One Wild Night

“Who is winning the game?” She asked when she looked at the scoreboard on the screen and saw 3-1.

“Who else? Your brother is only good at playing CEO and being Lucy’s handbag,” Harry said smugly without taking his gaze away from the screen, but Tom said nothing as he focused his attention on the game.

“So you told Tom that I’m like a sister to you? Was that before or after we kissed and cuddled?” Jade asked, causing Harry to choke in surprise, and Tom seized the opportunity to score a goal against Harry.

“That’s cheating,” Harry protested as Tom laughed.

“No, it’s not. I saw an opportunity, and I seized it,” Tom said smugly.

“Answer my question, Jonas,” Jade said, poking at Harry’s side.

“Let’s talk about it later,” Harry said, not comfortable with the idea of talking about something like that with Tom present.

Tom chuckled, “Why? You don’t want me to hear about the kiss?” Tom asked, making kissing sounds, and as Harry turned to glare at him, he seized the opportunity to score another goal and burst into a peal of laughter when Harry looked at him in disbelief.

“You caused this,” Harry hissed, eyeing Jade with displeasure.

“I will tell you all of Harry’s secrets if you keep distracting him,” Tom whispered loudly to Jade, and Harry dropped the pad.

“I’m not playing another game with you until Jade leaves,” Harry said, and Jade flashed him a smile.

“That’s even better. Now I can get both of your attention,” Jade said as she turned to Tom deciding to talk to him about her conversation with their mom now that she had his attention.

“I spoke with mom a while ago and she told me that Lucy’s mom was arrested,” Jade said, and Tom gave her a noncommittal grunt.

He had come here to clear his head and forget about everything wrong that was going on. He didn’t want to think about it yet since he was aware that Janet had been released.

“What are we going to do about Rachel? Especially with everything we know about her family?” Jade asked, looking from Tom to Harry and back again.

“We can all figure it out later. She’s the least of our problems. Let’s deal with the bigger ones first. One enemy at a time,” Harry said, and Tom’s lips twitched in amusement at Harry’s response.

“Alright. What about Bryan? I learned that he arrived a while ago. How is he doing? Did you talk to him yet?” Jade asked with concern, and Tom looked at her.

“I tried talking to him, but he was being an ass. I don’t know what he is thinking and frankly speaking, I’m not in the frame of mind to want to understand him right now either. I have a lot on my head and I’m stressed out of my mind. So maybe you should go speak with him,” Tom said while Harry watched both siblings.

“Aww. My poor Tommy. Don’t worry. I will talk to him,” Jade promised as she patted his arm and rested her head on his shoulder while Tom sighed as he rested his head on the top of her head.

“I didn’t pause the game just so you both could cuddle. If you want to talk, talk. If not, you should excuse us,” Harry hissed at them, making the siblings laugh.

“She is my sister, Harry. Relax. There is no reason for you to be jealous,” Tom said with a grin while Jade rose from her seat beside Tom and went to sit beside Harry.

“What are you doing?” Harry asked when she hooked her arm with his.

“Cuddling with you while talking with Tom since you are too jealous to let my brother hold me,” Jade said with a sweet smile.

“I didn’t say I was jealous…”

“Don’t worry. Even if you are, we don’t mind,” Jade said, and Tom nodded.

“Yes, we don’t,” Tom parroted.

“Can you two behave yourselves? There is a kid in the house,” Harry said as he tried to move away, but Jade held on to him firmly.

“We are cuddling, not making out. I’m sure Jamal won’t be traumatised by the sight,” Jade said without looking at Harry as she turned to face Tom, who was chuckling.

“Mom mentioned that Lucy was travelling over to see Sonia,” Jade said, and Tom sighed.

“Is there a topic she didn’t mention to you?” Tom asked irritably and Jade giggled.

“Are you still mad at Lucy?” Tom asked, and Harry raised a brow.

“You are mad at Lucy? What did she do?” Harry asked, and Tom told Harry about Jade’s annoyance while Jade tried to shut him up.

“Not that I’m still mad at her, but I wasn’t pleased with her. She can’t just take information from others without giving back….”

Harry cut in with a scoff, “Yes, she can. Lucy didn’t do anything wrong….”

“That’s not the way the world works,” Jade countered.

“That’s not the way the Hanks’ world works, you mean? She didn’t force you to give her any information. Besides, you are the one who involved her in ‘your business’, not the other way around. The sooner you realise that the world does not revolve around you Hanks, and not everyone handles things like you Hanks do, the bet….”

“What do you mean by that?” Tom and Jade asked in unison as Tom glared at him, and Jade pulled away from him to glare at him.

“I believe my statement was self-explanatory. I would have done the same thing she did because that is the NORMAL thing to do. As I told you already, Tom, Lucy is a good influence on you. And Jade, I also think you should be friends with her too, so she would influence you positively on how to maintain boundaries. Everything doesn’t always have to go the Hank way,” Harry said to Jade ignoring her scowl as he rose when his phone started vibrating in his pocket.

“We are not done. Why are you leaving?” Jade asked grudgingly.

