A Reborn Bride Pearl Emerging from Dust

"Text me your bank details later, I'll send you your first month's pay in advance."

"Alright," Zane replied without hesitation.

After a quick word with Zane, Calliope headed off to find Quentin and the others.

"I'm back!" she announced brightly.

All four of them turned to look at her, brows creased with concern.

"Callie, are you feeling okay?" Quentin asked, "You were in the bathroom forever.

Are you sick or something?"

"No, no!" Calliope shook her head quickly. "I just took a call in there. Archie's got a

bit of a situation, and I need to help him sort it out. You guys go ahead and head

home without me. I'll catch up later!"

"When you get back, could you start prepping for dinner? Wash the veggies, get

things ready for dinner? If I make it back in time, I'll do the cooking!"

She looked at them hopefully.

Calliope was a natural at telling little white lies, and the group didn't seem to doubt

her story. Still, they pressed a little.

"Callie, is your friend okay? Anything we can do to help?"

"If you can't handle it alone, we could come with you!"

"Yeah, an extra pair of hands never hurts. We can tag along."

Everyone watched her, waiting.

Calliope shook her head. "It's nothing major, actually. More people would just

make it complicated. I've got this! It's getting late anyway, you all should head

home and get started on dinner."

Silas and the rest shrugged and left without any more fuss.

Calliope turned and walked over to Zane.

"Alright, let's go."

"Yeah," Zane nodded, leading the way.

Once they were in the car, Calliope asked, "Where's Oliver?"

"He's at one of his regular houses in Capitalton," Zane replied as he drove.

"A regular house? I thought he lived

abroad most of the time? Last I saw

him, he was staying at a hotel,

Calliope frowned, sensing

something off.

"He fixed up one of his old houses," Zane explained, "Looks like he's planning to

stay in Capitalton for a while."

"So he's digging in for the long haul, trying to convince Silas, huh?"

Calliope could guess what was going on. Oliver probably had only one reason to

stick around.

"Exactly," Zane said flatly.

"So Oliver's plan is: if he can't

convince Silas to be his heir, he's not

leaving? What's his obsession-

anyway? He basically cut Silas out

of his life back then, practically ran

him out of town."

Calliope's voice was edged with annoyance.

"Because he is strong, really strong.

Our boss likes powerful people. Back

then, he didn't realize Silas would

turn out this impressive. But now he

does, and there's no way he'll let him

go. He's getting old, and hisnoveldrama

business empire needs someone to

take over. His other son's a disaster.

Silas is the only one who's worth

anything, so of course he wants

him."

Zane sounded matter-of-fact about it.

Calliope understood, but doubted Silas would ever go back. Maybe when he was

a kid, he'd wanted a dad.

But now? He was nearly old enough to be a dad himself.

Oliver was dreaming, as far as Calliope was concerned.