Mrs. Joyce was inside, enjoying her evening program displayed on the television, when Catherine barged into the house with her eyes already swollen up because of excessive tears.
Once Mrs.Joyce saw her, she ran and hugged her without asking her what the issue was.
She did what every mother would do, which was give her a shoulder to cry on.
When Mrs.Joyce noticed that she had already calmed down, she then asked her to narrate what the issue was, and without hesitating, Catherine poured out her whole heart to her with tears streaming down her face.
Mrs. Joyce said every word she needed to say in order to console her daughter, but she seemed inconsolable.
While Catherine was still shedding tears on the shoulder of her mother, they heard a knock on the door, and immediately Mrs. Joyce stood up and went and opened the door. When she saw Jerry, she left the road for him.
"Good evening, Mrs. Edmond," Jerry said while coming in.
"Good evening, Jerry," Mrs. Joyce said while closing the door.
Once Catherine saw Jerry, she started cleaning her face with her hand.
Jerry kept staring at her in silence without saying a word.
"I think I should allow the both of you to talk," Mrs.Joyce said to her before heading towards her room.
Immediately, Mrs.Joyce excused them. Jerry went and sat beside Catherine.
"Catherine, I'm sorry for what happened earlier. I'm sincerely sorry; if I knew that was what was going to happen, I would have organized the dinner somewhere else with my father." Jerry explained with a dejected tone.
"Jerry, you don't need to apologize after all; you didn't do anything wrong." Catherine replied while avoiding Jerry's gaze.
"I know I wasn't at fault, but I was the one who was invited," Jerry replied.
"Jerry I want to ask you a question, and I want you to be sincere with me," Catherine said to Jerry, who nodded.
"Why have you been this good to me all these years?" Catherine inquired while cleaning her eyes.
Jerry stared at her for a few seconds before replying.
"Catherine, what I'm about to tell you might sound a little crazy, but it's true. In the beginning, all I wanted was for us to pretend to be together in order to secure the family's properties, but with the little time we have spent together, I couldn't help but fall for you." Jerry said this to Catherine while peering at her eyeballs.
"No matter how hard I try to fight this feeling, it seems irresistible to me. Catherine, I'm in love with you, and I hope you feel the same way for me." Jerry inquired, holding Catherine's hands.
"Jerry I was falling in love with you too, but I can't be in a relationship where I won't be at peace with your family members; first it was Daniel and now your stepmom." Catherine said this to me with tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry, Jerry, but it can't work. I will appreciate it if we remain how we were from the beginning, like an employee and a boss, and thank you for all your good deeds towards me and my mom," Catherine said with tears streaming down her face, and immediately she stood up and started walking towards her room.
"Catherine, Catherine," Jerry kept calling her as she kept calling her, but she paid deaf ears as she headed towards her room.
Before Mrs.Joyce would return to the sitting room, Jerry had already left, and immediately she approached Catherine, she heard her voice from behind the door, shedding tears.
When she knocked on her door twice and she didn't respond, she understood that it would be better to leave her alone for a while.
Meanwhile, after leaving Catherine's house, Jerry stopped at a nearby bar, where he drank himself into a stupor. Catherine, on the other hand, cried her eyeballs out throughout the whole night.
The sunlight was slowly escaping from the clouds; it was the beginning of a new week, a happy one for some and a sorrowful one for others.
As expected, Jerry didn't come to Catherine's place to pick her up as usual, so she had to board a taxi to her workplace.
To her greatest surprise, when she got to the company, Jerry wasn't present.
That was the first time he had been absent since Catherine started working for the company.
The event that happened the previous day kept replaying over and over again in Catherine's head, and the harder she tried to get over it, the worse it became.
Around twelve AM, she was in her office struggling to finish the documents she had been working on since the previous Friday when suddenly she heard a knock on her door, and immediately she ordered the person to come in.
Once the door busted open, Daniel came in while smiling, and immediately Catherine saw him. She already figured out in her mind the reason behind his visit because it was his first time coming to her office since he resumed working for the company.
"Good morning, sir," Catherine said while standing up from her chair.
"Good morning, Catherine. How was your night?" Daniel asked with a smirk on his face while sitting down on the chair opposite her. "I heard that you came over to my place yesterday; I'm sorry I wasn't around to welcome you. I had something important to take care of," Daniel said to her while smiling.
Catherine, knowing in her mind that he came to mock her, kept staring at him silently without uttering a word.
"By the way, I'm sorry for my mother's behavior towards you. Isn't she a good actress?" Daniel inquired with a smirk on his face, and immediately tears started forming in Catherine's eyes, but she did all she could not to let them out.
When Daniel noticed that what he was saying wasn't getting to her, he pressed further.
"Catherine, let me ask you a question.
"Do you think that after turning my brother against me, you were going to go unpunished?" Daniel inquired with a smirk on his face, but Catherine remained silent.
"No is the answer; I knew my mother was the perfect person for you, and fortunately, she did a very good job of teaching you," Daniel said to her while bursting into a round of laughter. "I hope from now on you will think twice before messing with me," Daniel said to her with a smirk on his face before standing up from the chair. Once he reached the exit door, he stopped and looked at her.
"By the way, Catherine, your guardian angel didn't come home last night after leaving your place. I hope nothing happens to him; if not, my dad won't take it lightly with you," Daniel said before banging on the door while exiting Catherine's office.
Once he left the office, Catherine allowed the river of tears she had been holding back to stream down her cheeks.
Once again, she started regretting ever accepting Jerry's proposal to follow him to his house; she knew she would have spared herself of all these pains if she hadn't followed Jerry to his house.
As she was crying away her pain, the last words that Daniel said before leaving her office came back to her mind. She started wondering where Jerry had gone after leaving her place that made him not go back home the previous night, and immediately she started praying in her heart that nothing bad happened to him because if it did, they were still going to blame her for it.
She was already having a hard time just because she visited his house, and she wasn't ready for any other problems attached to it.
Without hesitating, she took her phone and dialed his number twice, but it showed that his phone was switched off, which alarmed her more because his phone had never been switched off before.
After wondering where he would be for a little while, she brushed the idea out of her head and continued with the documents she was working on because, according to her, Jerry
He was already a grown man, and he can take care of himself, so there is no need to worry about him.