"Two-stepping with the woman I love
All my troubles turn to nothing when I'm in your eyes
Electrified, we'll keep turning up and go all night"
~-~-~
In the evening, Jeffrey showed up at my office regarding work. It had been a while since I had seen him, especially because he was drowning in work like myself. A few hours into analyzing documents together, there was a familiar knock on the door.
"Come in, Mathew."
Jeffrey looked up in amusement.
"Er... Mr.Campbell... Your wife said that you left your phone in the office, so she called me. She wants you to pick the kids up from their grandparents."
"Noted," Jeffrey smiled.
"I really am growing forgetful from all this work," he sighed and got up from the couch to stretch himself, "Where's Chelsea, by the way? I thought she was here instead of Mathew."
"He came back two days ago and I fired Chelsea. Besides, she was planning on resigning herself. It's better for the both of us," I replied.
He gasped, "Are you insane? Why would you do that?"
"She doesn't work as well as Mathew. He is far more qualified than her as he has experience in the field. Chelsea isn't even passionate about a corporate job."
Jeffrey ran a hand through his hair, "I understand from her part that it is frustrating working under you but... On your part? I mean... Your wife is at the click of your fingers here. What more could you possibly want?" He scoffed.
"She's always at the click of my fingers. Besides, it's too distracting."
Jeffrey pondered over my words for a while. "Especially with pencil skirts..." He sighed.
"Especially that," I shook my head.
***
When I returned home at night, I found Chelsea on the couch with our rainbow cupcake in her arms. There were crayons on the table and I noticed how Lucy was squeezing the crayon in her tiny fist. She even attempted biting the crayon or randomly stroking lines on the book that Chelsea held for her. My wife was laughing.
"I thought it would be fun to make her draw. She can't seem to stop now," Chelsea chuckled.
"Really?" I took Lucy into my arms. Almost automatically, my little girl kissed my cheek.
"Aww!" Chelsea gushed over her. Even I couldn't help but smile.
I sat back on the couch with Lucy on my lap, "What all did you draw, hm?" I kissed her head while flipping through the pages of the book as Chelsea went to get my dinner warm.
The pages had all kinds of lines and shapes on them with different crayons. Even though I couldn't make heads or tails of anything, my little girl was particularly excited while pointing at them. Lucy made all kinds of sounds and even took the initiative to flip a few pages for me.
When Chelsea returned to snuggle against my arm, our baby pointed at a dark blue mess of lines and said aloud, "Da!" It made her mother laugh again.
On flipping past most pages of the book, I came across a particularly good picture of a woman's face. Even though it was done with different shades of green and blue, it was far above the standard of a baby.
Chelsea flipped past that page. "It's just something I drew while spacing out," she mumbled.
"Wait, show it to me," I replied.
She promptly did while looking unimpressed at her own work.
"You took classes before?" I asked.
"Not really..." Chelsea blushed, "I was randomly watching Lara work in the kitchen, and this picture just came to me, you know. I did get an A for art in school though."
"I may not be an expert at this but..." I handed the book to her, "Without classes and experience, you have drawn quite well. Why not make it a career?"
She stared at me like I had grown two heads.
"That kind of thing, coming from you... Has the workload made you go crazy?"
I scowled at her, "I realize how difficult it is for artists to make money out of their talents. There are millions of them out there. But you're not part of that crowd, Chelsea. If you want to start a career out of this, maybe own a studio one day, then you'll always have enough assets for promotion. It's not like you ever ask permission before using my money. Why not use it for something resourceful?"
She didn't reply. Chelsea continued staring at the picture she had drawn.
"There are a lot of resources that teach you art online and through books. You could stay at home and learn them while taking care of Lucy. If you turn out to be really good, I might as well give you 5% of my company's shares."
"R-really...?" She gasped.
"Yes. It's not only about your art. Jeffrey told me that having more trustworthy partners after the incident with Mr.Choi could be extremely useful... If something like the freeze ever happens in the future—I assure you that it won't, but it's still wise to be cautious—I would prefer if you owned a part of my shares more than anyone else. Even if it's just a little, it would be a big help."
Chelsea's eyes immediately turned teary.
"Why are you crying?" I raised a brow.
"I- I never thought that y-you trusted me so much..." She sniffed.
If anything, I didn't want Lucy to inherit my wife's brains. She was fucking stupid if she couldn't see that I preferred her over most people.
"Don't act dumb." I got up with Lucy, "You're the person I trust the most in this world."
Chelsea groaned as a tear escaped her eyes, "Stop! That's the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me!"
***
"Leo, honey, wake up. Jeffrey's downstairs to meet you."
It was around midnight when Chelsea shook me awake. With the current workload, I was always dead tired at night. Whenever I fell asleep, my exhaustion would kick in so harshly that I barely heard anything at all.
"What...? Ugh..." I muttered while burying myself into the pillow.
"You need to wear some clothes, Jeffrey's waiting... And it's already raining outside... He has to go home after talking to you," she insisted.
Groggily, I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes awake. "This is not a dream," she chuckled while picking my pants from the floor. "He looks really excited to tell you something. He said that it's very urgent."
Chelsea was right. Jeffrey appearing at my home in the dead of night didn't seem like a joke. There were lights outside our room, and my wife had already wrapped herself in a robe and pajamas.
