25| the suspects
Mr Ceo and Me
"Omg!" Leah exclaimed in pure shock. It hadn't looked like that since the last time she left.
She froze. Completely dumbfounded by the sight.
It was a complete mess. The racks that were painstakingly fixed had been dismantled, the couches were sprayed with sprayed paint and tables were broken apart.
On the newly painted wall, there were scribbles as if drawn by a little kid. It would take so much money to replace and repair everything.
Her hard work felt useless now.
Leah's parents were quiet, understanding what the shop meant to Leah. From the way Leah talked about it, anyone could tell how happy she was.
While they were comforting Leah, Kane had stormed out, determined to figure out the culprit of the mess.
Making calls to his lawyer and the police, he also went to figure out who managed the security cameras which faced outwards of the shop. There was one more camera in the shop.
Turns out, Leah was automatically transferred all the cctv rights to her, which made the jobs easier for Kane.
He found them resting on one of the untouched couches. There were about two left not vandalized.
"Leah, do you have the security camera footages with you now? They might bring us a lead" Kane said. "I'm so sorry that this happen to you baby" He crouched down, giving her a hug.
She slowly left her mother's arms and dug into her bag where her phone lied. It had the footage in it. Let's just hope it wasn't covered by anything.
They looked through the footage together and saw three figures, who they assumed are females ransacking the place. They wore black clothings from head to toe and even wore gloves to prevent fingerprints. But that was the camera in the shop.
And the camera facing outwards? Well it captured three woman leaving via a van that was in cahoots with them.
Just then, the police had arrived. They had knocked on the door and Kane let them in.
"Hi I'm Officer Stephanie and can you tell me briefly how everything went down?" She asked Leah in a soft tone.
The other officers also began their questionings on Kane, Liam and Hayley. It wasn't any of them, that goes without saying, but the officers had to do their jobs.
After their questioning, Leah remembered the cctv footage and showed it to Officer Stephanie who nodded at the sort of useful information.
"Could you send it to us? It would be helpful for our investigations" She asked, more so to seem polite. Either way, who wouldn't want to hand the officers evidence that would help catch the culprit.
"Yup sure I'll send it to you now" Leah said as she made sure Stephanie had received it before they left.
"We will need to process the scene so you all cannot come for the next few days. I'll give you a call when you come back. Meanwhile, we need the keys" Stephanie explained the procedure which made Leah relax. She then handed the key over.
Once she handed it to Stephanie, the four of them left the crime scene. Due to the police cars and the barricade tapes all over, lots of curious passerby's stopped to get some of that hot piping tea.
"How about we go buy some ingredients and I'll cook your other favorite beef noodle soup" Kayley asked, comforting Leah.
Hearing her mother say she was cooking, Leah's smile slowly spread across her face. It had been a long time since she ate her mother's cooking.
"Kane, are your parents free? Get your sister to join too. Let's eat together!" Kayley asked excited.
"I'll need to ask my mom Mrs Knight" Kane looked through the mirror to see Kayley nod.
"Let me call them now" He said as he stopped at a stoplight.
"Hey mom. Y'all free tonight?" Kane asked.
"..."
"Yes yes. We will be there" Agreeing was the only thing he could do to avoid an earful from his mother.
"..."
"Okay love you bye" Kane bid his mother goodbye.
It was perfect timing as the moment he hung up, the traffic light turned green.
Being polite, he once again looked at the mirror and told Kayley the answer. The answer you may be asking? Well. it was a yes.
So, they stopped by the grocery store and went to buy the ingredients for later. At this point, Leah decided to give her mother a 'break' and latched onto Kane instead.
Plus, Leah felt bad constantly disrupting their couple. She would go to her father next for comfort after the grocery trip.
All she needed right now was just the moral support. She accepted that someone had broken in, messed up the place and all of everyone's efforts had gone to waste.
Now what she needed was someone to be a pillar of support and get through this together.
"Leah, baby, you okay" Kane asked lovingly.
"Yup I'm okay, just thinking" Leah replied back. Kane was not really convinced but didn't want to say anything and thus just held her hand tighter.
The four of them had spilt off, both couples wandering off to buy things. For Liam and Kayley, they headed off to buy the ingredients for tonight while Kane and Leah were shopping around aimlessly, mainly looking at snacks.
Kane and Leah had chosen some snacks, mainly reserved for movie nights. Not long after, the two couples found each other and Kane paid before leaving.
When they reached back home, it was only around 2.30 and thus used the hours to relax and Leah took a nap.
