? I only delayed it.”
“Why?”
“Just because,” she replied, shrugging.
“Ophelia, if you turned it down because of me…” he trailed off, his hand clutching the steering wheel.
“Cade, I did not turn it down because of you,” she said, talking instead of waiting for him to finish his statement. I did this for me; I do not want to become the chairman in the future and then have people try to take me down because I did not have any form of experience. This would be a form of experience for me for a year.”
“But the role of vice chairman allows you to rest more,” he murmured before adding in an even lower voice. “For when the baby comes.”
“I am a strong woman; you do not need to worry about me.” She said dismissing it. He wanted to bring it up, but if she said it was okay, then he wanted to trust her wholeheartedly.
“Okay then,” he said, nodding his head.
“Where are we going?” she asked, raising her head to look at the road when she saw that he was going in the opposite direction of their house. She had wanted to change into something fancy for the date. She did not decide what she wanted because he refused to tell her what kind of date it was.
“You will see in a moment” he murmured taking a turn almost immediately.
“Am I supposed to go looking like this?” she asked, looking down at her dress.
“You look very beautiful in that.”
“I know that I look beautiful in everything, but still,” she groaned as she did not like to appear in public with him looking underdressed.
They got to the venue that Harper had happily curated somehow, thinking that it was for her. She was standing outside the door in a backless red dress that barely stopped at her mid-thigh. Her hair was in a high ponytail at the back of her head, making her face look tighter and younger than it was. She had a smile plastered across her face as she saw Cade’s car appear.
The smile on her face began to fade when she noticed that he was not alone. She could see the face of the person who was his partner from the glass, so she waited till the person came down. Cade came down and rounded the hood of the car. He came to the side and opened the door, standing his hand to the person in the car who took it. She could not control her expression when she saw Ophelia step out of the car.
“What is she doing here?” she asked, marching over to them. This was her moment, and she was not going to let this woman get in the way of that, no matter what happened.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, facing Ophelia, who stood there in clothing that did not fit the occasion.
“What am I doing here? I am on a date with my husband.” Ophelia did not know the full scope of why she was asking her questions but she wanted to spite her about it.
“On a date with your…” Harper trailed off as her eyes dragged off Ophelia and lazily dropped on Cade. “This was not from me?” she asked, taking a staggering step backwards.
“For you?”
“This dinner date was not for me.” She said again, and Cade blinked rapidly and randomly as if she were trying to understand what she had said. It made no sense.
“How can I ask you to reserve a date for yourself?”
“I thought that you wanted to… come back to me,” she stammered as she took up her fingernails and began biting on them. She had even taken out time and tried to make her nails presentable, at least so she looked good in his eyes.
“Wait,” Cade said, taking a step forward. “did you think I asked you to do this for yourself?”
“Yes,” she said softly. He raised his eyebrows at her.
“Please explain to me how you came to that conclusion from what I told you to do over the phone.”
“I mean, why would you ask me to set up a dinner date for you?”
“Because you are my assistant,” Cade said, taking a deep breath and pressing down his nose bridge. “An assistant is supposed to be able to do things like this,” he added with annoyance laced in his voice.
“Don’t you think that is too cruel?” She choked seeing what had happened. Maybe it was true that an assistant was able to plan a date, but one thing she could not wrap her head around was what he had said to her. It was obvious he had asked her to prepare this just to humiliate her. “You did this to…” she trailed Knwong, saying that if she was not interested in him, there would be no way that it would ever happen like this.
“How so? I asked you to prepare a dinner reception for myself and my wife, and you went ahead to think I was doing it for you; how is that my fault?” he asked.
She cleared her throat and blinked back tears she felt threatening to drop out of her eyes. “Yes, of course this is on me. I made a mistake,” she said before walking out of the place. She could not stand being there. As she approached the gate of the restaurant, her phone buzzed with a message, so she took it out and reaad it, but strangely, her mind was unable to comprehend what she was reading.
Hello Harper, Abigail does not need your help with Cade anymore and she would like you to move out of the house within a month.
-Frances