“Because I’m done. You can continue with your family discussion. You both should be done with your conversation by the time I get back so we can resume our game,” Harry said before walking away to receive his call while both siblings stared at his back.

As Harry took out his phone from his pocket to receive the call, he paused when he saw Jamal approaching the living room, “Is my dad asleep?” Harry asked, wondering why Jamal had left the room.

“No. My mummy is talking with him and she asked me to wait in the living room,” Jamal explained.

Seeing no reason to leave Jamal alone with Tom and Jade who were busy with their discussion, Harry took his hands, “Come with me then,” he said as he took Jamal’s hand and led him to his bedroom.

“He must be overjoyed knowing that he is related to your perfect Lucy,” Jade muttered, and Tom looked at her when something occurred to him.

“Did you discuss Lucy with Bryan?” He asked, recalling Jade’s annoyance the previous evening and how resentful Bryan had sounded as he talked about Lucy.

“Not really,” Jade said, seeing no reason to tell Tom what Bryan had said.

“Are you sure?” Tom asked, and Jade nodded.

“Yeah. Why? Did he say something?” Jade asked curiously, and Tom sighed as he relaxed on the couch.

“He sort of sounded like he was mad at Lucy for something,” Tom said, and Jade sighed as she explained why Bryan seemed upset at Lucy.

“He is acting up because he is jealous of the bond they share?” Tom asked incredulously.

“Well, it’s not just that. Besides, I don’t think Sonia has done much to help matters. He must be feeling pretty upset about everything even if he is lashing out at everyone. You know how Bryan is,” Jade said with a sigh.

“I’m beginning to think the whole idea of establishing an entertainment agency with Bryan is a bad idea. I want to be there for him as his brother, but at the same time, I’m mad at him for getting involved in a scandal at a sensitive time like this. Emotions and logic are conflicting and I don’t like this,” Tom said with a sigh, and Jade patted his arm.

“Don’t worry. I will go home with you so I can see Bryan and talk with him,” Jade said and Tom sighed again.

“Do whatever you have to do and get him straightened out before Monday…”

“No, not Monday. It has to be Today. I have arranged an interview for Bryan within the next two hours. We have to clear the air before Monday or else things might get crazy,” Harry said as he and Jamal joined them.

Harry was now dressed in clean corporate clothes since the clothes he had been wearing earlier were the same ones he had worn to the hospital the previous evening.

“But I don’t think Bryan is in any state to handle an interview right now,” Jade protested while Tom looked at Harry𝐎𝚟𝑙xt.𝗇𝓔t

“This is about his career, not his personal life, and I’m sure by now he knows that. He doesn’t have to talk about Sonia if he doesn’t want to. But he has to answer questions about the fight, apologize to his fans, and state that he has cancelled his contract with Golden Star…”

“The fight is about Sonia so there is no way Sonia wouldn’t come up during the interview” Jade cut in before Harry could finish.

“Let Harry speak,” Tom told Jade quietly as he watched Harry, knowing that something had come up, hence the urgency in his tone and that was the same reason he was dressed for work.

“Tell me what’s up,” Tom said, and Harry took out his phone.

“You should see this,” Harry said as he passed his phone to Tom.

Tom frowned when he saw the caption under a video clip of Paul, “Why I Kicked Out Bryan Hank From Golden Star -CEO Of GSEA”

“What does he mean by ‘kicked out’ when everyone knows Bryan was the one who left the agency?” Jade hissed in annoyance.

“That’s why Bryan needs to give his own statement as soon as possible. If he waits until Monday then we can’t talk to the shareholders or the board by Monday. Besides, they will start calling the moment they see this video. How do you think they are going to feel about finding out about this clip?”

“When was this released?” Tom asked in a deadly calm tone after he had watched the video of Paul.

Paul had said a lot of things about Bryan, but had mostly praised himself for raising a star like Bryan, and had talked about Bryan being too impulsive and irresponsible for his liking hence he could no longer work with him. He had further displayed a picture of Bryan throwing a punch at Derek in the club, and said he was done with Bryan, and wished I-Global good luck in signing Bryan Hank, and he hoped Bryan would have better luck at I-Global since his big brother would take care of him.

“It was released on Golden Star’s social media platforms a couple of minutes ago. Jeff called to inform me about it just now. I have asked him to bring Bryan to the company,” Harry said, making it clear to Tom that was where he was headed.

Tom sighed as he rose from his seat. Another enemy just got added to the list. It seemed like the list was getting longer by the day.

Although he was exhausted and as much as he hated the fact that Bryan had gotten himself involved in a mess like this, he hated even more that Paul was badmouthing Bryan.

Bryan was his brother, and doing that to Bryan was the same as insulting him. They were going to fix Bryan’s mess, and after that, he was going to push Paul out of the entertainment industry and make Paul’s office into Bryan’s changing room.

“Let’s go to the company then.”

He looked down at the casual clothes he was wearing. He had corporate clothes in his office which he could change into.

“Give me a minute to change my clothes. I’m sure Bryan might need a lawyer,” Jade said as she rose and hurried inside to change.

“I will inform them we are stepping out while you change,” Harry said as he took Jamal with him to Aaron’s bedroom.