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Summers and if she Googled Kane, she'd find out that he was a high-profile, well-
respected architect. I don't know anything about Hannah, though. Who's she?"
"Kane's ex," Jasmine explained. "Minerva could have found out about Hannah
through Googling Kane."
"Gosh, guys. I'm so sorry. I really am," Tim said sincerely. "And I thought I was
doing the right thing by defending your reputation, Jasmine."
"It's okay. I think we finally got to the bottom of things," Jasmine said softly.
"Yeah," Kane agreed.
~~~~~~~
Jasmine settled herself on Kane's lap and laid her head on his shoulder, feeling exhausted
yet hopeful that the situation was well on its way to being resolved.
That it was Minerva who was blackmailing them was now clear. The woman
obviously thought she was responsible for the failure of her relationship with George and
hated her guts for it. In any case, Minerva clearly didn't have any naked picture of her.
That was a bluff.
She felt so sorry for George. Heaven knew what other falsehoods his ex-fiancée had
been spreading about him to other people. She hoped he could get his finances sorted
and get his life back on track. He'd made stupid decisions in his life and had done some
idiotic things, but she could now see he wasn't a bad person.
"So what's the next step, Kane?" Joe asked as he sat back down on the couch after
seeing George off.
"I'll speak with Ray Thackery and tell him about these new developments. I'm
hopeful Ray will be able to influence Minerva's father to get his daughter to toe the line.
No business owner in his right mind would want to antagonise the owner of Lifestyle by
Design magazine. It also wouldn't hurt to point out that the people Minerva is hurting are
the sister of Lifestyle's senior writer and the future brother-in-law of the owner himself."
"Okay, that sounds good. Hopefully that will finally put an end to this," Joe said.
"Are you still going ahead with the article about you?" Jasmine asked Kane.
"Yes. I'm still waiting for Hannah to let us know if she'd be happy to be interviewed
for it or not. But regardless of her decision, we're going ahead with it."
"I'm glad we now know who the blackmailer is," she said as she burrowed her head
in Kane's neck. She smiled as she felt his arms tighten around her in return.
"Yes," Kane agreed. "But I'm still mad at you for talking to George alone when you
didn't know if he was dangerous or not. Don't do anything like that again."
She lifted her head to look at her overprotective boyfriend and grinned at his
expression. He looked so cute when he pouted.
"I'm sorry." She tried to look contrite.
"No you're not," he muttered.
"Well, you have to admit, if it wasn't for the blackmail, you wouldn't have known
how much I love you."
Kane's eyes glowed. "And you wouldn't have known how much I love you," he
responded softly, placing a tender kiss on her forehead.
She sighed with contentment and leaned back into his embrace. If they didn't have
an audience, they'd be tearing each other's clothes off by now. But her parents were
watching them.
Her gaze flicked to her mum, who had a serene, happy smile on her face. Her
parents had never seen her this lovey-dovey with a man before but considering the
circumstances, she had no doubt they were very pleased. Her mother, especially, had
been eager for her to find a man she could be serious with. Well, here he was, sitting in
their lounge room and holding her close in front of them.
She heard Kane's tummy grumble softly and chuckled. Reluctantly, she disengaged
herself from him and stood up. "Do you guys want to order home delivery or go out to
dinner?"
"Go out to dinner," three voices said together.
"And have a drink or two," Joe added.
She sighed, knowing none of them would feel fully relieved until they had heard
from Minerva herself that she would stop her ridiculous actions.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Jasmine sat patiently in one of the boardrooms of the offices of Krand Architects. She was
glad she was alone for the time being, while she thumbed through the latest issue of
Lifestyle by Design. Kane was taking an important phone call in his office and they were
still waiting for Minerva's dad and Minerva herself to arrive.
She flicked the pages back to the four-page article she had already read numerous
times, smiling again at the pictures of Kane, his co-directors and the properties for which
he'd received nominations. Even the one photo of him and Hannah taken during the
interview made her lips tug upwards.
Jessa had written a wonderful article on Kane. It highlighted his career
achievements and his latest award nominations but it smartly incorporated details about
his private life and the challenges he faced as a high-profile professional. His openness
about his grief at Hannah's miscarriage and his honesty about his relationship with
Hannah were raw, poignant and touching.
Hannah had agreed to participate in the interview. She had talked about Kane's
generosity with his time and his understanding of her feelings while she was grieving.
She'd even mentioned the new man in her life, who was her current source of support.
Jasmine hadn't been sure if Hannah had told the truth about having a new boyfriend
but Kane had assured her she had. Apparently, the guy had accompanied Hannah to the
interview. She felt relieved by that.
There was hardly any mention of her in the extra-long article except towards the
end, and it was perfect. Jessa wrote:
As we were wrapping up the interview, I asked Kane if there was anything else he would
like to add. This was his answer: Oh, just let everyone know I'm in love with your sister
Jasmine.
She grinned. What had she done to deserve such a sweet, wonderful man?
The boardroom door opened, banishing her romantic glow and replacing it with
nervousness.
In walked a distinguished-looking man in his late fifties and the girl who had once
splashed water in her face. They were followed by Kane, who gave her a comforting
smile.
She stood up as she was introduced to David Green and Minerva Green. Kane gave
her hand a surreptitious squeeze before he invited everyone to sit down.
David Green cleared his throat and spoke. "I don't want to take up too much of your
time, Kane, Jasmine. I just thought it was important to see the two of you in person so
we could put this all behind us. My daughter here would like to apologise for her very
childish and, quite frankly, disturbing behaviour." He glared at his daughter.
Minerva sighed exasperatedly. She was like a sulky teenager who had just been [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]