“Finally! The devil has returned,” Jin heard Alexandre Martin say. Alexandre is t second cousin of his father and he had been serving as his father’s right hand for many years.
Jin gave him a hard look. Alexandre looked up towards the second floor for a moment and then he said to him, “Come to the library with me first. I must brief you before you face your father.”
“That’s hardly necessary,” Jin said.
“Oh no. This time it is. Trust me.” Alexandre turned around and walked towards the library, leaving him without a choice.
Jin followed Alexandre to the library. Once inside, the latter poured a glass of whisky for both of them.
“First, your father is going to ask you why you had to stay in the States for longer than you should have. He’s going to ask you how White Rock was and how the event for the Morgan-Murphies went,” Alexandre began briefing him.
Jin opened his m
Pierre Starck was talking to somebody on the phone when Jin entered his study. The older man held his hand up, telling Jin to stay where he was. Jin went to the bar and poured himself another glass of whiskey, while he waited for his father to finish his phone call.“Jin Adrien Starck!” he heard his father’s booming voice behind him.Slowly, he turned around to face his old man.Pierre Starck was looking at him sternly, raising a questioning brow at him.“Okay, so where do you want to start?” Jin asked in a low, controlled voice. “I’m sure you have plenty of questions.”“Okay, so how about we start with, ‘What the fuck have you done to my son?’”Jin didn’t answer back. He drank his whiskey slowly. He knew better than to cross his father when he was this mad.“First, you need to explain what happened at that party. You knew the program! You agr
Julianne stood at the footsteps of the ballroom of Mayfair Court. At the last minute, Justin asked her to step in for him and Adrienne to represent Adams Industries in the prestigious Round Ten event. This was a yearly event organized by the top ten hotel groups around the world. It was as exclusive as the companies organizing it.Julianne didn’t want to go. She had been dreading this since yesterday when Justin begged her to step in for them. But Jeffrey broke his arm in his martial arts class. He had to stay in the hospital to determine whether he needed surgery, and both Justin and Adrienne wanted to stay with him. Julianne pretty much didn’t have a choice.She had better things to do. She was getting ready to move out of the Adams Mansion. And tomorrow, she would spend the weekend at her new apartment. She planned to paint and do whatever repairs and decorations needed to be done in the house. She wanted it to be perfect when Jared finally came home. Sh
She felt her knees start to buckle as electricity started shooting up to her veins. She bit her lip as she struggled for control.I cannot fall for this anymore!“Jin… stop,” she whispered as she pulled away from him.She turned around to look up at him, trying her best to appear stoic, or cold at best.“I wasn’t here with Vanessa,” he started to explain.“It doesn’t look like that to me.”“She asked me to dance in front of her father and some of our colleagues. I couldn’t say no,” he said.“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain,” she said, turning away from him and glancing at the garden in front of them. “Do I look like I care?” she lied.He fell silent for a second. Then he said, “Okay, maybe you don’t care. But I still want you to know that I didn’t come here with her. And I’m most cer
“Good morning,” he greeted her.“It’s six in the morning,” she said. “What are you doing here?”“Waiting for you. You told me you have an early start, so I made sure I would catch you before you go,” he replied.“Why?”“I told you last night, we needed to talk, remember?”“I’m busy,” she muttered. “I need to do something for the whole weekend.”Without warning, he took the bag she was carrying away from her.“Hey!” she protested. “What are you doing?”“I’m going with you,” he replied.“No!”“Why not? Is it an ‘invitation only’ event?”“No. But I planned to do this by myself. And I don’t need you to talk me out of it or convince me to stay here!”“Who said I was going to do that?”&
Jin and Julianne finished their shopping and reached the counter to pay for her purchases.“We have some items for delivery. We’d like them to be delivered within the day,” Jin instructed the guy on the counter.“Sure, you can arrange that on the way out once I give you the bill. There might be a premium for rush delivery.”Julianne was about to say it’s okay to have them delivered the next day, but Jin was quick to say, “No problem. We want them today.”Yeah, I forgot. He’s rich. I’m not!The cashier finished punching all the items and told them the total. Jin took his wallet from his pocket, but Julianne gave him a warning look, “Don’t even think about it!” she hissed. “This is my stuff.”He held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, fine.”She handed the cashier her debit card and she tried it on their machine. Julianne turned
She realized what she just said and immediately she regretted the last words that came out of her mouth. She shook her head. “No. That’s not what I meant. I’m sorry.”“I can’t say I blame you or the others who say I don’t have a heart,” he murmured. “Looking back at the last six years of my life… I probably would say the same.”She sighed sadly. She didn’t know if she was the reason for that. If Jin really did love her in the past, then she left him broken and vulnerable. And his way of fighting back, of protecting himself from the pain was to become guarded and untrusting… careful of feeling emotions, but careless of others’ feelings.“Where do you want to start?” she asked, changing the subject.“The wall. Let’s paint it before the delivery arrives,” he replied. “Let me get the plastics and the tools to cover the edges.”
Julianne spent the rest of the afternoon washing the curtains and beddings so she could dry them and use them immediately. The delivery came around three in the afternoon and Jin paid the delivery guys extra so they could assemble and install the shelves, tables and chairs.Julianne cooked pesto pasta and baked éclair squares. Then she prepared a blend of fruit juice. She brought the tray out in the backyard for Jin.She found him talking on the phone, with his back towards her.“Gatwick, just get it done,” he was saying to the other person on the line. “I will give you the address and phone number by email. Tell the guy that money is not a problem. Pay him a premium. Double the price if needed. Then I want works to commence immediately after you close the deal.” He paused to listen to the other guy. Then he added. “No. Dad will not question this because I will not use Starck Corp’s resources. It’s my personal pro
Julianne woke up in the middle of the night. She could hear the rain pitter-pattering on the rooftop. It was dark in the room. She could feel Jin’s arms around her, encaging her in his warm embrace.She fidgeted slightly and immediately, she felt him move beside her.“Are you okay, Arabella?” he asked.“You’re a light sleeper.”“Now, I am,” he said. “If I slept like this seven years ago, I would have woken up when you were sneaking out of my apartment. And you wouldn’t have gotten away.”“And my father would have come for me, making your life a miserable hell.”“He wouldn’t do that,”“Ha! My father is full of shocking revelations,” she muttered.He drew his brows together and then he stared at her for a long moment, studying her face.“What?”He shook his head. “What does your father do exc