The Harrisons
Jason walked towards Julia and stood next to her. He pulled her into his arms, and she collapsed on his chest, breaking down in tears. Jason rubbed her back gently trying to calm her down, first before asking her what the problem was.
Jason led Julia to the sofa. They both sat down, and he made her rest on him. After a while, Julia was calm and was resting her head on Jason's lap as he ran his fingers gently through her thick wavy hair. Jason may be cold inside out and has grown to be worse with the recent incident of being rejected by the people he once believed were his family, but he does care about her.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Jason asked, still running his fingers through Julia's hair gently.
"I miss my mum," Julia replied and covered her face with her hands sobbing.
Jason rubbed her shoulders to calm her down. Pulling her up, he carried her in his arms and walked towards the bed. He laid her on the bed gently where she would be more comfortable and climbed into bed with her, wrapping her in his arms with one hand as he browsed the internet with the other. He does not know anything about how to show affection towards a woman, but he has done a couple of things which he realizes calm Julia down and hence has kept such things in mind. Cuddling was one of them which seemed to work most of the time.
Julia loved being in Jason's arms, but what is the essence of cuddling if it only makes her feel like a big teddy bear? That seems not to matter now, as the depth of her grief can not be consoled by cuddling, but it's good to know he was making an effort.
Julia lays her head quietly on Jason's chest with her eyes closed. Jason used the time to check his emails and read reports on ongoing projects. When he was done with his work, he sent a message to Peter to arrange for the movie night. He felt it would help Julia feel better. Lying down in that comfortable position, Julia drifted off to sleep.
Mr Dickson arrived at his house still thinking about Julia. He felt Julia could be Mr Haward's daughter, guessing her age. He recalled the night, Amber and Mr Haward left together, both drunk. His friend had told him the very next day of his mistake.
After putting the items he had purchased in their respective places, he searched for his phone and dialled a number. He wanted to confirm his thoughts. At the same time, Jason has also launched a second investigation to confirm Julia's identity and find out why Julia was chosen to be his wife. He already has the reports from the first investigation, but he needed a second opinion, so he put one of his best private investigators on this. He needed to understand why they got married the way they did. His father or his step-father, Mr Johan Haward, was not known to just do things. He always had a hidden reason.
"Hello," came Mr Dickson's voice as soon as the call connected.
"Hello," replied the person on the other end of the call.
"I need you to get me information on a person. Ms Amber Harrison," Mr Dickson said.
"Do you have specifications?" asked the person.
"No, I want everything on her. One more thing, be fast about it, maximum time I am giving you is 48 hours," Mr Dickson replied, and the call ended after the person acknowledged.
He sat down on the sofa, turned on the TV and started browsing through the channels, finally settling on sports with a smile seeing his favourite team was on.
At 6 p.m., Jason, Julia and Peter got ready and left the house for a cinema nearby for the movie night. Julia appeared to be a bit okay compared to when she returned from the grocery store in the morning. It seems the sleep and the cuddling did her some good. At least that is what Jason thinks seeing her lightened up a little. They bought some popcorn and drinks after selecting the movie of their choice. Peter did this with Julia agreeing to the chosen film. Jason just paid for everything.
Before they could enter the hall to watch their chosen movie, Jason got a call and so asked Peter and Julia to go ahead without him. Julia watched Jason walk away until he vanished into a corner. Peter watched Julia closely and felt sorry for both of them. She is hurting inside as much as he is confused about things of love.
"Still worried about his cold, secretive kind of behaviour?" Peter said, drawing Julia's attention to himself.
"I am used to it," Julia said with no expression.
Peter wondered if he should tell Julia about Jason's childhood incident so she would know she was getting his attention, but not sure how Julia would take the information, so he decided not to say anything to her and they both entered the hall and found a spot for three. Outside the building, Jason went to the parking lot and sat in the car.
"What did you find?" questioned Jason as soon as the call connected.
"Ms Harrison is a Haward. Confirmed. I have sent you everything about her to your email," replied the caller, and the call ended.
