Chapter 59.1: The twisted fate

For the past two weeks, Ivy had also helped out Nick on the weekends when he needed to host events in the regular hotel Jason worked with. From time to time, she would speak with Jason over the phone for a short while as it was either he needed to attend to his mother or she needed to rush for work or errands. Despite being busy, her heart still yearned for him and she missed him even more especially tonight as she stood by the walkway facing the car park she last stayed overnight with Jason in the back seat of his car on a rainy night. 

She never would have guessed that was the last peaceful, uneventful night she would have with him. Ever since there were too many events that had occurred. She regretted not being grateful for those moments with him as she was worried all the while about leaving him and that she would have a hard time giving her blessings to him and Nancy. Although now she still worries, she was more concerned about her family business. Because only if her family business does well, will it also lead to his business doing well and she could ensure he was well taken off in this aspect. 

With Mr. Jing's event preparation and construction of the stages ongoing in Landsfield, she had not stepped foot in Manes for nearly a week. She was aware Nancy had been staying behind in Manes and had been meddling with Jason's family's welfare. With that thought in mind, she felt a hinge of jealousy looming into her. However, she began to accept the reality as she knew she had to learn to get used to it if she was to continue with her plans of leaving Jason to Nancy. However, she wondered what it would be like for Nick. She sighed knowing it would be equally tough for him.

With that, she jolted from her day dreaming by the warmness of a coat hovering over her shoulders and a gentle nudge from Nick who had been looking for her after the event ended.

"Hey…" Nick called out gently. 

"It's cold out here. You should head in…" Nick said as Ivy tried to shake away her thoughts earlier. 

"I know it's cold. Why aren't you wearing your coat?" She asked in return while trying to take off his coat although she felt the gush of wind did send chills to her bones as Nick smiled and forced it back on her while noticing her shivered a little. 

"I'm a strong man. Don't worry about me." Nick adjusted his standing position as he took the chance to enjoy the rain too.

"Rain could bring a lot of memories, wouldn't it?" He asked abruptly as Ivy took a deep breath and sighed recalling her day dreaming earlier. 

"Nick… have you ever wondered if one day, Nancy was to leave …" Ivy quickly turned to face him as she realised she spoke out loud her thoughts without filtering and didn't want to cause a misunderstanding. "Don't get me wrong. I don't wish she will but what if she decided to…" Ivy paused thinking her question would have crossed the board so she withheld herself from asking although Nick still looked very relaxed at her question. 

"Forget it… sorry." Ivy looked away as she wiped her face to shake the thoughts away. "Sigh, is she also facing the same issue finally…" Nick thought to himself. 

"I know what you mean. I have thought about it lately too. To be honest, yes I have thought about what it would be like if she was to really reconcile back with Jason. Would I be alright with it? At first, I was not cause I realise how much I do love her. But after recent events, I wonder…" Nick paused in a moment of denial. 

"...was I ever in her heart? Perhaps, I was just a replacement. Perhaps, if I were to let them have a chance to reconcile, will they both be happy again as they did before? But…" Nick paused as he caught Ivy's attention to look at him eye to eye. 

"Would you be alright with it if they reconcile?" He asked Ivy gently. Ivy couldn't help but let her tears wet her eyes a little as she realised her concern for Nick was also the same concern he had for her. 

"Will you be alright?" Ivy asked in return leaving Nick's eyes reddened unwillingly. They both knew the answer to that as they stood quietly next to each other watching the rain pouring in front of them as though trying to wash away their agony.

Jason returned to work and continued his duties alongside Nick the following day as Nick had been following through with a couple of events negotiation on hand. Other than having to emcee, Jason had done nothing much in the office because most administration and operational were handled by Marcel while marketing was by Nick. 

