Chapter 2: Mister Jade

“Hello,” Kate answered the call in her bedroom voice. Her eyes were still shut and puffed from all her crying last night. Her chest felt so heavy, and her heart seemed to be broken. 

Kate was unwilling to get up that weekend. She had the craziest Friday, going to New York, hoping to speak to Carlos Ronaldo once and for all. 

Sadly, her goal never materialized. She witnessed Carlos and Hailey Mckenzie briefly kissing on stage, and that was it for her. Her hopes were crushed altogether. Kate left without getting the answers she had longed to hear. 

“Miss Wright, this is Frederick of JetSuite charter flights. Good noon. I am calling to make sure your flight went smoothly, and we were hoping that you could give us feedback on the service we provided you last night,” the man said on the other line. “We sent you a survey through the email.”

‘What? It’s noon already?’ Kate sat up and rubbed her eyes. Then, after clearing her throat, she weakly replied, “Yes, Frederick. All went well. Thank you very much for arranging the flight at the very last minute. And yes, I will give my feedback. You helped me so much last night.”

After fleeing The Four Seasons Hotel, New York, Kate remembered how she went straight to the airport, hoping to get a combined flight to Braeton, but there was none. 

Luck would have it. Frederick, the ground manager for JetSuite, approached her, offering a charter flight. The more surprising thing was, he provided the service for half the price! She was fortunate. Regardless of how the elderly man found her and seemed to have understood her needs, she did not care. Last night, she badly wanted to get home, and fast. There was no safer place to cry it all out but in the four corners of her bedroom. 

Frederick told her it was because her father, Ethan Wright, often availed their services, and that was how he quickly remembered her.

Truth be told, Kate recognized Frederick as well. She had recently traveled with her older brother on two business trips to New York. Kate was confident Frederick was the same man who received them on one occasion. Still, the warm welcome and the huge discount were unexpected. 

“Thank you, Miss Wright,” said Frederick. “I will be expecting your email. And, of course, if you could put in a good word for us to your father and brother, that would be a great help for JetSuite.”

“Definitely, Frederick, and thank you for checking on me. It was very nice of you,” Kate admitted. 

After the call, Kate groaned as she rested her back on the bed. She clenched her jaws at the picture of Carlos locking lips with Hailey. Then, she reminded herself, “Stop it, Kate. Stop it! You have already decided to give up.”

She took her bath and ate her late breakfast. When she was done, she opened her laptop and checked the charter flight company’s email survey. Before she went through the survey, she noticed an email from a company called CSK Apparel. The said email arrived in her inbox minutes before JetSuite’s survey request. Kate was curious about how the subject line suggested they had a job offer for her. 

She read the email, “Dear Miss Wright. We saw your profile from Corporate.com, and your qualifications impressed us -”

“Oh, my god. I can’t believe I still had my profile on there,” Kate muttered, recalling how Corporate.com was an employment website The Wright Diamond Corporation had invested in. Everyone in the company was encouraged to enter their work profile just to bring traffic to the website, but Kate honestly thought she had already deleted her information. 

Kate shrugged, saying, “Oh, well.”

She took her time reviewing the company. The more she read about it, the more she became interested. Kate loved fashion, and she especially liked how CSK Apparel was a start-up company. It will bring in challenges, but most of all, it was open to many new ideas that she has so many to offer. 

To her surprise, the said company had a very substantial financial backup. It occurred to her that the company had big dreams with big investors. Thus, she went ahead and responded to the job offer. 

*** 

For the rest of the day, Kate decided to do some online shopping. It was her best bet to getting Carlos out of her head. She searched for new pieces of jadeite jewelry on auction and found one to her liking. 

Kate was the third child in their family. Her older brother, Kyle, was the CEO of The Wright Diamond Corporation, the company belonging to their family and that of her father’s forefathers. Her older sister, Kenzie, was in the UK. Kenzie married a London boy. Then, there was Kaleb, her twin brother.

Kenzie, her sister, was into diamonds. Kate, on the other hand, was into jades, both nephrites and jadeites. She was obsessed with collecting such pieces even when she was fifteen.

She was about to buy a pair of earrings when someone knocked on her door. “Kate, there is a delivery for you.”

“Um. Okay, have the guards checked it?” She asked whoever was the maid behind the door. 

“Yes, they are checking the package, but the item is inside a velvet box. They think it’s jewelry,” the maid replied. 

Kate did not particularly recall if she had ordered anything recently, but she went down to receive her package. 

In the living room, Kate gawked at the velvet box with a note that said, “I’m sorry.” She wondered what that meant because, as far as she was concerned, no one had offended her in the last months. 

She opened the box cautiously, and her eyes widened at the view of a pair of jadeite earrings, the same one that she bid for at an online auction site over a week ago. Kate’s lips could not help but form into a circle. She exclaimed, “Oh, my god!”

Being a jade collector, Kate had all the tools needed to test the authenticity of such jewelry. Thus, after putting the pair of earrings to the test, she wore them proudly, flaunting her new jadeite jewelry at dinner. 

“Oh, is that new?” Samantha Wright, a woman with golden hair, said. She had the same pair of blue eyes as Kate. 

Kate smiled, answering, “Yes, mom, and it is a real jadeite.”

“I’m happy for you, sweetie,” said her mother. 

“Did that come from your Mister Jade again?” Kate’s father, Ethan Wright, walked in. He stood tall, authoritative as usual. His chin was up while his brown eyes were precisely studying the studs on her ears. 

Kate smirked and replied, “There was no name on the card. It might be him.” As she replied, Kate silently reflected, ‘But then again, why would he say sorry?’

“Hmmm.” Ethan pulled a chair in front of the table and said, “Well, usually, Mister Jade sends you these gifts on your birthday. But today is not your birthday.”

Four years ago, Kate started receiving gifts from Mister Jade on birthdays. Mister Jade never missed greeting and gifting her a piece of valuable jade. May it be jewelry or a piece of handcraft. Unfortunately, her family never found out who Mister Jade was, nor did Kate’s father put much effort into knowing his name. In Ethan’s view, as long as the jades were harmless, he did not mind that his daughter was receiving admiration gifts. 

It was expected. Kate was beautiful, after all. Even Kate’s older sister had lots of gifts during her birthdays. Heck, even his sons received admiration gifts. 

“It’s a beautiful piece, Kate,” Samantha remarked. 

Kate could not help but smile from ear to ear. While she was heartbroken again because of the same man, she at least had a new pair of her favorite gemstone dangling over her ears. 

“Whoever gave you those earrings… seem to know you well, Kate,” her father suggested. “Do you want me to trace whoever this Jade Admirer is?”

“Why not?” Samantha suggested. “Who knows, he might actually be a nice person.”

Kate contemplated, but soon she nodded in agreement, saying, “Okay, dad. Why not? You would be able to find out who is… Mister Jade.”

*** 

Meanwhile, miles away, a man with striking features was walking onto the runway, ready to board his private jet. When he reached the foot of the aircraft’s boarding stairs, he turned to the ground manager and asked, “Did she get home safely?”

“I believe so, sir. She answered the email survey from her home,” the ground manager replied. 

Getting on the plane, the same towering man received an update from his assistant, “She replied to the job offer, sir. She would like to know more.”

“And the kiss incident?” The man with grey eyes sought. 

“All taken care of, sir,” his assistant said. “No word nor photo will leak to the public.”

“Good. The house?” The man asked. 

“Paid for, sir. Renovations are on the way,” his assistant replied.

Looking distantly through the airport porthole, the same striking man faintly said, “Two more Grand Slam, Kate. Two more. It will all be over soon.”