Chapter 108: Loyalty Begets Loyalty

Chapter 108: Loyalty Begets Loyalty Abigail, who was inside the room waiting for her breakfast to be served, since she didn’t want to eat with Ryan, went to get door when she heard the knock. Abigail paused when she opened the door and saw Genevieve standing there. Her brows pulled together as she wondered what Genevieve wanted. "Pete informed me you were unable to shop for the clothes as planned," she said, pretending not to know that her father had gotten her clothes already. Abigail nodded but didn’t bother to reach for her phone to type a message since she knew Genevieve hated it. "I heard Pete can sign?" Genevieve asked, and Abigail nodded again. "Okay," Genevieve said, knowing nothing else to say, and then she turned to leave. Abigail watched her with a blank expression, wondering why she came to her room since she doubted she came for just minor talk. Before Abigail could shut the door, Genevieve turned again. Abigail could see the hesitation in her eyes as though she was struggling with something. "You should always keep your door locked when you go to sleep," she advised before walking away quickly. She knew that it was very likely that Abigail didn’t know Ryan had been in her bedroom while she was sleeping, and if she knew, Abigail might be naive enough to think her father had only been checking in on her. She would never really think he was checking her out because she thought he was her biological father. So the best she could do for her was to advise her to lock her door. Maybe if someone had advised her mother to lock the door, her father wouldn’t have gone into the room and forced himself on her. But then again, knowing first hand how calculative and manipulative her mother was, and after hearing how her mother had kept the pregnancy and given birth to her despite being asked to abort the pregnancy, she knew her mother had welcomed Ryan’s action and wouldn’t have locked the door had someone told her. She had been kicked out the moment she found out she was pregnant and refused to abort it. She hadn’t kept the pregnancy out of love for her baby or desire to have a child. Perhaps she had thought that having a child for Ryan would be her ticket out of poverty, but she had been dead wrong. If anything, she had suffered and even sold herself to take care of them both and had wallowed in poverty until Ryan’s late mother had come to take her away when she was four. She had barely spent a year when Ryan married Kimberly and brought in Dawn. Dawn, who had looked so flawless and had everything, including the affection of her father, who had never wanted her. Or so she thought back then. Genevieve sighed, shaking her head to dismiss all that thought. It didn’t matter. She had been childish and bitter. She had directed all her pain and anger at the wrong person. She knew better now. Unfortunately knowing better didn’t take away from all that she had done. Being friends with Abigail? That could never happen. Even Jamal would understand that if she told him all she had done to Abigail. Genevieve sighed deeply as she picked up her phone to call Stefan, so she could find out how he was doing and if he wanted her to come with Pete or if he wanted them both to drive alone like they had done yesterday. Stefan received the call at the fourth ring, "Hey! I was in the shower," Stefan said as he toweled his hair dry. "Oh! Um, good morning," Genevieve said, suddenly not remembering why she had called now that he had received her call. "Good morning. I was going to call you after I showered. I need to help my uncle handle some urgent business. Can we meet for lunch later?" Stefan asked, since he needed time to go meet with Pete, the real driver whose identity Jamal had taken. Stefan had gotten the details from Jamal the previous night and had reached out to the hotel manager to find out if Pete had been giving a job at the hotel as Jamal wanted. The manager had informed him that Pete was to resume his position the next week as one of the valets. "Oh!" Genevieve said, disappointed that she couldn’t see Stefan that morning. She had been looking forward to spending time with him. "Is this business at the hotel?" Genevieve asked, wanting to know if it was something she could hang around the hotel and wait for him to finish. "No. Not exactly," Stefan said, and she raised a brow. "Then should I send Pete over? He can drive you around. Or I can drive you to your destination myself," she offered. "No. I wouldn’t want to put you through that stress. But you can send Pete over if it wouldn’t be too much hassle," Stefan said, figuring it would be nice to get Jamal out of the house for a while and then they could talk to the real Pete together. "Alright. I will let him know now. Although I was looking forward to spending the whole of the day with you since you’re leaving tomorrow," she said with a pout. "Well, I can always come back to visit you, or you can visit me," he said easily. Jamal had said he had to continue the act until they had taken care of Ryan, so he could get all the information they needed from her. Doing that meant he was going to have to go against his principles and use whatever feelings she had for him to get what he wanted from her. "Really?" She asked excitedly, and he chuckled. "Yeah. What did you think? That after now our friendship is over? Don’t worry, Viv. We will keep talking over the phone and we will visit when we can," he assured her. "Okay, then. I’ll hold you to that. You’re not going to get a girlfriend who is going to ask you not to be friends with me, right?" She asked before she could think better of it. "Why don’t we talk about that when we see? The more time we spend on the phone the longer it’s going to take for me to get the job done and see you," he pointed out. "Yeah, right! I’ll ask Pete to get ready and come over right away," Genevieve said before hanging up the call. After hanging up she dialed Jamal’s line. Jamal received the call almost immediately since he had been expecting it. "Good morning, Ma’am," he greeted politely. "Where are you? Come to the main house," She said as she picked up the car key before stepping out of her room. She didn’t see any need to hurry to shower now that she was not going to see Stefan anytime soon. Jamal joined her in the living room a short while later and she handed him the car key, "Go over to the hotel. Jamal has to go somewhere and he needs you to drive him." Jamal nodded as he took the key from her, and as he turned to leave she stopped him, "Pete?" "Yes, ma’am?" She held his gaze for a moment, contemplating whether or not she should tell him, "Do you have anything you’re hiding?" Jamal’s heart skipped a beat, "Like what?" "I don’t know. Anything that might get you in trouble. You can tell me about it now. My father might be doing a background check and stuff. I don’t want any surprises," she said, and Jamal frowned, wondering why she was telling him that even though he appreciated it. "Shouldn’t you let him do the background check? Don’t you think telling me this defeats his purpose?" Jamal asked reasonably. Genevieve shrugged, "Maybe. But you’ve shown me you are loyal to me not my father. So I guess I’m returning the favor." Jamal looked at her for a moment then nodded, "Thanks for the information." "He told me you know how to sign?" Genevieve asked, and Jamal nodded. "Yeah." "Do you think maybe you can teach me? I’d like to understand when Abigail signs. I tried learning a couple of times but it’s hard for me to catch it. I’ll pay you extra for it. But you can’t tell anyone you’re teaching me. Not even Abigail. It has to be a secret between us," she said, and Jamal’s brows pulled together slightly. Why was she wanting to learn to sign when she had been mean to Abigail all these while? Abigail had texted him a short while ago telling him Genevieve had told her to keep her bedroom door locked at night. What was Genevieve doing? She seemed to not be on her father’s side, yet she wasn’t good to Abigail either. He couldn’t exactly figure her out. "I will think about it," he said, and she gave him a nod before walking away. Abigail wasn’t going to like this. She wasn’t going to like him spending any time teaching Genevieve anything. He could just imagine her not talking to him for a whole day whenever she saw him spending any time with Genevieve. But how could he explain to her that even if Genevieve had been mean to her, he had spent such a long time thinking that Genevieve was Dawn, and he couldn’t just bring himself to hate her so easily?