Married to my suspect

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

JONATHAN'S POV

Haven't I had this same conversation before? Why did I feel like there was currently a déjà vu situation going on right now?

Julia handed her phone to me, but I ignored it, closing the file I'd been trying to arrange. It was my secretary's job to do so, but I had needed it immediately and couldn't be bothered to call her to do so from her lunch break. Even I couldn't do that.

I looked Julia squarely in the eye. "Haven't I told you to stop coming into my office without permission?"

She sighed and dropped her phone on her desk. "I'm a director here, so you can't stop me from entering your office. Besides, I think you'll be very interested in knowing what your wife is doing right now."

I almost shook my head before I remembered, this wasn't a question of trust. A true newly married man was supposed to pay some attention when it came to news about his wife.

"Fine. What is so important?" I asked her, and she gave me a victorious smile I chose to ignore, and I collected the phone she was handing over.

I frowned when I got a good look at the picture. My wife and her friend?? were staring at each other and smiling broadly, like the picture had been taken when they had been laughing. If I didn't know any better, I would believe she held affection for the man. As ridiculous as it was with all the hints that were so obvious to me, Danielle was still insisting he was just being a good friend to her and I didn't want to insult her by insisting she was lying or intentionally deceiving herself. It wasn't like it really made a difference to me anyway. But I had to come up with a different strategy and react, since Julia was still staring at me with anticipation.

I turned off the screen and narrowed my eyes at her. "What am I meant to see? It's just my wife having lunch with a friend. What's so wrong about that?"

She frowned and grabbed the phone from me and looked at the picture. She raised her head and threw the phone to me. "You don't see what else I see? Are you doing this intentionally to get back to me? What has that girl done to you that you are so blatantly ignoring the obvious? Has your getting married dulled your brain?"

I shook my head and turned on my system, not phased by her insult. It was her go-to when things weren't going her way. "The world doesn't revolve around you, and you should stop involving yourself in other people's matters? I don't see why you would have seen the need to take that picture and come and show me yourself."

She shrugged. "Because we're friends? I think I'm close enough to do that. I just don't want you to make a mistake or do something you may regret, even though I may already be late with that." She huffed and folded her hands on her chest.

I turned to look for something in one of my desk drawers, momentarily ignoring her knowing how much that would infuriate her. "I'm fine, and I don't need your concern. Don't you have work to do? This is a very important time for us in the company, and I need maximum concentration on the company now."

She scoffed. "Us? You only use that when you're talking about the company. Fine, I know I messed up then, but I was young and didn't know any better. I even accepted your punishment to get back to me, even going as far as getting married to a mere secretary when you had better options, but it's not like I'm actively trying my best to ruin your relationship."

I picked up a pen I'd been wondering where it had disappeared to and dropped it on my table and looked up. It had been buried deep in my drawer, probably when I had been looking for something else. "I'm not punishing you, and my marriage was also definitely not to punish you. I don't care to do something as childish as that."

She eyed me. "Fine. Then I'll make sure to find what exactly she wants from you. It's for your own good, if you were wondering." She started pacing. "There's something about her that rubs me the wrong way, maybe in her eyes or her expression. You know how good I am at things like that, right? Remember that time Ethan was almost a victim of voice phishing? I was the one that saw the man for who he was. I was also the one that advised that you make the company public, and see how well you're doing. People are still wanting to invest in you."

I rolled my eyes, something I found myself doing against my better will when I was with Julia. "Thanks but, no, thanks. I can take care of myself."

She smiled, one I knew very well to not mean anything good. "Alright."

I shook my head and narrowed my eyes. "Don't touch my wife. Don't do anything or try to do anything. Otherwise, you will not like what I'm going to end up doing."

She nodded. "Sure. I'm not going to touch her. What do you take me for?" She blew me a kiss before waltzing out the office just like she had entered. The door closed behind her and I closed my eyes. My gut feeling about Julia, right now, wasn't good. She had tried to be involved in my life ever since she broke our relationship, but she hadn't tried to meddle in my life as much as she was recently. I was going to have to find out what was really driving her and if she was going to be a threat to me.

