“Just around 76 times...” I said before showing her the screen of my phone.
“That’s...” she murmured before pressing her lips into a thin line.
“Why is he ignoring me? What did I do wrong this time?” I continued complaining while sounding very upset.
“I’m sure that he’s not intentionally ignoring you,” Jenna said in her desperate attempt to defend Bradon.
“Then...he’s unintentionally ignoring me?” I asked before making an overly exaggerated sad face.
“Why don’t you give him another call? It doesn’t hurt to try again...” she suggested enthusiastically.
I knew that giving Bradon another call wouldn’t change the outcome. However, it didn’t hurt to illustrate my point to Jenna. Maybe she could reprimand him in some way since she seemed to be the acting mother figure in this household.
“If you say so...” I said as I began calling Bradon.
I could tell that Jenna was more anxious than I was as we both waited for Bradon to answer my call. After waiting for a while, the call was once again directed to voicemail.
“He’s really just ignoring me, isn’t he?” I said as I let tears well up in my eyes.
The acting classes that I took with Diana paid off...extremely well at times.
Jenna crouched down in front of the sofa before taking my hands into hers and giving it a squeeze. Getting Jenna to sympathize with me wasn’t hard. I did think of borrowing her phone to see if Bradon would answer calls that weren’t from me; however, he probably wouldn’t talk to me once he found out that I was the one on the phone. I needed to see him and that meant that I had to convince someone to take me to him at Anthony’s office.
“What is going on? Is everything alright?”
I turned in the direction of the voice to see Zain standing there with a slightly worried look on his face as he took in the scene in front of him.
“Master isn’t answering any of Lady Diana’s calls. That’s what’s going on,” Jenna replied before I could.
“Is there something urgent that you need to let the Master know?” Zain asked.
“I want to see him...” I replied in a shaky voice.
“Master Bradon will come home later this evening,” Zain informed me politely.
“He’ll come back late again and even if he comes back before I fall asleep, I don’t think that he would see me,” I mumbled before dabbing at my teary eyes with the tips of my fingers.
Zain looked conflicted while Jenna was outwardly panicking about the fact that I was weeping. It was a relief to see that even though these two worked for Bradon, they were not as heartless as he was. By that time, I already knew that Jenna was truly in support of our relationship; however, I wasn’t sure what Zain thought. If I had to guess, then he was probably just trying to do his job professionally. I glanced over in his direction for a brief moment to observe his reaction.
“Zain...can’t you take me to see Bradon at his office?” I asked in a weak voice before I went back to sobbing.
“I’ll have to ask him first,” Zain replied sternly.
“Don’t bother. He’s probably too busy to answer your calls. I mean, he didn’t even answer my calls,” I said before weeping louder.
Zain looked even more conflicted as if there was war raging inside of his mind. I could sense his hesitation and the fact that he couldn’t quite bring himself to look at my crying face told me that he wasn’t used to dealing with crying women. I wailed a little louder to apply more pressure to the situation. I knew very well that what I was doing was immature and extremely ridiculous but at that point, I was willing to do whatever would work in my favor.
I’ve done more ridiculous things to get my way than shedding crocodile tears. Since Zain seemed unsure about what to do, I figured that he just needed a slight shove in the right direction. I turned my sad face toward Jenna who was staring at me with a very concerned look on her face.
“Zain...” Jenna called Zain’s name desperately.
“Please help me, Zain. I’ve seen him at the office before...” I pleaded softly.
Zain looked down at me with a frown in between his brows before letting out a sigh of resignation. Whether he had given in because he wasn’t comfortable seeing me look upset or whether he just no longer wanted to deal with the situation, I wasn’t sure, but it was enough that he was willing to do what I wanted him to.
“Thank you, Zain...” I thanked him sweetly.
...
**Bradon’s point of view**
My phone had been vibrating almost non-stop for hours now. I no longer needed to glance over at the screen to see who the call was from. Sitting through another meeting in Anthony’s place felt boring as hell and I had lost count of the number of times that Dahlia had given me a call. Admittingly, it was hard to resist the urge to answer her calls. Although she did promise that she would only call if there was an emergency, I knew that she wasn’t calling because of something like that. Had there really been an emergency, Jenna or Zain would have alerted me already.
If there was anything that she wanted to talk to me about, it would be about Anthony and the endless questions that she had about him and his whereabouts. I would be lying if I said that I had not considered telling her the truth about Anthony’s condition. Whenever that thought entered my mind, I quickly killed it off when I realized that I would be playing right into her hands. Dahlia wasn’t a simple woman, and I knew that she had something planned.
Acting docile was nothing but an act that she put on. Her impressive feat of getting away from Zain and turning up at Anthony’s office in an attempt to make contact with him was a perfect example of her putting her plan into action.
--To be continued...