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Chapter 376 Unacceptable!

　　"You are Amy, I suppose?" Lucas asked, thinking that she looked familiar.

　　Seeing how she walked past him without waiting for a response, Lucas decided there was no need to respond to her question, so he sat on the couch, waiting for her to return after checking on her friend. 

　　Once Amy walked into the bedroom and saw Miley on the bed, she left her bag beside the door and hurried to sit beside her.

　　"Miley?" She called softly as she patted Miley's hair, and Miley's lids flickered open slowly when she heard the familiar voice.

　　"Amy? Is that you?" She asked drowsily.

　　"Yes, Miley!" Amy cried as she lay beside her and embraced her.

　　"Please don't cry. I don't need another headache," Miley pleaded, her speech slurred as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

　　For a moment, Amy assumed she was drunk, but since her breath didn't smell of alcohol, Amy concluded that she was either exhausted or had taken sleeping pills. 

　　"I won't, I promise. I won't," Amy said with a sniffle.

　　"Where is Lucas? Did he leave already?" Miley asked, and from the sound of her voice, Amy could tell she was battling with sleep. 

　　"Not yet. Why?"

　　"I don't want him to leave. Don't let him leave, okay?" Miley said, and Amy nodded as she patted Miley's hair.

　　"Don't worry. I will keep him here," Amy promised and held her close until she dozed off again. 

　　Amy stood and adjusted the duvet over her body before returning to the living room to join Lucas. Once she got there, Lucas raised his gaze from his phone to look at her. 

　　"What is wrong with her? Did she take sleeping pills?" Amy asked as she sat on the couch adjacent to where Lucas was seated. 

　　"It's a side effect of her pain medication. The pain was severe, so she took more than she should ordinarily take," Lucas explained, and Amy nodded even though her eyes were clouded with worry. 

　　"Now that you are here, I would like to take my leave," Lucas said as he pocketed his phone and stood up. 

　　"No. She doesn't want you to leave. Can you please stay?" Amy asked as she also stood to face him.

　　"No. I don't want to. You should convince her to inform her parents and receive treatment," Lucas said as he started to head for the door. 

　　"Please, don't leave," Amy said as she rushed to stand in front of him. 

　　Lucas raised a brow, "Why not?"

　　"I don't know what your relationship is, but she doesn't want you to leave. At least wait until she wakes up before leaving," Amy pleaded. 

　　"There is no relationship..." Lucas started to say but was interrupted by Amy.

　　"If I weren't here, you would have stayed with her, wouldn't you? So why not assume I'm not here and spend the night?" Amy asked, and Lucas scoffed. 

　　"How can I assume you are not here when you are here?" He asked with a slightly raised brow.

　　"Fine. I'm not here then," Amy said as she quickly grabbed her handbag from the couch and headed for the door. 

　　"Where are you going?" Lucas asked in disbelief.

　　"Somewhere away from here. I will return in the morning when she wakes up," Amy said, and before he could argue, she opened the door and stepped outside.

　　"Don't leave," Lucas said as he followed her out. 

　　"Then will you please stay? If it weren't something she wanted, I wouldn't be stopping you from leaving. Please stay," Amy pleaded, and Lucas ran his fingers through his hair impatiently before giving her a nod. 

　　"Fine. Let's go back inside," he said, and they both returned to the apartment.

　　"Thank you," Amy said softly, and Lucas gave her a curt nod as he returned to his seat and took out his phone once again.

　　"How is she doing?" Amy asked curiously.

　　"She is in pain, and she is sad. It's a good thing you are here to be with her. No one deserves to be alone at a time like this," Lucas said, and Amy bit her lower lip as she listened to him. 

　　"Thanks for staying with her," Amy said, and Lucas shrugged. 

　　"It's not like I had a choice. She is pretty persistent," Lucas said on a light note, and Amy smiled.

　　"Yes, she is," Amy said with a sigh, and they both lapsed into a round of silence.

　　After the silence had dragged on for a while, Amy glanced at him, "How did you meet her?"

　　"I met her right here," Lucas said in amusement, and then his brows pulled together when he realized that it had only been that morning when he woke up in her apartment, yet it felt like he had known her for a long time already. 

　　"As embarrassing as it is, and as much as I hate to admit it, I have to since I'm sure she will tell you about it eventually. I'm hoping it remains between us. By that, I mean my sister must not hear of it. I woke up here this morning. And according to her, she brought me here because I was drunk and passed out in a bar," Lucas said, and he watched as Amy's brows pulled together in a frown.

　　"I'm not an alcoholic. I don't have drinking problems. It was a one-time thing," Lucas said defensively when he noticed how she was staring at him.

　　"I didn't think you were an alcoholic," Amy said, and Lucas raised a brow.

　　"So what's with the look on your face?"

　　"I was wondering why she would pick up a random stranger because he was drunk and passed out and bring him back to her place," Amy said, and Lucas nodded. 

　　"You will have to ask her that yourself. I don't suppose you told Lucy anything about me being with your friend, did you?" Lucas asked, and Amy shook her head. 

　　"It skipped my mind," Amy said, and Lucas nodded. 

　　"I hope it continues to skip your mind," Lucas said, and Amy's lips twitched in amusement as she stood up.

　　"Excuse me, I need to unpack and freshen up," Amy said, and Lucas gave her a nod. 

　　"Take all the time you need."

