26| relax and unwind

"What's the lead" Leah said as she put the phone on speaker, nudging Kane to listen.

"From the cctv footages you provided plus the interrogation of the nearby shop, we can confirm there were three females.

We also managed to trace the car plate to a man by the name of Bernard Henry Jones" Leah's breath hitched at the sound of the name.

Kane didn't know why she froze at the name but he didn't want to probe and instead listen.

"We are now on the look out for the three female suspects. We trawled all the cctv near the vicinity and found the identity of the three woman.

Jessica Jane Warts. Bianca Jillian Hayes. Hannah Marie Keys. Any of these names ring a bell?" The officer probed. "Or Bernard's?"

Taking a shaky breath, she responded, "Yup, I know them. I know them all"

After her response, they ended the call and told her that there might be a need for her to come to the station for identification.

She agreed, not that she could do anything else to help herself.

"Go to sleep baby. We'll talk tomorrow okay?" Kane said as he gave her a goodnight kiss.

When he said that, despite her nodding, she was already half asleep, already in dream land.

•••

"First, you have to use pork belly with skin and cut it into small stripes like so. Give it a try" Liam instructed Kane who nodded as he was handed over the knife.

If you couldn't already tell, as planned a few days ago, Liam was going to teach him how to make one of Leah's favorite dish.

Leah and her mother were at the police station as she was called in to help out in the investigations.

Kane faked that he had some work to do but in fact he was just here making food for dinner later.

As such, Kayley accompanied her. He wanted to lift her spirits up as he could tell that she was feeling down despite not acting like so.

"That's enough pieces. Next we got to fry some onion and make shallots. Cut the onions into small pieces and add a generous amount of oil onto the pan" Liam instructed.

While Kane was doing that, Liam added on, "At this point, boil some eggs to make hard boiled eggs" Liam told him, adding four eggs into a pot to boil.

"Next, you wanna drain the shallots with a sieve. Keep the oil and you can make a bunch of food. Then, fry the pork and cut up some garlic" He resumed his lesson.

Liam decided not to go too fast, afraid Kane wouldn't be able to catch up. While he was cutting the ingredients up, he also jotted down roughly the way to do it Liam's style.

They spent the next hour and a half finishing up the food. By the time they finished plating the food, they weren't back yet.

As this was the case, he decided to clean up the kitchen and keep it neat. Liam also helped clean despite Kane's refusal.

When he was done, he decided to take a quick shower. The fumes and smoke were one of the major causes of how sweaty he felt. The heat was another factor.

After showering, he felt so much better and cleaner and thus headed to the living room where he saw Liam watching a football match.

"Can I join you to watch the football match?" Kane asked. Liam nodded and he took a seat. Both males were very engrossed with the match.

They both had liked the same team and they were cheering non stop, both anticipating for the big win.

As they reached the end of the game, they shouted with joy, happy that the team won.

Just then, they heard the door open. Immediately, Kane got up from the couch and grabbed the food out from the microwave.

"Dinner's ready!" Kane exclaimed as he placed the four bowls down.

The aroma of the food wafted into the mother and daughter who smiled. After a long day out, having their comfort food was the best.

"You can go freshen up first. We will wait for you" Kane said as he hugged Leah and greeted Kayley.

"I thought you were suppose to be at work today. How are you back so early?" Leah asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

"

The two man sat on the chairs chatting about that crazy match while waiting for the ladies to come back.

It wasn't long before they returned, looking not as tired as before.

"Come on, let's dig in" Kane said as he pulled the chair out for both Leah and Kayley, making them smile in appreciation.

Liam looked from the sidelines and saw the way how Kane treated his only daughter and his wife and he could tell Kane wasn't doing for show.

He was glad Leah found someone that treated her right.

Digging in, everyone feasted on the food. While eating, Kane and Liam were sharing about the cooking process and what actually happened.

"He got so scared of the oil that he almost ran away to outer space" Liam shared, causing Kane to be embarrassed.

The family laughed, unable to believe that a 6'2 guy, who seemed fearless, was scared of spattering oil.

"In my defense, I don't want to get a burn and scald myself" Kane said, looking at Leah to make sure she was alright.

She was a victim of burns and he was scared to offend her or worse, make her sad.

But she was still smiling, like everything was fine. Kane made a mental note to talk to her after her parents retired for the night.

They spent the rest of the night chatting and catching up very random things. The house was as lively as it could have ever been.

Before Kane met Leah, the house only had himself and a maid, Natalie, he employed to help him tidy up once a week.

However, his maid went on a long vacation with her husband and two kids. She usually comes every Sunday.

She would be back yesterday and so she was coming back. She was really like a second mother to him.

He truly did miss Natalie, as much as he didn't want to say. He just couldn't wait for Natalie to meet Leah.

Kane had a feeling that they would click.

After the food, Leah said she was going to wash up, not listening to anyone at all.

She felt that it has to be equal. If she cooked, he cleaned. If he cooked, she cleaned. Leah really enjoyed this arrangement.

Right after that, they bid each other goodnight. Tonight was the last night they would be staying here and they would move back to their place later the next day, but Kane had a surprise for them.

But for now, it was kept a secret till tomorrow.

As Leah was about to shower, she heard her phone ring and saw the familiar number from the police.

Signaling Kane to come over, she put on speaker after accepting the call.

"Hello Ms Leah Knight, this is Officer Stephanie speaking. We have some great news for you."

"We have located their whereabouts."

~~~

how's that of a cliff hanger?

heyyyy y'all welcome back to another chapter. this chapter is a bit on the shorter as there isn't much going on

but good for them. they need the rest

thank you for all the support that you have given me

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💗

life has just been study study study

i literally can't wait for exams to end.

this is pre written btw :D

alright that's it for this chapter and i'll see you next week 👋🏻🌷

future me: we just hit 8k reads guys :) y'all are awesome 💓

please do vote on my stories 🙂

as of now, i have two chapters ready to update on sunday hehe

[word count: 1210 words]

[published on: 19 sep 2021]