historical

Chapter 158 - Loser

"How dare you accuse me of trying to hurt my own daughter? She is my own flesh and blood!" Theodore frowned at her in disbelief. How could she even get such a thing out of her mouth?

She crossed her arms with a slight shrug. "You are a man who would do anything to get what you want. Who knows whether or not greed got the better of you?"

"You brainless..!" He swung his hand, only for his wrist to be grabbed by her before he could slap her.

Her eyes were full of fury as she twisted his wrist. "I will never let you slap me. Not in this lifetime, not in the next, Theodore Williams."

Her eyes shot daggers at him as her lips pulled into a smirk. If he thought that she was still the naive, stupid and weak woman that he bullied in the past, eventually fell in love with, married and divorced, then he was awfully mistaken.

"I will destroy you, Theo." She tossed his hand away.

"Lucy," He grabbed her elbow as she brushed past him. He shouldn't have tried to slap her. What had gotten into him? He had always been calm and did not often lose his temper. However, he couldn't stand being accused of trying to harm the person he treasured the most.

She pushed him away with a glare. How dare he touch her! "I will kill you if I find out that you did anything to put my daughter's life in danger."

"Your existence is already putting her life in danger. What more danger can she be in?" He laughed after her.

She ignored him and walked on.

He watched her walk away as his frown deepened. She looked beautiful under the moonlight. She was still wearing her long gown which accentuated her beauty and elegance. She was breathtaking even though he could only see her back. She was still..

"Damn it Theodore what are you thinking?" He ran a hand through his hair. How could he complement the enemy? Was he crazy? He was insane to call her brainless—between the two of them, he was the brainless one.

..

Lucy furiously sauntered out of the alley. She turned to glance at Theodore who now had his back to her. Her anger faded in an instant. Why was she allowing herself to be angry because of the meaningless words of a loser?

It was time to get back to what she should do. She took out her phone, wondering if it was too late to catch up with Jaime. That man should not be able to see the sun again.

She rushed to her house to get changed and was just about to leave when she caught sight of a young man twirling a gun in the living room. She shook her head. She should have known that dealing with him was not that easy.

"I thought I locked you up." She walked up to her son, whose appearance was more sudden than all the events that had happened tonight.

"Of course you did." Zeus placed the gun on the table and stood to meet her halfway. "Do you think locking me up in The Web is enough to keep me away?" He scoffed at her failed attempt. "It was wrong of you to do that, mother. Zaria could have died. All because you didn't want to put me in danger, you got rid of someone who could have prevented all of this from happening—I'm talking about the micro bomb."

"You found out." It was amazing how fast news travelled. Or maybe, she had just underestimated her son.

"I was angry when I found out." He confessed as he took a step forward. "But I'm not mad at you anymore. You've been through a lot."

"Zeus.."

"Mom, it's okay to feel sad. That doesn't make you weak. It only makes you human." He pulled her into a hug. Everyone thought of the CEO of Twilight as a super strong woman with no weakness. Only he knew how much trouble she actually had to deal with every day. She had turned into a perfectionist and didn't let herself make mistakes, which made her only blame herself too much if anything went wrong.

"Don't be silly." She laughed at her son's attempt to comfort her. Though she had to admit that she felt much better after hugging him.

"For the record, I still don't want you working at Preston and Fort Group." She announced as she pulled away.

"Zaria will kill me if I don't. I promised her that I will be careful not to expose anything." He scratched his head. It was already bad enough that he had been unable to go to work ever since the interview.

"This conversation is not over, Zeus. I still have to take care of something." She grabbed the gun that Zeus was playing with a moment ago and tucked it to the side of her belt.

"That is my baby! You can't just take it away without a warning." He complained when his gun got snatched away.

"Thay makes it my grandchild." She ignored his whiny complaint and slid a jacket on.

"It's already so late. Where are you going? What do you need?" He asked, giving up the gun.

"Jamie's life. The team lost him." She prepared to leave, only for him to run past her.

"You got it. Just take care of yourself and get some rest, I will deal with the bad guys—which is dad's role and he should take it back, by the way." He ran out after teasing her.

"What will I do with him?" She laughed. He was quite a handful, but he was helpful. She could use the time to investigate other matters.

_

The chauffeur dropped Zaria home, and all she got from Lucy was a text message reassuring that everything was alright, and that she should get to work earlier the following day.

"Why would she disappear on me? What does she have to do?" She asked no one in particular.

"I don't know." The chauffeur was just as confused, but Lucy was often unpredictable so it was nothing new to him.

"Thank you for the ride." She sighed as she got off the car. "Please make sure that Ms. Roatta is alright."

She entered the villa after leaving the car, and Des ran to her as soon as she walked in through the door. "I feel so depressed. Des, give me a hug." She hugged the puppy, earning pats on her forehead from the latter's paws. Her heart melted.

"My Des is so adorable. I really want a hug from the human Des right now." She sighed as she thought about him.

"You got it." She heard his voice from behind her, making her turn in surprise.

"Desmond!" She put the puppy down and jumped into his arms.

He rubbed her back as he held her to his chest. "I'm sorry my love. It's all my fault that someone could pull off such a move on you."

She knew he was talking about the bomb. It had shocked everyone and she was yet to get over it herself. She caressed his face. "Love, it's not your fault. I was careless and dumb enough to not realize that I have a new hair accessory."

He couldn't believe that she was joking about it already. "I.."

"Let's talk about it in my room."

..

"Honey, I'm sorry but I need to ask you this." He caressed her back gently. "Do you remember the people you met at the banquet? At least the ones you spent a lot of time with alone."

She thought back to all the people she met at the banquet. She only briefly spoke to most of them. "Aside from Dylan Fort and my parents? No one else that I remember. Wait. Does Shera count? We only spoke briefly."

Desmond shook his head at everyone she had mentioned. She had met Dylan and Shera for the first time, they shouldn't have anything against her. It had to be someone else.

"You didn't meet Jaime?" He asked, remembering that Lucy mentioned him.

"Not personally." She answered even though she didn't know why he was asking so much. "Mother said she met him and he threatened her."

"Do you remember everything that happened throughout the banquet?" He probed.

"Most of it, yes." She narrated the details starting from the moment she and Lucy left the car to when the Qins suspected her of being armed and found the bomb on her.

"I see." Desmond looked deep in thought. She supported herself on her elbow and scrutinised his expression. He looked troubled.

"Did you think of something?" She asked.

He wanted to brush it off as nothing but he couldn't. It would make her feel scared. Besides, he was not trying to investigate the incident in secret so he asked, "Do you..Do you know who invited your dad to the banquet?"