Instead, he found himself spending more time with Nancy over tea while thinking about Ivy who was very busy with Mr. Jing's event preparation in Landsfield. He can't wait for the weekend as it would be his trip to participate in the event and finally get to see Ivy after a long haul. He was toying with the idea of finally letting her know his feelings and decided to go with the flow on their next step. Peter had noticed Ivy seemed to be distracting herself with work and these days that she looked exhausted most of the time. She even spent lesser days with him and always dosing away on the balcony with her laptop and Daisy by her side. He stepped into the balcony to slip the laptop away from her hand but she woke up instead.

"Oh… Daddy…" Ivy straightened her posture as Peter took a seat next to her and enveloped her into his arms for a snuggle. "Sorry that the workload has tired you. I can lift away some of the load to your brothers…" Peter apologised as Ivy yawned and shook her head. 

"It's not your fault, daddy. You don't have to apologise. It's work you see, you don't have to. I can manage them." Ivy mumbled in his arms as Peter chuckled. "As long as you don't let it affect your studies." 

Ivy smiled. "Don't worry. I still have time to catch up and prepare for finals…" Ivy reassured as Peter slowly inched his way to the question he had been wondering for a while. "So… How's things with Jason?" Peter asked as Ivy cleared her throat and sat up straight. 

Ivy was caught off guard that she was speechless momentarily. Peter was smitten by the look of his dumbfounded daughter due to her love affairs as he caress her soft hair. "You know that you will always have a family to come back to for refuge despite anything that happens alright?" Peter comforted as Ivy nodded with a little frown. 

"Grandma's house renovation is almost done. After Mr. Jing's event is over, I will allow you to stay in Manes to assist on the leases for the town's newly refurbished area." Peter announced as Ivy's frowns instantly turned into smiles. "But with one condition…" Peter added as Ivy burrowed her eyebrows. Her reaction smitten Peter's heart again as he chuckled. 

"I just want you to stay at grandma's place…" Peter said gently as Ivy smiled and snuggled into his arms. 

"You know I will… Where else can I stay?" Ivy said as the thought of Jason's place crossed her mind. "That would be the best if possible…" Peter hinted to Ivy that it should be her plan and not someone's else house as she sighed before making herself clear. 

"Daddy, my decision about Jason still remains. I may enjoy his company these days but my time is running out. After the event, although I will still be under internship and working in Manes I need to start preparing for my finals. By then…" A crack from her voice surprised herself and Peter as she couldn't bring herself to explain her plans of leaving Jason by then.

Peter pulled her in for a hug as he gently patted her back. "Ai Lee, every year I will host a Christmas party for friends and family. Perhaps, it would be a good chance for you to make things clear then…" The warmness of Peter's hug made Ivy's emotions rush haywire as she realise she had been holding on to all this while on her own for way too long that she finally could let go of the emotional baggage at ease with her dad. She understood what Peter meant by the invitation and was grateful that she could always be this vulnerable in front of her family and she was forever grateful that this was a gift from Jason that she would always live to remember. In return, she was thinking of letting Nancy and Jason to have a happy ending on this Christmas instead. 

Despite all the smooth sailing cooperation at the management team in Ophal's real estate, Ivy still finds herself with some difficulties among the logistics team. Even the marketing team was simpler to communicate with as they were socialisers. However, as for the logistic team, they were as cold as Ray is to strangers. Hence, during Mr. Jing's event, Ivy decided to make an effort to help out the logistic team more. They do carry a lot of heavyweights which they think Ivy can't do for a petite lady but in fact, they didn't know Ivy had built her strength under Ray's training and most of the men were flabbergasted to see Ivy carrying heavy sound systems as well as chairs by herself. Even then, it wasn't enough to convince some of them, especially Ray's assistant manager, Daniel. 

He couldn't get rid of his ego and always believe women were weaklings who could never work under their team. Hence, he decided to tease Ivy by assigning her to carry down the display units of jewelry from the truck. 

Jason who had just arrived at the venue noticed Ivy was heading outside of the hall. As much as he wanted to go greet her or at least give her a hug, he couldn't as Nick was already catching his attention on the script preparation for tonight. Besides, with Nancy by his side, he tried not to do anything drastic which could possibly trigger Nancy. 

