There were still several hours to go until lunchtime. Madam Stockton and Sherry exchanged a look. Following that, Sherry turned to John and suggested, "John, wasn’t there a new gadget you’ve been talking about lately? Since Liam is here, why don’t you show it to him and see if he can tell you more about it?” John seemed intrigued by the idea. He turned to Liam. “Would you mind?” Liam answered gladly, "Of course not.” John seemed pleased to hear this. He turned around and motioned for Liam to follow. Liam gave Caprice a look before following John. Caprice wanted to follow the men, but before she could even take a step, Sherry and Madam Stockton made her stay with them. Sherry did her best to suppress a smile upon sensing her daughter’s anxious expression and told her, "Caprice, there’s something we want to talk to you about.” Caprice shot an unnerved, suspicious look at them. Madam Stockton stepped forward and ruffled her hair. She spoke with a note of concern
John's study was inside another courtyard. Caprice walked to the adjacent courtyard. Upon her arrival, she noticed that the windows of the study were open. Her eyes shone. She quickly tiptoed to the window, careful to not make any noise. She heard voices coming from inside the study. “It’s a very new project. If you’re planning to expand its scope, why don’t we work on it together? I just happen to be planning to expand into the Glanchester market.” It was Liam's voice. There was a gravitas in his voice that one usually would not expect coming from a person in his mid-twenties. She could not resist the urge to poke her head through the window and steal a peek inside. Liam and her father were seated on separate armchairs. Her father was in the middle of taking a sip from a teacup. He started shifting some documents around on the table, and that was when he suddenly directed a piercing gaze in Caprice’s direction. She recoiled from shock and quickly ducked away
Liam stopped. Caprice jerked away and fell over, landing on the ground with a soft thud. She saw her father standing in front of the window. Her cheeks were burning. She covered her face with her hands and did not even bother to pick herself off the ground. For the first time, she could spot a hint of nerves in Liam’s usually cool and composed expression. It went away as quickly as it came. After he recomposed himself, he went to Caprice and carried her in his arms. He turned to John and spoke solemnly, "Uncle Stockton, Caprice hit her head. I’ll carry her back to her room.” John cast a sharp look at him with a grunt, “Hm.” With that, Liam carried Caprice in his arms and started to walk away. Once they were out of the courtyard, she removed her hands from her face. She instantly met Liam’s eyes. He was looking down at her. He must have seen how rattled she had become, but he wore a faint smile. It looked like he was holding back laughter. Caprice shot a
Liam cast a blank look at her before taking the towel and drying his face with it. Then, he gently ruffled her hair. "Did I scare you back there?” Caprice shook her head. "No." She was slightly startled, but not to the point of being scared. Liam smiled faintly. "Sit down. Let me see your head.” Caprice did as she was told and sat down on a nearby chair. He delicately parted her hair with his slender fingers and studiously inspected the spot where she had just bumped her head when she was lurking outside the study. Caprice pursed her lips into a thin smile and told him, "Liam, I'm fine. It doesn’t even hurt anymore.” He seemed relieved. "Yeah." There was some slight redness, but there was no wound. After watching him return to his usual demeanor, she asked, “What happened to you back there?” It looked like he wanted to devour her whole. “Nothing.” After a pause, he added, "It's just… a common reaction from a man.” A common reaction from a man? Wha
After a while, she received a response from Liam. Instead of sending her a text, he gave her a video call. Her eyes shone with joy as she promptly accepted the video call. His charming and handsome face, which she had been missing for so long, showed up on the display. She greeted him with a brilliant smile, “Hey, Liam, finished with work already?” “Almost.” Liam leaned against his chair and asked with a sparkle in his eyes, “What have you been up to today?” “Same old, same old,” she remarked, then added shyly, “And I’ve been thinking about you.” It was true—she had been thinking about him. Something stirred in Liam’s eyes, and a shadow of a smile surfaced on his lips. “I’ll visit you in a few days.” Caprice was glad to hear this. “Sure!” She could fairly hear the voice of his assistant in the background. It sounded like the assistant was relaying a report. She said mindfully, “I’ll let you get back to work.” “Alright, make sure you don’t stay up late
John suddenly fell into a pensive silence, then he said curtly, “I’ll have one of my staff talk to you about it.” “Alright.” After a momentary pause, Liam remarked, “Uncle Stockton, I have a certain candidate in mind that could handle the project for you.” John asked suspiciously, “Who would that be?” Liam proposed, "Caprice." John fell silent. Meanwhile, Sherry who was seated in the car with him on their way back home noticed the queer expression on his face. She turned to him and asked perplexedly, “What happened?” John grinned, seemingly amused by the suggestion. He gave Sherry a look to say that he would tell her about it after the call, then he answered Liam, “Sure.” It was about time his daughter started getting involved with the family business. He knew that Liam had certain ulterior purposes behind this suggestion, but it was a good chance for Caprice to pick up some experience nonetheless. With that, he hung up. Sherry cast a strange look at him.
After breakfast, Caprice and John arrived at the Stockton Corporation headquarters. John personally walked her into the department in charge of the project. He made sure to leave behind a message with the supervisor before leaving. Soon, a personal desk was assigned to Caprice. Seated to her left and right were two senior members of the team, and they were going to be her assistants going forward. They were both in their thirties, one was a man named Logan, and the other a lady named Brianne. They seemed very friendly. It was only right that they would be very cordial with her. They were dealing with the future successor of the corporation after all. Most of the preliminary details of the joint project with Carter Tech City had been worked out. Brianne handed Caprice a stack of documents with the relevant information. Then, she went through everything along with Logan and made sure to highlight certain key phrases as well as some industry lingo that Caprice may be unf
“Alright, see you!” Caprice smiled briskly before hanging up. She then turned to Brianne. “Hey, Brianne, could you give me a rundown of the general procedures of a joint project?” Although the joint project with Carter Tech City was in ways nothing more than a formality, she still wanted to make sure she took it seriously. … It turned out that things were more tedious than she expected, and many kinks needed to be worked out. Even before she got involved, the team had already gotten started on the preliminary stages in preparation for adopting Carter Tech City’s new gadget into the market. When Liam arrived tomorrow, she would have to meet him with Brianne and Logan and have him sign the letter of intent, then they had to perform a site survey. All in all, the preliminary process of the project would take at least a month. The day passed in the blink of an eye. By the time she finished sorting out the work for the day, it was already dark outside. The office