The City Held Its Silence byIrel Knx 226

226 The discussion. 

KEITH’S POV 1 

“Look, let’s talk more privately,” my father requested of me. 

“Okay,” I agreed. 

I turned to the bodyguards with Jasmine and flashed them a look to watch over her. 

My father and I went to a spot in the middle of the hallway. 

I saw Jasmine in the background being taken back in the direction of my bedroom with the bodyguard. 

“I told you that time 11 years ago that focus on your marriage and leave that woman alone, I never liked her,” he said as if he knew about all along, his hands extended out as he made his point. 

“You told me I could have a lover, didn’t you?” I reminded him as my hands mimicked his gestures. 

“But you were planning on making her your wife, weren’t you? You made her in charge of the estate. Why would you give her so much power?” He asked me. “After the five–year business deal, where focusing on the marriage was no longer necessary you could have simply made her your lover if you wanted her that badly.” 

My jaw tightened at that. “You wanted me to have lovers, the same way you cheated on my mother and tried to hide it from her?” I confronted him. 

My father’s lip curled in anger. “What happened with your mother was unfortunate, Keith.” He replied stiffly. 

“You broke her heart and completely shattered her,” I asked him, recalling the brutal divorce I witnessed as a child.‘ 

“I 

“Keith, I can’t help being a man. It was an arranged marriage, and I have my needs too,” he defended himself 

“You told her you loved her…” I told him. 

“And I did have love for her. I still do,” he said unconvincingly. “Keith, you continue to talk so naively about these kinds of things. You can call me unloyal, a cheater but at least my women didn’t burn down the house or kidnap my kids because they never 

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226 The discussion 

had that power in the first place,” he retorted. “The problem is you gave her too much 

power.” 

After all this time, he still didn’t care about what happened with my mother. 

My eyes narrowed as I stared at him. This wasn’t a competition of whose partners were worse. But in hindsight, I should have been more careful with how I handled Jasmine 

and Diana. 

I was trying to do what I thought was right. I didn’t want to be a cheater like my father. I saw the pain my mother was in from my father’s infidelity. I wanted to do things the right way. I genuinely thought Jasmine was being cruel to Diana and was escalating the situation. I never wanted to break things up with her. If I knew the truth I would never kicked her out of the house. Which is why I wanted to fix things and get back to how 

we were. 

“So now with both of your heirs missing what are you going to do?” My father asked. 

“Father, there’s more to it,” I told him. 

“What are you talking about? He asked me, puzzled. I had yet to give my father the full details of Anthony’s kidnapper, possibly trying to or messing with the Acland 

company. 

My father’s facial expression grew concerned, and his hand came to his head by the time I was finished. “It just gets worse, doesn’t it? When are the police concluding with their investigation so the repairs on the mansion can start?” he then asked. 

“The police are almost done with the repairs should start in a week,” I told him. 

“And Jasmine? Is she back with you? I heard she’s staying with you at your new estate,” He asked me. “What’s happening with the divorce?” 

My eyes darted around as I thought about how to answer the question. 

“We’re looking for our son, and we’re working through our relationship,” I told him. 

His eyebrows raised, and he scoffed. “If she forgives you, then good for you,” he told me. My eyes narrowed at him. He had all but given up on the relationship with my mother after she found out about his cheating and filed for divorce. However, had he known. That my mother actually would have been willing to work things out with him, but his mind was already on other women. 

Once I was done talking to my I went and found Jasmine who was back in my bedroom. 

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226 The discussion 

had that power in the first place,” he retorted. “The problem is you gave her too much power.” 

After all this time, he still didn’t care about what happened with my mother. 

My eyes narrowed as I stared at him. This wasn’t a competition of whose partners were worse. But in hindsight, I should have been more careful with how I handled Jasmine 

and Diana. 

I was trying to do what I thought was right. I didn’t want to be a cheater like my father. I saw the pain my mother was in from my father’s infidelity. I wanted to do things the right way. I genuinely thought Jasmine was being cruel to Diana and was escalating the situation. I never wanted to break things up with her. If I knew the truth I would never kicked her out of the house. Which is why I wanted to fix things and get back to how 

we were. 

“So now with both of your heirs missing what are you going to do?” My father asked. 

“Father, there’s more to it,” I told him. 

“What are you talking about? He asked me, puzzled. I had yet to give my father the full details of Anthony’s kidnapper, possibly trying to or messing with the Acland 

company. 