Therefore, he was forced to hide his excitement and focused on work instead. Ray on the other hand noticed the commotion between Ivy and Daniel earlier while he inspected the site in the hall. As he was trying to be considerate for Jason by trying to get Ivy back into the hall, he never expected himself to watch Ivy on a close call from causing chaos. 

Ivy felt her arms were tired after transferring three glass boxes containing jewelleries for display tonight that she decided to do some stretching but instead she caught a glimpse of Daniel walking out of the hall to check on her. The staff in front of her was not giving up either at the sight of Daniel suddenly appearing as he began to carry another glass box to hand over to her. With her tired arms, she quickly got into position to retrieve the glass box but instead, she saw the staff's left arm was slipping off the glass box. 

Her heart was beating so fast that her only natural reaction was to lay on the floor to prevent the glass box from shattering. Ray who came subsequently, stood behind Daniel and watched the entire event fall out. The weight was heavier than Ivy thought as she endured the sharp pain piercing down on her. The staff quickly climbed down from the truck and help Ray who was quick-witted enough to instantly run over to help lift the glass box moments after it landed on Ivy who was laying on the ground. Ivy managed to catch her breath heavily thereafter while Ray gave the logistic team a stern ,scolding especially to Daniel. From that moment on, Daniel and the logistic team began to respect her after Daniel personally stepped forward and apologise to Ivy. 

It was a terrifying experience for Ivy. If she didn't do what she did, who knew how much they needed to compensate Mr. Jing. She didn't want something like this to happen especially when she knew how much effort was put into this event. When Ray brought her home to change into her formal wear thereafter, he was half nagging and half worried about her injuries. Ivy had a couple of bruises on her abdomen but ever since she had to learn martial arts from Ray, fortunately, her pain endurance level had increased. Ray had wrapped her abdomen with pads of gauze dressing before she draped over her custom-made purple jumpsuit made by Cassandra. 

When they returned back to the event place, it totally slipped Ivy's mind that Jason was in town today for the event until she watched him emcee happily with Nick on stage. The entire event was a great success that Mr. Jing had treated lots of expensive wines during the dinner that night. Ivy noticed Nancy who had been tailing Jason wherever he went the whole day, was even the backstage helper that night. 

As Ivy stood below the stage in the midst of a performance on stage, she find herself staring in Jason's direction. She finally took a good look at his frailed-looking self. Despite the heavy makeover covering his face, she couldn't help but noticed he had lost so much weight in just a matter of a few weeks. She couldn't help but wonder how were his days these past few weeks. Though they had spoken briefly a few times over the phone, it was mainly about work and they could barely hold a conversation for more than five minutes as either one of them would get distracted by other events going on behind them. 

Jason though stood far away by the stage had kept his eyes on Ivy the entire day and was glad he could do so freely with Nancy being stationed behind the stage that night. He could feel Ivy's intense staring as he looked in her direction and stared right back at her. He could feel her longing for him from afar as he too yearned for her. As the agenda shifted to the highlight of the night where everyone get to dance on the dance floor, he couldn't wait to invite Ivy for a dance again. 

Ivy didn't realise she had stared at Jason for a long while lost in her own thoughts of how he had been till he stood in front of her with his hand reached out to her. Ivy raised an eyebrow at him as Jason smiled and nodded before Ivy reached out to his hand. It came to her unexpectedly as she looked into his eyes and savor each moment with him on the dance floor. 

As they twirl the dance floor gracefully and ended the entire night's highlight, Nancy was watching them enviously by the side of the stage next to Nick. Nick decided to distract her by asking her to dance but instead she didn't know how long had she endured the scene in front of her before she broke away from Nick and stormed out to the garden by the hotel. Nick knew it was a good chance to finally confront Nancy about her feelings as he went back stage to take a plushie he had prepared as a gift for her and chased her to the garden. Nancy was no doubt pacing angrily at the park.