I grabbed the file I'd been studying before I'd been rudely interrupted when my eyes went to the pen again. I studied it. I'd kept it in the drawer for the longest time intentionally because I didn't want to remember how I had gotten it and who had given it to me. I still wasn't ready to go down that memory lane, so I dropped it back in my drawer and locked the drawer. Maybe I would end up throwing it away soon anyway, the ink had already been exhausted, and it was just gathering dust where it was.

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We were both drying our hands after washing the dishes when I turned to Danielle. "Can we talk?"

She flinched, and I buried a smirk under my fist. Of all the things she had been caught doing wrong, I wonder which topic had come to her mind and had made her flinch. Was it the fact that she had gone through my room, or the fact that I had seen a picture of her and Lucas in an almost compromising position? Something I'd warned against as I didn't want anybody imagining anything and I didn't share?

She turned to me. "Sure. What about?"

We both went to the dining room where we'd just finished a hearty dinner of lasagna that had been prepared, of course, by Michelle.

"My parents have invited us to have dinner with them next tomorrow. It's my dad's birthday, and since he's gathering business friends of his to celebrate with him, we have to be there. Do I have anything that evening?" I brought up and asked.

I could see the relief that went through her body. "There's nothing on your schedule. Are we meeting at their place or a restaurant? By what time? I have an appointment that same day."

I glanced at her. "At their home. By 7. What kind of appointment? Maybe we can work something out." As long as she wasn't meeting him, I think I would be fine with not going. I wasn't jealous or being possessive, just being rational. It was obvious to me the man had something for her and meeting him while being married not only would do absolutely nothing to my ego, since he wouldn't be able to compare with me in any way, but it would also encourage him that she's interested.

"I wanted to meet my mom that day, but I can reschedule it."

I nodded. "You can invite her to come along. I'll talk to them."

She shook her head aggressively and waved her hands. "There's no need for that. I can just go and see her tomorrow. She'll also be busy with her work, and it's a long ride. Thanks."

I nodded. "Alright."

We stared at each other in silence for a while. I was wondering what was going through her mind, and I wondered what she was thinking. I broke the silence when I remembered something else I wanted to say.

"How has work been? Has Julia been doing anything in my absence?" I asked her. After Julia had gone yesterday, it had occurred to me to ask Danielle if Julia had done anything. The Julia I'd known wouldn't have only been disturbing me. She would have taken work bullying to another level just to get what she wanted.

She thought for a minute. "Not really. Why? Did she say something?" Alright, that was a relief. I was already thinking of letting her go from the company since she wasn't contributing anything especially with her position and I would rather it be as a result of her incompetency at work rather than what may look like a protective move. If I were being honest, she had never been an asset to the company from the beginning. The only thing she had been good at was giving orders to people under her, and I'd ignored it for so long because I had thought it was something Ethan would have wanted. Now, I wasn't really sure.

I shook my head. "No. She didn't, but yesterday she took a picture of you during your lunch hour and came to show me."

She frowned. "I don't see her that much anymore, as I no longer eat at the cafeteria. If she does anything, am I to report to you?" She asked, and I could hear the underscore of something that sounded like disgust to me. I wasn't done figuring her out, but if I was right with my analysis, she hated feeling protected by someone else. The conversations we'd had and her reactions to my orders to her outside of work had hinted at it.

DANIELLE'S POV

He wasn't requesting that I run to him whenever I faced any problems, right? I wasn't the helpless princess looking for a protector and I wasn't looking for someone to help me out of my problems.

He shook his head. "If she gives you any problem, it's not just your problem but a problem for both of us."

I didn't agree with him but I didn't want to argue with him either. "Alright." I had effectively ignored the fact that he had said he had seen me with Lucas and he had also not commented on it. Something I was thankful for. Lucas had apologized and I didn't want Jonathan saying anything about him to me.

"Is that all? I feel tired this evening."

He glanced at me and nodded. "Yeah. Good night. The birthday dinner will need us to dress up so prepare to go to the store after work."

I nodded. "Alright. Goodnight."