Tittle: The Beauty And The Boss
For probably the hundredth time today, Chloe Smith searched the crowd of people in every direction, looking past the arranged mass of decorated tables, carrying various brands of exotic wines, past the ornate decorations over and around the beds of colourful flowers that made the expansive garden, past the gangs of colourful balloons strung almost everywhere, and still, like before, she couldn’t find her father. He had promised to attend her graduation reception since her mother couldn’t. Her mother had passed from the cold hands of cancer half a year ago.
She should be able to recognize him, Chloe thought. He had sent her his recent pictures as she’d sent him hers. It had been almost twenty years since her father, Harry Smith, left her and her mother to chase a gang life in Brooklyn. His goodbye speech ended with the line that they were safer without him in their lives. Then he had vanished into thin air for twenty years, only sending them monthly, via an untraceable contact in Rochester where she and her mother had lived, an exorbitant amount of money along with a five-sentence letter that had little or no information about him. There were rumors that he was hooked up with a Mafia family in Brooklyn, but Chloe had chosen not to believe them, even when her mother was a fanatic of those rumors.
Pete Harrison, her long-time boyfriend, approached her as she leaned on her toes, and craned her neck high, continuing her search for her father among the crowd of people milling the garden. “He isn’t here yet” he asked, concerned. He turned to look around, joining her in the search.
Chloe nodded her head gently in reply, but his eyes were already turned from her. “Martha, the reception lady, confirmed that no one had come asking of you. Are you sure your father wasn’t pulling your leg? He has been absent from your life for twenty years. There is absolutely no reason for him to show up now. He might even be ashamed to” Pete said, steering his eyes towards her. “You know, like, sort of guilt-tripped”, he threw his hands up helplessly, turning away again.
“Since mom passed away, his letters have been frequent and lengthy. He had become more concerned about me, asking about how I was faring, about school and stuff. I am sure mom’s death gave him a change of heart. He gave me an address to mail my letters to, and he replied to them duly. Besides, this was the first time he ever promised to visit. I can’t help but feel something has gone wrong with him. I can’t…” the rest of her words broke off in an incoherent mumble, suddenly overwhelmed with worry. An unfamiliar tension seized her.
Pete dragged her into his arms. “Don’t worry, and be calm. I am sure he is fine. He probably got delayed by one thing or another. You know, that sort of last minute something that steals your time and spoils your plans” he assured, patting her hair carefully. She felt the tension in her body ease, her worries slipping off her. She felt comfortable and secure in his arms. That was one of the reasons why she loved him. He had a way of making her worries fade away, bringing calm to her whole being with his actions and words.
He broke off slowly, staring into her eyes. “I am sure Mister Smith is fine, but to ease your nerves and quell your worries, we will go look for him tomorrow. He is somewhere in Brooklyn, right?” Pete asked.
“Yeah. I think so. The address he asked me to mail my letters to is in Brooklyn”, Chloe answered.
“The address would do the trick. It would be our key to finding him. Didn’t I ever tell you, my dad was a detective, and I inherited the skills”, Pete smiled. “So loosen up love, and enjoy the party”
Chloe chuckled, raising her gaze to his loving own. Then her chuckle fell off at a slight twist of her lips. “I am sorry Pete, but I no longer find the party interesting. Liam’s cousin’s rude behavior earlier, and my Dad’s absence have found a way to completely ruin my mood. I feel suddenly lightheaded and sleepy”
Pete quickly hid a sad smile that crossed his lips, staring at her with secret mischief. “Didn’t I mention earlier that I am also bored with the party, and feel a little lightheaded and sleepy?”
“Well. That makes two of us”, Chloe chuckled, playing along. Pete smiled as he led them away to the exit and on the way to her dorm.
They shuffled into a spacious room. For a college dorm, it was more than comfortable. There was a reading desk accompanied by a chair, a king-sized bed, an elaborate chandelier hanging from the ceiling, flooding the room with white lights, and a host of other luxurious things contributing to a tapestry of comfortability. The exorbitant amount of money her father does send her monthly, provided more than enough for her college tuition to one of the most prestigious colleges in the country.
Pete sank into an armchair by the wall, as Chloe ditched her gown on the bed and crossed to the bathroom. She came out a couple of minutes later with her hair dripping water, and a towel wrapped from her chest to her knees, smelling of soap and shampoo. Pete rose up to her, mischief lurking in his eyes, but she wasn’t in the mood for any romance. She pushed him away gently. Pete read her expression and refused to push further, and instead, his face darkened to a serious hue.
“I guess you are still worried about your father” His words sounded almost like a question, yet, Chloe felt it wasn’t a question and she gave no answer. She moved to her wardrobe, fetching herself some new clothes and throwing herself into them. By then, Pete had turned his attention to her bedside drawers, hunting for the letters. When he found them, he poured the bundle of written correspondence onto the bed, fumbling through them with the confidence and cadence of an experienced detective.
His role playing as detective amused Chloe. She made a soft chuckle as she joined him by the bedside, dropping carefully beside the huge bundle of letters. She watched silently while he perused the letters one after another, starting with the recent ones. Minutes trailed by as he trailed his eyes along the lines of the papers, consulting his cell phone at intervals. Then finally, he sat back on the bedside drawer, leaning much of his weary self on the area of the wall nearest him.
“The address he asked you to mail your letters to is probably a front. I bet he doesn’t live there, and the place probably might be unrelated to him. But I found a clue to lead us to him. All the letters he sent to you are written on paper produced by the same paper company. Russo Paperwork corporation” he leaned forward to grab two of the papers, and showed her the watermarked logo of the company at the extreme edge of the papers.
“From what I found out on the internet, the company is located miles away from the address he gave you. So there is definitely no way he lives near that address. He must have someone there re-mailing your letters to him. Russo Paperwork corporation is our best lead right now. Using papers from the same company to send you letters for twenty years is more than just a coincidence. I am confident that we will find your father somewhere around Russo Paperwork corporation. I have got the location of the company as well as that of the CEO. His name is Marco Russo.”
Chloe raised her gaze instantly to Pete at the name, her expression cringing into puzzlement. “I think I have heard that name from somewhere” she muttered, rummaging through her mental library for assistance, but in the end, she got nothing.
Pete encouraged her with a smile. “You probably heard it from someone who has been to Brooklyn. The CEO of a paper company sounds like a pretty decent and popular guy, if you ask me” he said.
Chloe wasn’t listening. The name sounded familiar, like she had heard of it recently, and for some unknown reasons, she was a bit scared about it.
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next Chapter.
CHAPTER TWO: Search For Dad
Genre: Romance
Sub-Genre: Dark Romance (Mafia)
Themes: Love/Romance/Action/Suspense
