One Wild Night

Chapter 408: Who Is Sara To You?

What was the problem with these Hank siblings? Lucy mused with displeasure as she looked ahead of her to the living room. She knew that what she wanted to say to Jade couldn’t be said right there at the passageway as Aaron was likely going to overhear their conversation.          

    

“Please give me a minute,” Lucy said as she returned to the dining and dropped the medicine on the table, “Please, I need to use the restroom,” Lucy told Aaron, and he directed her to the visitor’s bedroom where Jade had stayed.     

Once she walked into the bedroom and shut the door behind her, she went into the restroom before continuing with the call, “Are you still there?” She asked, and Jade sat up on her bed.      

“Yes. Are you in his bedroom now?” Jade asked, thinking that Lucy had lied to Aaron about needing to use the restroom so she could go to Harry’s bedroom to snap the picture.      

“I’m sorry for the delay,” Lucy said politely.     

“That’s not a problem. So, are you in his bedroom now?” Jade asked hopefully and Lucy shook her head.     

“Let me get something straight. Are you asking me to secretly sneak into Harry’s bedroom to get the picture of his mother and send to you?” Lucy asked in a very calm tone that left no doubt in Jade’s mind that she was being scolded.     

Jade cleared her throat, suddenly feeling awkward and uncomfortable, “It’s kind of important, and I really need to confirm something,” she said in a small voice.     

“Then I suggest you give Harry a call and ask him for permission. Do you know how much trust must have had in me to have left me alone with his father in his apartment? Even I wouldn’t leave just anyone in my apartment. I’d rather not break his trust by sneaking around his apartment and going to places I have no business being in,” Lucy said, and Jade frowned.      

She was surprised that Lucy hadn’t even bothered to ask her about what she needed to confirm before turning down her request. Lucy was a lot tougher than she had thought, “I’m sorry for making such a request,” Jade said apologetically.     

Lucy paused for a moment thinking that she might have been too harsh, “You don’t have to apologize. I’m sorry if I sounded too harsh. I just do not like going behind people. If it makes you feel better, you should know that if this was a request from Sonia, I’d turn it down too,” Lucy said, and Jade sighed softly.      

Considering Lucy’s past experience, she could understand why Lucy wasn’t comfortable sneaking around people or doing things behind people. Jamie had done that to her and had captured photos of her without her knowledge, so naturally she wouldn’t want to do the same to others.      

“I understand. As I said, I’m sorry. I will find another way to…”     

“Jade?” Lucy interrupted Jade.      

“Yeah?”     

“You are interested in Harry, aren’t you?” She asked, and Jade was silent for a moment before responding.     

“Yeah.”     

“Then the only proper way you should get that photo is by asking either Harry or Aaron for it. I don’t know what you are so curious about, but what I do know is that as long as it involves Harry, you shouldn’t go behind him this way else you might end up ruining your chances with him. Besides, isn’t it a crime to invade people’s privacy in that manner?”      

“It’s not exactly a crime. Harry is our friend. Besides, if this were one of my cases…”     

“Well, it’s not. Harry is not a case. He is someone you are interested in and you should treat him as such,” Lucy cut in firmly, and Jade stopped speaking.      

Lucy took a deep breath when she realized that she was sounding harsher than she intended, “I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”     

“It’s alright. I understand,” Jade assured her even though she wasn’t exactly happy that Lucy had turned down her request.      

Although she understood Lucy, and she got the message Lucy was trying to pass across, that didn’t stop her from feeling a bit disappointed. She had been this close to solving a puzzle, and now she had nothing.     

How was she going to get a picture of Harry’s mom to confirm what she suspected? It would be suspicious if she suddenly asked either Aaron or Harry for it. Or perhaps she could ask Aaron for it? It wasn’t a big deal, was it? Harry’s mom was late, besides, Aaron had seen her checking out the photo the last time.      

She could tell Aaron that she found someone who looked exactly like Harry’s mom and perhaps she was a distance relative. Surely, Aaron would love to know if Candace was in anyway related to his beloved late wife.      

“I hope you do not feel offended?” Lucy asked, wanting to clear the air between them.          

    

The last thing she wanted was to be on bad terms with Jade over this. Aside from this nasty streak the Hank siblings seemed to share, Jade seemed like a nice person and she would rather be friends with her than be on her bad side.      

“Not in the least. Thanks for your advice. I will do as you have said and ask Aaron for it instead,” Jade said, and Lucy sighed in relief.      

“Thank you very much. Now I don’t have to feel so terrible for not doing it,” Lucy said, and Jade smiled.     

“Can I ask you something?”     

“As long as you’re not asking me to plant spy cameras in Harry’s bedroom, you can ask me anything,” Lucy joked, and Jade laughed.      

“Why didn’t you ask to what I want to do with the photo?” Jade asked curiously.     

“If I had asked, I’m sure you would have said something interesting and then I’d want to do as you requested to also satisfy my curiosity. The only way not to get involved in something you don’t want is by not being curious about it,” Lucy said, reasonably and Jade smiled.      

“Tom is so lucky to have you,” Jade said, and Lucy smiled.     

“Thanks. I need to get back to Aaron now. By the way, how is Candace?” Lucy asked when she remembered she was yet to enquire about her.     

