Chapter 253 - Void the agreement (2)

Jeff felt like he is floating. It was surreal to have JoAnna by his side and to hear her say that she will not run away anymore from him... and from her feelings. Her feelings which she has for him…

He cupped her cheeks with his palms and kissed her gently on the lips. "Come with me to my apartment." He wanted to have her near him all the time.

JoAnna inched away and looked at him with a hint of panic in her eyes.

"I promise not to go any faster than you are comfortable with. I just want to have you by my side... because I think that some of these are starting to hurt badly." He pointed at two bruises on his right arm and frowned.

"I never saw anyone fake pain worse than you." JoAnna relaxed and laughed. "I still want us to go to a hospital, so you get an x-ray for that hand. We can stop by on the way to your apartment."

Jeff held his breath when he realized that JoAnna accepted to come with him. His smile reached his eyes. "If I knew that getting beaten up by Sarah would get you to say out loud that you love me, and come with me to my place, I would ask her to hit me long time ago."

"Don't joke about that..." JoAnna warned. "I'm surprised you have only bruises. Usually the receiver of Sarah's anger is not so lucky."

"She held back." Aiden explained as he exited the bedroom and closed the door behind him. "We are working on control... I'm happy to see that it's working."

"This is control?" Jeff was confused. 'I don't want to know how she looks when she is not controlling… and how exactly are you two practicing control?' Jeff imagined Sarah beat up his brother. That might explain the ice packs. But Aiden looks fine. He never saw his brother bruised up. Jeff thought how he should go back to training.

"She didn't hit your vital spots... that was control." Aiden was proud. After so many attempts, finally she managed to take some control of her actions when anger overwhelms her.

"Impressive. Dangerous, but impressive." Jeff praised Sarah. "It seems you did find a good match for yourself." Jeff told Aiden. He knows that his brother also has skills and… anger issues.

Jeff decided to go back on topic: void the agreement. "How is the call going?"

Aiden flashed a victorious smile and proudly announced: "Isabella accepted Sarah's plan. They are working out details now. It will be up to you to reach out to Isabella and dad and to tell Lambert."

"Wow... she is good." Jeff was in awe that Sarah managed to solve this part of the problem. Earning money is something he is good at, he had multiple ideas ready within minutes. But this one, to find a replacement for Lambert… this is something he was clueless where to start with. And she found the solution.

"She is the best!" Aiden corrected him, obviously proud of Sarah. "With this, you got the heir for Lambert and we have the solution for Oscar's money as well." Aiden's expression turned serious as he continued. "While on the topic of money… We will need to coordinate our final move. The two of us want to handle something ourselves while you deal with financial part."

"What is it?", JoAnna asked.

Aiden hesitated and glanced back to the door of the bedroom. He wanted to make sure Sarah does not hear him. "Vivian is working with Philip." He didn't want Sarah to be reminded of Vivian. Whenever Vivian came to her mind, Sarah's mood would drop, and he wanted to avoid that if possible.

"Oh, no... how is Sarah?" JoAnna knows that Sarah treated Vivian as one of best friends. Finding out that Vivian worked with Philip behind her back, must have been hard on Sarah.

Aiden shook his head with a troubled expression and didn't say anything else.

Jeff leaned toward JoAnna. "Who is Vivian?"

"Sarah's close friend at University..." she responded in quiet voice.

"I see...", Jeff mumbled to himself. He understood that this 'close friend' worked with Philip who is target of their little mission. That means that Sarah was betrayed Vivian.

Shortly after, Sarah came out and told them details about her talk with Isabella.

Isabella was relieved to find out that there is a way out without her getting married to Jeff, or someone else. She is reluctant to think that she can handle managing a company, but if she has help and guidance, she feels more confident. She promised to give her best, and Sarah said that she will send her a list of courses to take and books to read. Jeff will work on compiling this list for Isabella.

JoAnna got a task to talk to Sophia about mentoring Isabella. JoAnna was not very comfortable with talking about Isabella, but accepted it since she wants to take part in getting Jeff out of the mess, he found himself in.

They agreed to have a video conference tomorrow evening with Sophia and Felix included and to discuss these additions to the plan.

After that, JoAnna went with Jeff to the hospital. X-ray confirmed that there is no fracture to his arm.

From hospital, they headed to have dinner. JoAnna was impressed that he managed to book a private VIP room at an exclusive restaurant with a great view.

During dinner Jeff and JoAnna didn't talk much. They mostly gazed into each other's eyes while holding hands and exchanging gentle kisses, forgetting about the food in front of them.

After dinner, they went to his apartment.

...

Sarah was not at ease knowing that JoAnna left with Jeff.

"Let them be... they are adults, you know?", Aiden reminded her.

"I just can't get used to the idea of..." Sarah frowned. "JoAnna and Jeff. He is so... stiff. What does she see in him? What do you think they are doing now?"

Aiden laughed. He concluded that Sarah didn't notice how smitten Jeff is with JoAnna… but she will see it. Soon. "You are silly sometimes... I'm sure they are not doing anything we will not do." His tone of voice implied that there is a hidden meaning behind his words.

Sarah looked at him with eyes open wide in shock.

"I meant they are probably having dinner. Did you think of something else?" Aiden teased her, and then changed his tone to serious. "You did well today, I was proud to see that you didn't give him any serious injuries. Do you want to go and practice again after dinner?"

"Thank you for the praise. Yes, let's go and practice again tonight." Sarah's eyes lit up.