One Wild Night

Jade had spent most of the time reading up every article she could find on Rebekah Miller on the internet, until she suddenly remembered the phone which Mr Bateman had given her and she immediately picked it up.

How could she have forgotten such an important item? If truly Rebekah had sent her hitman after her because of the phone, then it probably contained something she shouldn\'t see.

Once she unlocked the phone, Jade decided to check the messages first, and she raised her brow when she noticed that the last series of text on it were exchanged between Rebekah and her late husband.

Jade\'s heart broke for Richard a little as she scrolled through the text to see the start of the texts.

[How could you do this to me, Rebekah? How could you treat me this way?] Richard had first sent, making Jade curious to know what he was talking about, but it seemed she had been the only one curious since Rebekah did not respond to the text.

[How could you have been cheating on me for so long? How can only Benny be mine? Why are Tiffany, Lisa, and Anita not a match?] Richard asked with an attached DNA result to prove his claims.

Jade\'s eyes were round with surprise as she looked through the results, and her eyes grew even rounder when she saw Rebekah\'s response.

[So? What are you going to do? Tell the girls that they\'re not yours? Go ahead and tell them then.]

Jade\'s heart broke as she thought about how Richard must have felt reading this. Did he weep? Was he mad? What sort of man was he? Jade mused curiously as she read his response.

[I am not going to do anything about it. I love my girls too much to put them through something as embarrassing as this. All I want is to be officially separated from you.]

Rebekah did not respond to the text anymore, and then two weeks later the next text from Richard came.

[Did you think I wouldn\'t find out? Did you think I would never know? I won\'t let either of you get away with this, Rebekah!]

Jade frowned as she wondered what he was talking about. It seemed like something had been deleted, Jade thought with narrowed eyes. Something told her it had to do with Mr Bateman and he deleted it. Perhaps it was when Richard Miller found out about their relationship?

That was the last text from Richard and there was no response from Rebekah. Jade checked the call log and noticed that Rebekah had given Richard a call that same day.

Jade went on to check the date and compare it to the date of Richard\'s death, and she wasn\'t surprised to see that Richard had died later that day.

According to the news, his estranged wife had been the one who discovered his body when she went to check on him.

Jade shook her head in disgust as she read through the details. It was said that Richard hung himself in his apartment and left a suicide note apologizing to his daughters for being a pathetic and incompetent father.

Jade jumped when her phone rang suddenly, and she smiled when she picked it up and saw it was Harry.

"Good morning, Jonas," Jade greeted with a yawn as she got out of her bed to stretch.

"Did you just wake up?" Harry asked curiously.

"No. I have been up since three a.m. What\'s the time now?" Jade asked as she glanced at the wall clock and gasped in surprise when she saw it was past eight already.

"Why were you up?" Harry asked.

"Why are you just calling me now?" Jade asked at the same time.

"I was busy. I had to make some international phone calls to take care of some stuff. Why were you up?" Harry asked again and Jade sighed.

"I had some nightmares," Jade said with an embarrassed wince.

"Why didn\'t you call me?" Harry asked with a frown.

"To do what? Chase the nightmares away?" Jade asked in amusement.

"Of course. I could have stayed up with you and kept you company since we couldn\'t really talk much last night because I was busy," Harry said, and Jade smiled.

"It didn\'t occur to me, and even if it did I wouldn\'t have called. You work really hard and you need to get all the rest you can. I can\'t disturb your sleep over…"

"I\'m asking you to do that, esquire. If we were on the same bed, wouldn\'t I be up with you?" Harry asked, and Jade sighed softly.

"I guess so."

"Even Tom wakes me up whenever he feels like…."

"What? How dare him disturb your sleep when he isn\'t even your girlfriend?" Jade asked irritably and Harry chuckled.

"I am allowed to disturb his sleep when I want to as well. Once I was ill when we were in school, and Tom nursed me in for nights. And another time my car broke down when I went to a remote location and there was no phone connection to reach him. Tom drove out in search of me in the middle of the night when he didn\'t hear from me after only thirty minutes. We have that sort of friendship," Harry explained, and Jade scowled jealously.

