BIA Ch. 83

Day Ten

The traffic light turned red. Manny stepped on the brake, as if to remind me said.

“I told you, right? Grace is definitely going to say something rude to you again. Just pretend you didn’t hear it. Just let it go.”

“That’s my specialty.”

“Right. That’s a relief at least.”

He could see that Manny was genuinely relieved. The light turned green again and the car started moving. Isaiah rested his elbow on the window frame and said,

“If she dislikes me so much, why did she invite me to dinner? Does she want me to get indigestion?”

“I guess the counselor told her to. To not give Chester any room to do anything else. To invite the people he cares about and likes to eat and have a good time together, so he wouldn’t even think about it. And since Cedric is away, she probably thought it was a good opportunity.”

“She’s trying so hard.”

Isaiah openly scoffed.

“I guarantee, the best thing is to throw him back into rehab.”

“Chester’s already been to rehab.”

“Then he should go again.”

“She thinks it’s not at that stage yet.”

Manny desperately made excuses for Grace. He still seemed to believe that Chester would stop at marijuana or LSD. It was his freedom to believe that, but the idea that LSD was okay but cocaine and heroin weren’t was ridiculous.

“Ted and Axley are coming too.”

Both were Chester’s underlings. Their way of speaking was foul, and their actions were rough, so their reputation within the organization wasn’t great, but strangely, Chester liked them. When he was away from home for a long time like now, he trusted them enough to give them his apartment keys and have them walk and take care of his dog. He probably liked how they acted like his tongue in his mouth and fawned over him in front of him. He really had no eye for people.

“And Hailey is coming too.”

“Who’s Hailey?”

Manny’s eyes widened at Isaiah’s question. Then, he nodded and said, “Ah, right, you were out of it then.”

“You saw Hailey the day you met Grace. At Aunt Angelina’s funeral. She’s Chester’s fiancée, and the daughter of the vice president of AII.”

“He’s already engaged?”

“Well, Grace is trying to get him engaged, to be exact.”

But it doesn’t seem like it’s going to work out, Manny said with a troubled face.

And as soon as Isaiah saw Hailey, he knew why.

“Thank you for inviting me, Mrs. Kalisz.”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Please, come in. Oh, my husband had to leave suddenly because of work.”

“I heard. That your friend passed away.”

“Yes, it was an old friend, and it was so sudden. My husband was looking forward to meeting Miss Cornwall again too. Anyway, please come in.”

Grace greeted Hailey warmly. As she subtly gestured, Chester approached to take Hailey’s coat, greeting her in a seemingly polite manner.

“It’s been a while, Miss Cornwall.”

Chester’s tone was cheerful and his actions were full of confidence, a far cry from two days ago. But his eyes were still hazy, so he had definitely taken another hit right before this.

But it was no use. Even while greeting Chester, Hailey was subtly looking around, searching for someone, and when Bran, who was late, entered the dining room, her cheeks suddenly flushed red, and she was the first to acknowledge him.

“We meet again, Mr. Wiseman.”

“It’s been a week. How have you been, Miss Cornwall.”

Bran took off his jacket and handed it to a servant, then offered Hailey a handshake. Hailey took his hand and said shyly,

“You can call me Hailey.”

“Hailey.”

Bran willingly accepted her request. Just by calling her name, Hailey looked at Bran with a blissful expression, like someone receiving a sacred revelation. Bran also smiled gently at Hailey.

“Bran is enough for me.”

“Okay…, Bran.”

Hailey mumbled, half-dazed.

Bran sat in his pre-arranged seat—right next to the head of the table—the head of the table, which had been Cedric’s, was occupied by Grace, the host of the day. Chester was sitting to her right, and next to him was Hailey, and perhaps because of this, Hailey talked more to Bran, who was sitting across from her, than to Chester, who was next to her, throughout the meal.

Of course, it wasn’t just because of the seating arrangement. No matter what the arrangement was, Hailey would have talked to Bran. In fact, even when she was talking to someone else, she would talk to Bran whenever she had the chance. Even when she was excitedly talking about theater with Grace, she would suddenly ask, “By the way, does Bran like theater?” and even when she was talking about wine with Chester, she would say, “But Bran seems to prefer whiskey to wine. He barely drinks wine and only drinks whiskey?” naturally showing that she had been watching only Bran from the beginning.

