Chapter 432 A friend
Chapter 432 A friend
On the day of his parent's burial, the cemetery had received a large bouquet of lilies —they had been his mother's favourite— and the card that came with it was signed by Tai Pin.
That was the last time he had heard anything from the family until now. According to the return address written on the letter, the family was now in Shanghai.
***
Edward drove his car onto the parking spot that had been designated for him. With his title painted in bold white letters, the sight had a way of always putting a smile on his face.
There was just so etching satisfying about having your own parking space.
Yes, it had taken years of hard work to get to where he was now; there had been gains and there had been lots of losses, but now he was a respected name amongst other top bosses. And it wasn't because of his father. Indeed, it was satisfying.
When he was growing up, his family had been respected because of the position his father held, but after his parents death, all of that clout had gone away and he'd been just a other regular amongst them.
Now, he had made a name for himself one that even the Pins, as far away as they were, recognised well enough to give him a personal invite to their party.
Yes, one could argue that he had been attending their parties since day one but that, again, had been because of his father's relationship with the family.
Now that the thread that had bound the families together had been cut, the Pins had no compulsion to invite any Wu to their parties. But they had.
And this touched Edward deeply. He definitely had to honour the invitation.
As he got out of his car, Edward allowed himself to wonder what the Pin sisters looked like now.
He had been about nineteen when they moved away which meant their eldest Mai was about twenty followed Su seventeen and then little Chapa who was just barely twelve.
Twelve years later, they were all adults now with promising careers he believed. They were all of marriageable age and if any of them were indeed married, chances were it would be Su Ya.
She had always been the prettiest of the trio and the most open to love. The others were either too stoic or too shy.
Edward remembered sharing a kiss with her one time when they were both still naive. It had been clumsy and swift and Su had slapped him right after with a stern warning.
"You come close to me again and I'll accuse you of rape."
Edward had never been confused about anything as he had been about the situation.
Either he had misread signals or the kiss had been so disappointing it had made her angry because Edward remembered it being Su that made the first move.
Well, he'd gotten the warning and had stayed far away from her. But she'd still come around after that to join forces with her sisters in tormenting him.
Girls. He really wished Amy was alive then; he would have taken her along with him and introduced her as his bride.
He could just imagine the shock on Mai's face especially.
"You, Edward Wu with a wife?" He imagined she would say. "What a wonder!"
"And she's pretty too," Su would add.
"No, Su," Edward would have corrected, "She's the most beautiful creature that ever walked in my life."
A feeling of sadness washed over him and Edward had to pause at the entrance doors to get a hold of himself.
The last village close to the end of the river had been searched late last night and the verdict had been the same: no one had seen or heard about a floating dead body.
Viktor had advised him to call of the search and for the second time, Edward had given up.
He had decided he would call Chynna and ask her to begin planning the rites of her memorial service, but now that he'd been invited out of the state, he figured he would hold on a while.
"Are you okay boss?" someone said to him and Edward looked up to find his security guard hovering around him.
Two buff arms reached out to steady him as he tried to lean away from the support of the railings.
"I'm fine. I'm fine," Edward assured the guy and shook his head to chase away the dizzy feeling.
The guard nodded once and returned to his post leaving Edward to walk into the office building.
He went straight for the elevator, waving once to the golden-haired receptionist whose name he forgot the next day after she'd reminded him.
He didn't feel guilty about it anyway because they had no direct relationship since he had a secretary who did all of that for him. He pressed the button of his floor and relaxed against the wall of the elevator as it moved up.
Ding!
After about six floors, the cab finally came to a stop and Edward got out of the box. He moved straight for his office where he found Viktor standing by his desk waiting for him.
"Morning sir," the soldier greeted.
"Good morning Viktor," Edward replied as he shrugged off his jacket before hanging it on the back of his chair.
He looked at his desk and nodded toward a black velvet square shaped object, "Is that the box?"
Viktor nodded, but just as he was about to say something, Edward's secretary walked in and he fell silent.
"Good morning sir," Holly greeted shyly. She smiled at Edward then moved closer to his desk with his cup of coffee and schedule for the day. "Good to have you in today."
Edward nodded. "Good to be in."
"You have a lot of meetings to cover up for what you've missed," Holly warned as she turned the notepad to face him.
"Cancel them."
Holly paused. "But...sir..."
"I have an important business to attend to in Shanghai and I leave in two days. Cancel anything I have from today till the end of the month. I'll cover up when I get back," Edward informed her before handing over the book.
Holly blew out a deep breath. "I've rescheduled a lot of these meetings time and time again sir. These people are going to be pissed."
"Not as pissed as I'd be if you don't cancel them." Edward's brows shot up and he regarded his secretary with a cool gaze.
The overworked secretary gulped at the look before arranging her glasses on her face. "I'll start making the calls now."
"You better. Thanks for the coffee."
"Your welcome, sir."
Her voice was significantly lower and she was less chirpy than she had been when she first walked into the room.
Viktor felt for the clearly exhausted secretary as he watched her leave the office, the weight of the work she was about to do causing a slight hump on her back.
If he were in a better position, he would have chided the boss for being so hard on the girl, but Viktor didn't want a transfer of aggression so he held his tongue.