My father’s facial expression grew concerned, and his hand came to his head by the time I was finished. “It just gets worse, doesn’t it? When are the police concluding with their investigation so the repairs on the mansion can start?” he then asked. 

“The police are almost done with the repairs should start in a week,” I told him. 

“And Jasmine? Is she back with you? I heard she’s staying with you at your new estate,” He asked me. “What’s happening with the divorce?” 

My eyes darted around as I thought about how to answer the question. 

“We’re looking for our son, and we’re working through our relationship,” I told him. 

His eyebrows raised, and he scoffed. “If she forgives you, then good for you,” he told me. My eyes narrowed at him. He had all but given up on the relationship with my mother after she found out about his cheating and filed for divorce. However, had he known. That my mother actually would have been willing to work things out with him, but his mind was already on other women. 

Once I was done talking to my I went and found Jasmine who was back in my 

bedroom. 

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226 The discussion 

She was looking through the room. 

In her eyes, I saw resentment. I wish I knew what she was thinking. I could only imagine. Perhaps she was thinking about the fact that I had kicked her out of the mansion and was reminiscing about her time in the mansion. 

I recalled the time this used to be our room Memories flooded my mind. Of how happy she appeared to be. I told her I couldn’t love her romantically, and she accepted it. She greeted me every time I arrived from work with a warm smile, never argued, and never asked for much. She took her role of raising Anthony to be my heir. Our life had been so pleasant. If only I hadn’t rui… 

“Jasmine,” I called her name. Instead of the warm gaze she would give all so long ago, I was met with a cold glare. 

“Shall we go?” I asked her quietly. 

“Yeah,” she agreed slowly after a moment. Her eyes then looked away, and I felt a pang in my chest. 

One of the bodyguards pushed her in the wheelchair as we headed for the exit. I wanted to push her in the wheelchair myself make sure she was alright. 

We got in the car, and I looked at Jasmine, who sat beside me, still holding onto the toy giraffe. She had that sad look in her eyes from when she was in Tony’s old room. I wanted to comfort her then in that moment, but didn’t know how to. 

“Do you want to go back to the estate and rest or come to the office?” I asked her. “I want you to set me free, Keith, but I guess that’s not an option, is it?” She said. 

I gave her a hard look, and my expression almost broke from her grave eye contact. I felt my heart would pop in my chest. I couldn’t answer her. 

“Let’s go to the office, and I’ll continue looking into the finance reports,” she gave me 

her answer. 

*** 

Upon arriving at the Acland HQ we went to my office and continued what we started the day before. 

So, I started here,” she said as she got up from her wheelchair and went towards her documents on my 

table. 

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226 The discussion 

Instinctively, my hands moved to help her walk but they hovered just short of her 

waist. I didn’t want to get yelled at by her again. However, I always panicked whenever she tried walking on her own. I wished she wouldn’t try so hard. 

“I told you I’ve already taken down a lot of the names of everyone who writes the reports to see if a pattern forms,” she told me. 

She then took a new set of documents and went to the seating area. 

I sat down at my desk and started working as well. However, I was often distracted. My eyes would regularly glance at her. 

She was engrossed in the documents as she wrote down in a separate book what she was finding. I was still so impressed by her work ethic. In the documentation she had done so far, I saw she really paid attention to details. 

I also noticed that though she was focused on the documents, she had this distant look on her face. 

She had a distant look on her face a lot of the time, actually. Is it that Carrington boy she’s thinking about? I always wondered. I recalled when she asked about him the night before. Or perhaps she was upset with me for obvious reasons… 

“Jasmine…” I started contemplating how to ask her. Her words in the car “set me free! Perhaps we could talk. I could ask how we could work through this arrangement. But— if she leaves, she will almost certainly return to that boy… 

I couldn’t–I couldn’t do it. 

“What?” She asked, wondering why I still hadn’t continued speaking. 

“…let me know if anything comes up,” I simply said. 

She cocked her eyebrow, shook her head in disapproval, and returned to looking through the documents. 

Give it time. It’s been what I’ve been telling myself this whole time since I took her. Give it time, and things will return to normal. We find Anthony, and we can be a family again. But it would be different this time. 

I left my office about an hour later as I had another meeting. I was worried about leaving Jasmine every time I left the office, but I had enough bodyguards watching her. Still, I knew she was thinking of ways to bypass them.