“She is fine. I should let you go now. I need to give Aaron a call,” Jade said before hanging up.      

After the phone call, Lucy returned to the living room and found Aaron taking his medication, “I’m not taking the sleeping pills. I had enough sleep yesterday to last me a week,” Aaron said, and Lucy smiled as she gathered the dishes and leftovers and took them to the kitchen.      

She returned to the dining when her phone started ringing and she received the call when she saw that it was Jade again, “I’m sorry to bother you, but I just realized I don’t have Aaron’s number. Can you hand him your phone?” Jade asked immediately after Lucy received the call.     

“Sure,” Lucy said before looking at Aaron, “It’s Jade,” she said with a grin, and Aaron’s eyes lit up as he took the phone from her.      

“Hello, beautiful,” Aaron greeted, and Jade smiled.      

“You don’t sound ill. Were you pretending to be ill?” She asked, and Aaron chuckled.     

“Oh, you are so brilliant! You caught me in the act!” Aaron said in a mock weak voice, and this time Jade giggled, while Lucy smiled as she excused him to go finish up in the kitchen where she was storing the leftovers     

“How else would Tom have let his damsel out of his sight long enough to fuss over me this way?” Aaron asked, and Jade smiled.      

“I’m glad you sound better. We were all worried about you yesterday,” Jade said, and Aaron smiled, grateful that Harry had a lot of people in his life who cared about him.      

“It’s good to know that you were worried about me,” Aaron said, just as Lucy returned to the table to join him.     

Jade cleared her throat, “Apart from calling to know how you’re doing, I wanted to ask you a couple of questions if you don’t mind,” Jade said, and Aaron winked at Lucy, making a her smile.      

“About Harry I suppose?” Aaron asked jokingly.     

“Sort of. I hope you don’t mind me asking, but do you know of any living relatives of your late wife? I mean Harry’s mom?” Jade asked, and almost immediately Aaron froze, and his face went pale, making Lucy who was watching him to sit up.      

“Aaron?” Jade called, wondering why he had suddenly become quiet.      

“Why are you asking?” Aaron asked as he tried to speak evenly despite his racing heart, but his voice came out tight with all trace of playfulness out of it.      

Jade’s brows pulled together as she began to wonder why Aaron was suddenly sounding that way. Deciding to be honest with him, she cleared her throat, “I know a young lady who looks almost exactly like the lady in the photo frame beside Harry’s bed. I was just wondering if perhaps she is a distant relative or maybe they’re just look alikes,” Jade said and Aaron relaxed a bit.          

    

For a moment there he had thought that Jade ran into Sara or something. What was the likelihood of such a meeting taking place? Besides, over the years Sara had gone under the knife a couple of times to work on her face so she didn’t exactly look the same.     

Although she had looked perfect to him in the past, she had worked on almost every single facial feature, and the only thing that she had left the same was her hair and her eye color. It had seemed like she was running away from who she was and doing her best to change everything about herself.     

He had encountered news and photos of her over the last couple of years, and he had been somewhat glad for the changes she had made as that had made it easy for Harry not to recognize her. And even if Harry had spotted the resemblance he would most likely have lied to him that she was a mere look alike and not his late mother.      

“Aaron?” Jade called again to regain his attention.     

“His mother was an orphan. Her parents and only sister died in a car crash. The person you saw is most likely a look alike, and not in any way related to her,” Aaron said, but watching him and seeing how lost he had appeared a moment ago, Lucy could tell that there was more to what he had just said.      

She couldn’t help wondering what Jade was asking him and why. She tried to piece together Jade’s request to her, and Aaron’s side of the conversation.     

Was it possible that Jade saw someone who looked like Aaron’s late wife? Why was she interested enough to want to see a picture? Was it perhaps someone close to her?      

Her brows pulled together when she recalled what Tom had said about Jade wanting to dig into Candace’s past.      

No. It didn’t make sense. It couldn’t be Candace. Judging by what little she knew about Jade’s and Candace’s release, she knew that Jade had known Candace for about two years. She would have made such a connection a long time ago if it was Candace. It was probably someone else.      

“Wow. The resemblance is so uncanny. She has similar curly gold hair and facial features,” Jade murmured more to herself than to Aaron.     

Curly gold hair? Was it possible that this person was related to Sara? He wouldn’t put it past her to have lied about losing her family. But even if that was the case and this person Jade had seen was related to Sara in any way, he didn’t want them in Harry’s life. At least not until he had been able to tell Harry the truth.      

“Alright then. I wanted to confirm she isn’t a relative. I’m sorry for being a bother,” she said apologetically.     

“It’s alright. I suddenly feel exhausted. I need to rest now. Let’s talk some other time,” Aaron said before returning the phone to Lucy.      

Lucy dropped the phone on the table when she noticed that Jade had hung up already, and she looked at Aaron with interest.     

“I’ve noticed the way you’ve been staring at me all morning. Is there something you want to talk to me about?” Aaron asked when he stood to leave the dining and noticed the way Lucy was observing him.     

“Yes,” Lucy said with a nod,     

He returned to his seat, “Go on, then.”     

“Who is Sara to you? You kept mentioning her name in your sleep.”