Adeline looked like she was seconds away from lunging at me.
“Fiona, are you deaf? Mr. Jack is talking to you! How dare you just sit there like nothing’s happening?”
Everyone else immediately shot to their feet, hands clasped in front of them like obedient schoolchildren.
I took my time, swirling the wine in my glass before taking a slow sip, a smirk tugging at my lips.
“Jack Harris,” I drawled. “It’s only been a year, and now you’re Mr. Jack?”
The moment his real name slipped past my lips, Adeline’s face went sheet white before flushing an ugly shade of red.
“You, !” she sputtered, then immediately started cursing me out.
Big mistake.
She was so caught up in her tantrum that she missed the most important detail,
According to them, there was no way someone like me should even know his real name.
Before I could say another word, Jack Harris,
The same man they’d been bowing and scraping to just seconds ago,
Rushed toward me and, to everyone’s utter shock.
“Sister Fiona!” he said, his voice edged with urgency. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with the Senior Advisor, ”
I lifted a hand, silencing him with a single motion.
“Jack Harris,” I said coolly. “Look around. This is not the place to be talking about things you shouldn’t.”
His jaw tightened.
“Copy the discipline manual a hundred times,” I added.
And just like that, the man they had all feared and obeyed without question nodded, like a schoolboy caught misbehaving.
The energy in the room shifted.
The murmurs started immediately.
“Did… did he just salute her?”
“What the hell is going on?”
“Wait, Mr. Jack is scared of Fiona?”
“That’s impossible! With her background? How does she even know him?”
Adeline stood frozen, her entire body stiff with shock.
Still, she forced herself to speak, though her voice wavered.
“Mr. Jack… what brings you here?”
Jack Harris didn’t even spare her a glance. He straightened, standing rigidly behind me.
“I saw a car parked outside and came to check on it,” he said flatly.
Adeline latched onto that immediately.
“Oh!” She let out a shaky laugh. “A car? Well, there are plenty outside for the reunion. Mine’s parked out front too, ”
Jack Harris cut her off with a sharp scoff.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” he said dismissively. “You have nothing to do with this.”
He scanned the room, his tone turning clipped.
“I’m here for the owner of the Porsche.”
Silence.
Then,
The room erupted.
Everyone knew exactly whose car he was talking about.
But not a single person dared to say it.
I watched their faces shift,
Disdain turning into confusion.
Confusion twisting into panic.
I could practically see the moment the realization hit them,
That the person they’d mocked, dismissed, and looked down on this whole time…
Was someone they never should have messed with.
Even Adeline had gone pale, a sheen of sweat forming on her forehead.
“It’s just a car,” she muttered, grasping at straws. “Nothing special. Why all the fuss?”
Jack Harris’s entire demeanor changed in an instant.
“You called that a lousy car?” His voice was sharp, laced with pure fury.
“You do realize who that car belongs to, don’t you?” His fists clenched. “Do you even understand how important, ”
“Jack Harris,” I interrupted, my voice light.
He inhaled sharply, his frustration barely contained, but he held back.
“But she insulted you,” he gritted out. “She should pay for that.”
I simply chuckled, swirling the wine in my glass.
“No need,” I said easily. “What’s meant to happen… will happen.”
