Chapter 77

"Huh? Go back where? Have you found a man? You children of nowadays, finding a man and leaving your old parents to suffer in loneliness." James, Carly's father teased.

Carly burst into laughter, falling to the side. "Dad! You're not lonely, you have mom! What the heck?"

"Mind your language, young lady." Her mother said, walking into the house. "And what mom?"

"See?" James shrugged.

Carly laughed even harder. "Mother, what do you mean? Of course, you're here to keep father company."

"What company? Your father barely speaks to me in this house. He's always acting shady as if someone's chasing him. Then he dares to say he's lonely. You're yet to see loneliness, Mr."

Carly laughed all the more. "You guys are too old to be acting so funny, what the he...heaven."

Her mother glared at her. "You better not be intending to say heck or hell, young lady. Nobody swears under my roof."

James scoffed at her as she walked away. "Don't mind the old goose. She pretends to hate swear words but she always uses them when she notices anything out of the ordinary."

Carly nodded. Soon, she heard her mother talking and swearing loudly. James and Carly shared a glance and they chuckled silently. The same woman who told her not to use hell or heck was boldly yelling out curse words and shouting what the fuck and freak.

Carly enjoyed her evening with her parents. They made her laugh so hard that she almost forgot what pain she was in when she came. She didn't think that she could easily feel relieved. "I guess the saying is true that pain is forgotten with family." She thought.

Carly returned to her room where she laid to rest. As soon as her body touched the bed, she drifted off to sleep. Martha walked in to check on Carly and she found her asleep. She gently shut the door and returned to her husband.

"She's asleep, James." She said softly. "My dear, the girls look sorrowful."

"I wonder what she has been through in the city alone." James sighed. "I feel so terrible for not being able to provide you both with the lives you deserve."

"Shh, don't say that, James." Martha scolded gently. "It's not your fault. You did what any patriotic citizen would have done, what any sane human would have done."

"It doesn't matter who would have done so too. Look at where it landed us. Being unable to get up and go out and provide wealth for our daughter like the other parents out there. Our princess has to work so hard just to make ends meet and look at how depressed she looks." James complained.

"She's so weary, the moment she laid on the bed, she fell right asleep," Martha added. Their hearts broke for the suffering their daughter was going through and James kept blaming himself. What could he say? It was truly his fault for not being able to act smartly. If only he had turned a blind eye like the other employees. He knew very well that he wasn't the only one who could have found out about their boss's sins.

How come he allowed himself to be swayed by his wish for justice and wasn't even smart enough to go about it well? Of course, a mafia boss would easily spot a traitor. He should have sat back to plan things well.

He shared a distressed look with Martha. "I think I need to get something done for her at least. Maybe we can just prepare a light feast to celebrate her return."

"We don't have much money," Martha whispered.

James got up regardless. "I have a few dollars in the bank in my savings. Hopefully, they would permit me to take some of it. Just list the things we could use and I would buy them on my way back."

Martha sighed. She took a pen and paper and wrote down a few things they could use to prepare a light feast for their daughter and James took the paper from her. He dressed up and left the house. Martha went about, cleaning the whole place and preparing other ingredients she could use to make the food.

Unknown to them, Carly had woken up. She remained in her bed, thinking about how to break the news of her joblessness to her parents. They seemed to look up to her a lot and they relied on her so well. If she told them that she had lost her job, she didn't think they would take it lightly.

After sitting for a while, she decided to step out onto the balcony and take some fresh air. She looked around and noticed how busy the streets were. The more she looked at the people, she began to notice some strange movements. There were about six guys who seemed to be monitoring one man. She sighed as she watched. Being a trained agent now, she could easily notice such things. Usually, she didn't care. She was so carefree when she didn't know all of these things.

As she watched, the man got closer and he began to look more familiar. Her heart started to race as she noticed he was her father. She scowled slightly. Those men were surely stalking him. Pretending not to be watching them, she noticed that they followed him down to the apartment but kept going forward till they got to a black car.

Carly noticed that four of them got in while two of them hung around still. She scowled even more. Why was her father being followed? She thought that the issue with the mafia gang had been settled by Landon. Or did he collect his money back and now they wanted her father again? Her heart began to race all the more.

"Calm down, Carly." She whispered. "You're thinking too much. Perhaps it's just a coincidence okay? We need to observe a little more before we can actually make a report."

After watching for a little more while, the streets began to empty but that car remained in that spot all through and the other two men vanished. Soon, she perceived a sweet aroma coming from the kitchen and her eyes welled up with tears. She had missed her mother's cooking. The familiar smell infiltrated her senses, sending her down to the kitchen instantly.