Page 77 of The Cinderella Secret
“Don’t worry about it,” said Jackson. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks,” said Aiden, and he stumbled toward the stairs.
One more time, he felt stuck between people he loved. Would Ella hate him if he told her the truth? How had everything gotten so complicated? How the hell was he going to explain to Ella that her father had been selling DevEntier secrets to the Chinese?
28
Ella – Consider the Facts
Ella stared at the case board in her office and tried not to smile at Aiden’s stupid head shot. After a minute, she went out to the lobby where Wei Nuwa sat patiently. Aiden’s visit to the apartment had resulted in the head of Bai Zhao’s security team being more present. Wei Nuwa was a veteran of the Chinese military system, but Ella always thought her uncle had hired the forty-ish woman specifically because Wei Nuwa hadn’t excelled there. Nuwa was far too creative for the rigid system imposed by the military.
Ella leaned in the doorway of her office and Nuwa looked up questioningly, her sharp black bob barely moving. “Are we following Aiden Deveraux?”
“Not anymore,” Nuwa said.
“What happened?” Ella asked.
“Which time?”
“There was more than one time?”
Nuwa sighed. “The first time, Aiden caught Chang and told him to stop. The second time we put Yang on him. That time, Jackson expressed the same opinion, but with more emphasis.”
“More… physical emphasis?”
“Yes,” said Nuwa. She didn’t look concerned about it.
“Was Yang OK? I thought he was good at following people.”
“He is good at following people. And he’ll be fine. Jackson just seemed to think that we shouldn’t need two warnings.”
Ella shrugged, and Nuwa nodded. The unspoken agreement being that Jackson wasn’t entirely wrong. “So we don’t have eyes on Aiden at all?”
“We’ve got someone watching his house.”
“Hm,” said Ella.
“Do you need something?” asked Nuwa.
Ella shook her head. What she needed was to see her boyfriend without getting caught. “Not really. I was just hoping for a convenient answer to a question. Doesn’t matter. Is my uncle in the building?”
“He’s expected in about twenty minutes,” said Nuwa.
Ella looked back at the board, looking at Aiden again. “You’ll probably want to talk to him,” she said.
“Why’s that?”
“Because I want you to bring me my mother’s phone number.”
Nuwa was silent.
“I don’t need my mother’s entire file,” she said, looking back at him. “But I need her number. You can bring it, or Uncle can bring it. Either way.”
Ella went back into her office and shut the door.
A half hour later, her uncle entered. He had the cautious look of a man entering a lion’s den. She looked up from the stack of documents she was going through.
“I’m not going to bite your head off,” she said.
