Let Him Go
Jason and Julia were attended to at the hospital. Jason had his wound leg bandaged. Julia was given a laxative to pass the ring out of her system. Jason jumped on a call the moment the nurse was done with him. Julia was in the lavatory.
"Yes, you couldn't find him because he changed his face. He looked different now. Same voice, same mannerism but a different face," Jason said on the call.
"Well, my men lost the car, but we have sent our security agents to all the airports. We are strictly checking all flights booked within the last forty-eight hours," the general informed Jason.
"That is good," Jason acknowledged.
"Is it possible to get a perfect description of his current face to share with our men?" the general asked.
"Yes, have someone come over to the hospital," Jason said and the call ended.
Jason sent the location of the hospital to the general and dialled Peter's number next. Henry had left to pick up Mirenda.
"Hello Peter, what is the current update?" Jason asked.
"After the announcement on TV about Mrs Wellington taking over the Wellington's property, no move from their side on the Wellington's businesses yet. I feel they wanted to crush Haward's International by buying the partners into the Wellington business but the move from Mirenda saved four of the partners. Six partners of Haward International have signed a contract to work with the Wellington business as we speak," Peter reported.
"Okay, and what is happening in the Wellington business? Was the funds successfully moved?" Jason asked.
"Yes, we have successfully changed the owner of the accounts to you and is now under Paradise Hotel," Peter reported.
"Good, keep an eye on all the activities going on within the Wellington companies and let me know if you spot anything strange. I am sending you the password to the master system. Be careful. There are only two people with access to that master system. My father and myself. So make sure you keep the password safe," Jason warned before ending the call.
Julia pushed the door open and entered the ward from the connecting lavatory. She looked exhausted.
"The laxative has practically cleaned everything in my system. I am empty," Julia complained dropping herself on the bed Jason was sitting on.
"Are you okay?" Jason asked with concern.
"Aside from feeling empty, I am fine," Julia replied.
"Did you get it out?" Jason asked.
"Yes, but I lost it," Julia said sadly.
"Don't worry, I will get you a new one. What matters most is you are not carrying a gold and diamond ring with a tracker inside you," Jason said.
The door was slowly pushed open and an officer strode in.
"Good evening, sir, madam. I was sent here by the general. I am the one to sketch the new face of James Haward," reported the officer.
"My love, can I speak with you alone first," Julia said staring at Jason.
Jason asked the officer to excuse them. The officer stepped out of the ward giving Jason and Julia some privacy.
At Haward's International, 8 p.m., Henry had just arrived at the company. He went straight up to the third floor. Mirenda was still with the finance manager. They had just finished moving things to save the company.
"Thank you so much. I will address the employees tomorrow. We need to make it look like we did run into bankruptcy within twenty-four hours. The company will go on break for forty-eight hours maximum. That is all the time my brother is asking for to fix this issue," Mirenda said and the financial manager nodded.
Henry knocked and entered the office when Mirenda invited him in. She stood up and hugged him. The financial manager exited the office heading home.
"How are you?" Henry asked freeing himself from the hug.
"I am not okay. I can't believe we are going through this phase again. When did they start plotting against us all over again?" Mirenda complained in frustration.
"It started with Mr Haward's mum," Henry said and Mirenda sighed.
"But why will she do this to her son?" Mirenda questioned.
"Honestly, I don't know, but it makes me doubt if she is Mr Haward's true mother," Henry said and Mirenda raised an eyebrow.
"Mrs Haward is my mum but she never loved me," Mirenda pointed out.
"Well, we are getting weird mothers in this era," Henry said and they both stood up to leave, but Mirenda remembered Fiona
"Fiona," Mirenda said and Henry frowned opening the door for Mirenda.
"What about her?" Henry asked as they walked towards the elevator in the extremely quiet space.
"I have neither seen her nor heard from her the whole of today. I wonder if she is okay. James is walking free and might pick her up," Mirenda said and fetched her phone.
"No, James didn't pick her up. He was here and rather picked Julia," Henry informed her.
"Oh, so that is why Julia never showed up. I thought she stayed back at home because of the news," Mirenda said and dialled Fiona's number but it went straight to voicemail.
