I trust you
Even though Miss Grace could see the pain in her daughter‘s eyes, she ignored it and informed her with a smile, “The guys are leaving, and they want to see you before they leave.” Sniffing away the tears that were forming in her eyes, a look of shock spread across Peach‘s face before she cleared her throat and asked, “They are leaving...? Where to? Why?!”
The two had not told Miss Grace anything either, and she just shrugged her shoulder and replied, “That I don‘t know,”
“Elijah too?!” Peach blurted out before she could get a grip on her tongue.
After the conversation her mother and she just had, Peach felt a sudden sense of awkwardness, but Miss Grace only smiled and said, “It‘s only Ryan and Rookie.” “Oh,” Peach said quietly, looking down at her lap.
After a few minutes of silence passed by, Miss Grace patted her hand and said, “Freshen up and come downstairs because they won‘t leave without saying ‘goodbye‘ to you?”
As they stood in the lobby of the hotel, Rookie eyed Ryan, Matt, and James before focusing on Elijah.
The silence among them was just so
uncomfortable and awkward, and he finally mumbled, “I will start working on making the video disappear from the Internet, the moment we get to the hotel, and I get my hands on all my equipment...”
“But you can‘t get it out of the minds of the people that have watched it... With a title like,‘ Melina‘s ex–husband and his mistress, get confronted by her best friend,‘ there‘s no way
around it,”
A sense of annoyance spiked in Matt as he blurted out, “Are we just going to let these absurd rumors continue.”
Sighing, Elijah shoved his hands into his pocket and mumbled, “Revenge isn‘t something that happens overnight. But I can promise you that Melina will get what‘s coming to her once I make sure everyone knows what kind of woman she is.”
The footsteps coming from inside the hallway made all five men seal their lips and looked over at the entrance to see Peach and Miss Grace, a couple of minutes later, walking into the lobby. When she rested her gaze on them, Peach pouted and cried, “Ryan, Rookie, why are you guys leaving?”
Both men‘s expressions immediately softened, and they smiled at her softly. Walking over to where Peach and Miss Grace stood, Ryan and Rookie pulled both women into a hug, before releasing them.
“It‘s for a one–month business trip. We will soon be back,” Ryan explained to her.
Smiling lightly, Peach nodded her head, but when Ryan and Rookie turned towards Elijah, Rookie mumbled, “Well, I think we will be on our way.‘
“Hey,” Elijah said calmly, looking at his men. “Be careful out there.”
The seriousness on their boss‘ face made Ryan and Rookie‘s expressions turn solemn, and they nodded their heads slowly, and then without saying another word they headed out of the lobby.
“Gosh, I‘m already missing those two,” Matt muttered under his breath.
“A month of you not having those two to help you poke fun at me for burning an egg... I call that a win... for me!” James teased with a smirk.
Miss Grace and Peach chuckled at his words, but when Peach‘s eyes caught a glimpse of Elijah‘s eyes, she stopped laughing and lost herself for a second as he focused on her face without a word, and then she looked away from him.
When Miss Grace saw her daughter walking for the lobby door, her brow snapped in concern and she asked, “Where are you going?” “To get some fresh air, mama!” Peach shouted back, trying not to sound sad.
Watching her push the front door open, Elijah‘s expression hardened, knowing how awkward things were now going to get between Peach and himself, and he knew that it was going to take every ounce of self–control to keep himself away from her until he could leave the motel. As Peach stood outside the building, feeling the cold wind blow against her cheeks, her tears started streaming down her face again. She wiped them furiously with the back of her hand and sniffled as she stared at her shoes. “You need to forget about him, Peach... he‘s never going to see you as a woman... ” she whispered to herself, her voice shaking as she continued, “Elijah is never going to see you as someone more than just his little buddy,‘ so just stop... stop!” Trying hard to contain herself, she took a deep breath in through her nose, exhaling slowly as she tried to calm herself, and whispered, “You can do this... you can keep your emotions at bay.”
Walking into the dining room with his briefcase, Dean was shocked to see Melina at the dining table with his mother.
“What brought you here so early this morning?” Dean asked his daughter softly, approaching them.
Tossing her phone angrily on the tabletop, Melina growled at her father as she blurted out,” Elijah and Peach are causing trouble for my friendship with Jessica. I called her this morning and she said her father is against her being friends with someone who has scandalous people in her life!”
Frowning, Dean sat at the table, picked up the phone, and played the video on it, and the argument between Jessica and Peach made him frown at the fake friends his daughter had in her circle.
“Let me see!” Madam Jewel gasped, grabbing the phone from Dean‘s hand and pressing play. A sense of confusion and anger came over her features quickly as she looked up at Dean and asked, “Why are Elijah and Peach being so intimate if she is involved with Bryan?!” Her question made him frown even more, but remained silent, realizing that what his mother
said was truly valid.
“Maybe she slept with Bryan to get him to help her with the media... I told you all, I told you all that a man like Check could never be serious about Peach!! She is not the type to get wealthy men‘s attention like that. Do you not see how simple she dresses!?” Melina exclaimed. glaring at Dean and Mrs. Jewel, with anger flashing in her eyes.
Grabbing the glass of white wine, Melina took a long sip and stated, “She has no class, no elegance whatsoever, and she‘s always wearing rags. I don‘t understand why someone like Checks would choose someone like her, even if it‘s just for sex!”
Although his daughter‘s words made sense in this situation, Dean was still reluctant to agree with her, and he mumbled, “I need to find out who this Elijah guy is. He is playing with an intense fire way too casually, and something about it is rubbing me off the wrong way.” “That is true...” Madam Jewel agreed, glancing nervously at Dean. “We should inform Vlad and make him start the investigation on him today!” Even though Melina knew nothing about what her grandmother and father were talking about, her interest piqued, and she stared curiously at her father as she questioned, “What investigation?”
“Your ex–husband threatened your grandmother and challenged our family with his lack of fear and respect towards us, so now we have to deal with him,” Dean responded coldly as he reached for his fork and knife.
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