463 The Platinum Club's Standards

As Damien and Katherine headed towards the elevator, she held him by the arm and asked, "Do you want to check on your mom first? We can go up for a few minutes if you like?"

He softly nodded and smiled, sliding her hand to his as he led her inside the elevator car. "It's okay, I already called and we'll see them later. Markus, Felix, Styles, and the rest of the Alpha Team are already there. We don't have much time if we want to beat the traffic."

"Where is this man we're meeting?"

"He's on the outskirts of the city. I suggested we meet in my office earlier but he refused. He said he didn't want to risk any issues being raised if someone sees that I'm meeting a council member privately. For his and my sake."

"I see… They seem very strict."

"Mm." He looked at her, taking in that she had changed into casual jeans and plain white shirt under a leather jacket.

"You don't like what I'm wearing?"

"It's not that... I'll always love whatever you wear. But I really liked that dress on you." He kissed the top of her head just as they reached the lobby.

"I'll wear it again for you in the future then." Her face brightened as she smiled and looked up at him.

"I'd like that." He liked the sound of that. "Alright. Let's go."

They drove using Damien's Range Rover towards the meeting place just outside of Harbor City. Almost an hour later, they arrived in front of a small restaurant that's facing the coast. There weren't a lot of people and the area was clean too. Alighting the car after they parked, Damien studied the exterior of the building. He had passed by this road before but it was the first time that he had noticed the restaurant.

"Is he here?" Katherine wondered.

"Yes, I think he's inside. Come," he took her hand and they entered the restaurant.

As soon as they stepped in, they felt like they were in a different country. The outside looked so unassuming, but the interior had a strong Japanese theme going on. They looked at each other, both bewildered but also intrigued by it.

From a distance, a man waved his hand at them. Damien nodded and they walked over. "Mr. Gu, thank you for meeting us. This is my fiancée, Katherine Young."

"Of course, it's a pleasure finally meeting you, Ms. Young," said Mr. Gu.

"The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Gu." Katherine shook hands with the man. She didn't expect that they would be meeting someone much older. Mr. Gu looked like he was of the same age as her grandfather.

When they were seated, Mr. Gu offered them to order anything they'd like but the two only ordered drinks—a cup of warm water for Damien and hot chocolate for Katherine.

"Wow… I didn't know the club was this strict…" Katherine muttered before taking a sip of her hot choco.

Mr. Gu softly laughed. "You are definitely a spitting image of your mother, Ms. Katherine. Even the way you speak reminds me of her."

She was taken aback when she heard the words, her hand paused mid-air and she exchanged looks with Damien. "You knew my mom?" she asked, carefully putting down the cup.

"Of course. Not only your mom, but I knew your father and especially your grandparents as they have always been part of the club way back its foundation days. However, your grandfather had long stopped attending any social events."

"I… didn't know that." She subconsciously touched Damien's hand under the table and he readily held hers. It was always surprising for Katherine to meet people who knew her parents now that she's back. "Mr. Gu… Don't worry, I may be a new member, but I don't take this lightly. I can assure you that no one else will know that we're meeting here today."

"I trust you. The only reason why I'm doing this is because I knew your parents. I don't know how much of a secret this file is inside. But, this is why the council rejected Deborah's application." Mr. Gu took out a medium-sized brown envelope and slid it towards them. "Keep it. Open it when you're already in the car. I'll leave you young ones first. Enjoy the rest of your day."

And with that, Mr. Gu left after they exchanged 'thank yous'. Then, Damien inserted the envelope in his inner coat pocket and turned to Katherine. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… I just found it a little… I don't know… I'm a bit nervous. I don't know what to expect," she answered. They sat there for a few more minutes before they decided to leave.

Once they got inside the car, he handed the envelope to her. And without much delay, she tore the seal and emptied the contents. In it were photocopies of the original files that were probably kept in an archive somewhere. Carefully, they studied the papers one by one, seeing several application letters of Deborah Young. However, there were no 'response' letters. They couldn't tell if they sent one out to her aunt, but there weren't any among the files.

"I don't get it…" she muttered.

"Katherine…" he called, his hand holding a photocopied file of an official registration document.

"What is it?" 

She received the file from him and her gaze focused on the letterhead of the file and then the name of her aunt written in bold. "Oh, my god… Damien… Aunt Deborah's adopted."

"Yeah… Now I get it…" He was also surprised to see the information, but everything made sense to him now.

"What do you mean?"

He met her stare and he began to explain, "You see, the club upholds strict rules. It is important for the council to maintain the club's status. Remember I told you that having money to pay for the membership fees wasn't enough to get an applicant in? The council does a background check on each applicant to make sure that the members really came from the upper class. And I'm talking about old money families; those with wealth that's been handed from generation to generation, but they take considerations for political leaders."

"You're saying that my aunt got rejected because she was adopted and not related to my grandfather by blood? Even if she grew up in… wealth?"

Damien nodded. "The council believes that there's no amount of wealth that would make an individual become a member of the upper class because one must be born into an upper-class family apart from having been raised in such a manner—that of an upper class."

"Huh…" She slumped into the backrest. "And Aunt Deb wasn't born as a Young… She's adopted…" she muttered.

"Katherine…" he called.

Recently, they had been talking about Frederick possibly being responsible for Lawrence's death. She had been to many missions in Shadow in the past—siblings killing each other or sons that were after their father's power that they planned horrible things were no longer a shock in the organization—even the authorities would always consider family members as suspects. Her eyes went wide and she snapped her head to Damien, meeting his gaze that seemed as though he just realized the same thing. "Damien… What if… She… My parents' deaths… What if she had something to do with it?" 

She didn't want to think like so, but there was a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach that made her ask. Squeezing her hand, he looked at her in the eye and he knew that she was too emotional right now to be thinking straight. "We don't know anything yet. For now, we'll go home and figure out what we need to do. I promise you, we'll get to the bottom of this."

Nodding her head, she allowed herself to be pulled into his embrace and she was so glad he was there with her.

…

Golden Phoenix Residences

Katherine and Damien were headed to the elevator after parking their car in the basement when they noticed a sound of shallow breathing nearby.

"Damien." She squeezed his hand when she caught sight of a pool of bright red liquid on the floor several feet away.

They contemplated before carefully walking towards it, then they heard a groan. Just then, Chris pushed himself up to lean on a wall. He looked beaten up, pale, and his shirt was soaked in blood, his hand pressing against his side.

His eyes lazily looked up at them as he breathlessly spoke, "I… didn't… know where else to go…"