Chapter 137: Canceling the Dinner Date

25 minutes later, the yellow cab pulled up to the curb outside the glass tower housing Voyager Animation Studios.

Waiting by the front pillars with a metal thermos tucked under his arm was Senior Director Walter Bai.

The second he spotted Jude stepping out of the cab, Walter hurried down the steps.

"Walter, what happened to Evelyn?" Jude asked immediately.

Walter glanced around at the crowd of employees and delivery couriers walking past, then dropped his voice to a whisper. "Too many ears down here, Chairman Lawson. Come up to my office on the fourteenth floor."

Seeing the sweat on the older director’s forehead, Jude knew this was serious.

Without another word, he walked into the lobby with Walter and took the express elevator straight up.

The moment they stepped into Walter’s corner office, the older man checked both directions down the hall, locked the door, and pulled the blinds shut before turning around.

"Chairman Lawson, you have to swear my name stays out of this," Walter whispereds. "What I’m about to show you is a sealed order that came through on the private fax ten minutes ago. Right now, I’m the only person in New York who’s seen it. If the overseas board finds out I leaked this, they’ll kill my pension and blacklist me for life!"

"Relax, Walter," Jude said, resting a hand on the desk. "If they fire you, I’ll put you in charge of a bigger company before dinner."

That promise was the only reason Walter had risked making the call.

Having watched Jude bring Luminary VFX and Apex Media to their knees with a single phone call, Walter knew Jude’s word was solid gold.

"Tell me what’s going on," Jude frowned. "Why the cloak and dagger?"

Taking a shaky breath, Walter unlocked his desk drawer, pulled out a two-page paper stamped with a red seal, and handed it over.

"Ten minutes ago, I got this transfer order straight from our parent company’s global headquarters in London," Walter said in a hushed voice. "According to this, CEO Evelyn Chen was routed straight from Los Angeles to London overnight and has been permanently assigned to headquarters over there. Next Monday, they’re flying a new suit in to take her desk here in New York! The whole thing smelled rotten the second I read it, so I called you immediately."

Jude’s eyes narrowed as he scanned the paper.

Every single line confirmed it: under the excuse of an international distribution meeting, Evelyn had been secretly diverted to the parent company in London, and her return flight to New York had been canceled!

Combined with her phone being dead all morning, Jude knew instantly who was behind this: Camila Chen... Evelyn’s controlling mother!

Ever since the childhood accident that wiped Evelyn’s memories of her family, Camila had lived in pure terror that being around Jude in New York would bring those memories back and make Evelyn cut her off for good.

By luring Evelyn away with a movie distribution deal, Camila had snatched her phone and locked her down inside the family’s overseas fortress!

When Evelyn first mentioned the business trip last week, Jude had considered the chance Camila might pull a stunt like this... he just didn’t expect her to move this fast or this boldly.

"Chairman Lawson, less than three people know about this fax," Walter repeated nervously, wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. "Please make sure it doesn’t trace back to me!"

"It won’t," Jude said, setting the paper down with a nod. "I’ll have my team drop a fat bonus into your personal account this afternoon for keeping your eyes open, Walter."

If Walter hadn’t tipped him off the second the fax printed, Jude might have spent two days wondering why Evelyn wasn’t answering...

Taking a slow breath, Jude looked back at him. "Do you have the exact address for their headquarters?"

"It’s in the United Kingdom... London!" Walter blurted out.

Jude gave him a flat look. "I know London is in the U.K., Walter. I’m asking for the street address."

"Right... sorry! Give me two minutes to pull the file, and I’ll text the exact Mayfair address to your phone," Walter said, looking embarrassed.

"Send it the second you have it," Jude nodded, turning around and walking out.

By the time Jude stepped out of the elevator into the lobby, his phone buzzed with a text from Walter showing the exact address in central London.

Looking at the screen, Jude’s eyes were cold and focused.

The play was simple: fly straight to London tonight, walk into Camila’s mansion, pull Evelyn out himself, and give her the Sovereign Neuro-Restorative Capsule he had been holding so she could get every single piece of her lost memories back once and for all!

As for how Evelyn would handle her mother after that, Jude had been ready for that storm for a long time.

Walking out to the street, Jude called his chief lawyer, Victoria Vance.

The second she picked up, Jude told her to book him a first-class suite on the next flight out of JFK to London Heathrow.

Before hanging up, he also put Victoria in charge of Vanessa and the Heavens Club while he was gone... giving her total authority to smash any move the Snyder family tried to make without needing his signature.

With travel moving, Jude scrolled through his contacts and made a second call to Dean Victoria Liu at the music conservatory so she wouldn’t wait around for their dinner date tonight.

"Jude?" Victoria Liu whispered over the line. "Make it quick... I’m in the middle of grading a piano exam!"

"Something urgent came up overseas," Jude said. "I’m heading to the airport now and won’t be back for a few days."

"Got it... have a safe flight!"

Without asking a single question about where he was flying or why he was leaving out of the blue, Victoria Liu hung up and went right back to her exam.

Jude took the phone from his ear and stared at the screen, speechless.

He had braced himself for a five-minute interrogation over ditching their dinner... looks like he had massively overestimated his own importance compared to a student piano test!

30 seconds later, a confirmation text from Victoria Vance popped up with the gate info for a nonstop flight leaving JFK in ninety minutes.

Waving down a car at the curb, Jude slid into the back seat and headed straight for the airport in Queens.