Damian’s smile faded slightly at her words. “Our boss is our boss. Whatever other identity he might have doesn’t matter to us.”
“How could it not matter?” Carol said in a slow, deliberate tone. “Think about it. If he’s just the owner of a barbecue restaurant, then you guys are just restaurant workers. But if he’s the CEO of a massive corporation, wouldn’t you at least be department heads or managers? Your entire lives would change!”
Damian forced a tight smile. “You flatter us, Carol. We’re manual laborers. We can run errands, but we can’t sit in an office or manage a company. Even if our boss became a CEO, we’d still just be the guys fetching coffee. Nothing would change for us.”
“Fetching coffee at a massive corporation isn’t the same as doing it at a barbecue joint,” Carol said with a meaningful smile. “No one respects you here, but it would be completely different if you joined the Hanson family business. So...” She lowered her voice. “You should convince your boss to go home and take over the family business. It’s for your own good, and his.”
Damian’s expression darkened. “Our boss can do whatever he wants. It’s his life. Besides, we’re just employees; we don’t make decisions for him. You’re talking to the wrong guy.”
With that, Damian turned and headed for the backyard.
Carol muttered under her breath about him being a lost cause. She reached for her teacup to take a sip, but a look of disgust crossed her face, and she pushed it far away.
Damian found Xavier and told him Carol had arrived.
Xavier was busy prepping vegetables and merely gave a flat hum of acknowledgment.
Remembering Carol’s words, Damian frowned. “Boss—”
“What?” Xavier glanced up.
Damian hesitated. After a moment of internal debate, he decided to drop it and walked out.
Once Xavier finished his prep work, he went out to the dining area to meet Carol, only to find she wasn’t there. Instead, the sound of Coco barking echoed from the backyard.
He turned and headed out back. Sure enough, Carol was standing there, looking absolutely terrified.
“Coco!” Xavier snapped.
The large dog let out two low whimpers and stopped barking, but its eyes remained fixed on Carol, full of deep suspicion and hostility.
Carol offered a fragile, sweet smile. “Mr. Hanson!”
Xavier nodded. “Fair enough.”
Suddenly, Carol spotted Circe in the little wooden cat house. She ran over in pure delight. “Oh, there’s a cat here too! How gorgeous!”
She reached right in and scooped Circe into her arms. “A purebred Persian! Do you like cats, Mr. Hanson?”
Xavier barely lifted his eyes, his tone freezing over. “No.”
“Then why do you have one?” Carol asked, confused.
“Found it,” he replied dismissively.
“Then give it to me!” Carol said excitedly.
Circe squirmed, managing to leap out of Carol’s arms and back into the cat house, but Carol quickly reached in to grab the cat again.

Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Find me in your labyrinth (Stella and Jonathan)
Thank you for the updates....
I love it, I love it! Thank you for the updates....
Dear author Lucy, may we please have updates. Thank you....
There's a song currently playing via YouTube and TikToc by LowDii "Touch Me Softly" that makes me think of Norah and Xavier (Gonzalez). Please, I'm looking forward to updates. Thank you for your writing....
May we please have updates. Thank you....
As the plot thicken. Adrian is done for and he can't try to control Norah, so he'd probably tattle to Janice who's gone for two weeks. Thank you soooo much for the updates....
These updates were too funny. Thank you so much for the updates....
I forgot to add Amy to the group of pregnant women,since she was the first. Emily and Sylvia better be careful since pregnancy is in the air....
Wow! This is great, both Estelle and Magdalen are pregnant at the same time and I hope that Xavier is Norah neighbor. Thank you for the updates....
Author Lucy you're a blessing. Thank you so my for the updates. I hope that Norah's neighbor is Xavier she gets her memory back....