"If you were to choose between Tom and I who would you pick?" Jade asked, and Harry shook his head in amusement.

"I will choose Tom," Harry said simply and Jade\'s mouth fell open in disbelief.

"Harry!"

"Yeah. Tom would never ask me to choose between the woman I love and himself. So, I think until you learn not to ask me such a question, Tom will have to remain my first choice," Harry said and she scowled.

"As long as he\'s male, he\'s my brother, and he has Lucy, I can live with that," Jade said, and Harry chuckled.

"Why did you even bring up Tom\'s name in the first place?" Jade hissed.

"Just to let you know that if Tom can wake me up in the middle of the night, so can you. What have you been up doing anyway?" Harry asked, changing the subject.

"I was looking into Rebekah Miller, and checking out the phone," Jade said as she told Harry all she had learned.

"Well, all of that was expected. It\'s not surprising. Did you tell Candace about your plans for today?" Harry asked and Jade groaned when she remembered she was yet to give Candace a call.

"I haven\'t."

"You can do so after our conversation. I need to take care of a couple of things now so that Tom can find time to get some rest before the dinner," Harry said as he glanced at his wristwatch.

"Is he back?"

"Yes. Although, I haven\'t had time to talk with him yet."

"I see. That\'s good then. That means Bryan can go ahead with his engagement as planned. By the way, I should invite you now. Bryan plans to engage Sonia on Sunday. It\'s supposed to be a surprise so you can\'t tell Lucy about it. All you have to do is show up with your family," Candace said Harry raised a brow.

"Bryan and Sonia are getting married for real?" Harry asked in surprise and Jade smiled.

"Yeah. They\'re expecting a baby," Jade said, surprising Harry even more.

"Well, that\'s good news. I\'m happy for them," Harry said, wondering how Tom would feel after Bryan gets married and starts his family, and Jade does the same shortly after.

"Me too. Although I thought Tom would be the first amongst us to get married and start a family seeing as he has always been the one most interested in love and romance. He might just end up being the last after all," Jade joked.

"Jade?" Harry called, and she frowned.

"You hardly call me by my name. What?"

"Can you try not to repeat what you just said in front of Tom? It\'s going to upset him if you bring it up," Harry advised, and Jade raised a brow.

"Why would he be upset? Thinking about it now I think lately he gets upset a lot when it comes to such issues about him and Lucy. Why is that?" Jade asked thoughtfully.

"I can\'t tell you why. But since you\'ve noticed he is sensitive to statements like that, you should try not to say stuff like that around him," Harry advised.

"You\'re such a good friend to Tom. I\'m jealous," Jade said with a pout.

"I see we are back to that. I have to get busy now…"

"Wait! Don\'t hang up yet," Jade said, and cleared her throat.

"What else?" Harry asked when he noticed the slight pause on her end.

"I\'m sorry about yesterday. I acted rashly," Jade said making him smile.

"It\'s alright, esquire. You\'re fine, that\'s all that matters to me," Harry assured her.

"I was fine thanks to you. Thank you for looking out for me the way you did…"

"For Christ\'s sake, esquire. You don\'t have to thank me for that. You\'re mine to protect," Harry said, and she smiled happily at his possessive words.

"Are you going to keep calling me esquire?" Jade asked curiously.

"Is there something else you will like me to call you?" Harry asked, and she pursed her lips as she thought of it.

"I like esquire. It sounds sexy when you call me that. But others might find it weird," Jade said, and Harry nodded.

"Alright. I will figure out something to call you when we are with others. Something sweet enough to annoy the heck out of your brother. Don\'t forget to let me know before you leave for your meeting with the Millers, alright? You can leave a text. And take Candace with you. Take care of yourself. I love you," Harry said, and hung up before Jade could bring up another topic to keep him on the line.

Jade eyed the phone when she realized he had hung up, but a smile tugged on her lips as she sent him an \'I love you too\' text.

The smile slid off her face when her gaze returned to Rebekah\'s phone and she decided to give Candace a call to fill her in on what had happened and their meeting with the Lisa Steel.