With Love

Chapter Thirty-One

"Has Elijah checked in with you today?" I questioned Jasper as he sat across from me in my office Tuesday morning, four days after Atticus' graduation.

Elijah begrudgingly left mid-afternoon on Saturday to the warehouse to begin his search for the people who found our address and tried to have it sent to our home address, which is not information that just anyone has access to.

Jasper glanced up from his phone, a frown pulling at his lips. "No, I thought he reported to you?" He brushed a hand over his pants, not giving this conversation his full focus.

I twisted in my desk chair and faced the large window in front of me. The garden below offered some sense of relaxation, seeing my mother's flowers in full bloom. "He does, but he usually sends me a report each afternoon and I haven't gotten one yet," I said, turning back to face him, biting my lower lip.

Light shone in my eye when Jasper adjusted his watch to see the time. "It's only three, Ana, he's probably following a lead," he replied with a wave of his hand.

"He told me that he might have found a breakthrough and he was going to check it out," I mumbled, gnawing on my lip, as the desk chair swayed.

Jasper raised a hand toward me. "There, if he's busy we'll hear from him tonight." My brother stood up, fiddling with his watch, using the other hand to slip his phone into his pants pocket.

The paranoia from the weekend set itself deep in my mind. I worked all weekend, trying to find anything about Franco's apartment. No one knew what I did, or why I worked on a weekend but no one questioned me, they never did.

The only person even remotely annoyed by my work was Finn. Apparently, he wanted to spend some time together away from the manor for once but I refused every offer, locking myself in my office instead so he would stop asking.

I returned to bed each night late enough for him to already be asleep and woke up for training before him so I wouldn't have to answer any unnecessary questions.

A sigh snapped me from my thoughts. "Look," Jasper began, his eyes trailing over my nervous ticks clear for him to pick up on, "I understand that you're worried about everyone out to get us but we can't stop working or the empire created will crumble, okay?" He asked pointedly, his eyes locking in on my fingernails scratching my hand.

I dropped my hands, sliding them under my thighs, cursing myself for making my anxiety so obvious. We were trained not to give away a single thing, not even an eye twitch.

"If it makes you feel better, I'll touch base with him and see what he's doing," Jasper offered, gathering his files off the edge of my desk. I nodded gratefully. He walked to the door and stopped, holding a hand on the doorway. "By the way, Atticus asked if he could start having more responsibilities."

Oh. My jaw shifted, my lips forming a pout as I let my thoughts run through my mind. "Send him to me, I'll talk to him." With a final nod, Jasper left my office, letting the door click shut behind him.

I barely had five seconds to myself before someone knocked on my door. My eyes closed for a second and called for them to come in. Uncle George gently pushed the door open and walked through, leaning on a cane.

My body pushed back my chair as I stood and rounded my desk. "Uncle George," I gestured to his leg once closer to him, "What happened to you?"

Uncle George waved a hand, dismissing my concerns, and spoke in his rough voice, "Turns out I'm a little too old to dive in a pool," he joked, rolling his eyes at his own injury.

My eyebrows furrowed as I pressed a kiss to his cheek. "This happened at the graduation party?" The rest of that day ended in a blur for most people including myself. Finn and I spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool and swimming on and off before Chef Joe brought out a large caramel cake, at Atticus' request. which vanished in under a minute. But I don't remember Uncle George diving into the pool at any stage, maybe it happened when Finn and I disappeared into the house for a little while.