One Wild Night

Chapter 459: Research Center

Harry didn't miss how he had said 'We' instead of 'You'. That was one of the things he admired the most about his friendship with Tom. It wasn't one-sided and it was never just about one person. He was always confident that Tom would go the extra mile for him the same way he would for him.     

"My sweet cousin said you sent for Candace already," Harry said with a mischievous smile, and Tom groaned dramatically.     

"Really, man? Did you have to say it that way or bring it up right now?" Tom asked, and Harry chuckled.     

Tom smiled when he heard Harry's laughter. He was relieved to know that despite how upset he was at the moment, he could still find it in him to laugh.     

"Couldn't help myself. Lucy is a treasure, you know?" Harry asked as he looked at Tom.     

"Yeah. One I'm grateful I discovered," Tom said, and Harry nodded.      

"Uncle Harry?" Tom called, and Harry turned to see Tom's teasing grin.     

"Jade was right to call you that. You are really Uncle Harry now, aren't you?" He asked, and Harry's lips twitched in amusement.     

"I guess she was. He seems like a pretty decent kid," Harry said as he thought of Jamal, and a smile lit up Tom's face.     

"I know, right? More like a decent young man. And he has such an adult sense of humor. Can you believe the little brat said the only thing he doesn't like about Lucy is that she has a boyfriend?" Tom said, and Harry chuckled as Tom told him more about Jamal.     

"Between you and Lucy, I'm not sure who the kid has got more wrapped around his fingers," Harry said when he noticed the twinkle in Tom's eyes as he talked about Jamal.     

"Even though it is Lucy he adores, I'm the one eating out of his hand. This morning he made me promise to give his mom a job. And then we tried bargaining if he wanted me to get him a car or he wanted Lucy," Tom said, and Harry chuckled.      

"Which did he choose?" Harry asked in amusement.     

"Lucy, of course. He figured since Lucy has a car already, they could both use hers," Tom said, and Harry roared with laughter, ignoring the looks that attracted him.     

"Why was he at the office though? What about the no kids at work policy?" Harry asked, and Tom sighed.      

"I just couldn't say bring myself to say no to him. He wanted to see my office so I figured there was no harm in letting him stay in the office cubicle," Tom said with a wince.     

"He has got you where he wants you."     

"Trust me, he's going to have you and your dad wrapped around those tiny fingers of his too," Tom said with a chuckle, and Harry smiled.     

"She did a really great job raising him," Tom said, and Harry silently agreed.     

"I guess my dad won't be bothering me about getting into a relationship or getting married anymore now that he has a grandson to dote on," Harry said, and Tom remembered something that Lucy had said.     

"He wasn't doing that because he wanted a grandchild. He was scared you wouldn't want to be in a relationship if you found out the truth," Tom said, and Harry's brows pulled together.     

"Did you think so too? Do you think one insensitive woman is enough to change how I already see life? I'm not that shallow, you know? I've got my own convictions. I may have been given birth to by the worst of scums, but I know not everyone is like her. I've seen your parents together, Tom. I've heard their story. The love tale my dad spun isn't the only reason I believe in love," Harry said, and Tom grinned, feeling even more relieved now.     

"What about my love story with your cousin?" Tom asked as he placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, unable to resist teasing him.     

"Fuck off," Harry said as he pushed Tom away from him making Tom chuckle.     

They walked together in mutual silence until they got to the spot where he had parked the car and he got into the driver's seat while Harry got into the car out of habit.         

"She is on her way, right?" Harry asked, wanting to know what Tom's plan was.      

"Yeah," Tom said as he wondered if there was any need to tell Harry that Jade was on her way back as well. He had received a call from Jade on their way to the airport, informing him that she had quit her job and was getting on the plane with Candace. He was just going to it to Jade to tell Harry about it herself when she arrived.     

"I know I should have discussed it with you first, but when Jade informed me that Sara is trying to find her right now, I figured we keep her away from Sara's reach," Tom explained as he buckled his seatbelt.     

"It's cool."     

"Where are we going?" Tom asked, and Harry scowled.     

"I want to be alone, Tom," Harry said, and Tom resisted the urge to point out the fact that he was already sitting in the passenger seat while saying that.     

"Sure. That doesn't mean I'm going to let you drive around on your own when you are upset. I will drop you off wherever you want, and I will let you be alone," Tom assured him.     

"I don't have to drive. I could easily get a cab," Harry pointed out.      

"Sure. But your cab driver isn't your best friend, and he won't be as much fun as I am either. Besides, I'm sure he wouldn't have half of the information I'm going to be sharing with you during the drive," Tom said, and Harry raised a brow.     

"What other information do you have?" Harry asked, and Tom grinned.      

"You see what I mean? Tell me where you want me to drive you to, and I will tell you everything you need to know on our way," Tom offered.      

"For someone who was so tight-lipped yesterday and refusing to say a word, you suddenly seem eager to say a lot to me," Harry said dryly, and Tom sighed.      

"You don't possibly blame me for that, do you? Tell me honestly, would you have preferred to hear all of that from me?" Tom asked, and Harry's brows pulled together as he considered it.     

If he had heard it from Tom and not from his dad, his dad probably wouldn't be lying on that hospital bed right now since he would have taken every necessary action to deal with Sara, and find a way to reunite Candace with his father.     

But then again, it probably wouldn't have happened that way, since he would have probably been even angrier at his father, had he heard it from someone else and he wasn't sure he would have given his father the chance to explain things to him the way he had done.     

"No," Harry admitted honestly with a sigh, and Tom gave him a nod. Thankful that Harry was honest with them both.     