I pulled on my pants and wore the robe that she handed me. It was terribly cold outside, and the rain wasn't helping. When I got downstairs, I found Jeffrey drying his hair with a towel that Lara handed him.
"Why is everyone awake at this time?" I grumbled.
"Mr.Campbell arrived a few minutes ago, and I came upstairs to wake you or Chelsea, sir," Lara told me.
"You were sleeping like a log, so I came downstairs to check myself. He was all soaked from the rain."
"Yeah, heh. Thank you for the towel," Jeffrey smiled.
"Well, why are you here?" I raised an eyebrow.
"He's been caught, Leo. Patrick Flaurenz has been caught!"
My eyes widened upon hearing the news, "What?"
"Yeah! That's why I came all the way here!"
Fucking hell. That was wonderful news. The best I had received in a long time.
"Get my bottle of scotch," I told Lara who hurried towards the kitchen. "And you, sit down," I pointed at Jeffrey. He chuckled and did as told.
"Who's Patrick Flaurenz?" Chelsea asked while sitting on the couch next to me.
"You haven't told her?" Jeffrey asked in amusement.
"He tells me nothing," she rolled her eyes.
"Well, Patrick Flaurenz used to work under Mr.Xander years ago until he got fired. The man held a grudge, you see, and returned with an alias: Reed Fischer. Even though he claimed to be working under Mr.Choi, he was the one who had been manipulating Mr.Choi in the first place. When the freeze abruptly lifted, he escaped from the country. The private investigators under me had been looking for him for a while, even cops were."
"Where was he found?" I asked my lawyer.
"In a little hotel on the outskirts of Peru. I can't believe he actually went that far out of fear," Jeffrey chuckled. "He has been arrested now, don't worry. They took him for questioning and now he says that he's completely innocent. It was his partner who did all the technical stuff including the phishing email, blocking your accounts, and everything."
"His partner? The hacker?"
"Yes, the one we had guessed about. Certainly, Patrick wouldn't have the technical know-how to carry out something like that. It only makes sense that he has a partner, and a skilled one at that. But the only thing we know about this partner is their name—Scythe," Jeffrey sighed.
Lara had already poured two glasses of scotch, one for him and one for myself since Chelsea disliked the taste. He took a sip of the alcohol and turned to me for a response.
"Scythe? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" I knitted my brows together.
"After Patrick got fired from your company, he took it too personally and began an online thread where he continued posting 'anti-Xander' content as he liked to call it. That man is a bit lost in the head. Out of the blue, a user named Scythe began texting him and they devised a plan together which was the Freeze. When the cops checked his forum and DMs, they only found messages from his side. It is obvious that he was talking to someone but all messages from Scythe had been deleted. It couldn't be retrieved no matter what," Jeffrey explained.
I took a sip of Scotch.
Scythe. The name didn't ring a bell at all.
"After questioning Patrick for hours, we know that he was the one who devised the main plan. Even though Scythe had initiated things, they didn't take part in the planning. Scythe only did the technical things that Patrick asked for. Hence, Patrick is responsible for everything. But the cops are investigating Scythe, so you have nothing to worry about now," he smiled.
"You don't think that Scythe is a single person, do you?" I looked up at him.
He leaned back on the couch and crossed his arms, "Do you? Because it almost seems hard for a single person to carry out the Freeze and I wouldn't be surprised because you certainly had created too many enemies 'back in the day'"
Even Chelsea snickered at his comment.
"But what I don't understand is Scythe's motive. Patrick had a clear explanation for doing what he did and if Scythe holds the same grudge towards you, they would have shown it. They try expressing their wrath through something. It is a basic criminal mindset. But... Scythe seems to be after something else and I can't pinpoint what that something is..." He sighed, "I hypothesize that whoever Scythe is hasn't targeted you personally... Instead, it could be a grudge against billionaires in general. Maybe there have been even more victims of Scythe."
"If... 'Scythe' is that dangerous... What if they do the Freeze again?" Chelsea asked him.
Jeffrey spun the glass in his hands. "That is unlikely since they know that we are well prepared. It would be almost impossible for them to get away without leaving a trace a second time. If Scythe is as smart as we believe, they wouldn't attempt it."
"And about Patrick... Make sure he gets a hard sentence."
"Of course, boss," Jeffrey smiled.
He emptied his glass and got up from the couch. "Well... that's all I came here for. I was too excited and I thought that it would be a better idea to tell you in person. I am sorry for waking you up in the middle of the night," he turned to smile apologetically at the women.
"No, that's alright. I'm just glad that we know who the perpetrator is," Chelsea replied.
When the rain died down, Jeffrey took that as his cue to leave. Lara turned off the lights again as my wife and I headed upstairs. We even checked in on Lucy before returning to our room. She was sleeping comfortably in her large cradle, surrounded by stuffed toys of all kinds.
I pulled out her thumb from her mouth and wiped the trail of saliva down her cheek.
My little angel was sleeping without a care in the world.
It would always be like this.
She wouldn't have to worry about anything as long as I was around.
I'd make sure of it.
"He came so far just to tell you the news, that was very kind of him," Chelsea smiled while getting under the sheets with me.
"He was just doing his job," I replied.
"You're too proud to admit that he was looking out for you," she chuckled.
"He... well, he is reliable in a way. I don't think we should give him any more credit than he deserves for doing his job."
"Whatever you say," she sighed.
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Lyrics: 2step by Ed Sheeran
Last Edited - 11/02/24