Chapter 275 - Impassioned Breakfast

November 5 — Monday

Katherine woke up at half past six in the morning when the sun was already up and shining in the clear blue sky. 

She stretched her arms up and shifted in bed only to feel the earphones fall from her ears. That's when she remembered what happened last night. Turning towards the nightstand, she picked up her phone and checked her screen. Her eyes grew so wide upon seeing that her phone call duration with Damien lasted for six hours!

"Oh, God," she gasped as her hand flew to her mouth. 

What happened? She only recalled listening to a really beautiful melody of what seemed like him playing piano in the background. Whatever happened after that, she had no idea. Did she fall asleep? If so, why didn't he put the call down? She was totally baffled.

Just as Katherine was contemplating on asking Damien about last night, her phone buzzed, receiving a text message from him.

[ Baby Bear: Good morning. I hope you had a good sleep because I did. I fell asleep and didn't realize the call was still on until I woke up about an hour ago. I didn't want to disturb you in case you still had your earphones on so I ended the call despite not wanting to. Anyway, have a great day… whatever you're doing today. ]

Reading his text, she sighed and felt touched about what he was doing for her. This man was truly amazing — she didn't deserve him at all.

Despite wanting to avoid him as much as she could, she couldn't brush off his kindness and she wanted to show that she appreciated it. So she started to compose her response but in the middle of it, her cellphone screen suddenly turned black — the battery died on her.

"Oh well." She got up from the bed and charged her phone before strolling towards the floor-to-ceiling window in her bedroom that was overlooking the coast of Harbor City. 

It was the first time that she woke up in a building this high and it certainly felt different. It was a good thing that she didn't have fear of heights because seeing the view from her bedroom on the 61st floor where she could see cars looking like ants from above — it was probably not good for her grandfather.

Katherine made a mental note to thank him again for getting her this place when she meets him later in the office. She was blessed to have him.

Stepping out of her bedroom after washing up, she got a whiff of the smell of a sinful meal and found Amelia and Styles on the breakfast bar.

"Morning," Styles said when he saw Katherine come up. "Made you ladies some breakfast to fuel your day today."

"Thank you, Styles." Katherine helped herself with some pancakes and bacon before she sat down next to him on his left while Amelia was sitting to his right.

They were discussing what they would do that day when Styles suddenly thought of something and suggested, "Why don't we just ask King Charming Damien to help us get information from his uncle? I mean—"

"No!!!" Katherine and Amelia yelled at him at the same time, making him flinch. He hadn't finished what he wanted to say yet but the two women immediately interrupted him.

"Oh, my god! You made my ears bleed!" he complained with a scrunched face, rubbing his ears. He had never been more frightened by women like that before.

Amelia turned to face Styles with a serious expression and told him, "I am not going to have my son get involved in this mess. There were times in the past when I couldn't control it but if I can help it, there is absolutely no way I would let him put himself at risk. I would rather be killed during a mission than to let him poke his head into this dangerous situation."

"I'm with her on this," Katherine added with an equal tone. "I can't ask him that. It is too risky. Damien left Park Estate as soon as he could to get away from that life. He didn't want to have any connections with his uncle as long as it involved that underground business. So I am not going to put him in that place."

Styles sighed before responding, "Don't you think he is willing to do that now? I don't know what you two talked about last Saturday at the party when you went out of the room with him but it seemed to me that you two clearly—most especially him, I assume—still obviously care about each other. I am pretty sure that he would do anything for you."

"I know that but you don't get it, Styles. Even if he is willing to do that for me, I am not. I will not put him in any danger. Even if he is capable of taking care of himself, I am not that selfish to ask him to put his life at risk for me. The three of us are already fighting for our lives every day and putting him in Shadow's radar… I won't be able to live with myself. 

"We haven't even talked thoroughly yet because I still need to figure out what I should tell him. It's difficult to decide what things I could say and not say to him that wouldn't have him get involved in this. And I don't know if he and his uncle had already discussed things. Though I definitely want to believe he would never tell Frederick about how much I remember, we don't know yet—and I don't want to think what his dubious uncle could do something to a family member if he knew that Damien was the one who saved me that night. I just… I can't do it. I won't." Katherine held her face in her hands.

Amelia looked at Katherine and saw how she was clearly struggling. It was pretty obvious that Katherine was still in love with her son and she also understood why Katherine wanted to keep him away from her. She would do the same… and she was actually doing the same. 

Amelia admired how strong-willed Katherine was despite everything that happened to her. She just wondered how long the young woman could keep it up.

"Fine. It was only a suggestion anyway since no one seemed to bring it up before," said Styles, shrugging as he continued to eat his food.

Katherine calmed down and began to look at the brighter side of things to motivate herself. "With what Falcon told us about the Park Family's business, it isn't enough information. We need to find connections between them and my father. It's been sixteen years... It could be anyone inside or outside the company but we will do it one step at a time."

"We'll do that," Amelia agreed. "Today I will continue searching for that person I had on the inside. I am not sure I'll find him today but I'm not stopping until I locate him."

"What about you, Queen? Are you ready for your first day of work?" Styles asked.

Thinking carefully, Katherine was feeling slightly nervous but she was very determined to get through it. "I'm not but that won't stop me," she said.