At this point, even a three-year-old would have noticed. Hailey was completely smitten with Bran right now. Even Chester seemed to have noticed. He had been trying to talk to Hailey somehow until a while ago, but at some point, he stopped talking and was just pouring drinks. But strictly speaking, it wasn’t because of Hailey. Hailey didn’t matter. What tormented Chester was his sense of inferiority to Bran.

Chester was one thing, but what was surprising was Bran. Knowing that Grace had her eye on Hailey as a potential daughter-in-law, I thought he would deliberately act businesslike, but unexpectedly, he responded very well whenever Hailey spoke to him.

Of course, Bran was originally a kind person to women. But that was just a feeling of courtesy. It was a gesture and tone that clearly showed that it was an attitude that was ingrained in him. So, it felt more distant, that kind of man.

But it was a little different with Hailey. he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but things like a deeper eye smile than usual or a gaze that was more affectionate than necessary were enough to cause misunderstandings. At least, it was something that the usual Bran would never do, Isaiah thought. Especially in a situation where Hailey was emitting an aura of ‘I’m interested in you’ with her whole body.

At first, he thought he was doing it on purpose to show off to Chester. But soon, he concluded that that couldn’t be the case. Bran wasn’t the kind of man who would show off his superiority in this way. Especially if Chester was the opponent. He knew better than anyone that he was a guy who didn’t need to do that, so why would he bother? That was an insult to Bran.

There must be a more constructive reason. For example, maybe Cedric had said that he would hand over the boss position to the person who became the son-in-law of the Cornwall family. Yes, that was more likely. He was a person who had infiltrated the organization by even hiding his identity because of his mission. What wouldn’t he do to achieve his goal?

He decided to think that way and be done with it. He decided not to pay attention to whatever Bran said to Hailey, or whatever gaze he gave her.

But it didn’t work out. He would come to his senses and find himself listening to their conversation. And since Hailey was sitting right next to him, he could hear the conversation even better. And if he just looked up, he could see Bran. Smiling at the person next to him, not him.

More than Bran’s gaze, tone, and smile, which were different from usual, he hated myself more for being so sensitive to each and every one of them. Every time he was disappointed by his gaze not meeting his, he felt even more self-loathing for being so disappointed.

He could see why Chester was drinking himself into a stupor. If he had been drinking, he would have drunk three bottles of wine by now. Thinking that, he kept drinking cold water, and then Grace suddenly said to Hailey as if she had just remembered.

“Oh, come to think of it, Miss Cornwall, you’ve met everyone else here before, right? At my aunt’s funeral.”

It seemed like she couldn’t stand it any longer and was trying to change the subject herself, interrupting Bran and Hailey’s conversation.

“Ah, yes, that’s right.”

Hailey also seemed to realize that she had been talking to Bran too much, so she quickly agreed. She first acknowledged Manny, who was sitting next to Bran.

“You’re Manny, right? I heard you’re the one Chester trusts the most.”

Then, after greeting Ted and Axley, who were sitting next to him, she looked at Isaiah, who was sitting next to her, and immediately smiled particularly happily, saying, “Isaiah!”

“Come to think of it, you seemed to be in bad shape back then, but you’re okay now, right?”

“Yes, thanks to you.”

Isaiah replied briefly.

“I was so surprised when you suddenly collapsed. But I was even more surprised when I saw Bran pick you up and carry you. Isaiah is tall too. But how could he lift you up so easily? Aren’t you heavy?”

As always, the end of every conversation was Bran. But that wasn’t the important thing right now.

I collapsed… and Bran picked me up? During the funeral service? With so many people watching?

He couldn’t believe it. Isaiah looked around, his face pale. Everyone was nodding, not smiling, with an expression that seemed to say, ‘Come to think of it, that’s right,’ so it seemed like it was true, unfortunately.

“Did you get to the hospital okay that day? It must have been only the emergency room since it was Saturday.”

Hailey asked with a worried face.

“Ah, well….”

Isaiah was stammering, not knowing what to say, when Bran spoke first.

“No, the hospital was too far, so we just went to a nearby hotel.”

“What? A hotel…?”

“Yes, a hotel.”

At the same time as Bran’s answer, there was a clanging, sharp sound. Chester had dropped his knife.