To Give And Take

CHAPTER 6

"Let's talk about Jesse."

The hand that held a glass of water trembled, causing ripples, while her heart stayed restless despite her calm expression. She was very good at controlling her expression, but Austin was also good at observing, so he could tell from her almost unoticeable pale face that his not harmful words had caused an unsettling feeling.

He wasn't intentional, neither had he thought of causing trouble in her calm and peaceful life, but today's situation would have to be faced. They were more that they would have to talk about, one step at a time wouldn't cause harm. After saying his piece, Austin didn't say any more and left the rest to Lucy. He believed that she would certainly know how to proceed. Without any further questions, Austin raised the glass of sparkling mineral water to his lips and downed it, the refreshing water glided down his throat, refreshing his dry throat.

"What do you want to know ?"

After organising her thoughts and exhaling a deep breath, Lucy finally calmed her unsettling heart. At a spur of moment she had thought of diverting from this heart throbbing nervouse topic, but reasons told her the contrary. She wasn't an unreasonable person and her mother had taught her not to make a hasty decision out of impulse, so she definitely wouldn't let her emotions take control of her.

"You tell me."

Austin replied after a few seconds of contemplation. He didn't know much about this nephew of his, he guessed Jane either. She had been in a depressive mood ever since she discovered about her terminal illness, casting herself out of the world and everyone in it, she made it a priority to enjoy the least bit of joyful moments of her ephemeral life. However, while she was trying to inhale the last bit of the world's delight, she didn't think of including her son.

He was her treasure, so she thought it was best if he never had to make her appearance known to him, not even if he had been an infant. She wanted to avoid the pain of seeing him and not watching him grow up into a tall man, as well as avoid him the pain of watching his mother leave the world for the netherland.

So from the numerouse letters he received from her, apart from her pregnancy experience, none of them mentioned her son and his birth. But he could tell she felt bitter and sad from being unable to hold little treasure in her arms. However, there was a lot of joy and enthusiasm when she spoke about Lucy, her trust in her had baffled him.

In the past, he had only heard about Lucy Grey, but today he faced the person. From his observations, he could pull of few traits mentioned by Jane.

"There's so much to say about Jesse, I could state out some few but we'll probably have to spend the whole day from a busy schedule."

Besides, thinking about Austin Kingston's aloof character she already felt bored. But she didn't think it would be boring to talk about her little darling, but it couldn't be assured that a certain someone wouldn't feel bored.

"So, Mr Kingston, what do you think?"

Lucy commented, a smile hanging on her pink cherry lips. Looking at her playful expression, Austin didn't know what to say. Her words seem to make sense, no one would think it had any problem, but he didn't think that way. Though this girl was good at concealing her emotions, he had some how been able to see through her, she was obviously teasing him and trying to avoid the topic. Leaning close to her, yet keeping a considerable distance between them. He looked at her in amusement and slowly spoke.

"You can make it brief."

Looking at the man in front of her, Lucy realised that she couldn't continue teasing him, so she gave up.

"Jesse was born premature, so his health hadn't been good in the first half of his life, but everything had been fine for the past fourteen months or so. His character is a little fiery but he wouldn't cause much trouble. He's...."

Austin realised that the moment Lucy began talking about Jesse, her eyes sparkled with a certain light and warmth that could only be seen in a proud mother. The aura that emanated from her body at that moment was gentle and warm like the sunshine, easily contaminating others. She had so many to say, that he felt that a day wouldn't be enough to complete her story.

He had always felt that women's talks bored him and he wouldn't even be able to listen for barely three minutes, but listening to Lucy's voice made him change his mind.

Meanwhile, Lucy continued to speak with enthusiasm, when she suddenly came back to her senses and realised she might have been a little excited. It couldn't be helped, each she talked about her little darling, she was overwhelmed with joy, she didn't know how Austin would react, so she took a Peak at him, but looking at Austin's focused expression she didn't know whether to proceed or not. She had only paused for a few seconds when she heard Austin's mellow like voice.

"He's naughty, but it should be normal in his age. Children of his age are curiouse and the more curiouse they are, the naughtier the become."

Lucy didn't react for a moment when she heard Austin's comment. She had said so much, but she didn't know that Austin had been listening.

"Yeah, that's right Jesse has a curiouse character, he loves to learn new things every day, though a little naughty, he knows his limit."

