Vesta and Thorne arrived at the restaurant at almost the same time. As they were walking in, they ran into Mr. Hawkins, the very man Thorne was supposed to have met with that morning. Mr. Hawkins showed no signs of being upset about thest- minute change of ns. On the contrary, he greeted Thorne warmly. "I watched the press conference this morning," he said. "It''s getting rave reviews both inside and outside the industry. Congrattions."


    "Thank you," Thorne replied. "About our meeting this morning-"


    "With a major technological breakthrough like this, it was only right for you to be there, Mr. Henderson. Ipletely understand. Please don''t give it a second thought."


    Vesta had known from watching the conference that Thorne''s attendance wasn''t officially required. If it had been, he''d be busy with post-conference obligations instead of having dinner with her and Moran. But hearing Mr. Hawkins''s words, it hit her then: Thorne had deliberately cleared his schedule to be here.


    Mr. Hawkins had his own party to meet, so after a few more pleasantries, he excused himself.


    ...


    With her work at The Henderson Group wrapped up, Charlene was looking forward to a quiet weekend. But early Saturday morning, her phone rang. It was Jasmine, asking if she wanted to go out for lunch and shopping.


    Charlene was exhausted, though not so much that she couldn''t manage a simple outing. Still, she wasn''t keen on leaving the house. Jasmine seemed to sense her hesitation. "Mom, just for a little while. We can get lunch and walk around for a bit, thene right back."


    "...Alright," Charlene conceded.


    Jasmine''s car pulled up to the Ross family home just after eleven. Seeing it arrive, Charlene grabbed her bag and walked out, only to find Thorne sitting in the car as well.


    "Mom, hurry up!" Jasmine waved from the window.


    Jasmine had conveniently failed to mention that Thorne would be joining them. Charlene stopped in her tracks.


    "Mom?" Jasmine looked at her, confused.


    Charlene''s gaze shifted to Thorne, who seemed to read her mind. He gave a slight


    shrug, as if to say he was just following Jasmine''s lead.


    "Mom, we already have a private room booked. Let''s go!"


    Without another word, Charlene got into the car.


    Jasmine snuggled up next to her, chattering away about everything and nothing. Charlene listened, chiming in when needed. After


    while friend messaged J


    off WhatsApp, and she became engrossed in a conversation on her tablet.


    Charlene nced at Thorne, then picked up her phone and sent him a text. Mingie, asks for something


    like this again, give me a heads up. I''ll handle it.]


    Thorne saw the message but didn''t reply on his phone. Instead, he simply said aloud, "Okay, I will."


    Jasmine looked up from her tablet. "Huh? What did you say, Dad?"


    Thorne smiled. "Nothing."


    At the restaurant, after Thorne had ordered, he looked at Charlene. "I reviewed the


    key points of the technological breakthrough. I think—"


    Charlene didn''t look up. "I''m not talking about work right now."


    Thorne studied her for a moment, unfazed by her coldness. He poured her a ss of water and set it in. front of her. "Alright," he said with a smile What would you like to fakk about?"