Branch Twelve
Xavier moved to the bedroom and saw Jessica sleeping soundly. If only she knew what the entire city was saying about her now.
She turned in her sleep and rubbed her most lightly while muttering incoherent words.
Xavier freshened up and then put up the pillow wall before sliding into bed. The headlines and comments played in his mind over and over again.
This was the first time his family was caught in the entertainment news. Who knew that the marriage hr dreaded so much would be what would put the family up in the spotlight the wrong way?
The Delgado family were business tycoons and appearing in the business news was no big deal at all. That was his specialty. He lived a quiet life and that made the blogs and tabloids avoid him as he was the boring young handsome rich boy.
His looks were good enough but the story around his life was just not interesting enough. Somewhere between two to three am Xavier finally drifted into a light slumber.
As Xavier was just getting to go to sleep by five am Jessica woke up. She decided that since the compound of the mansion was large enough to be a palace she would use the opportunity to exercise.
She went into the closet careful enough not to wake Xavier, she put on some tights and a sports bra while throwing over a jacket.
Although the weather in Chiachester City was warm at this time of the year, the mansion was filled with trees so it was probably kind of breezy outside.
She put on running shoes and left the room. Xavier heard her movement around the room but devised again standing up. She might have been startled. He waited till she had left and then went upstairs to the first-floor balcony to see what she was doing. Seeing as she was running around the house. He left her to be and came back to sleep.
Xavier finally got to sleep but what felt like a few minutes was now six thirty am Jessica stood over him shaking his shoulders to wake him.
He rubbed his eyes and ran his other hand through his head. He saw Jessica standing her eyes glistening as if she oiled them.
“Have you seen this?” she asked pointing to the phone in her hand.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.
“What?” he asked as soon she sat and yawned too. His yawn made her yawn too.
She sat beside him which made him scoot over so she can sit.
“Have you seen this?” she asked again pointing to the phone screen.
Xavier collected the phone from her hand and scrolled to read through it.
“I’ve seen it and I need to sleep,” he said tossing the phone back to her.
“You know that I didn’t do that right? I didn’t even know you before I married you” Jessica jumped to her defense.
“I need to sleep,” Xavier said his voice cold and distant. He laid back down and pulled up the blankets to himself.
“Just like that?” Jessica asked confused at his attitude.
Weren’t rich people concerned about their public image? Was it weird that he was cool about itWhile Jessica was busy fussing over the fact that Xavier was too calm for someone who should care about reputation, Brian was busy hunting down the bloggers and tabloids writers.
They were definitely going to be either going to court or paying a fine for defamation. There would be no way that the Delgado family would let them loose.
Since Xavier hardly caused any trouble nobody knew what the family would do. The blogs that took up the story were small blogs that wanted to improve traffic on their page.
“What do you mean I’ll be paying a fine?” Burke thundered over the phone.
Burke had been receiving threatening calls all morning. He was the one who sent the post so they all wanted to get even with him.
“I am going to tell the police that you sent the blog post to me. I have evidence” Max said calmly.
He had gone to school with Burke and he was skeptical about releasing the news but he needed the traffic and it was the Delgado family, so he took the risk.
“You wouldn’t,” Burke said with a touch of a crazy laced in his voice.
“Moreover I would only be given a minor sentence. I didn’t force you to publish. You are the publisher who published without checking facts” Burke added.
“You are a psycho,” Max said before cutting off the call.
Burke was delighted with himself. There was no way that the incident could be traced to him. He wasn’t done dragging the name of his ex-girlfriend in the mud. How dare she have a wonderful life after leaving him? He wanted her miserable not living in a mansion and eating fancy meals.
He broke up with her and went after her best friend. For some reason even though she grew up in an orphanage she had an optimistic side to life about everything.
She was the half-full-glass kind of girl and it did get on Burke’s nerves all the time. Hence his brutal breakup with her on the wedding day.
If the reporter he used now refused to go after her because she was now associated with the Delgado family, he would find more reporters who would be willing to take the risk.
There are always the reckless fame-seeking ones who would do anything to be recognized.
Burke laughed out loud to himself. Emma stood by the door of the room watching him laugh like a wizard. She tapped the door frame which brought him back to reality.
“Care to share the joy?” she asked coming in.
She was dressed for work. She worked as an accountant in one of the Delgado industries. Burke had not bothered himself to learn it because he was barely interested in her.
He was with her because of her friend. He didn’t love her either. He was just passing the time with her.
“You’ll soon get to know” Burke answered.
“On your way to work?” he asked her.
“Yeah, see you at night,” she said planting a small kiss on his lips before leaving the room.
“Bye,’ he called after her.
“I love you” She turned around and looked at him.
“Me too”