In the middle of the living room, Zachary lounged on the single-seated sofa with a cigar between his fingers whilst brewing some tea. His sophisticated gestures exuded the charm of a matured man, even at the age of fifty. One could easily imagine how equally suave he must have been when he was younger.
I sat down on the sofa next to his before greeting softly, “Dad.”
He hummed in acknowledgment before placing a teacup before me. “Have a taste of this green tea that we imported this year.”
“Okay.” I took a quick sip, running the warm liquid over my tongue. Then I flashed a brief smile at him once the flavor seeped in. “It’s pretty good. I can taste the notes of sweet grass in there.”
There was no response from him. He looked away and focused on refilling my cup.
Cameron intended to spend some bonding time with Summer before dinner. However, Summer had put her foot down and insisted on completing her homework in the study. At this, Cameron gave in and followed along to tutor her.
Right when they arrived upstairs, a maid’s voice called out from the front door. “Mr. Moore, the guest has arrived.”
“Invite them in.” Zachary didn’t even bat an eyelash at this sudden arrival. He blew at his tea in a relaxed and unbothered manner.
Are we not having a simple family dinner?
Just as suspicion fizzled in my head, the guest’s footsteps grew closer from behind me.
I surrendered to my burning curiosity. Turning around, I was faced with a foreign man. The only indication of his identity was the superb quality of his garments; he wore a white dress shirt underneath a sleek, black trench coat with a hand-knitted cashmere scarf around his neck.
Yet, I still couldn’t put a name to his face, no matter how hard I pried into my mind. It was evident that this man wasn’t someone I knew, nor have our lives ever intersected.
The man behaved courteously. He tilted his head to greet Zachary, then cast a warm smile my way before striding over.
“Ms. Stovall.” My name rolled off his tongue as he politely extended his arm over. “I’m Elliot Jacobson.”
Elliot?
As in the trader who disappeared into thin air after he single-handedly swiped billions from many capitalists at the stock trade in M Country? That Elliot?
Back when Pitcoin first blew up, Emma often shared juicy tidbits about the stock-investing world. She also mentioned that Elliot was considered a celebrity in that realm. Hence, I couldn’t help but freeze at the legendary Elliot who now stood before me.
Recalling how Emma fangirled after Elliot, I civilly reached out to shake his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Oh Elliot, you’re here.” Cameron had somehow heard us chatting and trotted downstairs in a blink of an eye. Delight beamed on her face as she ushered, “No need to stand around, please sit. I heard that you’ve just returned from M Country?”
“That’s right.” Elliot flashed a neutral smile as he continued, “Father wants to return to his roots, so he moved our business back here.”
Many of the wealthy who kept a low profile owned an abundance of companies under their very names. Sure enough, Elliot was no exception to this.
“That’s a good thing,” Zachary nodded. ”There’s no place like home. And I happen to be looking for potential collaborators for my company’s new projects. You should come over someday, and we can discuss if there’s a possibility for us to collaborate.”
“Sure,” Elliot responded accordingly.
A maid’s voice then sounded from upstairs, “There’s a phone call for you, Mr. Moore.”
“Okay,” Zachary replied whilst standing to head upstairs. With one foot up the stairs, his gaze turned over to us. “I have some matters to attend to, but I’ll be back in a bit. You guys continue chatting.”
Right as he stepped foot onto the second floor, Cameron bounced onto her feet. She moved towards the kitchen as she announced, “Letty, why don’t you keep Elliot company while I go prepare some dishes?”
My cheeks puckered after seeing those two put on such a shameless show.
I couldn’t help but squint my eyes in embarrassment. Literally, anyone can tell that you guys are setting me up with this guy.
Although I haven’t gotten around to telling Zachary and Cameron about the fake divorce, it was pretty obvious that I was still hung up on Ashton. Plus, there was a huge fuss in K City about how I stalked Ashton. Almost everyone could tell that I still had feelings for him, yet they still arranged this blind date without me knowing?