Austin nodded, from their discussion just now, he had a rough idea about Jesse. He could just conclude that she took his mother's character, Jane had been very mischivouse when she was still young, Jesse seems to have picked a lot from her. However after the discoveries he had made, he wasn't sure if he knew his sister anymore. She wasn't that naughty little girl who caused trouble, had a silly smile and blinked at him with an innocent expression. In his memory, Jane was like a weak little rabbit with a kind heart, despising whatever wasn't of moral understanding. She was clearly a noble lady, honest and smart with great ambitions for the future. Despite her tough character she was clearly a meek little lady who wouldn't even dare to harm an ant. He still had a vivid memory of this little sister of his who was born a decade after him. Wrapped in a pink cotton cloth, she lay in her crib, sucking unto her thumb, but cracked a smile when he appeared in front of her. She would always raise her little hands and demand for hugs.

'Brother, hug.'

Had it been so many years, he couldn't count anymore, because he had suddenly lost count of the years. He had held her hand and accompanied her for her first walk, held her hand to school and held her hand to her husband's side, but he couldn't even accompany her during her last moments.

Austin's face remained expressionless on the outside, but no one could tell the waves of emotions and pain he felt at the current moment. There was just no word to describe what he felt at the very moment.

"Mr Kingston!"

Her gentle voice suddenly reached the depth of his heart, pulling at his heart strings like wind blowing swiftly at the rythme of a harp. His thoughts snapped back to the present, bringing him back to the delicate face and those baby blue eyes that seemed to be deeper than the blue seas.

"Are they any worries appropriate to talk about?"

Lucy asked tentatively with a nervouse expression, it was unknown what she meant, but from his observations he suddenly thought of something that amused him.

"Yeah, they're indeed some worries, does Miss Grey want to hear?"

"Up to you.", She gave a nonchalant reply and raise her glass to her lips, taking a sip of her water, leaving her pink cherry lips dewy with a touch of enchantment.

Whether dileberate or not, Austin suddenly withdrew his face from hers and looked down at the glass of water in front of him.

"I was thinking, Miss Grey has done a great job all these years, it won't be easy for me to take over."

At his words, her face suddenly turned pale, her slender fingers clenched tightly unto the glass cup, causing her fair fingers to slightly redden. Her calm heart raced fast with an aching feeling swelling deep down. She felt a suffocating feeling pressing down to her chest. Cold sweat slowly overtook her and her ears were suddenly filled with a buzzing sound.

She almost lost all rationality, she might have really lost it if it hadn't been for her upbringing and her mother's reminder despite her words being late.

'You musn't be impulsive, the more anxiouse you are, the lesser you're able to reason things out.'

After repeating the words to herself several times, Lucy finally took a deep breath and inhaled to release the lump of air that had been putting pressure on her chest.

While, Austin who was on on the side watched her every change of expression with interest after a few seconds frown. This seems to be the second time he watched her fast change of expression, but he decided against commenting on it. Once again she took another sip from her glass of water and looked at Austin with a gentle smile.

"It might indeed be morethan troublesome for Mr Kingston."

The smile on her lips was warm and gentle as spring, but Austin felt that it was a smile that pull one into an illusive pit.

"What do you mean?"

He asked with frown, not comprehending what Lucy was going on at.

"Nothing, it's just that I raised Jesse all these years and in his eyes I'm his mother." Lucy spoke with confidence and looked at Austin with contempt. He bet that there was an illusion of a smug smile hanging on her lips, but it left so fast that he could only conclude that it might have been an illussion

"Continue."

His reply stunned Lucy, but it only took her three seconds to adjust her

emotions.

"Jesse has an extreme psychological reliance towards me."

So as to say, her relationship with Jesse was inextricable. In other words she was indirectly telling him that he would be causing a mental disturbance to his nephew, which could be considered a threat. He really wanted to ask her at this moment; 'Miss Grey, are you threatening me?'

However, he had only thought of it when Lucy finally spoke firmly.

"That's not a threat, but an advice."

Her words had rendered him speechless, even if he thought of saying something, he had no intention of saying so any longer.

Then he looked at that exquisite palmsize face that stared at him with a seriouse expression.

There was really nothing he could say, Lucy was just that confident. She stared vigilantly at Austin, as if trying to observe his expression and be ready to prepare any countermeasures. However, he was still expressionless and for an odd reason she had an illussion that his lips had been raised into a arc.

However, looking at that cold and aloof man who only stared calmly at her with his blue electric eyes, she immediately denied her thoughts.

"Miss Grey's words seems to make a lot of sense, I'm just afraid that everything isn't so simple anymore with many things involved."

His words stunned Lucy, but she couldn't understand what he meant by many things involved. Just when she opened her mouth to ask, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in.", Austin didn't give her time to react, before the waiters walked in and served their dishes in a fast speed. In just a few minutes their dishes were all served, in a blink of an eye, all the dishes were served before the waiters finally walked out after a low bow.

Before leaving, Austin was able to notice that their eyes lingered on Lucy for a while before they reluctantly walked out, leaving both of them alone.

