Is this destiny?

~ Los Angeles, Mediterranean villa ~

September 28, Monday

5:45 PM

Jeff put Alice to sleep in the crib and he is watching his two tiny angels.

Jayden is sleeping in his crib (next to Alice's).

Jayden is a heavy sleeper, but Alice stirs easily. Who said that infants sleep a lot? Alice is super-alert, and she turns to the slightest noise, curious to see what is going on. Aren't they supposed to have a bad vision?

Jeff can tell that Alice took after her mom. With her inquisitive nature, she will be a scientist.

As for Jayden… at this rate, he will be a professional sleeper.

Stella and Edward left Los Angeles one day after the twins were born, and Oscar and Elanor left a day later.

The little ones are now five days old, and this is their second day at home. Normally, they would stay in the hospital longer, but their tiny bodies are functioning fine, and there is plenty of medical help in the house, so ObGyn cleared them as safe to come home.

JoAnna is a doctor, Imani comes in the morning, while Emma comes in the afternoon, and they have two nannies on standby, so the twins are well taken care of.

With everyone coming to see the twins, one of the guest bedrooms is packed with presents for the newborns and for the new mom.

Ellie and Jasper visited over the weekend.

Since the family of four returned from the hospital, the Mediterranean villa has has a lot of visitor's traffic. There are Sophia, Sarah, Penny, Bridgette, and Tiffany. And they come usually with their men. Pam and Leah stop by after work. With Sarah, usually at least one of her girls comes. They are all excited about the babies and want to help JoAnna recuperate after her surgery.

Jeff modified his work schedule so that he is more at home.

Jeff started with the updated schedule a few weeks ago, when JoAnna said that it's difficult for her to move. Jeff goes to the office in the morning, and he does his best to handle all the meetings and whatever needs to be done in person by lunchtime. In the afternoon, he works from home.

Steve is available as Jeff's assistant about two days a week. The Long family is keeping him busy and that front is getting messier. As expected, when Steve announced that he is interested to take over as the next head of the Long family, that created several currents and each of them has their own candidate as the head of the family. But that is another story.

For Jeff, Leah is a life-saver. She is very competent, and she picked up everything in record time. Several good things came out of the fiasco when JoAnna bumped into the annoying woman in Jeff's office (and ran away to Las Vegas), and Leah becoming Jeff's assistant is at the top of that list.

When Jeff managed to peel off his eyes from his two bundles of joy, he tiptoed out of the nursery room. Ah, he could watch them all day.

Jeff peeked in the master bedroom and saw that JoAnna is sleeping, and Bridgette is on the sofa chair in the sitting area, typing on her laptop. Steve will come in about one hour, and after dinner, he will leave together with Bridgette.

Emma visited earlier that afternoon and she checked on the babies and JoAnna before leaving with Charlie.

Jeff didn't want to wake JoAnna up and went to the study.

Just as Jeff reached the study, his phone rang. After checking the caller ID, he took the call.

"Yes, Leah?"

"Mr. Heine is on the other line and wants to talk to you. I told him to call tomorrow, but he said that it's important. He called the emergency number for the people under the White foundation. Do you want me to be rude or…?" Leah paused while waiting for Jeff to speak.

"Put him through." Jeff responded. Aiden told Jeff what Ron is up to and Jeff expected this call.

"Mr. White?" Mr. Heine asked timidly when the call connected.

"Speaking. How can I help you, Mr. Heine?" Jeff said coolly while taking a seat in his leather executive chair.

"Mr. White…" Mr. Heine had a plan what to say, but now that he is speaking with the big man himself, his brain refused to work. Luckily, he has some notes. "I… my business is facing a problem and… I hoped that you can provide me with some assistance."

"What kind of a problem?" Jeff probed.

"My partners are bailing out on me." Mr. Heine said ambiguously.

Jeff noticed Mr. Heine's choice of words. "More than one?"

"Yes. Seven so far." Mr. Heine admitted.

Jeff paused before asking: "So far? It seems that you are expecting more people to stop collaborating with you. I assume that there a reason behind it."

Mr. Heine was not willing to talk about his wife and underage boys. "It's a private matter."

Jeff smirked. Do people think that his help comes without any questions? "Mr. Heine, you called me for help because your business is facing a challenge that you obviously can't resolve yourself. Nothing is private. Do you expect me to help you without knowing what the problem is?"

Mr. Heine exhaled. He told himself to speak up because a person like Jeffrey White can find out about it easily. "My wife was involved in a scandal and my partners don't want to risk being connected to me. One contract fell through just before signing, and six existing partners announced that they will stop working with me, regardless of the penalties they need to pay. And it's not even a day how this whole mess started."

Jeff decided not to probe further. He does not want to deal with it, but he could not say that he will help without asking any questions. "I see… Send the relevant information to my assistant and I will see what I can do."

Mr. Heine was not sure if he heard Jeff right. He will help him just like that? "You will?"

"Yes. It's late here. You can expect to hear back from me by tomorrow morning."

Mr. Heine was astonished. Jeffrey White will help him! Master of the White family is a man who can swap heaven and earth, what is a little scandal? And he probably only needs to voice his support of Mr. Heine, and all the partners will return on their knees while begging to renew the contracts.

Mr. Heine reminded himself that he is on the phone with Jeffrey White! "Oh… Thank you, thank you…"

Jeff wondered what Mr. Heine's expression will be when he finds out that things are not as easy as he thinks they are. Really, if he didn't expect this call, there is no way that Mr. Heine would get to speak with him directly.

"Mr. Heine. Don't thank me yet. You are someone who is loyal to the White family, and it's in my interest to take care of you…"

When Jeff ended the call with Mr. Heine, he called Aiden.

"Ron's father contacted me. Just as you predicted, his business is in trouble. He wants me to help him and he will send the relevant information to Leah."

"This was sooner than expected.", Aiden said. "I thought it will take at least another day or two before he is desperate enough to call you. It seems that he really values his business."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Forward me the files he sends to Leah. And prepare White corp. jet in the morning." Aiden said happily. Things are going according to plan.

"You will send Ron to deal with this?" Jeff guessed.

Aiden didn't deny it. "It's all part of the plan for Ron to get his revenge on the people who shunned him. You said that you don't care about Mr. Heine or his business."

"I don't." Jeff admitted. "But it's a waste just to ruin something that brings profits."

Aiden can tell that Jeff has something on his mind. "I am listening."

"Instead of ruining it completely, guide Ron to make a point and clean up the trash. The best revenge will be for Ron to take the business away from his father and to put Ron in a position of power. At the same time, all those townspeople who bullied Ron will become dependent on him. Think beyond the revenge and you will see that the business of Mr. Heine is much more than just a factory and a few stores in one small town; it spans across multiple states and it's growing at a steady rate."

Aiden thought about how this is a brilliant idea. No wonder people call Jeff a business wizard of the new generation. However, this will require much more work than just destroying everything, how they originally planned. Well, most of the work needs to be done by Ron, so Aiden can't decide this on his own. "Thanks for the suggestion. I don't know if Ron is interested in owning a business. I will mention this to Ron, and we will take it from there."

Jeff thought how that makes sense. Some people don't want to own a business. The rewards are great but so is the responsibility. "If he wants to keep the business for himself, I can assign resources from the White corp. to help Ron with managing until he is twenty-one and can take it over officially. But I don't want to push my people in without his approval. It all depends on him…"

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