Days With Zion Dawsey

23. Dead End

"I'm afraid your drive here was unnecessary. This is not a bracelet of ours." The woman told the pair.

"What do you mean? Could it maybe be a really old one?" Bonnie asked the ginger. She could not believe that the hour drive to the Calvin Klein store was for nothing. The two were slowly getting tired and her mommy adrenaline was slowly wearing off as well. Especially now that she found out the bracelet was a dead end.

"No, I'm sorry. It's in none of our collections, I checked. It could be a bad copy or something." She said.
"Or maybe C. K. are initials. But just not Calvin Klein's." She shrugged before handing the bracelet back to Bonnie. Zion frowned, thinking about somebody who had those initials. Those are times where his photographic memory came in handy.

"Thank you anyway." Bonnie sighed and the woman nodded before walking away to greet another customer. She walked outside to the parking lot, momentarily forgetting about Zion who strolled after her, thinking about whether he should tell her or not.

"I'm sorry. I was so sure this trip would be worth it." Bonnie said once the two settled back into her car. Zion watched her. She was clearly disappointed and he knew her energy was drained as well. He shook his head. She apparently was at least friends with the guy he had in mind. He did see him visit her with his child on his hips. Zion balled his fists.

"You're awfully and unusually quiet." Bonnie glanced at the man next to her. Should he tell her? What if she had a romantic relationship with him? She'd be too in love to realize, he was sure. No, he'd keep it to himself and do it his way. If Zion told her about his suspect, she'd probably act on impulse again and that would not help a bit. It would be best if she just act the way she usually would around that guy and Zion would have people watch his every step. He would find a way to make the guy regret what he did.

Even though he just couldn't come up for a reason why Cirus Kent would do what he did. And why someone like Bonnie would even be interested in him. Was he trying to irk Zion the whole time? Because Zion declined his offer months ago? Maybe he was a bit rude, not even letting Kent finish, but could that really be a reason for him to ruin his life?

"Zion?" That pulled him out of his thoughts.
"What?" He responded.
"Well, what are we going to do now?" Bonnie asked him. Zion shrugged.

"You're going to think about people you know that have those initials. I'm going to go home and think about the next step." He said.
"Okay. I just have so many. Like Calvin Klein, for example. I met him last year at the golden Gala. But he's like 75, so he's out of question. Then there's Christian King, met him at an event as well. He's also old and just generally speaking. With all the names that are coming up, I can't think of a reason why they would ruin my reputation." She said.

"Me neither." Zion said, though now almost entirely sure it was Cirus Kent. Seeing the guy once was a chance, twice was a coincidence, but thrice was a pattern. And that right before his secret was exposed could for sure not be a coincidence. He was on him and Zion was going to find out why.

.

Once Zion came home, he saw a familiar stamp in his pile of letters. No, it was not his mother's. It was Lord Asher's and he already knew what was coming. The annual charity event. He completely forgot about it. It was the only event he'd attended last year. He wasn't so sure whether he was going this year or not.

But he had other priorities at the moment. He seeked out the contract that he had crumbled up and thrown into a drawer of his work desk and walked into his kitchen.

He opened up the contract, reading its content one last time and scoffing about the absurdity of it. Ebony Stewart must've really changed for her to admit that it was a mistake. He shook his head and took out a lighter from one of his kitchen drawers.

He held the paper over the sink and lit it on fire. When he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, he let the burning paper fall into the sink and fished out his cellphone. He had a new message by an unsaved number. An unsaved one, but he knew exactly whose number it was.

If it weren't for his good memory, then he'd know by the content of the message. It was a picture with the burning contract in Bonnie's hand. He bit back a smile and shook his head before looking at his almost burned out paper. He thought about it and then just shrugged.

Zion held his phone over the sink and took a picture that he immediately sent Bonnie. He saw that she was typing and waited patiently for her response. His foot started tapping against the floor and he started chewing on his lip when she took her sweet time to type. He wondered if she was writing him a novel or what.

Minutes later, the paper in his sink already turned into ash but there was still no reply yet. She was still writing and Zion sighed. He placed his phone on the counter and turned the faucet on in order to get rid of the ash in his sink.

The vibration he was waiting for eventually came and when he saw what she sent, he felt like strangling her. All that wasted time just to send an emoji? He shook his head in annoyance, not caring about the thumbs up emoji at all.

He locked his phone, deciding against participating in a childish emoji exchange via text in that moment. He had other things to sort out.