After Dawson left, Jasper turned to hug Wendy. Smiling, he spoke, “Thank you.”
“For what?” Wendy tilted her head and blinked confusedly.
“Thank you for caring about me,” Jasper spoke as if he could not be any clearer.
“Who else is going to care about you if not me? Just promise you’ll be more careful next time. Those people are willing to do just anything for their own interests,” Wendy reminded.
Jasper nodded. “You’re right. What happened this time was a lesson to myself as well.
“They say good men know better than to stand where danger strikes. And while I wouldn’t call myself a good man, I’m terrified of dying. Reed City is a small place, but I suppose the fact that it’s small means that there’s more negligence with the law there. They’ve had a very smooth sailing history of doing business, so I got careless.”
Wendy spoke gently, “There are no predicting accidents. I don’t ask for much, I don’t even need all these riches. All I want is for you and Dad to be alive and well. That’s enough for me.”
“We’ve already come so far, and on our journey here, we’ve met great allies like the Law family as well as rivals of different calibers like the Monty and the Coine families.
“We will always have more enemies than friends. After all, the growth of a new family means the redistribution of interests and benefits. We’re threatening too many people’s livelihoods.
“The moment we lose everything, I’m afraid the people who’d come at us first will undoubtedly be these enemies of ours. So for your sake and for my own, I cannot stop here.”
Wendy leaned her head against Jasper’s chest after he finished speaking and replied, “I just want you to be safe.”
In no time, dinner was ready.
At the dining table, Jasper and Dawson chatted casually and the topic quickly returned to the Southface River Project.
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