Lucy clearly wasn't aware of the waiter's sneak pick at her, she was even ignorant of it and was anxiouse to question Austin.

"Mr Kingston, what do you mean by what you said."

Austin just looked at her without saying a word, he gestured at their dishes that had been served.

"The meal is best warm, let's talk after the meal."

Looking at the dish, Lucy pouted, but she didn't refute. She only glared at the plate in front of her, almost losing appetite, she only wanted to poke holes into each plate. She might have probably done it of she wasn't outside, so she held back and picked her fork with grievance. She wished she hadn't ordered so much in the first place.

She didn't even pay attention to Austin anymore, because if she did, she would have noticed the light smile hanging on Austin's lips, unfortunately she didn't noticed it and continued eating her food with grievance, while repeating to herself that she couldn't waste food.

*~*~*~*~*

"Has he really been released?"

With a panicked voice, Elvis Kingston held his phone tightl, almost crushing the fist size phone to vent his fustration. His muffled voice seemed to be suppressing something as he continued to listen to the other party's voice. But no matter how much he endured, he became more fustrated that he couldn't vent his feelings.

"So, where is he now?"

He asked while listening to the other party report, which didn't ease his frown. Under thesame annoyance he hung up the phone, not caring whether the screen had cracked from his swift and powerful action of slamming down his phone.

Taking a deep breath, Elvis Kingston sat down on his brows, as if trying to ease up his headache, then he looked at the documents on the table with a smile.

Thinking of the news he got about Austin Kingston's release from prison, his heart couldn't help but trembled.

Perharps others might be unware of Austin's situation, but he wasn't ignorant, he was clearly aware that Austin wasn't incarcerated for so long because he had attacked his brother in-law in order to avenge his sister. The crime that incarcerated him for so long had all been orchestrated by him. Embezzlement, expropriation, bribery and causing of worker's death by using fake materials and more. With that much crime on his head, he believed Austin would still need to spend a decade more in prison.

He had initially wanted to publicize everything, but for some reasons he couldn't, but at least he was able to send that eyesore cousin of his in prison, but he hadn't expected that just five years later he would be released and no one would be able to determine his current location.

It made him have the illussion that his cousin was probably dealt a blow and decided to go undercover. When he thought of this, he first panicked, but thinking about his cousin who didn't have anything to his name, he finally relaxed.

Everything had been snatched by he and his father with his eldest cousin's help, so he wasn't worried that Austin would play any tricks on them.

He wasn't worried either about Austin's connection who had been snatched by him, as for his friends. Austin had few friends, but despite those friends being a strong backer, he didn't believe Austin would crawl towards them for help. That cousin of his was a proud man, with his stubborn attitude, he would rather die than rely on others.

Elvis Kingston's heart that had been hanging finally relaxed, he was no longer worried.

"Honey, can I come in?"

His thoughts were immediately drawed back towards the delicate voice, with a startled gaze, Elvis looked towards the door where a slender figure stood elegantly by the door.

She had a delicate feature, oval face, with wide lips that had been smeared with red lip stick. Dressed in a lemon green halter top with white pants that accentuated her slender finger. She had an average height, black high low lob hairstyle. With dreamy monolid eyes, she stared humbly at Elvis with a gentle smile.

Upon seeing her, Elvis' gaze that had been fierced suddenly softened.

"Béatrice, why are you here?"

Raising his hand towards her, Elvis wrapped his hand arround her slender waste and pulled her towards him, helping her to site comfortably on his laps.

"I heard from the servants that you're back, so I came over. Hope I'm not being a hindrance to you?"

Elvis smiled and pulled Béatrice even closer to him, as if he wanted to melt her in his skin.

"Did you miss me?"

Béatrice nodded without hesitation when she saw Elvis' profound gaze. Her reply made Elvis even more excited that he wanted to immediately press her on the desk of his study of he didn't have an online meeting very soon.

He had desired this woman the first time he had seen her in Austin's house, though the girl claimed to be madly inlove with Austin, despite the fact that it took him a lot of effort to snatch her, it wasn't an impossible mission either.

Elvis looked at Béatrice's beautiful frame and pinched her chin gently.

"Béatrice, do you love me?"

Upon being asked, Béatrice was stunned, as if she wasn't expecting Elvis to ask such a question. His question seemed normal, but for a certain reason she felt strange about his question, yet she still choose to reply with a smile.

"Of course, honey."

Elvis' smile deepened, pulling Béatrice closer, he bit her lips with a satisfied smile.

He was very satisfied with this result, after standing behind Austin for so many years, he could finally lift up his head with a proud smile.

'I am the winner.'