The Deadly Nightshade | { BOOK 1 of The Flower series }

[29] A Change In Heart

Jade sat at a small round table beside the huge clear glass windows of the small cafe sitting at the corner on a busy intersection of Fifth Avenue, with a beige interior, a couple of brown booths, and white, rounded tables. The employees nor the customers were found to be the friendliest. Most of the customers just sat there, minding their own business, and ignored everyone else, not in the fine mood to have small talk. Tiredness ran through some of the customers' eyes since most people here had a lot of stress in their lives.

The employees look like they are done with life, except for one of them, Beth. She happily placed down Jade a cup of tea and sent her a cheerful smile. "Thank you," Jade said softly.

Beth nodded. "Of course!" Her eyes trailed over to Ethan before focusing back on Jade. "Been here for a few weeks and already got a personal bodyguard, huh?"

Jade cracked a small smile. "It's strange, isn't it?"

Beth chuckled, shrugging her shoulders. "Talking for myself, yes. Talking for you, no. For someone like you, it has to be normal."

Jade lifted her cup of morning coffee to her lips as she watched Beth trot off back behind the front counter to do her other orders. "Someone like me?" Jade whispered to herself, arching an eyebrow.

Jade sighed, glancing back down at her notes. The notes regarding her past and what she has so far on the two bionic soldiers chased after her. She had been doing this for hours, and every time she found an answer, it lead her directly to a dead end.

She even made a timeline of each event she was seen in with Tony and wrote it down and taping a picture that was associated with the event down. She looked up the testimony of Jade Greene going under full custody of Tony and added that to the timeline.

When it came to trying to find Subject OP5 and Subject FS9, that was another question. It was the thought of them working with her uncle that freaked her out. How they found him and knew that he was related to her was its own mystery.

Her amber eyes shifted onto something else, and she read 'Victoria Greene.' She wondered if her mother ever told her that she had a half-sister and it just slipped her mind or if Victoria kept it to herself. Vincent did tell her that Victoria had dirty secrets of her own.

Jade pulled out her laptop, immediately going to the internet as she typed 'Jade Stark' in the search bar. In milliseconds, hundreds of articles popped up based on her. Most of them were recent as they talked about the press conference, the masquerade party, the hearing that took place in D.C., and there were even quite a few from years ago when she went missing.

Ethan slightly turned his body as he gazed at her from over his shoulder. He saw how she read all of the articles about her with furrowed eyebrows, a frustrated expression evident on her face as she had her chin propped in one hand, looking back at the computer screen through her black-rimmed glasses with clear lenses.

Tony had given her the glasses she would always wear when she worked in the lab or doing her homework. He had brought her old bedroom to the compound the next day after the party and set it all up in another quarter. He asked if Jade could spend the night in the new room instead of Wanda's just to see if it would bring a comforting feeling to her.

Jade hadn't told him if it did, but she'd been sleeping in there for the past two nights. This morning when she walked out and saw him in the kitchen, he couldn't help but smile when he noticed that she was wearing his oversized t-shirt that she would constantly wear when she was fourteen, the locket still around her neck, and the black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose.

He was taken back by how much she looked like her younger self that he almost cried.

Ethan sighed, sliding in the seat across from her. "Hey," Ethan called out to her, trying to get her attention.