"Please, let's go to Southwest. I need to make sure Fiona is okay," Mirenda said and Henry nodded.
Outside in town, James was being attended to by a doctor. Black was with him together with two fully armed guards. There was a knock on the door.
"Are we expecting anyone?" Black asked.
"Yes, my baby mama and my baby," James replied.
"You seriously want to carry less than a nine-month-old baby and a deranged mother with you on a flight?" Black questioned as a guard went to answer the door.
"Think about it. It's a perfect cover. Who will suspect a couple with a baby travelling?" James said. "I will need a good disguise though, just in case my sad story does not sell," he added.
"What sad story?" Black asked and Fiona strode in with the baby who was asleep in her arms.
"Take her upstairs," James said to the guard. "Love, I will be with you shortly," he said to Fiona and she nodded before leaving with the guard.
At the hospital, Julia was telling Jason what happened when she was with James.
"My love, I know James did terrible things to all of us, but hearing his story I felt sorry for him. The real villain here is Mrs Haward," Julia said and Jason frowned.
"What gave you such an impression?" Jason asked trying to understand the angle Julia was coming from.
"When James came for me, he just wanted to use me to get out of the country to start a new life. He asked me to take off my clothes because he suspected I had a tracker hiding somewhere, but he was sure not to allow anyone else to see me nude," Julia said and Jason frowned, but he still listened to her anyway.
"Look, just like you, my love, James had a bad beginning. His mother made him believe everything he was doing was right. He did things because it made him happy, and his mother was okay with it. No one tried to scold him or anything. Your late stepfather was also always busy," Julia said and Jason lowered his head.
He knew no one talked about James’s behaviour when he was growing up, they just looked on. His mother was always defensive and true, and Mr Johan was also very busy.
"His mother made him believe, you had ill intention and wanted to throw them out to the street with nothing. He only acted under his mother's instructions. He didn't want any of the things that happened. He would have stayed in prison, but he found out Fiona has a child for him," Julia said and Jason raised his eyebrow.
"Yes, I was surprised too, but he showed me the picture of the baby in Fiona's arms as she fed her. And another picture of the baby. The baby looks so much like James," Julia said.
"Fiona has a baby? How old?" Jason asked as none of them knew about Fiona having a baby.
"The baby looks very fresh, probably a couple of weeks old, tops a month old," Julia said.
"James wants a chance to live a normal life and to protect his new family he has just found," Julia said. "My love, please let him go," she said and Jason sighed.
"I will agree, Mrs Haward failed at motherhood, but James had a chance to be a better person. He chose what he wanted. I was the child who never had the love of a mother. The woman I called mother set me up to be raped by my nanny. A boy of six. Do you know what that did to me? I feared women in general and stayed away from them, but it didn't turn me into a bad person. I stayed away from women, but I never treated any badly," he said and Julia raised her eyebrow.
"That was different Julia. What will you do in a world of power struggle when you know your competitors and enemies will do anything for your downfall and you wake up with a woman in your bed with no memory of who she is? I know how I treated you was wrong, but James is who he is because he decided to be and stayed like that with no sign of changing," he added sounding annoyed.
"He said I changed him," Julia said.
"Of course he did. You believe this cock and bull story James told you to buy your sympathy?" Jason said.
"Do you know Vera, Fiona's friend is dead?" Jason asked and Julia shook her head surprised. "Guess who killed her?" he asked,
"James?" Julia asked.
"Yes. The transformed James now kills," Jason said. "He did change. Yes, for the worse," he said and Julia's hand covered her mouth.
"Look, he knew I would find you and he doesn't have the upper hand in this attack he had launched. He told you this just to buy himself time," Jason said.
"Vera is dead?" Julia asked and Jason realized she was still processing what he had told her.
“I am sorry for delivering the news like that, but sadly yes. She was found dead in her apartment with a broken beck. Nothing was stolen and her door was left open. This only means, someone knocked on the door she answered and got killed,” Jason explained and pulled Julia in for a hug after planting a kiss on her forehead.
At Southwest Ranches, Mirenda asked the security man about Fiona since they didn't find her in the house.
"She left the place yesterday and had still not returned," reported the security man.