So, then, what was it? If I answered wrong, Asher would know what I’d done, or planned to do. And then what? Would he think I wanted to steal from him? What could I tell him? Nothing. I had no real reason I could give him that would explain why I wanted to use his secret passageway to sneak into his main house. If I told him about Beatrice and Solomon without evidence of their wrongdoings, then he’d think I was crazy.
And, that was it. No more. I wasn’t anyone special or important. I was Jessika Fevrier, some woman way in over her head. I was nothing more than a woman who enjoyed books(perhaps a bit too much), and had fallen head over heels in love with a man who was so far above me it was ridiculous. What did I have to offer him? What could he possibly gain from me? Asher was rich, a billionaire, and while Beatrice didn’t love him, she at least came from a good family. She was well-educated and traveled and knew a lot about traversing the upper echelons of society.#p#分页标题#e#
I was Jessika and I was clumsy and when I went to put One Thousand and One Nights back into the bookcase I dropped it. The book slipped out of my hands and began its descent to the floor. I stared at it, caught off guard and surprised. The book opened on its way downwards, flipping around so the pages were revealed to me, facing up. It thudded onto the carpet and beeped at me.
“Password?” it asked.
I stared at the book. If the book could, it probably stared back at me. This was something, something important, and I thought I should know it, but I wasn’t quite sure.
“No way,” I said, but I had to try it. Stumbling to the floor, not even bothering to pick the book up, I pressed in the password.
“D-A-N-T-E-‘-S <space> I-N-F-E-R-N-O.”
The remote beeped and the bookcase clicked. The shelves popped out, sliding away from the wall on the unhinged section, enough for me to grab a handle on the side. I pulled the bookcase the rest of the way, opening the whole thing and revealing the hidden doorway behind it.
“Wow,” I said. “Wow. I’m good.”
Good or lucky or I don’t even know. It didn’t matter right now. I had access! Access into the passageway, access into the main house, and hopefully access into Beatrice’s room. I’d guessed the password out of sheer luck and fate, but I still had a lot more to do.
I opened the door into the hidden underground passageway and stepped inside.
…
“Asher,” Jeremy said while driving to Landseer Tower. “Do you ever think something’s up? Maybe something’s wrong?”
“What do you mean?” Asher asked.
“You know, like with Beatrice? She’s always gone. She’s not very friendly with anyone. I mean, she’s a little more friendly with you, but not by much…”
“I don’t know.” Asher sighed. “I thought maybe it was how everything happened at first. Maybe she didn’t expect it to turn out this way. I know I didn’t, but it’s not all bad, right? I try to give her space and I thought she’d come around, but it never happened. I don’t really know what to think now. I’m still trying, though.”
“Yeah, but why? I’m not saying you should divorce her or anything, but why not talk to her? Like, maybe divorce would be a good option, even. If you’re both not getting what you expected out of a marriage, then it’s not a terrible thing to cut your losses and go your own way with no hard feelings.”
“It’s not that simple,” Asher said. “There’s a lot at stake here. It’s not just the marriage, but the company, too. Beatrice is a major shareholder and even if she’s not involved in day-to-day business, she has benefactors working on her behalf. If we separated and she left the company entirely, the divorce proceedings could get out of hand. I know that it might be easier for both of us in regards to happiness, but then what? I’m heavily invested into Landseer Enterprises and she isn’t. This is a purely business standpoint, but she could potentially set the company back by decades if she wanted to be vindictive.”
“Yeah,” Jeremy said. “I can understand that. It’s as good a reason as any. Seems like a terrible reason to stay with her, though. Isn’t marriage about love and happiness and all that? Saying that you need her to keep your corporation afloat is sort of the opposite of that. I’m not going to say you should just up and get rid of everything and be poor, but there’s got to be some way that everything can work out in the end.”
“I… I try. I really do. We’re just two very different people. I still try, and I think Beatrice is trying, too. She’s accepting this surrogacy situation very well, all things considered. Beatrice isn’t very open-minded about much and she doesn’t enjoy obtuse, creative solutions, so…”