"Good. So tell me how you feel and what you want. Do you want us to go to a shooting range so you can let off some steam? Or would you rather play call of duty?" Tom asked, and Harry shook his head as he buckled his seatbelt.     

"Nah! Just take me home. I want to be alone for some time," Harry said, and Tom started the car and drove out of the parking lot.      

"Home it is then."     

"Tell me all you know," Harry urged him, and Tom told him every single detail he had gathered from both Lucy and Jade concerning Sara.     

The more Harry listened to Tom and processed everything, the angrier he became. He gritted his teeth until he was sure that his teeth were going to crack soon if he didn't stop.     

Most of Harry's anger stemmed from the fact that Sara had the guts to show up, expecting a smooth family reunion despite the fact she sold off Candace and lied to Aaron that the child was dead.      

How could a person be that callous? How could she sell a baby she had with her husband and lie to him in that manner and still go ahead to steal some more money from him?     

He knew little enough about Candace from the time he had spent with Jade, to know that life hadn't been easy on her, but hearing now from Tom how her adoptive parents had died and how she had been abandoned once again at an orphanage by her uncle who stole everything from her, his blood boiled.     

He knew just what kind of life she had led, and the kind of man she had been with, and that was all because a devil like Sara had given birth to them!         

Stealing from Aaron and abandoning them wasn't much of a big deal to Harry since she wouldn't be the first woman to choose her career over family, and as much as that was supposed to hurt him, he didn't feel so hurt by that.      

No, not in a long shot. His father's love had been more than enough for him. Still was. He had been loved too much by Aaron and was also too old now to begin feeling unloved, unwanted, or inferior. Nah, he was beyond that now, and it was all thanks to having a selfless father like Aaron.     

Although, he was mad that Aaron had lied to him, and he hated that he had thought he had an amazing mother this whole time, but he wouldn't think about that right now. No, he wouldn't even think about it as a lie at all.      

As far as he was concerned, he had an amazing mother, and that mother was Aaron. Sara might have donated half his genes, and carried him in her womb, but that woman was not his mother. She was only a surrogate who had been paid to do the job as she well stated in her letter.     

He was NEVER going to acknowledge her as his mother. That was the only way he could deal with her ruthlessly for hurting his father the way she had done, and for hurting Candace because he wasn't all that hurt himself. His major hurt at the moment came from Aaron's hurt and Candace's hurt.     

He knew without a doubt that Candace would most likely be more hurt than he was from everything. He had lived a sheltered life with their father, while she had moved from hand to hand until she even became a stripper. Harry shut his eyes at the thought.     

He couldn't face the fact that despite all the money he had, his twin sister had suffered that way. Life had been hard enough for her to have made her resort to such a degrading job.      

Wouldn't it have been better for her if she had been the one Sara had given to Aaron and he had been sold? His life would probably have turned out differently from it was now, but he knew it wouldn't have been as bad as Candace's was.      

How was his father going to live with the knowledge that he had a daughter who had lived such a difficult life?     

What punishment would be enough for a person like Sara? What could he do to destroy her for doing that to them and depriving them both of all these years with Candace because of her greed?      

Tom turned to spare Harry a glance when he didn't say a word after a long time. Tom said nothing when he noticed how hard Harry's face was, and how his jaw was firmly set, with a thoughtful look in his eyes.      

Tom was quiet until he heard Harry's chuckle and turned to him curiously, wondering what he was finding funny.     

"It's funny how I saw through her the first time we met without even realizing who she was," Harry said, and Tom sighed.     

"What do you want us to do to her? Tell me anything, and I'm down for it," Tom said, and Harry smiled.      

"You sound like you'd kill her without questions if I asked you to," Harry said in amusement.     

"I won't kill her without questions. I will have to ask how you want me to kill her. Poison? Run her over? Chop her up? Or a single gunshot to the head?" Tom asked, and Harry shuddered dramatically as he tried not to laugh.     

"Geez, Tom! You sound so scary," Harry said, and Tom shrugged.     

"But I'd rather we don't kill her. Even death is too merciful for a person like that," Tom said, and Harry nodded in agreement.     

"Let's start by finding the hospital where I was born," Harry suggested.     

"What for? You already know what she did," Tom pointed out.     

"If truly she is the kind of person we know she is, she is going to be committing more crimes to cover up her previous crimes so we can't expose her. I'd like to see her give us something to use against her. Where best to start from if not the place she committed the first crime?" Harry asked, and Tom's gaze narrowed as he considered it.      

"You are right. Let's look into it," Tom said as he parked the car in front of Harry's apartment building.      

"I will let you know what I find. You handle the company, while I take care of this," Harry said as he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car.     

"There is nothing stopping me from doing both. I will talk to Barry to add one more person to his list," Tom called out as he watched Harry get into the building.     

Once Harry disappeared from view, the smile disappeared from his face and he picked up his phone and dialed Barry's line.         

"Sup, bro?" Barry asked immediately after he received the call.      

"I need you to look into someone. And while you are at it, I need you to create the website of a research center for Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis. Make it look authentic, and if possible make it look like it has been existing for years. I will send you the address and details of everything you need," Tom said before hanging up.     

Since Sara knew how to be deceptive and evil, he was going to make sure they gave her a taste of her own medicine. For every money she stole from Aaron, he was going to make her pay. For every tear she made them shed, he would ensure she cry a river.      

Knowing Harry, he doubted Harry was going to be able to be brutal enough since his emotions were involved. That was what best friends were for. He was going to wipe the smugness from Sara's face and make her regret ever doing all she did.