Page 11 of Billionaire’s Promise

Jenny didn’t make a sound, her eyes fixed on the 60-inch television in front of her, with America’s Top Model playing in the background.

I knew that I wasn’t going to get a response out of her. I’d vaguely heard my staff whispering about Jenny lately and had no idea what was going on. The woman had been through some serious mental health problems in the last few years which started with postpartum depression when her second child was born. It got worse as Jenny’s demanding mother-in-law blamed her for getting a diagnosis for her child, which confirmed his autism. The old woman believed that ignorance is bliss, and if Jenny had never taken the child to the clinic, they would have never confirmed the child’s condition. Then they could have pretended that the problem didn’t exist in the first place.

Ever since my dad nearly died from Covid, my family had become really cautious with our social events. I thought it was kind of silly because Dad didn’t actually live with us. Sure, he would come home three times a week religiously to have dinner with Mom and the kids – but that was as much time as he was willing to give us. The rest of it was reserved for Mary – the other woman.

I didn’t know how much Mom still cared about him until he got sick. She was calling in every favor she could to get him the best treatments available and get him on top of the priority care list.

Mom had made the Li family cancel pretty much all of their face-to-face appointments. Mary had objections to begin with but she had this fear of Mom so she would eventually do whatever she said. Well, within reason.

Anyway, Dad’s sickness was one of the reasons I hadn’t been able to come back to the States, or even leave my province.

Now that my dad had fully recovered, and was able to play golf again, my mother was a little more relaxed about me traveling. Though she had no idea that I had left the country. I basically told her that I was just popping out for a bit. I knew that my mother would find out sooner or later, but I still hoped that Cousin Jenny wouldn’t rat me out too soon.

“Anyone know you’re here?”

Jenny shook her head. That was an improvement from her blanking me, giving me her signature dead fish impression – the bottom half of the white of her eyes showing. She actually came up with that name herself when we were kids, as she struggled to properly roll her eyes for years. She would often check with me whether she had managed to roll them or was just doing her dead fish impression. Except today, it wasn’t just her eyes doing a dead impression.

“Have you seen a doctor?” I wondered if she had been taking her pills. As far as I knew, she had never stopped her medication.

She nodded.

I wasn’t sure if I believed her. Anyhow, if she needed any meds it shouldn’t be any trouble here in America. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was nice that people were so open about their anxiety and what not. But I did wonder if the rate the medication was prescribed in this country was a little unnecessary. Then again, no one asked me, and my opinion didn’t matter here.

All I cared about, at the moment, was that I could get Jenny her medication if need be.

“Do you want me to go away?”

She threw me a sideways glance that meant yes. I knew her well enough to know that.

I turned around and walked towards the bedroom door. “But promise me you’ll at least clean up here. Otherwise, I’m kicking you out.”

Another sideways glance.

I was bluffing and she knew it. She was my favorite cousin, and she was always welcome in my home.

I walked out of the guest room, and past a few more rooms down the hallway until I was sure that Jenny couldn’t hear me. I instructed Clare to send a team to look after her. Clare made a note to contact the cleaning staff, medical team, a stylist, and hire a driver and personal assistant for her. Of course, it wasn’t a secret that I wanted her taken care of, but she might want to stay the way she was for a little longer, in her wallowing mood. But until then, the team could stand by for when she was ready to come out of her shell.

While I was talking to Jenny, Dave had divided my current security team into two and had one of them watching my cousin. I didn’t really know how long she had been away from home, but I knew people would be frantically searching for her. If she wanted to stay hidden, I was going to make sure her wishes were respected.

Dave was in-charge of dropping a hint to Jenny’s family security team, letting them know that she was safe without revealing any other information. They weren’t even going to know that Dave was the one dropping the hint – he was great at this kind of 007 stuff.

“Sir, I’m glad you are taking care of her.” Dave turned around from the driver seat as I settled in the back of a black Porsche Panamera. Clare sat next to him silently and I appreciated her not making any comments about my cousin. She was good at her job, and I liked that she spoke her mind, but sometimes people didn’t need to hear everything she had to say.

I let out a sigh and a light nod.

The whole Law family must have been looking for her, as well as the Chens, her husband’s family. The last time she ran away, it was one of Jenny’s friends who found her in a hospital in Taipei, disoriented and without any memory of who she was. Then as soon as she arrived back in Shanghai, a medical team sent by her husband was waiting for her at the airport and she was taken into a facility for God knows how long.

No one I spoke to really knew what they did to her in that facility. Jenny’s husband wasn’t going to tell me no matter how many times I’d asked. She refused to talk about it. But every time I asked her, tears would stream down her face so quickly that I wished that I hadn’t bothered to ask. Part of me knew that we should revisit that topic again, if and when Jenny was ready to open up.

At least part of the problem was that Jenny was a really vain person and she only ever wanted to show her perfect beautiful side to the world. It was an eye opener to see the opposite side of her, where she no longer cared about her appearance.

My instinct told me to help her. But how?

Right this second, what I could do was give her what she needed – some space.

“Where to, sir?” Dave asked.

“The warehouse.”