Jason quickly opened his email on his phone and downloaded the attachment in the mail and started going through it.
The first document had basic details about Julia. Where she was born, and raised, her age and her educational qualifications. Places where she worked. She had lived all her life in Belle Glade.
After going through Julia's, he opened the next file, which was about a woman called Amber Harrison. From Julia's birth certificate, she was her mother. She read the woman's profile which had detailed information about places where she had lived and worked. From San Francisco, she relocated to Belle Glade after she was terminated from her job as a waitress. The reason for termination was redundancy. Looking at her performance, he wondered why they would make her redundant unless someone had a hand in it. It also didn't seem like the restaurant had issues which required a reduction of staff or restructuring. Looking at the date of her termination and calculating back to the time Julia was born, it did confirm she was pregnant with Julia at the time she was terminated.
Jason opened another file, and it had information about Amber's relationship with Mr Haward, his step-father. It had details of Mr Haward and Mr Dickson's frequent visits to the restaurant where Amber worked. There were details of a night's stay at a popular hotel, and it was the last time the two ever saw each other. It was followed by the subsequent termination of Amber and her moving to Belle Glade. She was pregnant with Julia. She became a dress marker to earn a living for herself and to take care of her only daughter, Julia. The identity of Julia's father was not known, but the information shows that Amber was never in a relationship with any other man aside from Mr Haward. Looking at the dates, Jason remembered Mr Haward's trip to San Francisco on a business project. He was 3 years old by then.
"So, it's true, Julia is Mr Johan's daughter?" Jason thought and sat in the car for a while.
"I am not his biological son. According to Haward's rule for choosing an heir, only a married Haward could be the heir. A man can become an automatic heir if he marries a daughter of a Haward. It's obvious his father wanted to bring his daughter back home, but he could have done that without having to force marriage on her," Jason thought.
In his thought, it suddenly dawned on him.
"His stepfather wanted him, Jason, to be the heir. Well, James was irresponsible, but what about Mirenda and their mother? This could only mean there is something wrong with the family," Jason thought, and called his private investigator again.
"I got another job for you. I want everything on Mrs Matilda Haward, James Haward and Mirenda Haward," he said on the call.
"Yes boss," acknowledged the person on the other end of the call before it ended.
He got out of the car and joined Julia and Peter to watch the movie which had already started.
Mr Dickson was behind his laptop in his study when he got a notification of a new email. He opened it and it was about Amber. He quickly downloaded the attachment and started going through it. There was not much, but it was enough to confirm his suspicion.
"So, my friend got Amber fired because she was pregnant with his child?" He thought and tried to understand why he would not acknowledge his child, but quickly recalled Matilda. He miscalculated. Matilda had two children already by then, James and Jason, and she was also pregnant with her third child.
Bringing home another child from another woman would be a huge scandal for the Haward family, something Mr Haward wouldn't want to deal with.
"Makes sense," Mr Dickson thought, nodding as he went through the report.
He felt guilty for allowing two drunk people to leave together, knowing very well, Mr Haward was already married. He could have done something, but he just sat there and watched both of them get into the car laughing and drive away. He decided to look for Julia and make up for the years she had been deprived of fatherly love.
"I know my friend is regretful now. I will make it up to you, Ms Harrison, I will," he thought.
He had given her his contact details, but he was unsure if she was going to call, so he called his friend to help her find Julia.
"No, showing up at her house would be very strange. Just let me know where she goes. Coincidence happens. Just get me that information, and I will go to meet her there. I want it to be like we met again by chance," Mr Dickson said on the phone.
"Okay sir, I will do as requested," acknowledged the person at the other end of the call.
Jason, Julia and Peter returned home after their movie. Julia had lightened up, but now Jason was the one who was extra quiet. It was already late; they retired to their bedroom. Peter fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, but Jason and Julia pretended to be sleeping, but both had their minds occupied with their thoughts.
Julia was thinking about her mother while Jason was thinking of what to do with the information he had while waiting for the report on his second investigation request.