Liam and Kayley decided to busy themselves with the preparations for later before heading to the living room to watch movie.
Kane on the other hand was settling some work that he had to do before settling a few things for Leah's parents.
He was planning to move the restaurant closer to Leah's place and find them a house nearby there too.
It was likely everyone would be happy. Again, he wanted to keep it a surprise. He just hoped nothing would go wrong.
After that, he took a shower and woke Leah up to prevent her from a sleepless night later.
Not long after, Matthew, Audrey and Enya had already arrived.
Kane opened the door and they were immediately greeted with the aroma of the food.
Liam and Kayley were still making it but it was almost done. They exchanged their greetings and helped set up the table for food.
"It's ready!" Kayley exclaimed as she served everyone a bowl. Kane and Liam helped, letting Leah rest.
Wasting no time, everyone dug in the moment food was served.
There was some small talk here and there but mostly just them eating. Enya did however brought up something.
"So Leah, how's your shop going? Everything good I hope?" Enya said, not knowing of the incident.
It made Leah choke on her food and got everyone worried. They expected to see her talk about it excitedly but instead she looked sad.
"My shop, well it got" She paused there. "Broken into. It's pretty much a mess and police are helping me find the culprits"
"Oh I'm so sorry Leah" Enya immediately rushed over to give her a hug, feeling bad about spoiling the mood.
"It's okay. I'll be okay" Leah reassured Enya who still felt bad.
"I'm fine. Let's not make the atmosphere so gloomy" Leah said, trying to lift up everyone's spirit.
Obliging to her request, everyone smiled and chatted about random things.
After the meal, the parents were sitting down and catching up.
Turns out, they knew each other since high school but Leah's parents moved to Taiwan as Liam's family was there.
Usually they flew back here every month, mainly for Kayley to meet up with her family as well as meet ups with Audrey and Matthew.
But when the disaster struck, they lost Leah. Thankfully Liam's side of the family, consisting of his parents and his brother was alright.
However, his parents passed away due to the complications of a previous sickness they both had.
They managed to cross borders and reach Los Angeles. As for Liam's brother, he is residing back in Taiwan with his wife and two kids.
After that, they lost contact despite desperately trying to find each other.
They were just glad that everything worked out in the end.
"Kane, can I talk to you for a second" Liam called for Kane who was cuddling with Leah.
"I'll be back" Kane gave her forehead a kiss and followed him into a room.
"Thank you so much for taking care of Leah. I can tell she's really happy with you.
Please don't hurt her. I'm trusting you with her" Liam said.
"I promise. I know this is weird but you teach how to make the braised pork rice?" Kane asked making them both laugh.
"Sure. Let's do it this weekend?" Liam proposed. Nodding, they left the room, back to their significant others.
"Honey, you mind if I help you when you get your keys back for the shop?" Audrey asked.
With a smile, Leah nodded. She was glad for the extra help.
"Text me when and I'll be there" Audrey said.
Time passed by really fast and soon, it was the evening already.Bidding everyone a goodbye and goodnight, Matthew, Audrey and Enya left for home.
It was an eventful for everyone and everyone was tired out of their minds.
"What did you and my dad talk about?" Leah asked as she got herself comfy on the bed after showering.
"Nothing for your pretty head to worry about" Kane replied back cheekily to which Leah squinted her eyes in suspicion.
As she was about to probe further, her phone rang loudly. Picking it up, she knew what it was already.
"Ms Leah Knight? We have a potential lead"
~~~
heyyyy :)
love the cliff hangers that i
give y'all ð
this is prewritten btw
anyways, i'm having my exams very soon and i'm gonna die lol
this exam will determine my stream that i'll be taking next year so i'm stressed
hope life's great for you and thanks for all the support â¤ï¸â¤ï¸
check out my other books lol;
the reborn (werewolf)
the broken billionaire (romance)
me but not me (teen & science fiction)
psa: it's all kind of a mess that i wrote when inexperienced last year during lockdown :)
i would like to think i improved but who knows lol
so ya that's it for today's chapter. smile if you haven't smiled today ð
i'll see you in the next chapter that is probably prewritten also
future me: 5.9k reads damn guys â¤ï¸â¤ï¸ thank you all so much :D
we are so close to 6k reads holy shit
i'll just thank you first for the 6k!!
â¤ï¸ð§¡ððððð
i really appreciate it :D
[word count: 1650 words]
[published on: 12 sep 2021]