　　"You are not going to try to leave when I'm away, are you?" Amy asked doubtfully, and Lucas raised a brow.

　　"If I were going to leave, I would have done so regardless of whether you're here or not," Lucas said, and she gave him a nod before walking away.

　　Once she left, Lucas sighed and relaxed against his seat as his thoughts drifted to Miley.

　　Why did he have to be so weak-willed? Why couldn't he just say no and walk away from here now that Amy was here to watch over her? He mused as he wiped his face with his palm.

　　He didn't need anyone to tell him that he had stayed back because he was worried about her and not necessarily because Amy had stopped him. He was gradually becoming entangled in her business, and he didn't want any of it. 

　　 ************

　　After freshening up, Jade went to knock on the door to Candace's bedroom, and a moment later, Candace opened the door, dressed in a bathing robe with a towel in her hand, which she was using to dry her hair. 

　　"Can I come in? Let's talk while we wait for dinner to arrive," Jade said, and Candace nodded as she moved away from the door to let Jade into the bedroom.

　　Candace sat on the padded stool by the dressing table, while Jade sat on the single couch in the room and stretched out her legs and crossed them at the ankle, "I received a call from Tom a short while ago," Jade started, and Candace sighed. 

　　"I guess you want to talk to me about the message I left him," Candace said, and Jade's brow shot up.

　　"Is there something I should know?" Jade asked as her intelligent blue eyes watched Candace piercingly.

　　Candace dropped the towel on her lap and folded both hands in front of her, "Like I already told you before, I'm a mother, and I'm looking out for my son even if it means I have to be selfish..."

　　Anger flashed in Jade's eyes, but she tried to keep her cool as she cut in, "I have no problem with you being a selfish mother. However, I have a problem with you pulling a stunt like that behind me..." Jade said and raised a finger to stop Candace before she could say another word. 

　　"I am not done yet. You might think you are doing me a favor by following me here to meet with Jero, but trust me, you are not. I am the one doing you a favor by trying to make sure I lock your dangerous baby daddy and his cohorts behind bars for life. You can decide to opt-out of this now, and that will be completely fine by me. Do you know why? I'm unaffected by it. Apart from the personal itch I will get over not closing the case, I can easily decide to take my hands off this case, resign from the law firm and move on with my life, and no one, I repeat, NO ONE would dare come after me. But I can't say the same for you, can I?" Jade asked, cocking her head to the side as she sat up and uncrossed her legs.

　　"You had no right to do what you did. That is my elder brother and his girlfriend we are talking about! You have no relationship whatsoever with them to dump such responsibility on them. He did us a favor by agreeing to accommodate you and Jamal, and he went an extra step by agreeing to watch over Jamal in your absence. What you did is UNACCEPTABLE!" Jade said, her voice rising as she spoke. 

　　Candace nodded, "You are right. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking straight. I really needed to ensure that Jamal would be well taken care of if something happened to me. And since he is fond of Lucy's parents and your parents, I thought he would be happier with Tom and Lucy. I should have talked to you first before doing that. I'm sorry," Candace said in a weary voice, then Jade took a deep breath to calm herself. 

　　"Let me get something straight. Is there something you plan to do that I don't know about? Do you plan to run away from here after meeting Jero?" Jade asked, and Candace shook her head.

　　"Of course not. I love my son and would not abandon him for anything. I just don't trust Jero. I don't have a good feeling about this meeting, so I'm trying to be sure that Jamal will be fine if anything goes wrong," Candace explained, and Jade frowned slightly. 

　　"I won't let Jero hurt you."

　　"That is not a promise you can keep, Jade. I know Jero. Do you really think someone as spiteful as Jero will let me be after I testified against him? The only reason I agreed to see him now is so that we don't have to keep running from him in the future. I want to end everything between us even if it means I have to kill him with my own hands," Candace said, and Jade shook her head. 

　　"We've been through this already..."

　　"I haven't changed my mind, Jade. Even while he was locked up in prison, we continued to live in fear. That is not the kind of life I want for myself or Jamal and Andy. I don't mind going to jail for his murder if it would mean that Jamal would grow up safe and not have to worry about such a father showing up in the future."

　　"I'm sorry, but like I told you already, I won't let you do something like that. I won't let you waste your life," Jade said with a shake of her head. 

　　"I'm not asking your permission, Jade. Just make sure Jero leads you to the Lords. Once he has fulfilled his end of the agreement, I will meet with him. Our meeting will determine whether I live or he dies," Candace said with determination. 

　　"You should think about your son. If you do anything to Jero and you get arrested, you could spend the rest of your life in jail. Who is going to look after him if something happens to you? Leave Jero to me. He is likely going to get a death sentence after all the people he has killed since he escaped from jail. And who knows? The lords might even kill him before he gets a chance to meet you," Jade said reasonably. 

　　"Jade, if you were in my shoes, would you leave Jero to chance or the law? Even when you know how corrupt the law is?" Candace asked, and Jade frowned.

　　"You should think about Jamal..."

　　"I am thinking about Jamal. I'm thinking about his future. If anything happens to me and your brother doesn't want to care for Jamal, can I trust you to make sure Jamal is well taken care of? At least until you hear from Andy. You can release him to Andy when she shows up," Candace said, and Jade's frown deepened. 

　　"Candace..."

　　"Can I trust you to do that?" Candace asked once again, and Jade sighed. 

　　"Yes."

　　"Thank you."